The Languages Of Norway
Many languages are used in Norway, and there is more than one flavour of Norwegian. Let’s look at the most common languages of Norway.
This article forms part of our long-running series on how to learn Norwegian.
Learning a language is an important aspect of relocating to any country, but in Norway there are some extra things to consider before diving in.
How Many Languages Exist
There is no definitive consensus as to how many languages exist in the world, mainly because there are varying definitions of what constitutes a language.
For example, scientists can argue between classifications as a language or as a dialect. So, various numbers are given, from 3000 languages to 10,000+. The most-often cited number of languages used in the world today is between 6000 and 7000, however. Many of the worlds current languages are considered at risk for extinction.
Language doesnt necessarily have to be spoken. Non-spoken sign languages are prevalent worldwide, too.
In any case, language is generally used with nonverbal communication like body language, distance, eye contact, facial expressions, posture, blinking, and more .
In Norway, when meeting someone , you wont go wrong with a firm handshake and friendly smile.
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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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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.
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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Do The Different Countries Understand Each Other
Danes and Norwegians have it easy. Written Danish hardly differs from written Norwegian. Both languages are pretty easy to understand for Swedes as soon as you get used to those two weird letters. If you can read one of the three, you will receive two extra languages of reading material for free.
Spoken Norwegian is also quite understandable for a Swede. There are small pronunciation and grammatical differences and in addition there are just a lot of Norwegian accents, some of which are difficult for the Norwegians to understand. Still it usually goes fine and a Norwegian who calls a Swedish company will see no reason to speak English. However, the Danish statement makes communication with our neighboring country much more difficult.
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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.
What Language Is Spoken In Norway
What language is spoken in Norway? sounds like a freebie question asked during the warmup round of your local bars trivia tournament. But while it wouldnt be wrong to say Norwegian if you had to keep your answer short, theres a lot more nuance to the linguistic topography of Norway.
Not only does the Norwegian language have a complex history , but also it coexists with other indigenous tongues and immigrant languages.
In short, Norways official languages include Norwegian with two written standards that are both officially recognized as well as Sami, an indigenous language protected by the constitution.
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Is Norse Language Still Spoken
The Viking Language Series: Learn Old Norse The Norse language is still spoken by Icelanders today in a modern style. Many English words derive from the Old Norse language of the Viking Age, which is the language of Iceland, Faroese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, which are the languages of modern Scandinavian countries.
Nouns And Noun Phrases
English nouns are only inflected for number and possession. New nouns can be formed through derivation or compounding. They are semantically divided into and common nouns. Common nouns are in turn divided into concrete and abstract nouns, and grammatically into and .
Most count nouns are inflected for plural number through the use of the plural –s, but a few nouns have irregular plural forms. Mass nouns can only be pluralised through the use of a count noun classifier, e.g. one loaf of bread, two loaves of bread.
Regular plural formation:
- Singular: man, woman, foot, fish, ox, knife, mouse
- Plural: men, women, feet, fish, oxen, knives, mice
Possession can be expressed either by the possessive –s , or by the preposition of. Historically the -s possessive has been used for animate nouns, whereas the of possessive has been reserved for inanimate nouns. Today this distinction is less clear, and many speakers use –s also with inanimates. Orthographically the possessive -s is separated from a singular noun with an apostrophe. If the noun is plural formed with -s the apostrophe follows the -s.
Possessive constructions:
- With -s: The woman’s husband’s child
- With of: The child of the husband of the woman
Adjectives
Pronouns, case, and person
Both the second and third persons share pronouns between the plural and singular:
| theirs | themselves |
Prepositions
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How Do You Say Hello In Old Norse As Well As Other Common Sayings
When learning any language, the first thing a person will learn to say is some basic phrases, including ones like hello and goodbye.
The informal word for Hello or Hi in Old Norse is Hei. However, there are multiple ways to say Hello in Old Norse, depending on who is being addressed and whether the speaker is speaking formally or informally.
More formal ways of saying Hello include:
- Heill/Sæll: When talking to one man
- Heil/Sæl: When talking to one woman
- Heil/Sæl: When talking to a group of people that includes people of more than one gender
The difference between Heill and Sæll is in what the word implies. Heill means that the speaker wishes the people spoken to good health, while Sæll means the speaker wishes them happiness.
Some other basic phrases include:
- Far vel: Goodbye
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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 that’s not the whole story.
Okay, let’s 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.
Educational Languages Of Norway
Educational languages are learned through official educational institutions and sustained beyond ones home.
English is spoken by 4,348,000 people in Norway . English is taught to children in Norway from primary school, and many Norwegians are fluent in the language.
French is spoken by 344,100 people in Norway .
English and French are written in the Latin script.
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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.
Is Norwegian Similar To German
While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.
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How Do Norwegians Speak English
Norwegians are among the worlds fourth best citizens in terms of their English proficiency, behind only Dutch, Danish, and Swedish citizens, according to a 2016 study. Therefore, English is very widely spoken in the country, and it is also very fluent, much more so than in Southern Europe, for example.
Status Of The Language Form
Written Nynorsk is found in all the same types of places and for the same uses as other written languages. Most of the biggest newspapers in Norway have certain articles written in Nynorsk, like and , but are mainly Bokmål. There are also nationwide newspapers where Nynorsk is the only Norwegian-language form of publication, among them are and . Many local newspapers have also chosen Nynorsk as the only language form of publication, like , , and . Many newspapers are also officially neutral, conforming to either Nynorsk or Bokmål in an article as they see fit, like and . Commercial products produced in the Nynorsk areas of Norway are also often distributed with Nynorsk text, like types of . Many computer programs and apps that serve the whole country often present a choice between Bokmål and Nynorsk, especially those produced by the Norwegian government.
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Why Are Scandinavians So Damn Good At Speaking English
When tourists visit Scandinavia, they expect the locals to talk in their native tongue. However, a bilingual education system means that all the Scandinavians are fluent in English too. The Scandinavians have discovered the art of language learning by teaching a foreign language at an early age in school.
Due to the popularity of English in Scandinavia, plenty of foreign words have made their way into Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. Even the national language of Finland has been influenced by Engish. Although English is spoken as a second language by the natives, it still enjoys a strong presence in this European region.
The language learning strategy of the Scandinavians has paid off because a huge percentage of the population speaks English fluently. English may be a minority language in the region, but it is still pretty popular. It is the American version of English that the Scandinavians learn as their second language.
Even Nordic countries like Finland pay a great deal of attention to English language education. Whenever a foreign vernacular is learned it ends up affecting the spoken language of the land. This is why Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian have a lot of English loan words.
What Language Did Abba Speak
It was always Bjorn & Bennys pleasure to speak English very well. The two girls had trouble speaking English, but they understood it when spoken to. It would be great if ABBA sang in Spanish as well. Buddy & Mary McClusky, RCA Latin Americas executive vice president, translated their songs.
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Fascinating Facts About Norwegian
If youre like most English speakers, the only thing you know about the Norwegian language is words like lutefisk and fjord. Lets change that. Here are 5 fascinating facts about Norwegian.
Norwegian has four and a half million native speakers.
That doesnt sound like a lot, does it? Compared to languages like Chinese or Spanish , the number of people around the world who speak Norwegian is small.
However, Norways bustling economy punches above its weight. So, it’s an attractive place to do business for companies from around the world. Most Norwegians do speak English as a second language. But sometimes there’s just no substitute for talking to people in their native language.
there are two official versions of norwegian: nynorsk and bokmål.
Thats because both languages, along with Swedish, come from Old Norse. From 1397 to 1814, Norway and Denmark were one country. Danish was the language of the elite, the government and the Church.
After the two countries split apart, however, the government instituted a series of language reforms to differentiate Norwegian from Danish. Not everyone agreed with these reforms. Eventually, the country ended up with two official written versions of Norwegian. Bokmål, or “book language” is closer to Danish. Nynorsk, or “New Norwegian,” comes from rural Norwegian dialects that were less influenced by Danish.
norway is serious about protecting local dialects.
norwegian has a “pitch accent.”
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What Language Is Closest To Norwegian
The languages of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are all descended from Old Norse, the Germanic language that is the common ancestor of all North Germanic languages. Bokm*l, the most common standard form of Norwegian, and Nynorsk are also descended from Old Norse. They are therefore closely related and largely intelligible in their relationships.
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Are Danish And Swedish Similar Languages
The languages of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are all descended from Old Norse, the Germanic language that is the common ancestor of all North Germanic languages. Bokm*l, the most common standard form of Norwegian, and Nynorsk are also descended from Old Norse. They are therefore closely related and largely intelligible in their relationships.
Where Is Norwegian Spoken
The vast majority of Norways population speaks Norwegian, meaning the language has over five million speakers in Norway alone. Other communities of Norwegian speakers are dotted around the globe.
As Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are mutually intelligible, all being North Germanic languages descended from Old Norse, Norwegian speakers can be found scattered across Denmark and Sweden.
There are also around 50,000 Norwegian speakers in Spain, while the US is home to around 40,000 speakers.
Interestingly, being able to speak the language in Norway means you can converse not just with those who speak Norwegian but also with Swedish and Danish speakers. That means learning Norwegian allows you to converse with around 20 million people across Scandinavia.
However, its not quite that simple
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The Official Languages Of Norway
Norwegian is the official language of Norway. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. It is closely related to Danish and Swedish. Norwegian is spoken as a first language by nearly 95% of the population of Norway. The Nynorsk and the Bokmål are the two written standards of the Norwegian language.