276 Tlie Loom of Language TEUTONIC INTERROGATIVES* ENGLISH SWEDISH DANISH DUTCH GERMAN how^ hur hvordan hoe wie how much "> how many^ hur mycket hur manga hvor meget hvor mange 1- hoeveel wieviel wieviele when^ nar naar wanneer warm whence^ varifran hvorfra vanwaar woher whither ^ vart foorhen waarheen wohin where var hvor waar wo why^ varfor hvorfor waarom warum who^ VEM HVEM WIE WER which ^ < VILKEN, VILKET, VILKA HVILKEN, HVILKET, HVILKE WELKE WELK WELKE \ WELCHER J (-£5, -E) what^ VAD HVAD WAT WAS whom^ VEM HVEM WIEN WEN to whonP TILL VEM TIL HVEM AAN WIE WEM whose ^ VEMS HVIS VAN WIE WESSEN what kind of •> vad slags hvilken slags wat voor een was fur em THE SCANDINAVIAN CLAN The Scandinavian clan consists of four official languages of which Icelandic differs little from Old Norse of the sagas Icelanders read the latter as we read Shakespeare,, if we do so The others3 Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, differ from one another scarcely more than do some dialects within the British Isles The first is spoken throughout Sweden by over six million people3 and by a substantial Swedish minority in Finland Danish is the official language of Denmark, with a population of three and three-quarter millions The Norwegian dialects are the vernaculars of about two and three-quarter millions The official language of Norway is less highly standardized than that of Denmark Till 1905^ when Norway seceded from Sweden^ it was still Danish This official Dano-Norwegian of the ruling clique was then the medium of instruction in all higher education as well as of administrative procedure, and was far removed from the speech of the masses Since secession, the government has introduced successive changes to make the spelling more phonetic and the accepted grammatical standards * Same conventions as on p 371