I know it's a longshot but...

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larcos
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I know it's a longshot but...

Postby larcos » 2013-12-14, 21:36

Hi guys,

I recently went on holiday to Lanzarote, I had a great time, which was made even better after I came across a lovely Swedish family.

I've always had an interest in Sweden and now I've heard your beautiful language, I'm desperate to visit and learn Swedish.

However that's not what's bothering me. What I'm hoping you guys can help me with is the name of one of the people I met. (It's been bothering me for weeks)

It's a girls name, although I never saw it written down. Therefore I can only go by what it sounded like to my English ears.

To me it sounded like "Zolga" or "Solga", however a quick internet search quickly quashed those names.

Though I did come across "Saga", which seems like quite a popular girls name in Sweden, which maybe where I got "Solga" from.

Anyway I digress, what I'm hoping you guys can help with is firstly are "Zolga" or "Solga" legitimate Swedish names? (I highly doubt it).

Secondly, is it likely that I'm mistaking "Solga" for "Saga"?

Finally, are there any other girls names similar to "Saga"? Any sort of closure would be great and help me put my mind at ease, it's been driving me crazy!

Thanks for all your help in advance. :D

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Johanna
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Re: I know it's a longshot but...

Postby Johanna » 2013-12-14, 22:23

Saga is the name that you're after, it's a girl's name and means "story" or "saga", historically also "history".

If you know IPA, it's pronounced /ˈsɑːˌɡa/.

I made a recording too: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/459 ... s/Saga.mp3
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

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Jurgen Wullenwever
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Re: I know it's a longshot but...

Postby Jurgen Wullenwever » 2013-12-15, 20:23

larcos wrote:I've always had an interest in Sweden and now I've heard your beautiful language,

Now I am curious about where in Sweden your acqaintancies hailed from, since their speech was "beautiful". :shock: Probably not from around here, I guess ... :twisted:
Chekhov wrote:I don't know about naive worldviews, but Jurgen Wullenwhatever pisses me off to no end because of his extreme pessimism and cynicism. You'd think the world was going to end imminently when talking to that guy.

Jag är rebell: jag sockrar teet, saltar maten, cyklar utan hjälm, och tänder glödlampor.
(Ovanstående var förut, nu försöker jag minska sockret och saltet, och har gett upp mejeriprodukter.)

larcos
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Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: I know it's a longshot but...

Postby larcos » 2013-12-16, 13:08

Johanna wrote:Saga is the name that you're after, it's a girl's name and means "story" or "saga", historically also "history".

If you know IPA, it's pronounced /ˈsɑːˌɡa/.

I made a recording too: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/459 ... s/Saga.mp3


Thank you ever so much Johanna for your thorough explanation and recording. I do believe that's the name I've been looking for. You're an absolute star!

You have no idea how much that's helped me, it was driving me up the proverbial wall.

Jurgen Wullenwever wrote:
larcos wrote:I've always had an interest in Sweden and now I've heard your beautiful language,

Now I am curious about where in Sweden your acqaintancies hailed from, since their speech was "beautiful". :shock: Probably not from around here, I guess ... :twisted:


Unfortunately Jurgen, I'm not too sure where exactly they were from, I wish I did though.

Ok, "beautiful" may have been a slight exaggeration, however I was referring to the melodic sound that Swedish has. Although to me most languages are softer on the ear than English. Though I may be slightly bias in that respect.

P.S. Sorry for the late reply guys, it's been a rather hectic few days,

Thanks again.

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Johanna
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Re: I know it's a longshot but...

Postby Johanna » 2013-12-17, 10:11

larcos, his accent belongs to the part of Sweden called gnällbältet, 'the whiny belt', because of the nature of their accents, but it's a socio-linguistic thing purely, like how people in the UK often look down on a Brummie accent, while foreigners really don't care or even find it endearing.

Mine would belong to gnällbältet as well – phonologically speaking – but thanks to history, it's grouped with the West Swedish ones. This is because grammar and vocabulary of the traditional dialects in this area are closer to their more coastal, and even Norwegian, counterparts than to Central Swedish dialects.
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

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Jurgen Wullenwever
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Re: I know it's a longshot but...

Postby Jurgen Wullenwever » 2013-12-17, 20:46

Johanna wrote:Mine would belong to gnällbältet as well – phonologically speaking –

It would?! :shock: Care to expand a little on that? :?:
Johanna wrote:but thanks to history, it's grouped with the West Swedish ones.

Why "thanks"? Would it matter any which way? :|

I have the impression that our Gnellbeltian way of speech is similar to some rural American hillbilly accents, but I have never encountered an opinion on that, apart from some people in Stockholm/Uppsala twenty years ago who thought my "här" sounded like an English "here".
Chekhov wrote:I don't know about naive worldviews, but Jurgen Wullenwhatever pisses me off to no end because of his extreme pessimism and cynicism. You'd think the world was going to end imminently when talking to that guy.

Jag är rebell: jag sockrar teet, saltar maten, cyklar utan hjälm, och tänder glödlampor.
(Ovanstående var förut, nu försöker jag minska sockret och saltet, och har gett upp mejeriprodukter.)


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