Nordic language business translation: which languages are included?
Swedish
The language is spoken by the most people amongst all the five Nordic languages with about 10 million people. It is Sweden’s national language and one of Finland’s national languages and written in a similar manner of Danish as well. If Swedish, Danish and Norwegian were sisters, Swedish would be the eldest of them all. A certified translation agency could help you differentiate them even better.
Danish
Five million people speak the official language of Denmark. Danish is also the second official spoken language of the Faroese Islands and Greenland. While written Danish and written Swedish are similar the two sound remarkably different when spoken, so they would have difficulties in holding a conversation but would understand each other while texting.
Norwegian
About 5 million people are speaking Norwegian today, and it shares many similarities with Swedish and Danish. In fact, a Norwegian can comfortably hold a conversation with a Swede and a Dane. In the past, after Norway gained independence from Denmark, two national languages emerged; one spoken by people in the cities and another by people in the countryside.
Icelandic
This is, perhaps, the only one of the Nordic languages that closely resembles old Norse which was spoken by the Vikings. With only three hundred fifty thousand native speakers, this language is the least spoken language of all the North Germanic languages. It has some specific differences in the grammar that make the translation more difficult than the other.