A linguistic question

[Larsen]

Are there any Swedish native speakers here?

When watching FA I had the impression that Agnes and Elin talk in slightly different ways. E.g. I noticed that Agnes pronounces "kanske" like "kanše" (I think this is standard Swedish, right?), while Elin says something like "kanCHe" (CH pronounced like in German "Bach").

Do they use different dialects, or am I completely wrong here?

[snaps]

I guess you'd have to check with Magnus (Agnes&Elin Forever) next time he's round here. Agnes comes from Mariefred originally. Maybe it's intentional to show her as an outsider?

It's possible that Agnes and Elin have regional differences, as Swedish like other languages does. Kurt Wallander, (Henning Mankell's creation) as a detective, is a keen observer of dialect differences in the books.

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

You can pronounce "kanske" both ways, maybe the way Elin says it is somewhat more common

There are big dialectal differences in Swedish, but I'm not sure to have them speak this word in different ways was intentional

I know that Alexandra had to tone down her overall Stockholm dialect for this movie though

You can hear the way Erica Carlson speaks is genuine dialect from the area since she was born and raised in Trollhättan

[Larsen]

You can pronounce "kanske" both ways, maybe the way Elin says it is somewhat more common

There are big dialectal differences in Swedish, but I'm not sure to have them speak this word in different ways was intentional

I know that Alexandra had to tone down her overall Stockholm dialect for this movie though

You can hear the way Erica Carlson speaks is genuine dialect from the area since she was born and raised in Trollhättan

Tak saa mycket!

[snaps]

Can someone tell us a typical Swedish joke, or joke about Swedes (apart from them being named after a vegetable )

Here's an English joke about Australians (good job there aren't any listening teehee! )

Question: How do you clear the people out of a swimming pool that's too full of Australians

Answer: Chuck in a bar of soap

[Larsen]

Can someone tell us a typical Swedish joke,

This one fits in perfectly, since it is a linguistic joke:

A Finn and a Swede are arguing about which of the two languages sounds lovelier. Since they can't find a solution, they ask an Englishman to judge. The Englishman asks them to translate the following poem in their respective languages:

"Island, island, grassy island, grassy island's bride."

The Finn translates:
"Saari, saari, heinäsaari, heinäsaaren morsian."

The Englishman is quite satisfied. "That sounds lovely!" He looks at the Swede expectantly.

The Swede translates:
"Ö, ö, hö-ö, hö-öns mö."

The Englishman still looks expectantly...

---

I think "hö" means actually hay, but besides this the translation should be accurate.

[snaps]

Very good Ho actually means something else in American English.

As for hay, the Swedish say ''hej'' for both hello and goodbye which must lead to a lot of confusion.

FRENCH GIRL: Is this farewell or au revoir?
SWEDISH GUY: Hej!

In Portuguese ''PUXE" pronounced ''push'' actually means (in English) ''pull'' which is confusing for going through doors, let alone for girls going out ''on the pull''.

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

The Swede translates:
"Ö, ö, hö-ö, hö-öns mö."

The Englishman still looks expectantly...

---

I think "hö" means actually hay, but besides this the translation should be accurate.

That was actually a good one, hadn't heard it before

And yes 'hö' means 'hay', but it's not pronounced 'ho'

In Sweden there are many jokes about Norwegians, but I can't think of any right now, I'm not into this type of 'funny stories' humour

Re 'hej' , we mostly say 'hej' when we meet someone and 'hej då' when we say goodbye, so there's no confusion

[Larsen]

[

That was actually a good one, hadn't heard it before

And yes 'hö' means 'hay', but it's not pronounced 'ho'

In Sweden there are many jokes about Norwegians, but I can't think of any right now, I'm not into this type of 'funny stories' humour

Re 'hej' , we mostly say 'hej' when we meet someone and 'hej då' when we say goodbye, so there's no confusion

My danish daughter (I myself am German) uses to make jokes about Swedes (they are very common in DK, as you probably know). In accordance with my daughter's age her jokes use to be rather infantil, like this one:

Hvorfor har svenske biler et hul i bunden? Saa at chauffeuren kan sige 'undskyld' naar naagen bli'r kört over.

Other jokes are dealing with Swedes coming to Själland in order to consume store mängder af snaps ('vores firebenede venner' ).

Maybe you'll like this one about the danish language. I think it was made by some Norwegians...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

Maybe you'll like this one about the danish language. I think it was made by some Norwegians...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk

That was funny, and yes spoken Danish is often pretty hopeless to understand for other Scandinavians

Icelandic is also very different from the other nordic languages, even more so than Danish

Swedes and Norwegians on the other hand have no trouble communicating with each other

[Larsen]

Can you tell me the difference between "tjej" and "flicka" - is it that the first one is more used by younger, the other one by older people?

And deos the word "pige" exist in Swedish? I believe to remember that an Icelander once told me that "pika" (or so) means something totally different in Icelandic than in Danish (namely a PART of the female body...).

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

'Tjej' is more for everyday use so to speak than 'flicka' , but they mean exactly the same thing ='girl'

I don't think older people use 'flicka' more or vise versa

'Piga' in Swedish is the equivalent of 'Dienstmädchen' in German, so it doesn't mean just 'girl' like 'pige' means in Danish

[Larsen]

Dankeschön!