Norwegian

Introduction

Norway Map Norwegian belongs to the North (Scandinavian) group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is closely related to Swedish and Danish. Written Danish and Norwegian are particularly Norway close, though the pronunciation of all three languages differs significantly. The three languages developed from Old Norse which was spoken in the areas of Scandinavia that are now Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

Inscriptions on stone tablets suggest that Norwegian started to diverge from Danish and Swedish around the 9th-10th centuries AD. From 1397 to 1814, Norway was united with Denmark, and Danish was the dominant language spoken by Norway's educated population. After Norway gained independence from Denmark in 1814, there was a painting push to develop an independent literary Norwegian language. Two approaches were attempted. The first one was to modify the Danish spoken by Norway's elite. The second one was to standardize the language spoken by Norway's general population.

Norwegian, the official language of Norway, is by over 4.5 million people. It is also spoken in the U.S., Canada, and Sweden. It is estimated that there are around 5 million speakers of Norwegian worldwide.

Dialects

Smiling people

Norwegian has many local dialects which are usually divided into four major groups:

Norweigian Dialects

The standard dialect is based on East Norwegian spoken in and around the capital city of Oslo where half of the country's population lives.

Today, there are two official written forms of Norwegian: (literally "book language," drawing on East and West varieties of Norwegian) used by most of the population (up to 90%), and Nynorsk (literally "New Norwegian," drawing on rural varieties of Norwegian) used by a minority of Norwegians (about 10%). About 85% of Norwegian schoolchildren are taught in , and about 15% receive their education in Nynorsk. The two written norms have undergone a number of reforms throughout the 20th century. A movement to merge the two norms into one standard (Samnorsk) was not successful.

To demonstrate the differences between the two written varieties, here are two versions of the English sentence "I come from Norway."

Two versions

Although Norwegians are educated in both and Nynorsk, around 86-90% use as their daily written language, and 10%-12% use Nynorsk, although many of the spoken dialects resemble Nynorsk more closely than , mostly in of vocabulary and accent. The Norwegian broadcasting corporation (NRK) broadcasts in both and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. is used in 92% of all written publications, Nynorsk in 8% (2000) (Wikipedia).

Click here to find out more about the language situation in Norway.

Structure

Sound System

The sound system of Norwegian is similar that of Swedish and Danish. Eastern Norwegian spoken in and around Oslo is generally considered to be the standard.

Norwegian Phonology

Click here to listen to the pronunciation of Norwegian sounds.

Stress
Stress in native Norwegian words normally falls on the first syllable.

Pitch accent
Norwegian pitch accent has two patterns used to differentiate two-syllable words with otherwise identical pronunciation. There are significant variations in pitch accent among dialects, and some varieties of Norwegian have lost the tonal accent opposition altogether. Below is an example from Oslo (Eastern) Norwegian:

Pitch Accent

Grammar

Norway Church

Norwegian grammar is similar to the grammar of other Germanic languages. However, due to the lack of a single standard, rules vary from one dialect area to another.

Nouns

Verbs

There are three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter.
The definite and indefinite articles agree with the noun in gender and number in the singular, e.g., en penn "a pen" (masculine), ei kvinne "a woman" (feminine), et hus "a house (neuter). The ending -er is used in all genders in the plural, e.g., penner "pens."
The definite article is suffixed to the noun, e.g., pennen "the pens."

Weak verbs add endings to the root of the verb to form the past tense, e.g., jeg spiste "I ate" from spise "to eat." Strong verbs undergo a vowel change in the root, often with no ending added, e.g., jeg satt "I sat" from sitte "to sit."
The pefect tense is formed with the auxiliary har, e.g., jeg har arbeidet "I have worked."
Verbs do not conjugate according to person or number.
There are three tenses: present, past, and future.
There are three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive (conditional) .
There are two voices: active and passive.

Click here for beginning Norwegian grammar online.

Vocabulary

children

Vocabulary
Most Norwegian words are derived from Old Norse. Norwegian has also borrowed from German (particularly Low German), French, and English. Much of the scientific terminology has Greek and Latin roots. Words are frequently formed by compounding native components, e.g., menneskerettighetene. This often results in very long words.

Norwegian Phrases

Click here to listen to the pronunciation of some common phrases in Norwegian.

Below are the Norwegian numerals 1-10.

Writing

writing

Norwegian Press

Writing system
The oldest records of Norwegian are runic (Futhark) inscriptions dating back to the 9th century. Around 1030, Christianity came to Norway, bringing with it the Latin alphabet. Norwegian manuscripts in the new alphabet began to appear about a century later.

The present-day Norwegian alphabet consists of 29 letters, the first 26 of which are the same as in English plus the three letters æ, ø, å.

The letters c, q, w, x and z are used almost exclusively in borrowings and foreign names.

Take a look at the text of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in and Nynorsk to note the differences between them.

Fjord

Slalom

Norwegian words in English
English has borrowed some words from Norwegian. Below are a few of them.

English	from Norwegian (Old Norwegian)
fjord	fiord
floe	flo "layer, slab,"
husband	husbondi "master of the house," from hus "house" + bondi "householder, dweller, freeholder, peasant"
krill	kril "small fry of fish."
lemming	lemming, "small arctic rodent"
ski	ski, "snowshoe," literally "stick of wood"
slalom	slalam "skiing race," literally"sloping track," from sla "slope" + lam "track"
steak	steik "roast meat,"
window	literally. "wind eye," from Old Norwegian vindauga, from vindr "wind" + auga "eye."

Resources

Click here to find out where Norwegian is taught in the United States.
Click here to find learning materials for studying Norwegian.

Online resources for the study of Norwegian language and culture
Beginning Norwegian Grammar Online
Norwegian Researchers and Teachers Association of North America
Norwegian links
Norskklassen: The Norwegian class on the Net
Languages-on-the-Web: Norwegian
Wikipedia article on Norwegian
Yamada Language Center Guide for Norwegian
BBC Country Profile: Norwegian
UCLA Language Profile for Norwegian
English-Norwegian Online Dictionary