Re: Why a creole is handy in Germania

------- Torsten writes -----

>One of the

reasons Swedes (that is Upp-Swedes, away from the West

>coast) are poor

at modifying their speech to suit Danes or Norwegians

>is that they don't

have (as far as I know) Danish (or Norwegian) TV

>on cable, whereas we

have at least on three channels. Recently, the

>viewers west of the

Storebælt (ie. Fyn and Jutland) here voted out

>all Swedish channels (but

kept the Norwegian ones), replacing them

>with German ones.

TV has been important in East Norway as well. Many people point to the popularity of Swedish channels when they are to explain why Norwegians understand Swedish that well. The Swedes had been doing broadcasting in many decades when finally NRK decided to give them real competition.

>You can find some anti-Swedism in

especially working-class

>Copenhagen. I recall a documentary on TV about

the building of the

>Öresund bridge between our two countries. The Danish

workers were

>very upset that the Swedes would want to work overtime when

asked to

>so, without compensation. "We will have to teach them how to do
>things", they said. As I recall, it ended with the Danes
>(Copenhageners) being less belligerent towards the Swedes, and in
>particular, one particularly bitchy Copenhagen canteen owner being
>frozen out. Anyway, a good deal of the Copenhagen workers and
>artisans are ethnically Germans, their ancestors having come here to
>work for our German kings. Their hearts are still in Rostock and
>Berlin.

Norwegian comercials often make use of this Danish anti-Swedism. Their message is simple and clear Danes want Norwegians and not Swedes.

This picture was confirmed when I was in Denmark for one week this summer. Their favourite topic of conversation was the good Dano-Norwegian relations as opposed to bad Dano-Swedish.