I am a Scandinavian mutt: My mother is Norwegian from north of Lillehammer.
My father is Swedish/Danish/Finnish. And YES Summoner, I know, I speak real lousy Finnish.

Religion: grew up Lutheran, but now agnostic - although I am somewhat interested in religions from the perspective of anthropology and philosophy.

Part Tahitian and part Italian, catholic (kind of).

A question I have is how different are those 3 little countries tucked away in northern Europe: Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Are the languages really different? Are they culturally really different or are they pretty much the same country just with borders. I know the governments are pretty dissimilar. Do you guys have bitter rivalries with each other or are you one big happy family?

That is all®

They are as different as night and day....especially Finland! The Finnish language is unique and has no known European roots. We should let Summoner expound on this one. (If she cares to).

Evade is right! Northern countries are = Finland, Sweden, Norway, Island and Denmark. With languages ours is very different although Finland has two prime languages, Finnish and Swedish. Finland and Sweden has been fighting ever since Finland separated from Sweden few hundred years ago I think that SomFan knows these things better than me I should have learn more about history in high school...What else...All these five countries are different, even with language. It is not certain that if you can speak Swedish you understand Norweigian or Danish..And our language is from East. Estonian and Finnish are quite the same and same thing with Hungarian. And no, we are not a colony of Russia

Ja se siitä = That is all

Thanks!

Ja se siitä

I was born in America, both of my parents were born in America. And all four of my grandparents were born in America. I think that makes me an American.

I thought it makes you an asshole







haha, just messin closeup ol buddy, you know I love you!

Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, which means that it is not Indo-European. English is closer to Sanskrit and Farsi and Russian than Swedish is to Finnish.
Finnish and Estonian are closely related. 6000 years of independent development separate Finnish/Estonian from Hungarian.

During the Viking age, there was one more-or-less common Nordic language which was spoken in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and the coastal regions of Finland and Estonia. Those languages are often mutually understandable. But Icelanders still speak pretty much the same language spoken by the Vikings!

And then there is the separate indigenous language spoken by Summoner's birth mother: Saami, Sami, of Lapp. It's origins are ancient and obscure.

On the other hand, from the perspective of outside, there are a lot of cultural similarities between the Nordic countries. I would say that that is generally related to the geography, the Viking past, Lutheranism, and the strength of
organized labor and the social-democratic (labor)parties.

The closest thing to WAR in that region is when Finland and Sweden meet each other in ice hockey!!

It's like if someone told you he was born in Poland, his parents were born in Poland, his grandparents were born in Poland, but he's Mexican. How many generations do you have to be in a country before that's "Where you're from"?

That's exactly what i was looking for! thanks.

irish, welsh, tons of little things, and 1/4 native american

If you are 1/4 indian I can see why Custer lost......
I would like to put a "little scottish" in ya

Yeah, Custer couldn't see over those hills!

I told you that Somfan would know it better than me

Mother was full Romanian and Father was full British.

So I'm the half breed of 2 enemies.

Thanks for YOUR acknowledgement! I feel like I should be contributing something to this wonderful website;I mean I don't really have much in the way of boobs. Otherwise, all I can do is voice my appreciation...

Before the advent of DNA, I think the above would be a valid answer. But now, we can (if we can afford it), trace our exact ethnic lineage. There was a story today about a Florida accountant who was confirmed via DNA to be related to Genghis Khan. I think I would want him representing me if I ever had to be audited by the IRS.

So, Closeup3, the most your parents and grandparents remembered about their distant origins was the American part of it?

The problem with tracing closeup's lineage is you've got to trace back all his sequential families. it gets really confusing when trying to distinguish among his first cousin2, third cousin4, and third cousin twice removed2. And I don't even think it's appropriate to get into what happened between Great Grandma2 and Great Grandpa3. that sure was a fiasco. inlaws2 still hasn't forgiven them till this day!

you can tace your lineage but if you go far enough back, you can be shown to be related to most everybody. Better explained here

And plus Genghis Khan was a genetic jackhammer, didn't he father half of Europe

You scare me!!! I can't believe you just linked the straight dope. I think I've read every question on there at least twice. I even subscribe to the weekly email thing. Every day I am more and more convinced that you are the Canadian Bobaloo. Either that or you just stumbled upon the straight dope and I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

yeah I am a trivia nerd too. I think because I like to know lots about everything, but I don't have the attention span to be an expert on any of it haha. I started checking out the Straight Dope back when they had a show on A&E years ago and then they moved to AOL and finally to the net. I like reading all the Straight Dope books and Imponderables and all those books of useless info.

Funny, I thought you were the American Gnappster.

I found the Web site a few years ago when I was looking for the answer to the "33" on the back of the rolling rock beer bottle.

random thought: do they offer AOL in Canada or is it COL?

Shameless need for attention: Okay, I thought this was a funny post and it got no play cuz we posted at the exact same time and it got lost. either that or it's not as funny as I thought it was.

It's called AOL Canada here which doesn't seem to weird until you pronounce it as America Online Canada

I did indeed miss that post and I laughed my ass off when I saw it. Don't forget Dirty_Uncle3.

I thought we weren't supposed to speak about dirty_uncle3 anymore

AOL Canada... that's funny. I like how all these companies just slap the word "Canada" at the end of their product. like Sirius Canada. is there a Directv Canada or is it just regular old directv.

I'm going to start an Illinois-based company and sell my product out of state. I'll call it, Illinois Widgets - wisconsin

i'm just Cute! LOL

and 100% Hott

there is no Directv in Canada but you'll be happy to know there is AT&T Canada



guilty as charged

I hereby sentence you to 20 pic postings to be carried out on or before the 30th day of June 2006.

Ah, yes, AT&T, formerly SBC (southern Bell Company), formerly Ameritech, formerly known as <your midwest state> Bell.

Just so you know, AT&T stands for American Telephone & Telegraph. Canada must represent the Telegraph side of the company.