What Language Do They Speak In Norway
In simple terms, Norwegian speak Norwegian as their native language. It is the most widely spoken language in Norway- 95% of the population in Norway speaks Norwegian as their first language. Norwegian is also classified as one of their official languages. But thats not the whole story.
Okay, lets focus on Norwegian. The Norwegian language comes from the North Germanic branch from the Germanic languages. It is closely connected to the Swedish language and Danish language. They are all part of the Old Norse linguistic descendants and uses the Latin alphabet system.
However, the Norwegian language has not just one written language, but two. The official written standard for Norwegian is Bokmål and Nynorsk. Both of these written Norwegian languages are taught in school.
The Norwegian language struggle is a real thing, they even have a Norwegian name for it: Språkstriden. Let me try to simplify the whole thing: Danish used to be the standard written language for the Old Norwegian language . It was due to the long history of Danish ruling Norway for 400 years and causing the Danish language to replace the language of the upper-classes and also in official business.
The use of Norwegian spelling in the Danish language causes Riksmål to be born, the written standard for Norwegian that later was renamed Bokmål.
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Other Languages In Norway
National minorities
Today about 20 000 individuals in Norway have the Sámi language as their mother tongue. Sámi is a member of the Finno-Ugric branch of languages, and its roots in Norway may extend as far back as Norwegian. North Sámi is an official language on a par with Norwegian in the some districts of in the two northern counties.
Groups with long-term attachment to Norway are defined as national minorities, that is the Kvens, who speak Kven Jews , the so called Forest finns Rom or Gypsies , and the Romani people . Approximately 4 000 hearing impaired persons utilize Norwegian Sign Language.
Foreign languages
Most Norwegians aged 60 or younger studied English in school. Some of the elderly Norwegians will have problems communicating with foreigners in English, but not so for younger people. Today, English is Norway’s most important foreign language for international use, followed by German and French.
There is a large number of immigrants whose first language is not Norwegian as 10 percent of the Norwegian population are immigrants. Currently more than 120 different mother tongues are represented in Norwegian primary schools. The major immigrant languages besides Swedish and Danish are Urdu, Vietnamese, Somali, Persian and Turkish.
Olaf Husby, October 2010
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Immigrant And Minority Languages
Norway is home to immigrant populations of Swedes, Finns, Russians and Romanis , all of whom speak their mother tongues. Romani, in particular, is a relatively large minority language in Norway, with about 500 speakers of Vlax Romani and 6,000 speakers of Tavringer Romani.
The Norwegian Traveller language, or Rodi, is spoken by the Norwegian Traveller population, a nomadic indigenous minority group . The language is related to Norwegian but has Northern Romani and German Rotwelsch lexical influences.
Kven is a dialect of Finnish spoken by a small population of people in the northeastern part of the country. Its more similar to Tornedalen Finnish than Standard Finnish, but theyre generally mutually intelligible, minus some differences in vocabulary.
As its the most popular foreign language taught in school, nearly 90 percent Norwegians are also fluent in English by the time theyre teenagers. Norway is one of the top five countries in the EF English Proficiency Index.
Norway is also home to sizable populations of Bosnian, Danish, Iranian Persian, Lithuanian, Polish, Somali, Spanish, German, Latvian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese speakers.
Bokml Vs Nynorsk Which One Should You Learn
Its very important to know that today, written Norwegian has two official forms: Bokmål and Nynorsk , each with its own variants.
To understand the difference between Bokmål and Nynorsk, we have to look back in time once again. In 1814, after Norway became independent from Denmark, Norwegians had to make a decision about their language. One was to adapt the Danish spelling and grammar to bring it closer to the upper class Norwegian that was already was based on Danish . And the other was Ivar Aasens proposal, a self-taught linguist that constructed a new language norm that continued the Old Norwegian tradition and was meant to eventually replace Danish. Also known as New Norwegian, this is what we earlier called Nynorsk.
Today, all Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. However, only about 20 percent of them use Nynorsk or New Norwegian as their primary written language. Thus, if you want to learn Norwegian, you should go with Bokmål.
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Immersing Yourself In The Norwegian Language
Norway Land Of Many Dialects
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As well as the two biggest written languages there are today also many important dialects that are used in day to day life.All Norwegians speak a dialect.In Oslo a dialect is spoken that is very similar to Bokmål, but it is note a purely written language like Bokmål.In Norway there is no standard pronunciation, on television either Nynorsk or Bokmål or dialects are used.Although Bokmå and Nynorsk are similar there are differences. |
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Norwegian People Love Skiing
Did you know that Norwegians have won the most medals in the Winter Olympics? And, deservedly so!
One of the trademark sports in the Winter Olympics in skiing, and this is where Norway trumps all other nations. Norwegians have a rich tradition of skiing. In fact, many of them love skiing, not just for purposes of competition, but as a means of having fun.
They were the pioneers of modern skiing. Norwegians have a saying that they are born with skis on their feet. This shows just how deeply skiing is ingrained in their culture.
Children are introduced to skiing at a very young age. Skiing is even part of the curriculum in schools.
Because the country is located near the polar region, there are some parts of the country where people ski even during the summer. If you are a skiing enthusiast, then a visit to Norway would be incomplete without hitting the ski slopes or resorts in Norway.
And, when it comes to finding the best venues to visit in Norway, you certainly need not worry. Platforms like Viator help you plan your itinerary, making sure that you get the best from your tour.
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Differences In The Nordic Languages
Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are originally Germanic languages and therefore have the same basis. Many words are similar, but the pronunciation is different per country. Danish is the most complicated in that respect: the last half of a word is swallowed. One of the first sentences I learned was My name is John. Jeg hedder John. You pronounce Jeg as you, so that certainly does not resemble what you write and hedder is said to be hellllllluu.
The Swedes and Norwegians do pronounce all letters, so that is clearer. Men understand each other fairly well in the border regions. Just think of the TV series The Bridge, where the colleagues from Malmö and Copenhagen understand each other, but each speak their own language. Farther away from the border it becomes more difficult because men have different dialects there.
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What Does Abba Mean In Swedish
In the beginning, ABBA was not known as such. The name ABBA comes from the first letter of each member Agnetha Fltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. In the past, they werent household names. Festfolk is a Swedish word for party people and the name they gave themselves when they first formed.
They Value Social Equality
Norwegians are very egalitarian. From a young age, they are taught that all people are equal and therefore deserve equal rights. This helps them to grow up upholding this value of equality. It applies to all aspects of life including gender, sexual orientation, race, and even at the workplace.
For example, when it comes to gender equality, Norwegians do not discriminate against any women whether at home or in the workplace. Men and women often share roles equally even at home. It is possible to find a woman repainting a wall while the husband is drying dishes.
The Norwegian school curriculum is also responsible for inculcating such values. At school, students are taught that there are no gender-specific tasks.
Boys are taught that they should take part in house chores, while girls are also taught how to perform tasks that are considered manly. Even economically speaking, the difference between high and low-paying jobs is minimal. A CEO for example earns just slightly higher wages than their employees.
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Norwegian Makes Norwegians Unique
Most Norwegians love their language and they love talking about it there is a long-running radio show called Språkteigen that deals with linguistic issues and answers questions from listeners, and there have been several television series dedicated to making light entertainment out of language.
In print and social media examples of wrong or funny use of language abound. Not least of the type: Kvinne overrasket av ulv på vei til jobb. This means Woman surprised when she saw wolf on her way to work, but the construction in Norwegian can read as if she was surprised by the wolf on his way to work. Which would indeed be surprising.
One reason the language is so important to Norwegians is the crucial role it played in the process of nation-building and the construction of an identity. When the Norwegian school authorities tried to impose the spelling standards from the reform in 1938 on school children, parents would use pens and cross out and correct the spelling in the textbooks, and there were even public bonfires of textbooks containing the hated spelling.
The debate about how Norwegian should be written and taught is not called the language debate, but Språkstriden, the language fight. They may hand out the Nobel Peace Price, but amid the cold snow Norwegians can get hot under the collar about really important things, such as the spelling of snow. The offical spelling is snø, but conservative language users prefer the spelling inherited from Danish: sne.
Norwegian People Are Not Religious
Norway is a secular nation. Although about 70 percent of Norwegians identify as members of the church of Norway, only 2 percent of them attend church regularly.
Statistics provided by the University of Agder in Norway show that over a quarter of the population does not hold any religious beliefs. This group does not believe in the existence of any higher power.
If you look at a country like the United States, over 80 percent of the people believe in the existence of God. Interestingly, even some of those Norwegians who do not believe in God still attend church, albeit for ceremonial reasons.
It is worth noting that most of the worlds religions are still represented in the country. These include Christianity, Islam, Jewish, and even Oriental religions. Norwegians also take part in religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas although they are highly secularized.
Some scholars attribute this irreligiosity to the welfare system of Norwegian society. It provides secular solutions to issues that made religion relevant.
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Is Swedish Like Old Norse
The Swedish language is descended from Old Norse, the common language of Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking era. There are more speakers of this language than any other in North Germanic. Finland has a co-official language status for this second language, which is the most widely spoken in the country.
How To Learn Norwegian Fast In Just 10 Minutes A Day
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken by Norwegians in Norway.
Having a little over 5 million speakers worldwide makes Norwegian a language for which courses are generally scarce. Most solutions focus only on high-demand languages leaving hidden gems such as the Scandinavian languages out. So if you are wondering how to learn Norwegian, youve come to the right place.
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Official Language Spoken In Norway
Did you know that there are three official languages spoken in Norway? The majority of the population speaks Norwegian, belonging to the North Germanic language family. Around 95% of the population speaks Norwegian like a native tongue. Norwegian has two different writing systems Bokmal and Nynorsk. The former was introduced in 1885 in 1929, but they are both based on the same Norwegian dialects spoken by settlers during Viking times.
Norwegians Are Some Of The Most Literate People In The World
Worldwide, Scandinavian countries lead in terms of literacy levels. And Norway is no exception. In a study done by the Central Connecticut State University, Norway was ranked second behind Finland, in the list of the worlds most literate nations.
These findings are based on five pillars of literacy. They includehaving a wide variety of newspapers, availability, and accessibility of public libraries, and access to computers. Researchers also consider the educational resources available.
9 out of 10 Norwegians read at least a book in a year. Among women, it is even higher with about 97 percent reading a book a year compared to 89 percent in men. Over 40 percent of the population says they read one book per month translating to at least 10 books in one year.
Very few other countries come close. There is a peculiar tradition during the Easter holiday when many Norwegians read crime thrillers. It is worth noting that books are not taxed here, which is a good thing if you want your citizens to read.
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Should I Learn Bokml Or Nynorsk
Since 90% of the Norwegian population use bokmål, we strongly recommend starting with bokmål. Once you have a solid understanding of bokmål, you might wish to learn some nynorsk in order to understand the differences between the two language forms, although nynorsk and bokmål are very close to each other.Our Norwegian textbook The Mystery of Nils is in bokmål, but in the second part we also discuss nynorsk a bit. The fun thing about this textbook is that you can learn Nowegian with a coherent story instead of boring dialogues. Download a free preview or check out the online course.
Loves And Knows How To Cook
Why do you think Norwegian people look so healthy and radiant? The secret must be in their cuisine. Norwegian food is an absolute delight, where the traditional cuisine consists of fish, meat, and vegetables.
Norway has very many water bodies within and outside its borders. This explains why Norwegian people eat a lot of fish. Their fish is always fresh and of very high quality.
One important fact to note is that it is Norwegian people who introduced salmon sushi to the world. Norwegian food is also more savory compared to other European countries. A typical breakfast for example will include cheese, bread, meat, cheese, and fish.
They have a staple food called lutefisk, which is based on lyesoaked cod. Other foods enjoyed by Norwegians include brown cheese, waffles, and reindeer meat. Such wonderful treats await you, so dont delay your visit any longer.
Irrespective of where you are, you can travel comfortably by air to Norway and its major cities.
And, you can add comfort to your flight, by booking an affordable, first-class airport lounge access via Priority Pass. This ensures that you have somewhere comfortable to relax, away from the hustle and bustle of airport terminals, before or after your flight.
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Is Svalbard A Rich Country
In Svalbard, coal mining, tourism, and research are the main sources of income. A similar amount of revenue was generated by mining in 2015. The Norwegian government has allocated 008 billion kr, the Norwegian Tourism Board has allocated 317 million and the Norwegian Research Council has allocated 142 million. Compared to the mainland, economically active people earned an average of NOK 494,700 in 2006, or 23% more than they did in 2005.
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