Scandinavia vs. Norden: The Difference Between "Scandinavian" and "Nordic"

[Elsa]

Is there a difference? And does it make any difference? To a Scandinavian, yes. To almost anyone else, no.

THE DESIGNATION SCANDINAVIA IS AN AMBIVALENT ONE. It is often taken to mean all of northern Europe, from the North Atlantic islands in the west to the Russian border in the east and the German border in the south. This is often the case in English-language and continental-European usage. In the area itself, however, Scandinavia is usually taken to mean only Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Sometimes the word is used geographically about the Scandinavian peninsula, and thus encompasses only Norway and Sweden. Usually, however, the term is intended to include Denmark as well.

In this usage, Scandinavia contrasts with Norden, which is an established and institutionalized designation for the five independent countries Finland (including the self-governing territory of Åland), Sweden, Denmark (including the self-governing territories of the Faroe islands and Greenland), Norway and Iceland. Norden is the (mainland) Scandinavian term, while it is Nordurlönd in Icelandic and Pohjoismaat in Finnish, both these terms meaning "northern countries." The adjective for Norden is nordisk (Nordic in English), which is contrasted to skandinavisk (Scandinavian).

In linguistic connections, nordisk is often used to mean North Germanic (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic), while skandinavisk only includes the mutually intelligible languages Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. One may also include Finnish, Sámi or even Greenlandic in the concept nordiske språk (Nordic languages), but then the concept is based on a territorial delimitation and not a genetic one.

I shall give a short historical outlook on the use of the terms Norden and Scandinavia, and then draw some conclusions on present-day usage.

NORDEN IS, OF COURSE, DERIVED FROM NORD (NORTH). It seems to have been taken from-or at least inspired by-German, where the direction adverbs nord, etc. take the suffix -en when they are nominalized and used in a general sense of areas lying in the indicated direction. "In the north," therefore, is im Norden in High German and in het noorden in Dutch. In Old Scandinavian, there is an adverb, nordan, meaning "from the north" (and correspondingly, in the other direction adverbs, the suffix -an thus had an ablative function). But fyrir nordan meant "in the north." Possibly, the word Norden represents a contamination between the old (fyrir) nordan and the German im Norden.

Whatever the case, the word Norden was taken into use in Danish and Swedish, and later in Norwegian, with the general meaning "areas to the north," much the same way as in German and Dutch. Only gradually, a fixation of these areas covered by the word developed, to the Scandinavian peninsula and adjacent areas (Denmark, Finland) and culturally related areas in the North Atlantic (Iceland and the Faroe islands-both belonging to Denmark until well into the 20th century, the Faroes still under Danish sovereignty). The development of the pan-Nordic ideology, based on a feeling of a common identity between these peoples in contrast to the outside world, contributed to this fixation. In fact, Norden more and more grew into a proper noun, designating a clearly delimitated area. During the 20th century, this development received a forceful boost through the institutionalization of Nordic cooperation, with organizations like the Nordic Council, the Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordic language cooperation, lots of Nordic networks both in the governmental and the private areas, the introduction of the passport-free Nordic zone, etc.

It is a fact that the societies in question had a very parallel development, and therefore they are still often viewed as a unity by the world at large. The different choices of international cooperation frameworks (in other words, the different relations to NATO and, in particular, the European Union) have not as yet led to a major split between the countries, although some have feared the threat of such a split.

It is interesting to look at the parallel words (in their Norwegian Bokmål forms) Syden (the south), Vesten (the west) and Østen (the east). These have also been fixed, but to a lesser degree. Syden is used about an area roughly corresponding to Mediterranean Europe, normally in a holiday context where it is contrasted against the winterly north. Vesten was originally the North American "Wild West," but later-on a global scale-it took on the meaning "the West," in contrast to the Communist "east" and more recently to the Muslim world and the rest of Asia. Østen means "the Orient," often associated with a romantic picture of the area. Traditionally, then, these -en words stand for vaguely delimited areas, or rather, they represent ideas and associations connected to certain parts of the world. This also applies to Norden, which was a typical romantic concept in the 19th century. Consider its use in the Swedish national anthem: Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga nord (You ancient, you free, you mountain-high North) ending with: Ack, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden! (Oh, I want to live, I want to die in Norden!).

The modern use of Norden as a precise designation of a group of five countries is from this viewpoint a break with the past, although the word represents not only a geographic area, but also a particular ideology (focusing on pan-Nordic, not least spiritual, unity).

The adjective nordisk (Nordic) is more recent than Norden. It also had a more general meaning originally, "northern European" in contrast to the more southern peoples. One could talk about a "Nordic race," in accordance with a racist ideology popular before the Nazi regime in Germany took it into use in this meaning and thus made this usage impossible for non-Nazis. Still, one can talk about being a nordisk type or having a nordisk utsjånad (Nordic appearance or Nordic look), i.e., a fair complexion, blond or fair hair and blue eyes.

In other contexts, however, the word is strictly delimited to the concrete territorial meaning, pertaining to the five countries of Norden. Linguistically, nordisk is mostly used synonymically with "North Germanic," which is a language-genetic term covering Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic (and extinct languages such as Norn and Old Norse). It may also, however, have an areal meaning which transcends the genetic boundaries between different language families, thus including also the non-Germanic languages Finnish, Sámi and partly Greenlandic.

THE NAME FORM SCANDINAVIA IS LATIN, and it seems to date from classical Roman times. Its designation was rather vague, as is to be expected, considering the very limited knowledge and thus the hazy imagination the Romans had about these northern areas far beyond the borders of the prevailing civilization at the time. It is also found in shorter forms, such as Scandza, which was used by the Gothic historian Jordanes in the sixth century to designate the northern homeland of the Goths. The origin of the name appears to be Germanic, in fact Proto-Scandinavian. We can reconstruct the form skadinaujo, which in Latin would give "Scandinavia," into which word form an extra "n" was inserted as a phonetic device before the "d." The meaning of skadinaujo is not altogether clear, but it is a usual Germanic compound with the last constituent as the nucleus. Aujo seems to have meant "low land bordering on water" or "land surrounded by water; island." This Proto-Scandinavian word later developed into Old Norse ey (modern Norwegian øy, Swedish ö, Danish ø). The dual meaning lived on in Old Norse, but in the modern language, "island" is the only meaning. (In fact, the first syllable of the English "island" is the same word, and also the Dutch aland and the Old Norse eyland.) As to the first constituent, skadin-is often taken to mean "danger" or "damage" (cf. English scathe, and modern Scandinavian shade "damage")-the idea being that the coastal area concerned was risky or dangerous for passing ships. An alternative hypothesis is to associate the word with the Old Norse mythological (goddess) name Skadi.

The name had been associated with the southern Swedish region Skane (Scania). In fact, this name form would be a completely regular phonetic development of skadinaujo. The background would then be that this name in its Proto-Scandinavian form, actually designating only the present Skane, by continental Germanic peoples - and ultimately by the Romans - would be taken to designate the whole northern area, of which one had, as indicated above, a very diffuse image. Once accepted and used in this understanding-replacing or rivaling the earlier Thule-it was preserved in writing and conventionalized, whereupon it lived on until taken into use in the modern vernaculars a couple of centuries ago.

The modern use of Scandinavia in the area itself seems to have been consolidated during the 19th century, and the dominant meaning was Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In the standard Norwegian dictionaries (Bokmålsordboka and Nynorskordboka, both appearing in 1986 and later revised) we find under skandinavisk both "the Scandinavian countries," defined as "Norway, Sweden and Denmark," and "the Scandinavian Peninsula," defined as "Norway and Sweden." Secondarily, Finland might be included. In English, where the word Norden never has taken root, Scandinavia has become a general term for Northern Europe, i.e., the five countries concerned-as in the BBC English Dictionary (1992): "Scandinavia is the region in northern Europe that contains the countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands." In the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1989), however, only Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland are mentioned, probably based on linguistic criteria.

In the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1969), however, they have acknowledged the multiplicity of meanings of the word and given four different definitions: 1. the Scandinavian Peninsula (made up of Norway and Sweden); 2. the northwestern European countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark; 3. these countries and Iceland considered as a linguistic and cultural unit; and 4. broadly, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and the Faeroe Islands.

This is the most insightful treatment I have seen of the word in any dictionary. It would seem that the usage in English has passed from senses 1 and 2 to 4 in modern times, while meaning 2 is still the most common in Scandinavia itself.

As a linguistic term, the tendency internationally is to use Scandinavian in the meaning "North Germanic." In Scandinavia itself, it normally denotes the three closely related and mutually intelligible or semi-intelligible languages Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. But internationally, thus, Icelandic and Faroese are also included, so that the word becomes synonymous with the Scandinavian nordisk. In this usage, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are often singled out under the term Mainland Scandinavian. Some modern linguists within Scandinavia have taken up this practice and use fastlastlandsskandinavisk, a direct translation of the English term, where we traditionally use simply skandinavisk.

However, this term has other connotations, too. Skandinavisk is often used about mixed forms of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish employed in inter-Nordic communication. In Iceland, this term is used for their own speech to Scandinavians. This is often a mixed variety, although most often based on Danish, which most Icelanders have learned at school. Danish on an Icelandic (and Faroese) phonetic substratum, in fact, may sound quite Norwegian-like to the ears of Scandinavians, and more intelligible to Norwegians and Swedes than Danish proper in many cases. When this speech by Icelanders is called skandinaviska, this usage implies that Icelandic is not Scandinavian.

TO CONCLUDE, NORDEN AND NORDIC are quite precise terms, but rare and perhaps not very suitable in English. Scandinavia(n) is definitely ambiguous, and the best advice is to be aware of this and make it clear how one uses the term. In Scandinavia itself, we will probably continue to distinguish between the broad concept Norden-nordisk and the more narrow Skandinavia-skandinavisk. But it is unlikely that such a usage will become general in English. Therefore, the best advice might be to use Scandinavia(n) with the broadest meaning generally, but to distinguish between Scandinavian and Nordic in more specialist contexts where precision is necessary.

Writer Lars S. Vikør is Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics at the University of Oslo, Norway, and editor-in-chief of Norsk Ordbok (Norwegian Dictionary), a scientific dictionary on Nynorsk and the Norwegian dialects.

Source: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-678673001.html

[Hjalt]

Scandinavia is a subset of Nordic. I always took Scandinavia as a culture and language grouping while Nordic is just Northern European countries and their territories.

The Scandinavian name comes from the Old Norse Skáney for Skåne in Southern Sweden.

[Loki]

Here is a good example: Finland is Nordic, but not Scandinavian. Scandinavian is confined to the Germanic group of peoples.