Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, or Finnish?

Question

I am looking to learn a new language, and I just want to learn it for fun. I am not learning one of the above for any practicality purposes.
I can't decide which one I want to learn (out of Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, or Finnish). I want to learn the one that sounds the nicest, and intriguing. Also, I don't think languages written look particularly bad, but it's a plus if it looks nice too! And which one(s) have the most similarities to (an)other language(s)? Specifically German?

Also, if someone told you they knew either of the five, which would sound the most foreign/most unlikely for someone to know? Just curious, I'm not using this to judge which to learn.

And finally, are any of these 5 particularly difficult, in comparison? I don't want to go for one that's particularly difficult.

I was set on Icelandic because it has a lovely and distinctive sound to it(Sigur Rós inspired me), but I am curious as to what people think!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Danish has the easiest morphology (of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) -- fewest noun and past tense verb classes. Swedish is most complex morphology (needless to say Icelandic and Old Norse are much more complex, with lost of conservative traits).



But the pronunciation of Danish (if you are aiming at anything near native skills) is the hardest (stød is a glottal catch that i a meaningful distinction). Norwegian and Swedish, on the other hand, use two meaning-bearing tones on stressed words,



Norwegian's history and dialect situation (where dialects are valued, not just tolerated) makes the study of Norwegian fascinating. Do you know that nynorsk is a constructed standard written form based on the western dialects, while bokmål evolved more naturally from Dano-Norwegian, the culturally dominant language in the 19th century.



And Norwegian SOUNDS like Swedish, looks like Danish. This is obviously an outrageous oversimplification on my part. But maybe helpful in your decision?

Answer 2

The most practical would probably be Norwegian. It is also quite easy to learn - I've been told that students from abroad are most likely to go there first, because it is the easiest to learn.



Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are a lot alike. Al tough Danish is the hardest - especially the pronunciation.



Finnish are nothing like the other three, and Icelandic is quite different from them too.



I more or less understand Swedish and Norwegian - and I guess to what Icelandic is saying - but I'm lost at Finnish.

Answer 3

Being a fluent Finnish speaker and a native English speaker, I would say that if you know English very well than Finnish should not be too hard at all. If you're looking for German, than don't choose Finnish, choose Swedish or Norwegian. Danish is too hard to pronounce, for me at least. But choose whichever, I reccomend Finnish, it's a great language and it sounds beautiful.

Answer 4

Finish would be the hardest of the butch because it is not related to any other language in Europe except for hungarian. The other languages it is kin to are spoken in Siberia. The rest are closely related and from my understanding if you speak one you can come close to understanding the others.

Answer 5

i like swedish .