I guess I'll just start out my overview of Danish, by basing it on Audun's post. Since Audun seems to have chosen Bokmål, which was pretty much based on Danish (while Nynorsk - "New Norwegian" - is somewhat an attempt at getting away from Danish), a lot of it is the same:
English: Hi
Norwegian: Hei
Danish: Hej
English: Goodbye
Norwegian: hadet
Danish: Farvel (formal) / Hej (informal, yep, same as "hi") / Vi ses ("see ya") / Ha' det
The last one is rare, basically a short version of "ha' det godt" = "Have it well" / "Be well" - interestingly, the word left out is "well", making it essentially mean "Have it" / "Be"
English: Car
Norwegian: Bil
Danish: Bil
English: Water
Norwegian: Vann
Danish: Vand (the 'd' is silent, making it almost identical to Norwegian, as usual)
English: Fjeld ("mountain")
Norwegian: Fjell
Danish: Fjeld (when speaking of Norwegian mountains), bjerg (when speaking of other mountains)
English: Fjord ("inlet")
Norwegian: Fjord
Danish: Fjord
English: "The bad guy down in the basement"
Norwegian: Djevelen/Fanden
Danish: Djævelen/Fanden
English: The Darkness
Norwegian: Mørket
Danish: Mørket
The pronouns (I/jeg, You/du etc.) are exactly the same in Danish and Bokmål (different in Nynorsk)
A few additions:
Beer = Øl (which may be the origin of the word "Ale")
Guitar = Guitar
Cheers (toasting) = Skål
Where? = Hvor?
When? = Hvornår?
Who? = Hvem?
What? = Hvad?
Why? = Hvorfor?
Hello = Goddag (note the similarity to "good day" or "g'day" which is what it really means)
I'd like a beer = Jeg vil gerne have en øl
How are you? = Hvordan går det? (literally "How goes it?")
You look good = Du ser godt ud (rather formal version of the meaning "You're hot")
Whats your name? = Hvad hedder du?
How old are you? = Hvor gammel er du?
Where are you from? = Hvor er du fra?
QUOTE (fkalich)
Clearly, you consider the most important words to be those useful for meeting chicks at a bar. I won't argue.
OK, then just to add another one
Do you come here often? = Kommer du her tit?
QUOTE
I feel that the most fundamental words in English tend to have German roots, rather than those coming from the Latin based languages.
Actually, you're probably closer to the truth when bringing the vikings into it later in your post. Lots of very basic English words are most likely based on the scandinavian languages, rather than German or Latin. A lot of them have different words in Scandinavian now, though. Here's just a few that are probably Scandinavian "loanwords":
Egg, Big, Cake, Until, Clumsy, Rotten, Window, Crash, Drip, Guess, Hit, Low, Both, Odd, Rape (wonder why the English needed to learn that word from the vikings...
), Scream, Gruesome, Scare/Scary, Slaughter, Talk, Skull, Depth, Bang, Tight, Ugly, Shy, Weak, Dirt, Build, Flag, Fog, Gain, Husband, Kid, Welcome, Leg, Shirt, Seat, Tungsten (ever wonder about that one? It literally means "heavy stone"), Happen, Anger etc. etc.
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This post has been edited by Kaneda: Aug 28 2007, 07:10 AM