 By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility , the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language . However , because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden , including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries , and the nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries , the languages have separate orthographies , dictionaries , grammars , and regulatory bodies . Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian ( North Germanic ) , and some of the dialects , such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden , especially parts of Bohuslän , Dalsland , western Värmland , western Dalarna , Härjedalen , Jämtland and Scania , could be described as intermediate dialects of the national standard languages . 
