Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish Will Now Be Suspended Because of the Financial Crisis

From the same book by Romaine: Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian are separate languages largely for political reasons:

"When these [three] languages were standardized, differences were consciously exaggerated."

Romaine gives a recent example, the spelling of the word for "what", which before 1906 was the same in all three langauges. But in 1905, Norway became independent from Sweden, and so a few changes were made:

Original for all three languages: Hvad

After 1906...

Danish: Hvad
Swedish: HVad
Norwegian: Hvad

(These are all pronounced the same way, "Va")

I just thought that was cool. Continue about your business.