[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ What's Your Ethnic Background?, Nationality, religion, etc.

[Isaac_Putin]

Me:

Irish, British, French, Scottish, German. Catholic.

[COMEDYMAN]

Mothers side - Scots Irish/Indian ( Blackfoot )

Fathers side - German ( Gypsies from the SchwartzWald )/Indian ( Cherokee )

Great Grandmother full blood Cherokee

[somfan]

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.

[Gnappster]

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.

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®

[evade20]

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).

[summoner]

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

[somfan]

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

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!!