Norwegian (norsk) is a North Germanic The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common language Language is a term most commonly used to refer to so called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of human thought process which creates and uses language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of spoken primarily in Norway After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish Swedish ( svenska ) is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish (see especially "Classification"). Along and Danish Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥ænˀsɡ̊] ) is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Norwegian forms a continuum A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the continuum are no longer mutually intelligible. The of more or less mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as one criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also local and regional variants (see Danish language Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥ænˀsɡ̊] ) is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany).

These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000[citation needed] Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere. It is one of four languages descended from the Old West Norse language spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Icelandic, Norwegian and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually and Icelandic language Icelandic ( íslenska ) is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese, as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common (also called Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is sometimes referred to as the Nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common). Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form, because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them.

As established by law and governmental policy, there are two official forms of written Norwegian – Bokmål Bokmål is the more commonly used of the two Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85-90% of the population in Norway, regardless of dialect, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language (literally "book language") and Nynorsk Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of the two official written languages in Norway, the other being Bokmål. Just above 10% of the Norwegian population use Nynorsk as their primary written language. In Norwegian, Nynorsk also often covers the modern Norwegian dialects, upon which the standard language is based (literally "new Norwegian"). The Norwegian Language Council The Norwegian Language Council is the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. The council has 38 members, and creates lists of acceptable word forms. Some words have two forms, the official form which must be used in government documents and textbooks, and optional forms, which can be used by students in state schools recommends the terms "Norwegian Bokmål" and "Norwegian Nynorsk" in English.

There is no officially sanctioned standard of spoken Norwegian, and most Norwegians speak their own dialect The Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 5 main groups, North Norwegian , Trøndelag Norwegian (trøndersk), Midland Norwegian (innlandsmål), West Norwegian (vestnorsk), and East Norwegian (østnorsk) in all circumstances. The sociolect In linguistics, a sociolect is a social dialect spoken by a particular group, such as working-class or upper-class speech in the UK. Etymologically, sociolect derives from the morphemes “socio-” (social) and “-lect” (language variety) of the urban upper and middle class in East Norway can be regarded as a de facto spoken standard for Bokmål because it adopted many characteristics from Danish when Norway was under Danish rule.[2] This so-called standard østnorsk ("Standard Eastern Norwegian") is the form generally taught to foreign students.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism Nationalism involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. Often, it is the belief that an ethnic group has a right to statehood, or that citizenship in a state should be limited to one ethnic group, or that multinationality in a single state should necessarily comprise, rural versus urban discourse, and Norway's literary history. Historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic Linguistic purism is the definition of one language variety as purer than other varieties, often in reference to a perceived decline from an ideal past or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply to an abstract ideal. The decline may take the form of change of vocabulary, syncretism of grammatical elements, or loanwords opposition to Danish. The now abandoned official policy to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into one common language called Samnorsk through a series of spelling reforms has created a wide spectrum of varieties of both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The unofficial form known as Riksmål Bokmål , is the more commonly used of the two Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85-90% of the population in Norway, regardless of dialect, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language is considered more conservative than Bokmål, and the unofficial Høgnorsk Høgnorsk, meaning "High Norwegian", is a term for conservative varieties of the Norwegian language form Nynorsk. In practice, Høgnorsk is the same as Landsmål, but has other connotations. Professor Torleiv Hannaas is often credited for introducing the term in an article in 1922, "Høgnorsk eller flatnorsk?". He used it more conservative than Nynorsk.

Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A 2005 poll indicates that 86.3% use primarily Bokmål as their daily written language, 5.5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7.5% use primarily Nynorsk.[citation needed] Thus 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål.[3] Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in Western Norway, though not in major urban areas, and also in the upper parts of mountain valleys in the southern and eastern parts of Norway. Examples are Setesdal Setesdal is a valley and a traditional district in Aust-Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes, the western part of Telemark Telemark is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt county (fylke) and several municipalities in Hallingdal Hallingdal is a valley and traditional district in Buskerud county in Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Flå, Nes, Gol, Hemsedal, Ål and Hol. The inhabitants are often called Hallings, Valdres Valdres is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal and Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Oppland. The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer at Lake Mjøsa, extending 230 km toward Romsdal. The large river Gudbrandsdalslågen flows through the valley, starting from Lesjaskogsvatnet and ending in Lake Mjøsa. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago it also had strongholds in many rural parts of Trøndelag (Mid-Norway) and the south part of Northern Norway (Nordland county). Today, not only is nynorsk the official language of 4 of the 19 Norwegian counties (fylker), but also of many municipalities in 5 other counties. The Norwegian broadcasting corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation , which is usually known as the NRK, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest media organisation in Norway. It is a founding member of the European Broadcasting Union (NRK) broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all written publications, Nynorsk in 8% (2000).[citation needed]

Norwegian is one of the working languages of the Nordic Council The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders without passports for the countries' citizens. Under the Nordic Language Convention The Nordic Language Convention is a convention of linguistic rights which came into force on 1 March 1987, under the auspices of the Nordic Council. Under the Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any, citizens of the Nordic countries The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Svalbard and Åland. Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for the Nordic countries, although within the Nordic countries who speak Norwegian have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages. The process is described by both the words interpreting and interpretation or translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source language text with the equivalent target language translation to help a reader understand a foreign (source) language text. Translation dates from the appearance of written literature; translations of parts of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 BCE) were found in Southwest Asian costs.[4][5]

Contents

History

From Old Norse to Scandinavian languages

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century The 10th century is the period from 901 to 1000 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era: Old West Norse dialect Old East Norse dialect Old Gutnish Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialect that it is considered to be a separate branch. Today a modern version, Gutnish, is still spoken on the south-east parts of Gotland and on the island of Fårö dialect Crimean Gothic Crimean Gothic was a Germanic dialect spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century Old English Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon Other Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility

The languages now spoken in Scandinavia developed from the Old Norse language Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300, which did not differ greatly between what are now Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish areas. In fact, Viking The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse (Scandinavian) explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, and settled in wide areas of Europe and the North Atlantic islands from the late eighth to the mid-eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga traders spread the language across Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the and into Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal, making Old Norse one of the most widespread languages for a time. According to tradition, King Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair or Harald Finehair , (c. 850 – c. 933) was the first king (872–930) of Norway united Norway in 872. Around this time, a runic alphabet The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark ; the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the same was used. According to writings found on stone tablets from this period of history, the language showed remarkably little deviation between different regions. Runes had been in limited use since at least the 3rd century. Around 1030, Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity comprises three major branches: Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy (which parted ways with Catholicism in 1054 A.D.) and Protestantism (which came into existence during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th came to Norway, bringing with it the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was borrowed and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome, whose alphabet was then adapted and further modified by the ancient. Norwegian manuscripts in the new alphabet began to appear about a century later. The Norwegian language began to deviate from its neighbors around this time as well.

Viking explorers had begun to settle Iceland b. ^ Iceland, the Faeroes and Greenland were formally Norwegian possessions until 1814 despite 400 years of Danish monarchy beforehand in the 9th century, carrying with them the Old Norse language. Over time, Old Norse developed into "Western" and "Eastern" variants. Western Norse covered Norway and overseas settlements in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands, while Eastern Norse developed in Denmark Each of the lands retained their own thing and statute laws until late medieval time . Although Denmark was a unified kingdom, the custom of rendering homage to the King at the three individual assemblies remained. A remnant is the current division of Denmark into two High Court districts, the Eastern and Western High Court and south-central Sweden The lands of Sweden are three unofficial parts, essentially three collectives of provinces, in Sweden. These "lands" have no administrative function. There is not even a designation, which is commonly agreed upon, for this subdivision level. Most commonly they are called "landsdelar", which just means "parts of the country&. The language of Iceland and Norway was practically the same up until the 1300s, when they started to deviate from each other.

The language phase traditionally dated to 1350–1525 is known as Middle Norwegian and is seen by many as a transitional period from Old Norse Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300 to Modern Norwegian Modern Norwegian is the Norwegian language that emerged after the Middle Norwegian transition period . The transition to Modern Norwegian is usually dated to 1525, or 1536, the year of the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway (1536-1814). The reason for this is that although most languages are in a state of constant change, Norwegian phonology, morphology and syntax changed considerably during this time.[6] The use of grammatical case, and a great portion of the conjugation of verbs was lost and replaced by a more fixed syntax, use of prepositions and a greater use of auxiliary based verb forms. During the late Old Norse period and this period there was also a considerable adoption of Middle Low German vocabulary. Similar development in grammar and phonology happened in Swedish and Danish, keeping the dialect continuum in continental Scandinavia intact, but with greater dialectal variation. This process did not, however, occur in the same way in Faroese and Icelandic. These languages remain conservative to this day, when it comes to grammar and vocabulary, so mutual intelligibility with continental Scandinavia was lost.

Danish and Swedish rule

This article is part of the series on: Norwegian language

Variants: Official: Bokmål | Nynorsk Unofficial: Riksmål | Landsmål/Høgnorsk Norwegian language struggle Norwegian dialects

Use: Alphabet Phonology

Other topics: Norwegian literature Norwegian Sign Language Norwegian Language Council
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In 1397, the Kalmar Union unified Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and from 1536 Norway was subordinated under the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway. Danish became the commonly written language among Norway's literate class. Spoken Danish was gradually adopted by the urban elite, first at formal occasions, and gradually a more relaxed variety was adopted in everyday speech. The everyday speech went through a koinéization process, involving grammatical simplification and Norwegianised pronunciation. When the union ended in 1814 the Dano-Norwegian koiné had become the mother tongue of a substantial part of the Norwegian elite, but the more Danish-sounding solemn variety was still used on formal occasions.

Norway was forced to enter a new personal union with Sweden, shortly after the end of the former one with Denmark. However, Norwegians began to push for true independence by embracing democracy and attempting to enforce the constitutional declaration of being a sovereign state. Part of this nationalist movement was directed towards the development of an independent Norwegian language. Three major paths were available: do nothing (Norwegian written language, i.e. Danish, was already different from Swedish), Norwegianise the Danish language, or build a new national language based on Modern Norwegian dialects. All three approaches were attempted.

Danish to Norwegian

Main article: Norwegian language struggle

From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianised Danish by incorporating words that were descriptive of Norwegian scenery and folk life, and adopting a more Norwegian syntax. Knud Knudsen proposed to change spelling and inflection in accordance with the Dano-Norwegian koiné, known as "cultivated everyday speech." A small adjustment in this direction was implemented in the first official reform of Danish language in Norway in 1862 and more extensively after his death in two official reforms in 1907 and 1917.

Meanwhile, a nationalistic movement strove for the development of a new written Norwegian. Ivar Aasen, a self-taught linguist, began his work to create a new Norwegian language at the age of 22. He traveled around the country, comparing the dialects in different regions, and examined the development of Icelandic, which had largely escaped the influences Norwegian had come under. He called his work, which was published in several books from 1848 to 1873, Landsmål, meaning national language. The name "Landsmål" is sometimes interpreted as "rural language" or "country language," but this was clearly not Aasen's intended meaning.

The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of hot dispute through the 19th century. Its proponents claimed that it was a language common to Norway and Denmark, and no more Danish than Norwegian. The proponents of Landsmål thought that the Danish character of the language should not be concealed. In 1899, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson proposed the neutral name Riksmål, meaning national language like Landsmål, and this was officially adopted along with the 1907 spelling reform. The name "Riksmål" is sometimes interpreted as "state language," but this meaning is secondary at best, compare to Danish rigsmål from where the name was borrowed.

After the personal union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, both languages were developed further and reached what is now considered their classic forms after a reform in 1917. Riksmål was in 1929 officially renamed Bokmål (literally "Book language"), and Landsmål to Nynorsk (literally "New Norwegian"). A proposition to substitute Dano-Norwegian for Bokmål lost in parliament by a single vote. The name Nynorsk, the linguistic term for Modern Norwegian, was chosen for contrast to Danish and emphasis on the historical connection to Old Norwegian. Today this meaning is often lost, and it is commonly mistaken as a "new" Norwegian in contrast to the "real" Norwegian Bokmål.

Bokmål and Nynorsk were made closer by a reform in 1938. This was a result of a state policy to merge Nynorsk and Bokmål into one language, called "Samnorsk" (Common Norwegian). A 1946 poll showed that this policy was supported by 79% of Norwegians at the time. However, opponents of the official policy still managed to create a massive protest movement against Samnorsk in the 1950s, fighting in particular the use of "radical" forms in Bokmål text books in schools. In the reform in 1959, the 1938 reform was partially reversed in Bokmål, but Nynorsk was changed further towards Bokmål. Since then Bokmål has reverted even further toward traditional Riksmål, while Nynorsk still adheres to the 1959 standard. Therefore a small minority of Nynorsk enthusiasts uses a more conservative standard called Høgnorsk. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002.

Phonology

Main article: Norwegian phonology

The sound system of Norwegian is similar to Swedish. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard Østnorsk.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Eastern Norwegian
Labial Dental/ Alveolar Post- alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɳ ŋ
Plosive p b t d ʈ ɖ k ɡ
Fricative f s ʂ ʃ ç h
Approximant ʋ l ɭ j
Flap ɾ ɽ

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Standard Østnorsk
Orthography IPA Description
a /ɑ/ Open back unrounded
ai /ɑɪ̯/
au /æʉ/
e (short) /ɛ/, /æ/ open mid front unrounded
e (long) /e/, /æ/ close-mid front unrounded
e (weak) /ə/ schwa (mid central unrounded)
ei /æɪ/, /ɛɪ/
i (short) /ɪ/ close front unrounded
i (long) /i/ close front unrounded
o /u, o, ɔ/ close back rounded
oi /ɔʏ/
u /ʉ/, /u/ close central rounded (close front extra rounded)
y (short) /ʏ/ close front rounded (close front less rounded)
y (long) /y/ close front rounded (close front less rounded)
æ /æ/, /ɛ/ near open front unrounded
ø /ø/ close-mid front rounded
øy /øʏ/
å /ɔ/ open-mid back rounded

Accent

Norwegian is a pitch accent language with two distinct pitch patterns. They are used to differentiate two-syllable words with otherwise identical pronunciation. For example in many East Norwegian dialects, the word "bønder" (farmers) is pronounced using tone 1, while "bønner" (beans or prayers) uses tone 2, just like in Danish. Though the differences in spelling occasionally allow the words to be distinguished in written language, in most cases the minimal pairs are written alike, since written Norwegian has no explicit accent marks. In most eastern low-tone dialects, accent 1 uses a low flat pitch in the first syllable, while accent 2 uses a high, sharply falling pitch in the first syllable and a low pitch in the beginning of the second syllable. In both accents, these pitch movements are followed by a rise of intonational nature (phrase accent), the size (and presence) of which signals emphasis/focus and which corresponds in function to the normal accent in languages that lack lexical tone, such as English. That rise culminates in the final syllable of an accentual phrase, while the utterance-final fall that is so common in most languages is either very small or absent.

There are significant variations in pitch accent between dialects. Thus, in most of western and northern Norway (the so-called high-pitch dialects) accent 1 is falling, while accent 2 is rising in the first syllable and falling in the second syllable or somewhere around the syllable boundary. The pitch accents (as well as the peculiar phrase accent in the low-tone dialects) give the Norwegian language a "singing" quality which makes it fairly easy to distinguish from other languages. Interestingly, accent 1 generally occurs in words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, and accent 2 in words that were polysyllabic.

Written language

Alphabet

Main article: Norwegian alphabet

The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Ø Å
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ ø å

The letters c, q, w, x and z are only used in loanwords. Some also spell their otherwise Norwegian family names using these letters.

Some letters may be modified by diacritics: é, è, ê, ó, ò, and ô. In Nynorsk, ì and ù and ỳ are occasionally seen as well. The diacritics are not compulsory, but may in a few cases distinguish between different meanings of the word, e.g.: for (for/to), fór (went), fòr (furrow) and fôr (fodder). Loanwords may be spelled with other diacritics, most notably ü, á and à.

Bokmål and Nynorsk

Main articles: Bokmål and Nynorsk

Like some other European countries, Norway has an official "advisory board" — Språkrådet (Norwegian Language Council) — that determines, after approval from the Ministry of Culture, official spelling, grammar, and vocabulary for the Norwegian language. The board's work has been subject to considerable controversy throughout the years.

Both Nynorsk and Bokmål have a great variety of optional forms. The Bokmål that uses the forms that are close to Riksmål is called moderate or conservative, depending on one's viewpoint, while the Bokmål that uses the forms that are close to Nynorsk is called radical. Nynorsk has forms that are close to the original Landsmål and forms that are close to Bokmål.

Riksmål

Main article: Riksmål Map of the official language forms of Norwegian municipalities as of 2007 Areas where Norwegian is spoken by a considerable amount of the population

Opponents of the spelling reforms aimed at bringing Bokmål closer to Nynorsk have retained the name Riksmål and employ spelling and grammar that predate the Samnorsk movement. Riksmål and conservative versions of Bokmål have been the de facto standard written language of Norway for most of the 20th century, being used by large newspapers, encyclopedias, and a significant proportion of the population of the capital Oslo, surrounding areas, and other urban areas, as well as much of the literary tradition. Since the reforms of 1981 and 2003 (effective in 2005), the official Bokmål can be adapted to be almost identical with modern Riksmål. The differences between written Riksmål and Bokmål are comparable to American and British English differences.

Riksmål is regulated by the Norwegian Academy, which determines acceptable spelling, grammar, and vocabulary.

Høgnorsk

Main article: Høgnorsk

There is also an unofficial form of Nynorsk, called Høgnorsk, discarding the post-1917 reforms, and thus close to Ivar Aasen's original Landsmål. It is supported by Ivar Aasen-sambandet, but has found no widespread use.

Current usage

About 86.2% of the pupils in the primary and lower secondary schools in Norway receive education in Bokmål, while about 13.8% receive education in Nynorsk. From the eighth grade onwards pupils are required to learn both. Out of the 431 municipalities in Norway, 161 have declared that they wish to communicate with the central authorities in Bokmål, 116 (representing 12% of the population) in Nynorsk, while 156 are neutral. Of 4,549 state publications in 2000 8% were in Nynorsk, and 92% in Bokmål. The large national newspapers (Aftenposten, Dagbladet and VG) are published in Bokmål or Riksmål. Some major regional newspapers (including Bergens Tidende and Stavanger Aftenblad), many political journals, and many local newspapers use both Bokmål and Nynorsk.

Dialects

Main article: Norwegian dialects

There is general agreement that a wide range of differences makes it difficult to estimate the number of different Norwegian dialects. Variations in grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation cut across geographical boundaries and can create a distinct dialect at the level of farm clusters. Dialects are in some cases so dissimilar as to be unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners. Many linguists note a trend toward regionalization of dialects that diminishes the differences at such local levels; there is, however, a renewed interest in preserving distinct dialects.

Norwegian by country

Norwegian in the United States

U.S. communities with high percentages of people who use the Norwegian language

U.S. cities with high percentages of people who use the Norwegian language are:[7]

  1. Blair, Wisconsin 8.54%
  2. Westby, Wisconsin 7.67%
  3. Northwood, North Dakota 4.41%
  4. Fertile, Minnesota 4.26%
  5. Spring Grove, Minnesota 4.14%
  6. Mayville, North Dakota 3.56%
  7. Strum, Wisconsin 2.86%
  8. Crosby, North Dakota 2.81%
  9. Twin Valley, Minnesota 2.54%
  10. Cooperstown, North Dakota 2.21%

U.S. counties with high percentages of people who use Norwegian language

U.S. counties with high percentages of people who use Norwegian language are:[7]

  1. Divide County, North Dakota 2.3%
  2. Griggs County, North Dakota 2.0%
  3. Nelson County, North Dakota 2.0%
  4. Norman County, Minnesota 2.0%
  5. Traill County, North Dakota 2.0%
  6. Vernon County, Wisconsin 1.8%
  7. Steele County, North Dakota 1.6%
  8. Trempealeau County, Wisconsin 1.6%
  9. Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota 1.5%
  10. Pennington County, Minnesota 1.0%

Norwegian language by state

State Norwegian language[8] Percent
United States 55,311 0.0%
Minnesota 8,060 0.1%
California 5,865 0.0%
Washington 5,460 0.0%
New York 4,200 0.0%
Wisconsin 3,520 0.0%
North Dakota 2,809 0.4%
Florida 2,709 0.0%
Texas 2,209 0.0%
New Jersey 1,829 0.0%
Illinois 1,389 0.0%
Iowa 1,150 0.0%
Colorado 1,110 0.0%
Oregon 1,105 0.0%
Arizona 1,069 0.0%
Utah 1,055 0.0%

Norwegian in Canada

Norwegian language by province

Province Norwegian language[9] Percent
Canada 7,710 0.02%
British Columbia 3,420 0.08%
Alberta 1,360 0.04%
Ontario 1,145 0.00%
Saskatchewan 895 0.09%
Quebec 370 0.00%
Nova Scotia 175 0.01%
Manitoba 160 0.01%
Newfoundland and Labrador 95 0.01%
New Brunswick 80 0.01%
Yukon 10 0.03%
Northwest Territories 0 0.00%
Nunavut 0 0.00%
Prince Edward Island 0 0.00%

Examples

Below are a few sentences giving an indication of the differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk, compared to the conservative (nearer to Danish) form Riksmål, Danish, as well as Old Norse, Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic (the living language grammatically closest to Old Norse) and other modern Germanic languages:

Language Phrase
I come from Norway What is his name? This is a horse The rainbow has many colours
Bokmål Jeg kommer fra Norge Hva heter han? Dette er en hest Regnbuen har mange farger
Riksmål Regnbuen har mange farver
Danish Hvad hedder han?
Nynorsk Eg kjem frå Noreg Kva heiter han? Dette er ein hest Regnbogen har mange fargar/leter Regnbogen er mangleta
Høgnorsk Regnbogen hev mange leter Regnbogen er manglìta
Old Norse Ek kem frá Noregi Hvat heitir hann? Þetta er hross/Þessi er hestr Regnboginn er marglitr
Icelandic Ég kem frá Noregi Hvað heitir hann? Þetta er hross/Þessi er hestur Regnboginn er marglitur
Faroese Eg komi frá Noreg/Norra Hvussu eitur hann? Hetta er eitt ross/ein hestur Ælabogin hevur nógvar litir
Swedish Jag kommer från Norge Vad heter han? Detta är en häst Regnbågen har många färger
German Ich komme aus Norwegen Wie heißt er? Dies ist ein Hengst/Ross/Pferd Der Regenbogen hat viele Farben
Dutch Ik kom uit Noorwegen Hoe heet hij? Dit is een paard De regenboog heeft veel kleuren
Afrikaans Ek kom van Noorweë Hoe heet hy? Dit is 'n perd Die reënboog het baie kleure
West Frisian Ik kom út Noarwegen Hoe hjit er? Dit is in hynder/happe De reinbôge hat mannich kleuren

Morphology

Nouns

Norwegian nouns are inflected or declined in definiteness (indefinite/definite) and number (singular/plural). In some dialects, definite nouns are furthermore declined in case (nominative/dative).

As in most Indo-European languages (English being one of a few exceptions), nouns are classified by gender, which has consequences for the declension of agreeing adjectives and determiners. Norwegian has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, except the Bergen dialect which has only two genders: common and neuter. Riksmål and conservative Bokmål traditionally have two genders like Danish, but more modern language has three genders, especially in its spoken form.

Noun forms båt (boat) in Bokmål
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
en båt båten båter båtene

The declension of regular nouns depends on gender. Some dialects and variants of Nynorsk furthermore have different declension of weak and strong feminines and neuters.

Bokmål
m. en gutt (a boy) gutten (the boy) gutter (boys) guttene (the boys)
f. ei/en dør (a door) døra/døren (the door) dører (doors) dørene (the doors)
n. et hus (a house) huset (the house) hus (houses) husene/husa (the houses)

As of June 5 , 2005, all feminine nouns can be written as masculine nouns (bokmål only).

Nynorsk
m. ein gut (a boy) guten (the boy) gutar (boys) gutane (the boys)
f. ei sol (a sun) sola/soli (the sun) soler (suns) solene (the suns)
ei kyrkje/kyrkja (a church) kyrkja (the church) kyrkjer/kyrkjor (churches) kyrkjene/kyrkjone (the churches)
n. eit hus (a house) huset (the house) hus (houses) husa/husi (the houses)
eit hjarta/hjarte (a heart) hjarta/hjartet (the heart) hjarto/hjarte (hearts) hjarto/hjarta (the hearts)

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives have two inflectional paradigms. The weak inflection is applicable when the argument is definite, the strong inflection is used when the argument is indefinite. In both paradigms the adjective is declined in comparison (positive/comparative/superlative). Strong, positive adjectives are furthermore declined in gender and number in agreement with their argument. In some southwestern dialects, the weak positive is also declined in gender and number, with one form for feminine and plural, and one form for masculine and neuter.

Weak adjective forms grønn (green) in Bokmål
Positive Comparative Superlative
grønne grønnere grønneste
Strong adjective forms (grønn (green) in Bokmål)
Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
grønn grønn grønt grønne grønnere grønnest

Verbs

Norwegian finite verbs are inflected or conjugated in mood: indicative/imperative/subjunctive. The subjunctive mood is constrained to a handful of verbs. The indicative verbs are conjugated in tense, present / past. In Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk, the present tense also has a passive form. In a few dialects, indicative verbs are also conjugated in number. Conjugation in person is lost in Norwegian.

There are four non-finite verb forms: infinitive, passive infinitive, and the two participles perfective/past participle and imperfective/present participle.

The participles are verbal adjectives. The imperfective participle has no further declension, but the perfective participle is declined in gender (not in Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk) and number like strong, positive adjectives. The definite form of the participle is identical to the plural form.

As with other Germanic languages, Norwegian verbs can be either weak or strong.

Verb forms in Nynorsk leva (to live)
Finite Non-finite
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Verbal nouns Verbal adjectives (Participles)
Present Past Infinitive Imperfective Perfective
Active Passive Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural/Def
lever levde leve lev leva levast levande levd levd levt levde
Verb forms in Bokmål leve (to live)
Finite Non-finite
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Verbal nouns Verbal adjectives (Participles)
Present Past Infinitive Imperfective Perfective
Active Passive Active Passive Singular Plural/Def
lever leves levde/ levet leve lev leve leves levende levd levde/ levet

Pronouns

Norwegian personal pronouns are declined in case, nominative / accusative. Some of the dialects that have preserved the dative in nouns, also have a dative case instead of the accusative case in personal pronouns, while others have accusative in pronouns and dative in nouns, effectively giving these dialects three distinct cases.

In the most comprehensive Norwegian grammar, Norsk referansegrammatikk, the categorization of personal pronouns by person, gender, and number is not regarded as inflection. As with nouns, adjectives must agree with the gender and number of pronoun arguments.

Other pronouns have no inflection.

The so called possessive, demonstrative and relative pronouns are no longer regarded to be pronouns.

Pronouns are a closed class.

Examples of pronouns in Bokmål
Nominative Accusative English equivalent
jeg meg I, me
du deg you (singular)
han ham/han he, him
hun henne she, her
den den it (masculine/feminine)
det det it (neuter)
vi oss we, us
dere dere you (plural)
de dem they, them
Examples of pronouns in Nynorsk
Nominative Accusative English equivalent
eg meg I, me
du deg you (singular)
han han/[honom] he, him or it (masculine)
ho ho/henne she, her or it (feminine)
det det it (neuter)
me/vi oss we, us
de dykk you (plural)
dei dei they, them

Bokmål, like English, has two sets of 3rd person pronouns. Han and hun refer to male and female individuals respectively, den and det refer to impersonal or inanimate nouns, of masculine/feminine or neutral gender respectively. In contrast, Nynorsk and most dialects use the same set of pronouns (han (m.), ho (f.) and det (n.)) for both personal and impersonal references. Det also has expletive and cataphoric uses like in the English examples it rains and it was known by everyone (that) he had travelled the world.

Determiners

The closed class of Norwegian determiners are declined in gender and number in agreement with their argument. Not all determiners are inflected.

Determiner forms egen (own) in Bokmål
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
egen egen eget egne
Determiner forms eigen (own) in Nynorsk
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
eigen eiga/eigi eige/eigi eigne

Particle classes

Norwegian has five closed classes without inflection, i.e. lexical categories with grammatical function and a finite number of members that may not be distinguished by morphological criteria. These are interjections, conjunctions, subjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs. The inclusion of adverbs here requires that traditional adverbs that are inflected in comparison be classified as adjectives, as is sometimes done.

Compound words

In Norwegian compound words, the head, i.e. the part determining the compound's class, is the last part. Only the first part has primary stress. For instance, the compound tenketank (think tank) has primary stress on the first syllable and is a noun (some sort of tank).

Compound words are written together in Norwegian, which can cause words to become very long, for example sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximum likelihood estimator) and menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner (human rights organisations). Another example is the title høyesterettsjustitiarius (originally a combination of supreme court and the actual title, justiciar). Note also the translation En midtsommernattsdrøm (A Midsummer Night's Dream).

If they are not written together, each part will naturally be read with primary stress, and the meaning of the compound is lost. This is sometimes forgotten, occasionally with humorous results. Instead of writing, for example, lammekoteletter (lamb chops), people make the mistake of writing lamme koteletter (lame, or paralyzed, chops). The original message can even be reversed, as when røykfritt (no smoking, lit. "smoke free") becomes røyk fritt (smoke freely).

Other examples include:

These misunderstandings occur because most nouns can be interpreted as verbs or other types of words. Similar misunderstandings can be achieved in English too. The following are examples of phrases that both in Norwegian and English mean one thing as a compound word, and something different when regarded as separate words:

Vocabulary

By far the largest part of the modern vocabulary of Norwegian dates back to Old Norse. The largest source of loanwords is Middle Low German, which had a huge influence on Norwegian vocabulary from the late Middle Ages onwards partially even influencing grammatical structures, such as genitive constructions. At present, the main source of new loanwords is English e.g. rapper, e-mail, catering, juice, bag (originally a loan word to English from Old Norse). However, Norwegian is considered to be less influenced by English than, for instance, Swedish, or particularly, Danish.

Some loanwords have their spelling changed to reflect Norwegian pronunciation rules, but in general Norwegianised spellings of these words tend to take a long time to sink in: e.g. sjåfør (from French chauffeur) and revansj (from French revanche) are now the common Norwegian spellings, but juice is more often used than the Norwegianised form jus, catering more often than keitering, service more often than sørvis, etc.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Statistisk Sentralbyrå". http://ssb.no/befolkning/. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  2. ^ Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000). The Phonology of Norwegian. Oxford University Press. pp. 6–11. ISBN 9780198237655. http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198237655.
  3. ^ Venås, Kjell (1998). "Dialekt og normaltalemålet". Apollon 1. ISSN 0803-6926. http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/1998/1/dialekt.
  4. ^ Konvention mellan Sverige, Danmark, Finland, Island och Norge om nordiska medborgares rätt att använda sitt eget språk i annat nordiskt land, Nordic Council website. Retrieved on May 4, 2008.
  5. ^ 20th anniversary of the Nordic Language Convention, Nordic news, February 22, 2007. Retrieved on April 25, 2007.
  6. ^ pp. 49-95 Torp, Arne, Lars S. Vikør (1993)
  7. ^ a b "Norwegian". Census 2000. http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&SRVY_YEAR=2000&geo=&state_id=&county_id=&mode=lang_tops&lang_id=616&zip=&place_id=&cty_id=&region_id=&division_id=&ll=&ea=n&order=&a=n&pc=1. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
  8. ^ U.S Census 2000
  9. ^ Detailed Mother Tongue (148), Single and Multiple Language Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census – 20% Sample Data. 2007. http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?TABID=1&LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=89186&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=.

Bibliography

External links

Bokmål edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nynorsk edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Norwegian
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