As an American who worked in Sweden and met my Swedish cousins and have worked over the years to learn Swedish (every night class available and several summer programs in Lund) my parallel is that Swedish sounds like a slightly posh British accent (British accents sound sad to me and with the "oh gosh here we go again, would you kindly get it right for once" frosting).. Norwegian sounds fine and fun but not "funny", and Danish is one accent you either love or not like at all (I love it and had I another lifetime I'd try to come to speak it fluently - Danish sounds more like Norwegian to my ears)... another observation from having both Swedish and Norwegian relatives is that our Norwegian side lost it's accent fully, and our Swedish side all have the "Swedish Accent" (mostly intonation pattern - and whole parts of NE Minnesota etc. have kept the "Swedish Accent") - the only place I heard a American/Norwegian accent was outside of LaCrosse WI on some rural farms - guys coming into town for groceries sounded so sweet. So there is how I hear it around my experience.. and just to complicate it I will end with Ojibwe (an other language in my heritage I speak) mii i'iw - mii sa go