SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

Locating the subject within the study plan of the BA-programme

The course in Scandinavian Languages and Culture is offered at the third year of the Literary-cultural curriculum and the Political-international curriculum in the BA-programme in Language, Civilisation and the Science of Language. This course, named Swedish Linguistics, is also offered at the third year of the Linguistic-philological curriculum in the same BA-programme, where it is compulsory.
It is addressed to students who have chosen Swedish as their first or second three-year language. In the Literary-cultural curriculum, as well as in the Political-international one, this course is optional alongside History of Scandinavian culture; both can be included (one as compulsory, the other one as a freely chosen subject), if students wish to strengthen their knowledge in the field of Scandinavian Studies.

Expected results

The course is introductory and aims to give the basis for an increasingly competent use of the Scandinavian languages in their diachronic, synchronic and comparative dimensions; it opens to the passive knowledge of Danish and Norwegian as languages that are strictly related to Swedish (knowing and learning to understand). Furthermore, it wishes to increase the historical and metalinguistic awareness, and reinforce the ability to recognize, understand and translate Swedish texts from different epochs, to use dictionaries of Swedish (dictionaries of contemporary language, as well as historical and etymological dictionaries), to know and use Norwegian, Danish and Nordic dictionaries that are available online (applied knowledge and learning to understand). We want to motivate students to develop an awareness of both the theoretical/general problems and the practical/specific problems that translating from the Scandinavian languages to Italian implies, as well as the awareness of the adopted strategies in the use of dictionaries and in translation work (independent assessment). Students are asked to acquire a certain autonomy in their learning process, developing the attitude to self-assessment, in order to reinforce the use of the acquired skills and make further progress to higher levels, especially in case they want to continue studying at MA-level (learning to learn).

Prerequisites

Level B1 of the ECFR, reached by passing the tests of Swedish Language 2.

Contents

The course consists of three parts: a) history of the Swedish language from the origins to present time; b) inter-Scandinavian comprehension and semi-communication; c) theoretical and practical introduction to literary translation from the Scandinavian languages to Italian. The translation exercises will be corrected and discussed in group. Professor Ciaravolo will keep parts a) and b); professor Culeddu will keep part c).

References

Gösta Bergman, Kortfattad svensk språkhistoria. Stockholm: Prisma 1984

Lars Vikør, The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Oslo: Novus 1993. In particular pp. 9-64, 80-153, 184-201, 206-14, 224-36

Birgitta Lindgren, Anitha Havaas, Snacka skandinaviska. Stockholm: Prodicta 2012

Fulvio Ferrari, “Dall’altra parte della cattedra. Sono utili i Translation Studies per la pratica della traduzione?”, in Maria Grazia Cammarota (a cura di), Tradurre: un viaggio nel tempo, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2018, pp. 19-36

Dictionaries (paper and online resources)

Norstedts svenska ordbok

Norstedts stora engelska ordbok oppure Norstedts engelska ordbok professionell

NE:s stora italienska ordbok

Norstedts skandinaviska ordbok (pdf on Moodle)

Svenska Akademiens Ordböcker (SAOL – SO – SAOB), https://svenska.se/

Ordnet.dk. Dansk sprog i ordbøger og korpus (Det Danske Ordbog – Ordbog over det danske Sprog), https://ordnet.dk/

Svensk-Dansk Ordbog, https://sdo.dsl.dk/

Bokmålsordboka – Nynorskordboka. Språkrådet https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi

NAOB. Det Norske Akademis Ordbok, https://naob.no/

ISLEX-orðabókin, https://islex.arnastofnun.is/is/

Nordisk samarbeid. Ordbøker med nordiske språk, https://www.norden.org/no/information/ordboker-med-nordiske-sprak

Uploaded materials on Moodle

Assessment

The course will take place in the autumn semester of 2024. Exams will take place from January 2025 on. The examination consists of a written and an oral test. The written part includes three aspects: a) knowledge of the history of Swedish language through transcription into contemporary Swedish of passages of texts from the 16th to the 19th century; b) comparative approach to contemporary Swedish, Norwegian and Danish; comprehension and analysis of simple written texts in Norwegian and Danish; c) short translations from Swedish, Norwegian and Danish to Italian. In the oral test, the contents of the course will be discussed with reference to the sources in the references and the result of the written test.

Didactic methods
Both frontal instruction and participatory learning, with individual practice and group exercises. The course will be in Italian, but it will constantly use Scandinavian linguistic materials.

Italian

More information

If you have questions or need further explanations, please write to massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it. Those students who do not to attend the course must come and talk to the professor at office hours, preferably at course start, and agree upon a learning plan (materials and methods). We ask students to book a time with an e-mail in order to meet the professor at office hours.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development