Comments on: When Your Tooth Hurts http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/ Swedish Language and Culture Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:25:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Anna http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-241 Anna Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:01:23 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-241 Hi David and thanks for your comment! I'm not sure how it was in the 70s as I was just a wee lil one back then, but these days when voicemail is a standard feature of most telephone subscription plans for small businesses and any idiot knows how to use it, there's really no need for designated telephone times. And regarding the cost of private dental care, things have changed a bit since then too. Considering that my own dentist suggests trips to Estonia for major dental work, I'd say it's a lot more expensive and a lot less subsidized now than you remember it. In fact, I read somewhere that certain procedures are not subsidized at all anymore for people between the ages of 18 and 55. Hi David and thanks for your comment!
I’m not sure how it was in the 70s as I was just a wee lil one back then, but these days when voicemail is a standard feature of most telephone subscription plans for small businesses and any idiot knows how to use it, there’s really no need for designated telephone times.
And regarding the cost of private dental care, things have changed a bit since then too. Considering that my own dentist suggests trips to Estonia for major dental work, I’d say it’s a lot more expensive and a lot less subsidized now than you remember it. In fact, I read somewhere that certain procedures are not subsidized at all anymore for people between the ages of 18 and 55.

]]> By: David from Oregon http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-238 David from Oregon Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:16:38 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-238 Telephone times are often necessary especially for small businesses. What is the problem with waiting until the proper time before calling? Do we always need instant gratification? In the 70's my dentist in Stockholm worked completely alone except for a dental assistant. She had no secretary or receptionist or bookkeeper. You had to call during her telephone times to talk to her. She couldn't very well drop her tools and go answer the phone every time it rang. But that doesn't mean she was inflexible or uncaring. I remember breaking a tooth on some Swedish breakfast cereal one Saturday morning. By Sunday I looked like I had a tennis ball in my mouth from the swollen jaw. On Monday morning I was sitting on the steps outside her office waiting for her when she came to work. She took one look at me and took me right in and fixed me up. It was the best root canal I ever had. She had these great big brown eyes and really long eyelashes. And the cost of a private dentist was not that expensive. Just because they are private doesn't mean that the costs aren't subsidized by the government. The government issues lists of treatments and the amount they subsidize for each treatment. You only paid the balance that is left over. It only cost me a very affordable few hundred kronor for the root canal. Of course indirectly I paid more through the personal income taxes I was paying. I don't know how it works if a person is not legally working in Sweden or a Swedish citizen. The only real problem I had with dentists in Sweden is the same problem people have everywhere: finding a competent dentist you like and trust and is accepting new patients. Did I mention the big brown eyes? Telephone times are often necessary especially for small businesses. What is the problem with waiting until the proper time before calling? Do we always need instant gratification? In the 70’s my dentist in Stockholm worked completely alone except for a dental assistant. She had no secretary or receptionist or bookkeeper. You had to call during her telephone times to talk to her. She couldn’t very well drop her tools and go answer the phone every time it rang. But that doesn’t mean she was inflexible or uncaring. I remember breaking a tooth on some Swedish breakfast cereal one Saturday
morning. By Sunday I looked like I had a tennis ball in my mouth from the swollen jaw. On Monday morning I was sitting on the steps outside her office waiting for her when she came to work. She took one look at me and took me right in and fixed me up. It was the best root canal I ever had. She had these great big brown eyes and really long eyelashes.

And the cost of a private dentist was not that expensive. Just because they are private doesn’t mean that the costs aren’t subsidized by the government. The government issues lists of treatments and the amount they subsidize for each treatment. You only paid the balance that is left over. It only cost me a very affordable few hundred kronor for the root canal. Of course indirectly I paid more through the personal income taxes I was paying. I don’t know how it works if a person is not legally working in Sweden or a Swedish citizen. The only real problem I had with dentists in Sweden is the same problem people have everywhere: finding a competent dentist you like and trust and is accepting new patients. Did I mention the big brown eyes?

]]> By: Anna http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-152 Anna Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:15:15 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-152 Anne, it sounds to me like your mother in law talks about "julskinka", which is simply Christmas ham. That's what it looks like from your description - white on the outside, pink inside. The pronunciation leaves me very confused however. It sounds like she might have been saying "grynkorv" with a strong accent. That's a sausage popular during Christmas. here's a website, but only in Swedish: http://grynkorv.se/index.html Anne,
it sounds to me like your mother in law talks about “julskinka”, which is simply Christmas ham. That’s what it looks like from your description - white on the outside, pink inside. The pronunciation leaves me very confused however. It sounds like she might have been saying “grynkorv” with a strong accent. That’s a sausage popular during Christmas.
here’s a website, but only in Swedish: http://grynkorv.se/index.html

]]> By: Anne http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-145 Anne Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:07:27 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-145 HELP!!! I don't know where to find this.... My husband's mother keeps commenting about some sausage they used to have every Christmas, and I don't know what I'm looking for... She pronounces it "ku-kor"...she says it's white on the outside and pink on the inside....can you please help me spell and explain how to serve this? Thanks.... HELP!!!
I don’t know where to find this….
My husband’s mother keeps commenting about some sausage they used to have every Christmas, and I don’t know what I’m looking for…
She pronounces it “ku-kor”…she says it’s white on the outside and pink on the inside….can you please help me spell and explain how to serve this?
Thanks….

]]> By: Anna http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-127 Anna Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:37:16 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-127 Hi Louis! Oh yes, even English is of Germanic origin. Actually, that's how I divide all European languages for my personal purposes: 1. The ones with somewhat easy grammars - Germanic languages 2. The ones with more convoluted grammars but still possible to learn - Roman languages 3. The incomprehensible (to most people) ones - Slavic and 4. The oddballs like Hungarian and Finnish, Estonian, etc. which for all I know might be simply Klingon spoken backwards. ;) Hi Louis!

Oh yes, even English is of Germanic origin. Actually, that’s how I divide all European languages for my personal purposes:
1. The ones with somewhat easy grammars - Germanic languages
2. The ones with more convoluted grammars but still possible to learn - Roman languages
3. The incomprehensible (to most people) ones - Slavic
and 4. The oddballs like Hungarian and Finnish, Estonian, etc. which for all I know might be simply Klingon spoken backwards. ;)

]]> By: Louis http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-121 Louis Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:05:22 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-121 Hi Anna ! Thank you for your very informative answer -- you've confirmed what I started to suspect, but with an interesting analysis including facts I didn't know. The pieces of the puzzle are all starting to come together for me now -- I had actually never known that Scandinavian languages are of Germanic descent, although in hindsight it now seems obvious. I was always under the impression that only Dutch and Flemish, and to a lesser extent German, was related to Afrikaans. This opens up a whole new lot of opportunity to learn more languages. Keep the blogs coming !! Louis Hi Anna !

Thank you for your very informative answer — you’ve confirmed what I started to suspect, but with an interesting analysis including facts I didn’t know. The pieces of the puzzle are all starting to come together for me now — I had actually never known that Scandinavian languages are of Germanic descent, although in hindsight it now seems obvious.

I was always under the impression that only Dutch and Flemish, and to a lesser extent German, was related to Afrikaans. This opens up a whole new lot of opportunity to learn more languages.

Keep the blogs coming !!

Louis

]]> By: Anna http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-114 Anna Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:51:21 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-114 ceci, Lycksele is coming up, no worries! ;) Hello Louis! Thank you for your message. I think the similarities have to do with the fact that Dutch/Afrikaans are of Low Franconian Germanic descent, and Swedish (along with Danish and Norwegian) are North Germanic, so they all have the same point of origin. Also, don't forget that back in the olden days them Dutch liked to get around and most of the Scandinavian ports were part of the Hanseatic League, so some linguistic mixing was unavoidable. But the general similarities between all Germanic languages make it fairly easy for a speaker of one to learn another. All Afrikaans speakers I have met in Sweden (and there are quite a few!) speak fabulous Swedish! And as for the surname "Wium", it is definitely more popular in Denmark than in Sweden (a quick search of phone listings in Sweden gave no results!). Though I have met one guy from Norway with that last name, too. ceci,
Lycksele is coming up, no worries! ;)

Hello Louis!

Thank you for your message. I think the similarities have to do with the fact that Dutch/Afrikaans are of Low Franconian Germanic descent, and Swedish (along with Danish and Norwegian) are North Germanic, so they all have the same point of origin. Also, don’t forget that back in the olden days them Dutch liked to get around and most of the Scandinavian ports were part of the Hanseatic League, so some linguistic mixing was unavoidable.

But the general similarities between all Germanic languages make it fairly easy for a speaker of one to learn another. All Afrikaans speakers I have met in Sweden (and there are quite a few!) speak fabulous Swedish!

And as for the surname “Wium”, it is definitely more popular in Denmark than in Sweden (a quick search of phone listings in Sweden gave no results!). Though I have met one guy from Norway with that last name, too.

]]> By: Louis http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-112 Louis Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:06:57 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-112 Hi, before I tell you the reason for my email, I just want to say that I, being curious about languages, had somehow stumbled across your blog, and receives regular RSS feeds about Swedish, which I thoroughly enjoy --- you have a compelling way of writing ! Reason for my email : I am actually Afrikaans speaking, from South Africa, a language which evolved, most widely assumed, mostly from Dutch origin, and some German/French input. Well, since I've been reading your blog feeds, I could't help to be stunned by the similarity between Swedish nouns and Afrikaans nouns, some of them are exactly the same (at least in spelling, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pronunciation is similar too). Just some examples, and this is just from your last 3 blogs, I have found these similarities in every blog so far : Swedish Afrikaans Rökt Gerookte Folkgrupp Folkgroep norra noordelike Ryssland Rusland spräk spraak (also means 'speech') en 'n sorts soort säng sang ord woord land land Telephon Telefoon Tand Tand Amazing --- surely all these cannot come from Dutch alone. It does seem as though there may have been a more significant input from Scandinavia in the birth and development of the Afrikaans language between 1652 and today, than is usually believed. I am passionate about the Afrikaans language, but unfortunately a battle on all fronts is waged to suppress it. My grandfather'predecessor was reportedly of Danish descent, his surname was Wium. Have you come across this name in Scandinavia, and perhaps know what it means ? Kind regards Louis South Africa Hi, before I tell you the reason for my email, I just want to say that I, being curious about languages, had somehow stumbled across your blog, and receives regular RSS feeds about Swedish, which I thoroughly enjoy — you have a compelling way of writing !

Reason for my email : I am actually Afrikaans speaking, from South Africa, a language which evolved, most widely assumed, mostly from Dutch origin, and some German/French input. Well, since I’ve been reading your blog feeds, I could’t help to be stunned by the similarity between Swedish nouns and Afrikaans nouns, some of them are exactly the same (at least in spelling, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pronunciation is similar too). Just some examples, and this is just from your last 3 blogs, I have found these similarities in every blog so far :

Swedish Afrikaans

Rökt Gerookte
Folkgrupp Folkgroep
norra noordelike
Ryssland Rusland
spräk spraak (also means ’speech’)
en ‘n
sorts soort
säng sang
ord woord
land land
Telephon Telefoon
Tand Tand

Amazing — surely all these cannot come from Dutch alone. It does seem as though there may have been a more significant input from Scandinavia in the birth and development of the Afrikaans language between 1652 and today, than is usually believed. I am passionate about the Afrikaans language, but unfortunately a battle on all fronts is waged to suppress it. My grandfather’predecessor was reportedly of Danish descent, his surname was Wium. Have you come across this name in Scandinavia, and perhaps know what it means ?

Kind regards
Louis
South Africa

]]> By: ceci http://www.transparent.com/swedish/when-your-tooth-hurts/#comment-108 ceci Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:32:08 +0000 http://www.transparent.com/swedish/?p=45#comment-108 oh anna!!! you are great!!! i liked so much this post!!! i am learning a lot with this blog, tack! dont forget lycksele...! are you living by there?? bye, ceci oh anna!!! you are great!!! i liked so much this post!!! i am learning a lot with this blog, tack!
dont forget lycksele…! are you living by there??
bye, ceci

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