Scandinavian* alphabets use the Latin alphabet plus extra letters, each with their own sound and each a separate letter – Å, Ä, and Ö for Swedish, and Æ, Ø, and Å for Danish and Norwegian. Icelandic has more complicated orthography, and Finnish is not a Germanic language but Uralic (Finno-Ugric).
As an example, the Swedish words dopa/döpa, skrapa/skräpa, röv/rov mean totally different things – sometimes in an embarrassing way.
I am not a fan of non-Scandinavian products using Scandinavian letters to look cool and exotic, without knowing what the words mean. Ironically, Scandinavian products often choose to avoid the additional letters (even in naming their children) in order to be more international.
This brand, Möss, is probably trying to make moss sound exotic. Möss means mice in Sweden, which gave me a chuckle
- Aaron Carter had the brand name LØVË
- Røde Microphones is Australian
- Rykä shoes are American
- Häagen-Dazs is American
- Frusen Glädjé ice cream was American. In Swedish, frusen glädje means frozen joy, but they added the é for some reason, which makes it meaningless.
Japanese, Scandinavian, French, Italian and German sounding names give the idea of reliability and quality while also sounding exotic to English speakers, Conversely, American-sounding product names are common in non-English speaking countries.
* The Scandinavian countries are usually seen to be Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which are grouped together due to strong cultural, historical, and linguistic ties. While sometimes the term Scandinavia is used more broadly to include Finland and Iceland, this larger grouping is more accurately known as the Nordic countries.
I have to say that I love special letters like the letter A with a little bubble at the top. I had seen it in a cult object from Ikea: BLÅHAJ. I was very shocked by how it was pronounced. But at the same time, since I live in Germany and they also have special letters like öäü, I guess I shouldn’t be! One thing that really makes me smile is when I see Japanese products using French words that don’t mean much once they are put together. It makes me think that they love the sophistication of the French and they are fangirling over it. I think that’s super sweet!
I noticed BLÅHAJ was always sold out and thought it was because of the Russian memes of the sharks doing fun things. Then someone told me it had become a symbol for the trans movement too.
I love the word fan-girling to describe using foreign words for products because you like the way it looks and sounds. That made me feel less annoyed!