To make things clear, when I say ‘Scandinavian languages’, I am referring to the five languages of the Northern Germanic branch – Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese.
I have read about many aspiring polyglots who want to learn all five languages, or at least more than one of them, but do not know where they should begin. First, I am going to sum up what I spent an entire previous blog post on: Learn whichever languages you want. Don’t worry about what other people think you should learn first. But apparently, there are always those who still prefer to ask others what they should learn first or next. For those people, here are some suggestions:
- You hate grammar.
If this describes you, I recommend starting with Danish. Of all the languages I have studied, I have found that Danish has the easiest grammar. Then from there, Norwegian will be the easiest language to learn. After that, you can move on to Swedish. In my opinion, Danish and Norwegian grammar have more in common than either language does with Swedish. After that, you can tackle Icelandic and Faroese. However, if you REALLY hate grammar, Icelandic grammar may be the closest thing there is to torture. Perhaps you would prefer waterboarding >:). Faroese, in my opinion, is only slightly less complex.
- You prefer phonetic languages.
You would probably be happier starting with Norwegian or Swedish. Also quite phonetic is Icelandic (I find it quite beautiful sounding), but as mentioned above is has more complicated grammar. On the other end of the phonetic spectrum are Danish and Faroese. Forget about trying to learn either without audio.
- You prefer to start with the languages in which you can speak with the most people.
In that case, the order is easy. From the most to the least native speakers are: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and then Faroese.
- You are a masochist, oops I mean, someone who likes challenges 😂
Then Icelandic is the number one choice for you, followed by Faroese. But before I get chased by an angry mob of Icelanders 😆, I would like to state how much I LOVE Icelandic. It’s a very beautiful sounding language in my opinion, but you absolutely must have a stronger motivation than this if you intend to learn the language beyond a few basic greetings and phrases. Icelandic is a language that is extremely enriching and rewarding to be able to read in, especially the ancient sagas, but you must be prepared to work extra hard to get to this point. The good news is that there are multiple free resources online for learning this language.
Polyglot in Progress 