Norwegian language

Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. Norwegian is closely related to, and generally mutually intelligible with Swedish and Danish. Together with these two languages as well as Faroese and Icelandic, Norwegian belongs to the North Germanic languages, (also called Scandinavian languages). Native speakers of Norwegian are, for the most part, quite proficient in understanding Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic, in spoken as well as written form. 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, rural versus urban discourse, and Norway's literary history.

As established by law and governmental policy, there are currently two official forms of written Norwegian – Bokmål (literally "book language") and Nynorsk (literally "new Norwegian"). The Norwegian Language Council recommends the terms "Norwegian Bokmål" and "Norwegian Nynorsk" in English, but these are seldom used. The language question in Norway has been subject to much controversy during the past generations. Though not reflective of the political landscape in general, written Norwegian is often described as a spectrum ranging from the conservative to the radical. This is because successive spelling reforms have resulted in an increased number of optional forms in spelling and grammar, allowing for greater possibility of combining elements from both written forms, particularly in the Bokmål variant. The current forms of Bokmål and Nynorsk are considered moderate forms of conservative and radical versions of written Norwegian, respectively.

The unofficial written form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, and the unofficial Høgnorsk more conservative than Nynorsk. Those forms became popular among enthusiastic conservative people due to the reforms in the 1920s and 30s when the two official languages were brought closer together. Although Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, around 86-90% use Bokmål as their daily written language, and 10%-12% use Nynorsk, although many of the spoken dialects resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål, mostly in terms of vocabulary and accent. Broadly speaking, Bokmål and Riksmål are more commonly seen in urban and suburban areas; Nynorsk in rural areas, particularly in Western Norway. The Norwegian broadcasting corporation (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). According to the Norwegian Language Council, "It may be reasonably realistic to assume that about 10-12% use Nynorsk, i.e. somewhat less than half a million people." [1] In spite of concern that Norwegian dialects would eventually give way to a common spoken Norwegian language close to Bokmål, dialects find significant support in local environments, popular opinion, and public policy.

History

This is the approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century. The red area is the distribution of the dialect Old West Norse; the orange area is the spread of the dialect Old East Norse. The pink area is Old Gutnish and the green area is the extent of the other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility

The languages now spoken in Scandinavia developed from the Old Norse language, which did not differ greatly between what are now Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish areas. In fact, Viking traders spread the language across Europe and into Russia, making Old Norse one of the most widespread languages for a time. According to tradition, King Harald Fairhair united Norway in 872. Around this time, a runic alphabet 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 came to Norway, bringing with it the Latin alphabet. 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 in the 9th century, carrying with them the Old Norse language. Over time, Old Norse developed into "Western" and "Eastern" variants. Western Norse covered Iceland and Norway, while Eastern Norse developed in Denmark and Sweden. The languages of Iceland and Norway remained very similar until about the year 1300, when they became what are now known as Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian. In 1397, Norway entered a personal union with Denmark, which came to be the dominating part, and Danish was eventually used as Norway's written language. Danish, a language since medieval times mostly influenced by Low German, came to be the primary language of the Norwegian elite, although adoption was slower among the commoners. The union lasted more than 400 years, until 1814 when Norway became independent of Denmark, but was forced to enter a personal union with Sweden. 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 to the development of an independent Norwegian language. Two major paths were available: modify the elite's Danish, or attempt to undo centuries of foreign rule and work with the commoners' Norwegian. Both approaches were attempted.

From Danish to Norwegian

In the 1840s, many writers began to "Norwegianize" Danish by incorporating words that were descriptive of Norwegian scenery and folk life. Spelling and grammar were also modified. This was adopted by the Norwegian parliament as Riksmål, or "Standard Language" in 1899.

However, 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, or "National Language".

After the personal union with Sweden was dissolved, both languages were developed further. Riksmål was in 1929 officially renamed Bokmål (literally "Book language"), and Landsmål to Nynorsk (literally "New Norwegian") — the names Dano-Norwegian and Norwegian lost in parliament by one single vote, as the Danish label was (and still is) very unpopular among Bokmål users.

Bokmål and Nynorsk were made closer by reforms in 1917, 1938 and 1959. 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 50's, fighting in particular the use of "radical" forms in Bokmål text books in schools. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002. Users of either written language resented the efforts to dilute the distinctness of their written language in general and spelling in particular. Over the years, the standards for Bokmål have increasingly accommodated Riksmål forms. As a result, some people prefer to follow a more traditional way of spelling of Nynorsk, called Høgnorsk.

Sounds

The sound system of Norwegian is fairly similar to both Danish and Swedish, though no official spoken standard exists. The variant generally taught to foreign students is Eastern Norwegian (Bokmål) as it is spoken in and around the capital Oslo.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Eastern Norwegian

	Bilabial/ Labiodental		Dental/ Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Laryngeal
Plosives	p	b	t	d	ʈ	ɖ	(c)		k	g
Nasals	m		n		ɳ				ŋ
Fricatives	f		s		ʃ		ç				h
Liquids			ɾ, l		ɽ, ɭ
Approximants	ʋ, v						j

In Western Norwegian more guttural realizations of the /r/-phoneme are very common. Depending on phonetic context voiceless, [χ], or voiced uvular fricatives .[ʁ], are used. A majority of the dialects, especially in eastern and central Norway, use several retroflex consonants. The most exotic of these is the retroflex flap which is only found in a few languages worldwide.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Norwegian

Orthography	IPA	Description
a	/ɑ/	Open back unrounded
ai	/ɑi/
au	/æʉ/
e (short)	/ɛ/	open mid front unrounded
e (long)	/e/	close-mid front unrounded
e (weak)	/ə/	schwa (mid central unrounded)
ei	/æi/, /ɛi/
i	/i/	close front unrounded
o	/u, o/	close back rounded
oi	/ɔi/
u	/ʉ/	close central rounded
y	/y/	close front rounded
æ	/æ/	near open front unrounded
ø	/ø/	close-mid front rounded
øy	/øy/
å	/ɔ/	open-mid back rounded

There are, of course, many variations in vowel pronunciation in different dialects and idiolects of Norwegian, as in any language. The above vowel chart is meant to be fairly representative of Bokmål.

Tonems

Norwegian is a pitch accent language with two distinct tonemes. They are used to differentiate two-syllable words with otherwise identical pronounciation. For example in the Oslo dialects, the word "bønder" (farmers) is pronounced using tone 1, while "bønner" (beans) uses tone 2. The difference in spelling is used to allow the words to be distinguished in written language. Written Norwegian doesn't indicate which tone should be used. Tone 1 uses a low flat pitch in the first syllable and a higher rising pitch in the second. Tone 2 uses a high, sharply falling pitch in the first syllable and a neutral flat pitch in the second. There are significant variations in pitch accent between dialects. The pitch tones give Norwegian language a "singing" quality which makes it fairly easy to distinguish from other languages with the exception of Swedish.

Written language

The Alphabet

The Norwegian alphabet is as follows:

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 (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

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 through the years, and much work lies ahead.

Both Nynorsk and Bokmål have a great variety of optional forms, particularly Bokmål. 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

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 today comparable to Commonwealth English vs American English.

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

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 85.3% of the pupils in the primary and lower secondary schools in Norway receive education in Bokmål, while about 14.5% receive education in Nynorsk. From the eighth grade onwards pupils are required to learn both. Out of the 433 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 Norwegian publications in 2000 8% were in Nynorsk, and 92% in Bokmål/Riksmål. The large national newspapers (Aftenposten, Dagbladet and VG) are published in Bokmål/Riksmål. Some major regional newspapers (including Bergens Tidende and Stavanger Aftenblad), many political journals, and many local newspapers use both Bokmål and Nynorsk.

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; but there is renewed interest in preserving distinct dialects.

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, and to Danish itself:

• B=Bokmål
• R=Riksmål
• D=Danish
• N=Nynorsk
• H=Høgnorsk
• E=English

B/R/D: Jeg kommer fra Norge
N/H: Eg kjem frå Noreg.
E: I come from Norway.

B/R: Hva heter han?
D: Hvad hedder han?
N/H: Kva heiter han?
E: What is he called?

B/R/D: Dette er en hest.
N/H: Dette er ein hest.
E: This is a horse.

B: Regnbuen har mange farger.
R/D: Regnbuen har mange farver.
N: Regnbogen har mange fargar.
H: Regnbogen hev mange fargar. (Or better: Regnbogen er manglíta).
E: The rainbow has many colours.

Grammar

The number of grammatical genders in Norwegian is somewhat disputed, but the official view is that Norwegian nouns fall into three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The inflection of the nouns depends on the gender.

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

Note that feminine nouns can be inflected like masculine nouns in Bokmål. Riksmål rejects the feminine gender and merges it with the masculine into a common gender (utrum), like in Danish.

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

Vocabulary

Compound words are written together in Norwegian (see Nominal compositum), which can cause words to become very long, for example sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximum likelihood estimator). Another example is the title høyesterettsjustitiarius (originally put together of supreme court and the actual title, justitiarius). However, because of the increasing influence the English language is having on Norwegian, and inadequate computer spell checkers, this is often forgotten, sometimes with humorous results. Instead of writing for example lammekoteletter (lamb chops), people make the mistake of writing lamme koteletter (paralyzed, or lame, chops). The original message can even be reversed, as when røykfritt (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 ("Pieces of tuna", noun)
• Smult ringer ("Lard calls", verb) instead of Smultringer ("Doughnuts")
• Tyveri sikret ("Theft guaranteed") instead of Tyverisikret ("Theft proof")

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 (spell checker) 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.)

See also

• Differences between the Norwegian and Danish languages
• Det Norske Akademi for Sprog og Litteratur
• Noregs Mållag
• Norsk Ordbok
• Riksmålsforbundet
• Russenorsk
• List of common phrases in various languages
• Numbers in various languages

References

• Einar Haugen, editor (1965, 1967, 1974). Norwegian-English Dictionary. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000) The Phonology of Norwegian ISBN 0-19-823765-0

External links

• All free Norwegian dictionaries
• Ethnologue report for Norwegian, bokmål
• Ethnologue report for Norwegian, nynorsk
• Norway: Small country with two written languages - article from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Norwegian - English Dictionary
• Bokmålsordboken and Norsk Riksmålsordbok - Norwegian dictionary
• Bokmålsordboka og Nynorskordboka - Norwegian dictionary
• nynorsk.no - News about Nynorsk (in Norwegian)
• Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar - Legal document in Norwegian listing which counties and municipalities have declared their official written standard to be specifically Bokmål, Nynorsk or undeclared. (Note that six municipalities have declared Northern Sami co-official in addition with Norwegian).