All tagged Scandanavia
Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland. They are among some of the coldest countries in the world, so it is a wonder that these nations host some of the happiest people. Why is this? Is it their healthcare? Their music? The food? Maybe even the culture. One would be surprised to find out that it is in fact none of these factors. Instead, the answer lies in the progressive Nordic democracy and complex social systems that make the Nordic countries a model for citizens’ happiness.
A large amount of descriptive research of the Scandinavian and Nordic languages has been for the consumption of linguists and historians. When reconstructing or representing ancient and deceased languages, linguists rely on the so-called daughter languages, or languages that descend from the theoretical proto-language, to comparatively piece back the grammar – this method is indeed referred to as the comparative method. In use as well are archaeological gatherings – in the case of Old Norse this may be present in runes. Synthesizing this information is how linguists work to piece together what ancestral languages may have sounded like and what their grammatical inventory may have consisted of. Thus the purpose of this article is to present an accessible introduction to these languages, their grammar, and the issues that their speakers face. Further, this is the first in a series of linguistic studies and language families.
