Difference between Scandinavian and Nordic countries!
Linguistically, Finland is closer to Hungary
SAS Airways: Denmark, Norway & Sweden
Gothenburg (Göteborg) is in the heart of Scandinavian countries: the four-hundred-year city is located in the Nordic country of Sweden.
Scandinavian countries are Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Remember SAS Airways? SAS is an acronym for Scandinavian Airlines System (of) Denmark, Norway and Sweden founded a year after the World War II. The three Scandinavian countries founded the SAS airlines. Today SAS operates all over Europe, and it is the top 10 airlines in the world and a founding member of the Star Alliance.
Finland is not part of Scandinavian countries because culturally it is different particularly in terms of language: Finnish language is closer to Hungarian.
Scandinavian countries are part of Nordic countries including Iceland, Greenland (part of Denmark), Finland, the islands of Faroe Islands, and ÅlandIslands. Nordic Region is a regional co-operative unit among the Nordic countries such as SAARC in Asia and NAFTA in North America. It consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland; and it is run by Nordic Council.
Dr Anders Larsson at the Human Geography Unit of University of Gothenburg points out to the difference: “Scandinavia is based on the geographical location of the Scandinavian mountain range that acts as a physical divider between Norway and Sweden. So based on physical geography is Scandinavia only the two countries Norway and Sweden plus the north-western parts of Finland. However, from a cultural geographical view Scandinavia is often used to denote Sweden, Norway and Denmark, but not Finland.”
What unites the Scandinavian countries is geography and language: Swedish, Danish and Norwegians can understand something of each other’s language (have common linguistic lineage: North Germanic).
“The Nordic countries are joined by a common history and/or similar language and comprises Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Denmark,” mentions Dr Larsson.
Stewart Clark & Graham Pointon mention about the Nordic region in their book ‘WORDS: A User’s Guide’: ‘Nordic countries, noun, mean Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and the Faeroe Islands. This is also known as the Nordic region.’
Which museum among the Nordic (Scandinavian) countries has a splendid Nordic profile?
The Gothenburg Museum of Art (Konstmuseum) has a Nordic profile because it has the world’s foremost collection of Nordic paintings since around the turn of the 1900.