all Scandinavian: (noun)+(name), or (name)+(noun)

[Gavril]

Consider the following sentence:

The islands of Funen and Zealand are separated by the Great Belt strait.

Which of the following options (if either) would the Scandinavian languages prefer for translating the highlighted phrase?

1) Storebælt strædet (da) / Storebælt sundet (no) / Stora Bält sundet (sw)
or
2) strædet Storebælt / sundet Storbælt / sundet Stora Bält

Or, would the answer depend on background information? (E.g., on whether or not it was already known that "Great Belt" refers to a strait, and not some other geographical object.)

Thanks

 

[MattiasNYC]

2, personally.

 

[basslop]

In Norwegian just "Storebælt" is used since "everyone" knows it is a strait. If not, we would use Storebæltsundet - remember compound word, not single words.

 

[FluentSpeakerNot]

Stora Bält-sundet

 

[Swedish Anna]

Which is the one referred to.

Oops, I don't know what I was thinking! I'll delete my comment.

 

[Segorian]

Or, would the answer depend on background information? (E.g., on whether or not it was already known that "Great Belt" refers to a strait, and not some other geographical object.)

Not really. People who grow up in Scandinavia know what Storebælt/Stora Bält is so there is no need to add “sundet”. A brief search reveals that although both sundet Stora Bält and Stora Bält-sundet are in use, they occur very infrequently.

 

[Gavril]

People who grow up in Scandinavia know what Storebælt/Stora Bält is so there is no need to add “sundet”.

I was afraid of that.
(I.e. I was afraid that this example would be too familiar to give a reliable diagnostic of what I'm asking about.)

How about this example instead:

For my next vacation, I'll be staying in Greenland, in the Qeqertalik region.

What would determine the choice between "Qeqertalik regionen" vs. "regionen Qeqertalik"?

 

[raumar]

First, please note that "Qeqertalik regionen" is incorrect. (I think that is true for all three languages). You need to write it as one word, or with a hyphen.

When that is taken care of, both options work in Norwegian. Personally, I would prefer "Qeqertalik-regionen" in a translation of your original sentence. I would use "regionen Qeqertalik" if I needed to emphasize that Qeqertalik is a region.

This may not be a general rule; "-byen" does not work. I would say "byen Spokane" or just "Spokane", never "Spokanebyen".