So Danish and Swedish are an example of languages that are mutually intelligible, apparently, yet if thats the case, how are they not considered the same language? If a Danish speaker can understand a Swedish speaker, then what makes the two separate languages and not just like… really distant dialects (like a Scottish accent + slang vs an English accent + slang)?
I’m very confused!
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Danish and Swedish are very different. They sound very different as well, due to different uses in tone. As a Norwegian, I can understand both Danish and Swedish, but can’t imitate them very well. They’re not like different types of English. Within Norway, we have a great amount of dialects, which would be comparable to different dialects of English. But Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are different languages with different grammar and spelling. If you, as a non-Scandinavian, were to listen to the three languages, they would probably sound so different in your ears you wouldn’t believe we could actually understand each other (I’ve even had this happen when me and another Norwegian, with a different dialect, spoke in front of non-Scandinavians). So in short, they are similar languages stemming from the same Germanic language, but they are also very different.
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