ABSTRACT
Non-Scandinavians are occasionally astonished to hear Danes, Norwegians and Swedes conversing, each in their own language, without interpreters. When Swedish military power extended to the conquest of former Danish and Norwegian provinces, these also fell under the dominance of Swedish writing. Norwegian has had its form returned to a closer relation to Swedish, geographically natural; while at least B-Norwegian has retained a great deal of its cultivated lexicon from Danish. When Norwegians and Danes communicate, they have to listen hard to be sure which word the other is using, but once they get that, they usually know what it means. A much later development was the trend in Danish and adjacent areas of Norwegian and Swedish to voice short fortis stops ptktobdg after vowels. Speaking very generally, B- Norwegian has its lexicon common with Danish, but phonology common with Swedish.
