Norwegian (
norsk) is a
North Germanic language spoken primarily in
Norway, where it is the official language. Together with
Swedish and
Danish, Norwegian forms a
continuum of more or less
mutually intelligible local and regional variants
(see Danish language).
These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language and Icelandic language, as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages). 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 (literally "book language") and Nynorsk (literally "new Norwegian"). The Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms "Norwegian Bokmål" and "Norwegian Nynorsk" in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist: Riksmål ("national language"), which is to a large extent the same language as Bokmål, but somewhat closer to the Danish language, is regulated by the Norwegian Academy, which translates it as "Standard Norwegian". Høgnorsk ("High Norwegian") is a more purist form of Nynorsk that rejects most spelling reforms from the 20th century, but is not widely used.
There is no officially sanctioned standard of spoken Norwegian, and most Norwegians speak their own dialect in all circumstances. The sociolect 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.
# Divide County, North Dakota 2.3%
# Griggs County, North Dakota 2.0%
# Nelson County, North Dakota 2.0%
# Norman County, Minnesota 2.0%
# Traill County, North Dakota 2.0%
# Vernon County, Wisconsin 1.8%
# Steele County, North Dakota 1.6%
# Trempealeau County, Wisconsin 1.6%
# Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota 1.5%
# Pennington County, Minnesota 1.0%
Norwegian language by state
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! State !! Norwegian languageRegnbogen 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 Noregi/Norra || Hvat eitur hann?/Hvat heitir hann? || Hetta er eitt ross/ein hestur || Ælabogin hevur nógvar litir/ Ælabogin er marglitur
|-
|
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 Pferd/Ross || Der Regenbogen hat viele Farben
|-
|
Dutch || Ik kom uit Noorwegen || Hoe heet hij? || Dit is een paard (ros) || De regenboog heeft veel kleuren
|-
|
Afrikaans || Ek kom van Noorweë af || 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.
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.
As of June 5, 2005, all feminine nouns can be written as masculine nouns (bokmål only).
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.
In Norwegian, a definite noun has a suffixed article (cf. above). Noteworthy, however, when a definitive noun is preceded by an adjective (or a numeral), a definite article is placed in front of the adjective in addition to the suffixed article of the noun, double definiteness. (In Bokmål, though, the suffixed article may be dropped in these cases, due to its Danish origin.) Example in Nynorsk: huset - det grøne huset (the house - the green house).
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.
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.
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.
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:
Terrasse dør ("Terrace dies") instead of Terrassedør ("Terrace door")
Tunfisk biter ("Tuna bites", verb) instead of Tunfiskbiter ("Tuna bits", noun)
Smult ringer ("Lard is calling", verb) instead of Smultringer ("Doughnuts")
Tyveri sikret ("Theft guaranteed") instead of Tyverisikret ("Theft proof")
Stekt kylling lever ("Fried chicken lives", verb) instead of Stekt kyllinglever ("Fried chicken liver", noun)
Smør brød ("Butter bread", verb) instead of Smørbrød ("Sandwich")
Klipp fisk ("Cut fish", verb) instead of Klippfisk ("Clipfish")
På hytte taket ("On cottage roof") instead of På hyttetaket ("On the cottage roof")
Altfor Norge ("Too much Norway") instead of Alt for Norge ("All for Norway", the royal motto of Norway)
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:
stavekontroll (spellchecker) or stave kontroll (spell checker)
kokebok (cookbook) or koke bok (cook book)
ekte håndlagde vafler (real handmade waffles) or ekte hånd lagde vafler (real hand made waffles)
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
Differences between the Norwegian and Danish languages
Norse
Det Norske Akademi for Sprog og Litteratur
Noregs Mållag
Norsk Ordbok
Riksmålsforbundet
Russenorsk
List of Indo-European languages
Numbers in various languages
Norwegianism
References
Bibliography
Olav T. Beito, Nynorsk grammatikk. Lyd- og ordlære, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1986, ISBN 82-521-2801-7
Jan Terje Faarlund, Svein Lie, Kjell Ivar Vannebo, Norsk referansegrammatikk, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1997, 2002 (3rd edition), ISBN 82-00-22569-0 (Bokmål and Nynorsk)
Rolf Theil Endresen, Hanne Gram Simonsen, Andreas Sveen, Innføring i lingvistikk (2002), ISBN 82-00-45273-5
Arne Torp, Lars S. Vikør (1993), Hovuddrag i norsk språkhistorie (3.utgåve), Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS 2003
External links
Norwegian Phrasebook at Wikitravel
Norwegian-English Dictionary (2)
Apertium Translation of words, text or websites (URL) between Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.
EasyTrans.org Easily translate words between English, Norwegian and Spanish.
Learn Norwegian! - rated list of online Norwegian courses.
Category:Languages of Norway
Category:North Germanic languages
Category:Scandinavia
Category:Stress-timed languages
