Are Swedish books sold in Norway translated?

[lacustrine]

Hi everyone, I have a question and this is probably the best forum to ask it!

First of all, let me just say I'm already well aware of the similarities in vocabulary and grammar between Norwegian and Swedish (and Danish too!). But those similarities alone don't always ensure subtleties will be understood.

So my question is if a native Norwegian speaker with no specific training in Swedish can pick up a Stieg Larsson book, for example, and comfortably read it. And does that happen often?

Can a Larsson book be sold in Norway in its original Swedish or does it have to be translated?

[Zimena]

I'd say books are always sold translated. Perhaps in some of the bigger stores (or in libraries) you will find a section with books in other Scandinavian languages, but we definitely prefer to read in our own language.

Personally, I buy books in Swedish or Danish only if I cannot find the same books in Norwegian.

[lacustrine]

Thanks for the response Zimena!

So in your opinion what is the difficulty level of reading a book in Swedish? I'm very interested in how you perceive such a similar language to your own. Is it difficult to get through a text in Swedish or does it just seem like a weird version of your own language when you look at it on the page?

[Zimena]

Wow, that's an interesting question, and I hope that you will also get some input from some other Norwegians, as my opinion might not be very "representative"

I guess our perception of Swedish depends on the amount of exposure we've had to it, though. While most of us have definitely heard it a lot from music (a lot of Swedish bands/singers who sing in Swedish are very successful in Norway) or TV or children' popular culture (I remember watching things like "Pippi Longstocking" and "Emil from Lönneberga" in their original Swedish version when I was little), reading can be a different story. Most of my friends seem to prefer Danish to Swedish if they have to read anything in another Scandinavian language, but for me it's the other way around - I'm more used to Swedish, really.

I won't say that it looks like a "weird" version of Norwegian in any way, though. Rather, it looks like Swedish, and depending on what I'm trying to read, I might think of that fact or I might simply read without giving much thought to the fact that this is in fact a foreign language. For example, when doing normal everyday things like browsing the net or reading teletext, I don't actually consider reading in Swedish that different from reading in Norwegian, except if I spot a funny word or something where the meaning isn't obvious to me. On the other hand, reading a book can be more challenging, as there are likely to be more "peculiar" words there, and it's also a longer text so it makes me more aware of everything being in Swedish.

Does that help a little?

[lacustrine]

Yes thank you! I'd also be interested to see what other Norwegians have to add if there are any here.

[Aleco]

Well, when I read Swedish (we had to do Swedish and Danish once a week in 9th grade), I change my accent and pronunciation inside my head, which I do not when I change between reading Bokmål and Nynorsk for instance (which is why I see it as a different language). I grew up about 30 minutes away from the Swedish border and had Swedish classmates and neighbors, so I have been exposed to Swedish in many ways.

The Norwegian friends I grew up with all prefer Swedish to Danish when reading, because Danish is what looks like broken Bokmål, and even in my head, I will read Danish like Norwegian. I think maybe the Danish way of spelling things annoy people, while Swedish is recognized more as a different language. Especially since the orthography is quite different.

Still, books are usually translated. While we understand almost everything of Swedish, everyday words like slurping, joking, dragging your feet etc., or plants and animals often vary between languages and even a lot within one country. And everyday language appears quite a lot in e.g. novels, so reading them would be a tiny bit annoying sometimes unless you've heard outside talkshow and music situations.

(I wrote this over the span of a couple of hours, so it's probably a bit choppy)

[Woods]

I find it quite weird that people from one of the countries would prefer to have such words and expressions rendered into their native language (or in this case dialect, you might agree), rather than encounter the neighbouring country’s slang and way of saying things whenever they have the occasion to. I’ve always been deeply interested in languages that are close to the ones I have something to do with and ready to sacrifice some of my understanding of the plotline for the sake of picking up some more language, which may eventually turn out to be more useful than that one particular sentence.

Jeg synes at det er ganske underligt at mennesker fra ét af landene foretrækker at ha sikke ord og udtryk oversat til deres modersmål i stedet for at erfare det tilstødende lands slang og den måde man siger ting på i det når de kan få denne lejlighed. Jeg har altid interesseret mig for sprog som er nær på disse jeg kender allerede og jeg har været villig til at …
sorry no time to translate until the end but at least I tried

[TeneReef]

Translations of Danish books into Nynorsk are fun

[BlåC]

Translations of Danish books into Nynorsk are fun

NN: Eg kan hugse at eg las den boka då eg gjekk i 6. klasse. Eg gjekk i ei lita klasse (10 elevar) der vi hadde nynorsk som hovudmål. Det var ikkje alltid like lett å finne nynorske bøker på biblioteket, så læraren tvang like gjerne heile klassa til å lese "Skammarens dotter". Eg hugsar ikkje handlinga, men eg likte ho i alle fall ikkje!

BM: Jeg kan huske at jeg leste den boken da jeg gikk i 6. klasse. Jeg gikk i en liten klasse (10 elever) der vi hadde nynorsk som hovedmål. Det var ikke alltid like lett å finne nynorske bøker på biblioteket, så læreren tvang like gjerne hele klassen til å lese "Skammarens dotter". Jeg husker ikke handlingen, men jeg likte den i alle fall ikke!

ENG: I can remember that I read that book when I was in 6th grade. I went to a small class (10 students), where everyone would read and write nynorsk. It was not always easy to find books in nynorsk at the library, so the teacher forced everyone to read "Skammarens dotter". I don't remember much of it, but in any case I didn't like it!

[GerardD]

I think the original question is very interesting for native English speakers. I can't think of another language that is so similar to English that I would be able to understand the written or spoken form. So it is difficult for me to quite understand how similar the written form of Nynorsk/Bokmål, Swedish and Danish is and how easy it is for people from those 3 countries to understand each other's speech because I have nothing to compare it with in English.

[Lazar Taxon]

Maybe Scots? Its written form, at least, seems pretty comprehensible.

[ffrench]

The situation with creoles is somewhat comparable. Languages like Jamaican Creole are mutually intelligible with English to a degree, and so authors can write in a variety that is removed from that of their English-reading audience but can still be understood. Lavie Tidhar, for example, sometimes uses phrases and sections in Bislama in otherwise English-language prose.