Norwegian language - Wikipedia

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North Germanic language
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Norwegian
norsk
Pronunciation
[ˈnɔʂːk]
(East, Central and North)
[ˈnɔʁsk]
(West and South)
Native to
Norway
Ethnicity
Norwegians
Native speakers
4.32 million (2012)
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
Northwest Germanic
North Germanic
West Scandinavian
Norwegian
Early forms
Old Norse
Old West Norse
Old Norwegian
Middle Norwegian
Standard forms
written
Bokmål
(official)
• written
Riksmål
(unofficial)
written
Nynorsk
(official)
• written
Høgnorsk
(unofficial)
Writing system
Latin
Norwegian alphabet
Norwegian Braille
Official status
Official language in
Norway
Nordic Council
Regulated by
Language Council of Norway
Bokmål
and
Nynorsk
Norwegian Academy
Riksmål
Ivar Aasen-sambandet
Høgnorsk
Language codes
ISO 639-1
no
ISO 639-2
nor
ISO 639-3
nor
– inclusive code
Individual codes:
nob
Bokmål
nno
Nynorsk
Glottolog
norw1258
Linguasphere
52-AAA-ba
to
-be
52-AAA-cf
to
-cg
Areas where Norwegian is spoken, including
North Dakota
(where 0.4% of the population speaks Norwegian), western
Wisconsin
(<0.1% of the population), and
Minnesota
(0.1% of the population) (Data: U.S. Census 2000).
This article contains
IPA
phonetic symbols.
Without proper
rendering support
, you may see
question marks, boxes, or other symbols
instead of
Unicode
characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see
Help:IPA
Norwegian
endonym
norsk
[ˈnɔʂːk]
norsk språk
[ˈnɔʂːk
sproːk]
) is a
North Germanic
language from the
Indo-European language family
spoken mainly in
Norway
, where it is an official language. Along with
Swedish
and
Danish
, Norwegian forms a
dialect continuum
of more or less
mutually intelligible
local and regional varieties; some
Norwegian
and
Swedish dialects
, in particular, are very close. These
Scandinavian
languages, together with
Faroese
and
Icelandic
as well as some
extinct languages
, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. 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
Today there are two official forms of
written
Norwegian,
Bokmål
(Riksmål) and
Nynorsk
(Landsmål), each with its own variants.
Bokmål
developed from the
Dano-Norwegian
language that replaced
Middle Norwegian
as the elite language after the union of
Denmark–Norway
in the 16th and 17th centuries and then evolved in Norway, while
Nynorsk
was developed based upon a collective of spoken Norwegian dialects. Norwegian is one of the two official languages in Norway, along with
Sámi
, a group of
Finno-Ugric languages
spoken by the Indigenous people of the same name. Norwegian is one of the working languages of the
Nordic Council
. Under the
Nordic Language Convention
, citizens of the
Nordic countries
who speak Norwegian have the opportunity to use it when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for any
interpretation
or
translation
costs.
History
edit
Origins
edit
Main articles:
Proto-Norse
and
Old Norse
See also:
Elder Futhark
Close-up of the "
idiberug/n
" inscription on the
Hole Runestone
dating beween
1 and 250 CE
. Believed to be the oldest writing in Norway and rest of
the Nordics
to date.
The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:
Old West Norse dialect
Old East Norse dialect
Old Gutnish dialect
Old English
Crimean Gothic
Other
Germanic languages
with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility
Like most of the languages in Europe, Norwegian derives from
Proto-Indo-European
. As early Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, they became isolated from each other and new languages developed. In northwest Europe, the
Germanic languages
evolved, further branching off into the
North Germanic languages
, of which Norwegian is one.
Proto-Norse
is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of
Proto-Germanic
during the first centuries AD in what is today Southern Sweden. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language
attested
in the
Elder Futhark
inscriptions, the oldest form of the
runic alphabets
. A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead, while others are magical in content. The oldest are carved on loose objects, while later ones are chiseled in
runestones
They are the oldest written record of any Germanic language.
Proto-Germanic
East Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
Proto-Norse
Old Norse
Old West Norse
Icelandic
Faroese
Norwegian
Old East Norse
Danish
Swedish
Around 800 AD, the script was simplified to the
Younger Futhark
, and inscriptions became more abundant. At the same time, the beginning of the
Viking Age
led to the spread of
Old Norse
to
Iceland
Greenland
, and the
Faroe Islands
. Viking colonies also existed in parts of the
British Isles
, France (
Normandy
), North America, and
Kievan Rus
. In all of these places except Iceland and the Faroes, Old Norse speakers went extinct or were absorbed into the local population.
The Latin alphabet
edit
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Around 1030, Christianity came to
Scandinavia
, bringing with it an influx of
Latin
borrowings and the
Latin alphabet
. These new words were related to
church
practices and ceremonies, although many other loanwords related to general culture also entered the language.
The Scandinavian languages at this time are not considered to be separate languages, although there were minor differences among what are customarily called Old Icelandic,
Old Norwegian
Old Gutnish
, Old Danish, and
Old Swedish
11th–15th century
edit
Main articles:
Old West Norse
Old Norwegian
, and
Middle Norwegian
See also:
Younger Futhark
and
Medieval runes
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Low German influence
edit
The economic and political dominance of the
Hanseatic League
between 1250 and 1450 in the main Scandinavian cities brought large
Middle Low German
–speaking populations to Norway. The influence of their language on Scandinavian is comparable with that of French on English after the
Norman conquest
Decline of written Norwegian
edit
In the late Middle Ages, dialects began to develop in Scandinavia because the population was rural and little travel occurred. When the
Reformation
came from Germany,
Martin Luther
's
High German
translation of the Bible was quickly translated into Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. Norway entered a union with Denmark in 1397 and Danish, over time, replaced
Middle Norwegian
as the language of the elite, the church, literature, and the law. When the union with Denmark ended in 1814, the
Dano-Norwegian
koiné
had become the mother tongue of around 1% of the population.
Danish to Norwegian standardisation
edit
Main article:
Norwegian language conflict
From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianised form of written Danish.
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 the 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 botanist and self-taught linguist, began his work to create a new Norwegian language at the age of 22. He traveled around the country collecting words and examples of grammar from the dialects and comparing the dialects among the different regions. He examined the development of
Icelandic
, which had largely escaped the influences under which Norwegian had come. 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 throughout 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 Danish-Norwegian (
dansk-norsk
) for
Bokmål
lost in parliament by a single vote.
The name
Nynorsk
, the linguistic term for
modern Norwegian
, was chosen to contrast with Danish and emphasise 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 a single language, to be called
Samnorsk
. 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 use a more conservative standard called
Høgnorsk
. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002.
Phonology
edit
Main article:
Norwegian phonology
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While the sound systems of Norwegian and Swedish are similar, considerable variation exists among the dialects.
Consonants
edit
Consonant phonemes of Urban East Norwegian
Bilabial
Labiodental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
Retroflex
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Approximant
Flap
The retroflex consonants only appear in East Norwegian dialects as a result of
sandhi
, combining
with
, and
The realization of the rhotic
depends on the dialect. In Eastern, Central, and Northern Norwegian dialects, it is a flap
, whereas in Western and Southern Norway, and for some speakers also in Eastern Norway, it is uvular
or
. And in the dialects of North-Western Norway, it is realized as
, much like the trilled
⟨rr⟩
of Spanish.
Vowels
edit
Vowel phonemes of Urban East Norwegian
Orthography
IPA
Description
Examples
(ː)/
open back unrounded
back
ai
/ɑɪ̯/
ai
shark
au, eu
/æʉ̯/
au
g,
Eu
ropa
hill, Europe
e (short)
open mid front unrounded
tt, f
rsk
seen, fresh
e (long)
eː
æː
close mid front unrounded
kn
knee, there
e (unstressed)
mid central unrounded
jent
girl
ei
/æɪ̯/
/ɛɪ̯/
st
ei
stone
i (short)
close front unrounded
tr
lle
to trundle
i (long)
iː
close front unrounded
corpse
o (short)
close back rounded
st
kk
cane, room
o (long)
uː
oː
close back rounded
mash, law
oi
/ɔʏ̯/
oi
to shout ahoy
(ː)/
close central rounded (close front
endolabial
le
to howl
y (short)
close front rounded (close front
exolabial
tte
hut, cabin
y (long)
yː
close front rounded (close front exolabial)
new
(short)
near open front unrounded, open mid front unrounded
lt
, æ
tt
bad, kin
æ (long)
æː
eː
near open front unrounded, close mid front unrounded
fj
r, v
te
feather, to wet
(short)
open mid front rounded
sne
to loosen
ø (long)
øː
close mid front rounded
sm
re
to lubricate
øy
/œʏ̯/
øy
fun
(short)
open-mid back rounded
sl
tt
a type of folk dance
å (long)
oː
close-mid back rounded
boat
Accent
edit
Norwegian is a
pitch-accent language
with two distinct pitch patterns, like Swedish. 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 the simpler tone 1, while
bønner
('beans' or 'prayers') uses the more complex tone 2. Though spelling differences occasionally differentiate written words, 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 or focus, and 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 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 that makes it easy to distinguish from other languages. Accent 1 generally occurs in words that were monosyllabic in
Old Norse
, and accent 2 in words that were polysyllabic.
Written language
edit
Norwegian keyboard with keys for Æ, Ø, and Å
Main article:
Norwegian orthography
Alphabet
edit
Main article:
Dano-Norwegian alphabet
The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters.
The letters
and
are only used in
loanwords
. As loanwords are assimilated into Norwegian, their spelling might change to reflect Norwegian pronunciation and the principles of Norwegian orthography, e.g.
zebra
in Norwegian is written
sebra
. Due to historical reasons, some otherwise Norwegian family names are also written using these letters.
Some letters may be modified by
diacritics
, and
10
11
In Nynorsk,
and
and
are occasionally seen as well.
citation needed
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').
11
Loanwords may be spelled with other diacritics, most notably
ï, ü
11
and
citation needed
Bokmål and Nynorsk
edit
Main articles:
Bokmål
Nynorsk
, and
Norwegian language conflict
Map of the official language forms of Norwegian municipalities: red is
Bokmål
, blue is
Nynorsk
, and gray depicts neutral areas.
The two legally recognized forms of
written
Norwegian are
Bokmål
(literally 'book tongue') and
Nynorsk
('new Norwegian'), which are regulated by the
Language Council of Norway
Språkrådet
).
12
Two other written forms without official status also exist. One, called
Riksmål
('national language'), is today to a large extent the same language as Bokmål though somewhat closer to the Danish language. It is regulated by the unofficial
Norwegian Academy
, which translates the name as 'Standard Norwegian'. The other is
Høgnorsk
('High Norwegian'), a more
purist
form of Nynorsk, which maintains the language in an original form as given by
Ivar Aasen
and rejects most of the reforms from the 20th century; this form has limited use.
Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, but not for how to speak the language. No standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most
Norwegians speak their own dialects
in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in many other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect, whether it coincides with the written norms or not, is accepted as correct
spoken
Norwegian. However, in areas where
East Norwegian dialects
are used, a tendency exists to accept a de facto spoken standard for this particular regional dialect,
Urban East Norwegian
or Standard East Norwegian (Norwegian:
Standard østnorsk
), in which the vocabulary coincides with Bokmål.
13
14
Outside
Eastern Norway
, this spoken variation is not used.
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. Historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic 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
is considered more
conservative
than Bokmål and is far closer to Danish while the unofficial
Høgnorsk
is more conservative than Nynorsk and is far closer to
Faroese
Icelandic
and
Old Norse
Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. Each student gets assigned a native form based on which school they go to, whence the other form (known as
Sidemål
) will be a mandatory school subject from elementary school through high school.
15
For instance, a Norwegian whose main language form is Bokmål will study Nynorsk as a mandatory subject throughout both elementary and high school. 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
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
, the western part of
Telemark
county (
fylke
) and several municipalities in
Hallingdal
Valdres
, and
Gudbrandsdalen
. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago,
as of?
it also had strongholds in many rural parts of
Trøndelag
(mid-Norway) and the southern part of northern Norway (
Nordland
county). Today, Nynorsk is the official language of not only four of the nineteen Norwegian counties but also various municipalities in five other counties.
NRK
, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, 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, and Nynorsk in 8% (2000).
citation needed
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
edit
Main article:
Riksmål
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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
edit
Main article:
Høgnorsk
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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
edit
In 2010, 86.5% of the pupils in the primary and lower secondary schools in Norway receive education in Bokmål, while 13.0% 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.
A newer trend is to write in dialect for informal use. When writing an SMS, Facebook update, or fridge note, many people, especially young ones, write approximations of the way they talk rather than using Bokmål or Nynorsk.
16
17
Dialects
edit
Main article:
Norwegian dialects
The map shows the division of the Norwegian dialects within the main groups.
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;
18
there is, however, a renewed interest in preserving dialects.
Grammar
edit
Nouns
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Nouns
Norwegian
nouns
are
inflected
for
number
(singular/plural) and for
definiteness
(indefinite/definite). In a few dialects, definite nouns are also inflected for the
dative case
Norwegian nouns belong to three
noun classes
(genders): masculine, feminine and neuter. All feminine nouns can optionally be inflected using masculine noun class morphology in Bokmål due to its Danish heritage.
19
In comparison, the use of all three genders (including the feminine) is mandatory in Nynorsk.
20
All Norwegian dialects have traditionally retained all the three grammatical genders from
Old Norse
to some extent.
21
The only exceptions are the
dialect of Bergen
and a few upper class sociolects at
the west end of Oslo
that have completely lost the feminine gender.
21
22
According to
Marit Westergaard
, approximately 80% of nouns in Norwegian are masculine.
23
Examples, nouns in Bokmål
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Indefinite
Definite
Masculine
en båt
båten
båter
båtene
a boat
the boat
boats
the boats
Feminine
ei/en vogn
vogna/vognen
vogner
vognene
a wagon
the wagon
wagons
the wagons
Neuter
et hus
huset
hus
husa/husene
a house
the house
houses
the houses
Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages use a
suffix
to indicate
definiteness
of a noun, unlike English which has a separate article,
the
, to indicate the same.
In general, almost all nouns in Bokmål follow these patterns
24
(like the words in the examples above):
Nouns in Bokmål
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Indefinite
Definite
Masculine
en
-en
-er
-ene
Feminine
ei/en
-a/-en
Neuter
et
-et
-/-er
-a/-ene
In contrast, almost all nouns in Nynorsk follow these patterns
20
(the noun gender system is more pronounced than in Bokmål):
Nouns in Nynorsk
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Indefinite
Definite
Masculine
ein
-en
-ar
-ane
Feminine
ei
-a
-er
-ene
Neuter
eit
-et
-a
Examples, nouns in Nynorsk
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Indefinite
Definite
Masculine
ein båt
båten
båtar
båtane
a boat
the boat
boats
the boats
Feminine
ei vogn
vogna
vogner
vognene
a wagon
the wagon
wagons
the wagons
Neuter
eit hus
huset
hus
husa
a house
the house
houses
the houses
There is in general no way to infer what grammatical gender a specific noun has, but there are some patterns of nouns where the gender can be inferred. For instance, all nouns ending in -
nad
will be masculine in both Bokmål and Nynorsk (for instance the noun
jobbsøknad
, which means 'job application'). Most nouns ending in -
ing
will be feminine, like the noun
forventning
('expectation').
There are some common irregular nouns, many of which are irregular in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, like the following:
Irregular noun, fot (foot)
25
Singular
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Indefinite
Definite
Bokmål
en fot
foten
føtter
føttene
Nynorsk
ein fot
foten
føter
føtene
a foot
the foot
feet
the feet
In Nynorsk, even though the irregular word
fot
is masculine, it is inflected like a feminine word in the plural. Another word with the same irregular inflection is
son – søner
('son – sons').
In Nynorsk, nouns ending in -
ing
typically have masculine plural inflections, like the word
dronning
in the following table. But they are treated as feminine nouns in every other way.
20
Nynorsk, some irregular nouns
Gender
Nouns ending with -ing
Feminine
ei dronning
dronninga
dronningar
dronningane
queen
Plurals with
umlaut
(these irregularities also exist in Bokmål)
Feminine
ei bok
boka
ker
kene
book
ei hand
handa
nder
ndene
hand
ei stong
stonga
st
nger
st
ngene
rod
ei tå
tåa
rne
toe
Plurals with no ending (these irregularities also exist in Bokmål)
Masculine
ein ting
tingen
ting
tinga
thing
Genitive of nouns
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In general, the
genitive case
has died out in modern Norwegian and there are only some remnants of it in certain expressions:
til fjells
('to the mountains'),
til sjøs
('to the sea'). To show ownership, there is an
enclitic
similar to English -
Sondres flotte bil
('Sondre's nice car',
Sondre
being a personal name). There are also reflexive possessive pronouns,
sin
si
sitt
sine
Det er Sondre sitt
('It is Sondre's'). In both Bokmål and modern Nynorsk, there is often a mix of both of these to mark possession, though it is more common in Nynorsk to use the reflexive pronouns; in Nynorsk use of the reflexive possessive pronouns is generally encouraged to avoid mixing the enclitic -
with the historical grammatical case remnants of the language. The reflexive pronouns agree in gender and number with the noun.
The enclitic -
in Norwegian evolved as a shorthand expression for the possessive pronouns
sin
si
sitt
and
sine
citation needed
Examples
Norwegian (with pronoun)
Norwegian (with enclitic 's)
Jenta sin bil
Jentas bil
The girl's car
Mannen si kone
Mannens kone
The man's wife
Gutten sitt leketøy
Guttens leketøy
The boy's toy
Kona sine barn
Konas barn
The wife's children
Det er statsministeren sitt
Det er statsministerens
It is the prime minister's
Adjectives
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Adjectives
Norwegian
adjectives
, like those of Swedish and Danish, inflect for
definiteness
gender
number
and for
comparison
(affirmative/comparative/superlative). Inflection for definiteness follows two paradigms, called "weak" and "strong", a feature shared among the
Germanic languages
The following table summarizes the inflection of adjectives in Norwegian. The indefinite affirmative inflection can vary between adjectives, but in general the paradigm illustrated below is the most common.
26
Inflection patterns for adjectives in Norwegian
Affirmative
Comparative
Superlative
Indefinite
Definite
Common
Neuter
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Bokmål
-t
-e
-ere
-est
-este
Nynorsk
-are
-ast
-aste
Predicate adjectives
follow only the indefinite inflection table. Unlike
attributive adjectives
, they are not inflected for definiteness.
Adjective forms, examples:
grønn
grøn
('green'),
pen
('pretty'),
stjålet
stolen
('stolen')
Affirmative
Comparative
Superlative
Indefinite
Definite
Common
Neuter
Plural
Indefinite
Definite
Bokmål
grønn
grønt
grønne
grønnere
grønnest
grønneste
Nynorsk
grøn
grøne
grønare
grønast
grønaste
green
greener
greenest
Bokmål
pen
pent
pene
penere
penest
peneste
Nynorsk
penare
penast
penaste
pretty
prettier
prettiest
Bokmål
stjålet/stjålen
stjålet
stjålne
Nynorsk
stolen
stole
stolne
stolen
In most dialects, some verb participles used as adjectives have a separate form in both definite and plural uses,
27
and sometimes also in the masculine-feminine singular. In some Southwestern dialects, the definite adjective is also declined in gender and number with one form for feminine and plural, and one form for masculine and neuter.
Attributive adjectives
edit
Definite inflection
edit
In Norwegian, a definite noun has a suffixed definite article (cf. above) compared to English which in general uses the separate word
the
to indicate the same. However, when a definite noun is preceded by an adjective, the adjective also gets a definite inflection, shown in the inflection table above. There is also another definite marker,
den
, that has to agree in gender with the noun when the definite noun is accompanied by an adjective.
28
It comes before the adjective and has the following forms
Determinative
den
(Bokmål)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural
Den
Den
Det
De
Examples of definite affirmative inflection of adjectives (Bokmål):
Den
stjålne
bilen
('The
stolen
car')
Den
pene
jenta
('The
pretty
girl')
Det
grønne
eplet
('The
green
apple')
De
stjålne
bilene
('The
stolen
cars')
If the adjective is dropped completely, the meaning of the preceding article before the noun changes, as shown in this example.
Examples (Bokmål):
Den bilen
('That car')
Den jenta
('That girl')
Det eplet
('That apple')
De bilene
('Those cars')
Examples of definite comparative and superlative inflection of adjectives (Bokmål):
Det
grønnere
eplet
('The
greener
apple')
Det
grønneste
eplet
('The
greenest
apple')
Definiteness is also signaled by using possessive pronouns or any uses of a noun in its genitive form in either Nynorsk or Bokmål:
mitt grønne hus
('my green house'),
min grønne bil
('my green car'),
mitt tilbaketrukne tannkjøtt
('my receding gums'),
presidentens gamle hus
('the president's old house').
29
Indefinite inflection
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Examples (Bokmål):
En
grønn
bil
('A
green
car')
Ei
pen
jente
('A
pretty
girl')
Et
grønt
eple
('A
green
apple')
Flere
grønne
biler
('Many
green
cars')
Examples of comparative and superlative inflections in Bokmål:
en grønnere bil
('a greener car'),
grønnest bil
('greenest car').
Predicative adjectives
edit
There is also predicative agreement of adjectives in all dialects of Norwegian and in the written languages, unlike related languages like German and Dutch.
30
This feature of predicative agreement is shared among the Scandinavian languages. Predicative adjectives do not inflect for definiteness unlike the attributive adjectives.
This means that nouns will have to agree with the adjective when there is a
copula verb
involved, like in Bokmål:
være
('to be'),
bli
('become'),
ser ut
('looks like'),
kjennes
('feels like') etc.
Adjective agreement, examples
Norwegian (bokmål)
Masculine
Bilen var grønn
The car was green
Feminine
Døra er grønn
The door is green
Neuter
Flagget er grønt
The flag is green
Plural
Blåbærene blir store
The blueberries will be big
Verbs
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Verb conjugation
This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding missing information
June 2019
Norwegian
verbs
are not
conjugated
for
person
or
number
, unlike
and most
European languages
, though a few
Norwegian dialects
do conjugate for number. Norwegian verbs are conjugated according to mainly three
grammatical moods
indicative
imperative
and
subjunctive
, though the subjunctive mood has largely fallen out of use and is mainly found in a few common frozen expressions.
31
The imperative is formed by removing the last vowel of the infinitive verb form, just like in the other Scandinavian languages.
Indicative verbs are conjugated for
tense
present
past
, and
future
. The present and past tense also have a
passive
form for the infinitive.
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 is not declined, whereas the perfect participle is declined for
gender
(though not in Bokmål) and
number
like strong, affirmative adjectives. The
definite
form of the participle is identical to the plural form.
As with other Germanic languages, Norwegian verbs can be divided into two conjugation classes;
weak
verbs and
strong
verbs.
Verb forms in Nynorsk
leva
('to live') and
finna
('to find')
Finite
Non-finite
Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative
Verbal nouns
Verbal adjectives
Participles
Present
Past
Infinitive
Imperfective
Perfective
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural/Def
Active
lever
levde
leve
lev
leva
levande
levd
levt
levde
finn
fann
finn
finna
(har)
funne
funnen
funne
Passive
levest
levdest
levast
finst
fanst
finnast
(har) funnest
Verb forms in Bokmål
å leve
('to live') and
å finne
('to find')
Finite
Non-finite
Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative
Verbal nouns
Verbal adjectives
Participles
Present
Past
Infinitive
Imperfective
Perfective
Singular
Plural/Def
Active
lever
levde/levet
leve
lev
leve
levende
levd
levde/levet
finner
fant
finn
finne
(har) funnet
funnet
funne
Passive
leves
levdes
leves
fins/finnes
fantes
finnes
(har funnes)
Ergative verbs
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Ergative verbs
There are
ergative verbs
in both Bokmål and Nynorsk,
32
where there are two different conjugation patterns depending on if the verb takes an object or not. In Bokmål, there are only two different conjugations for the
preterite tense
for the strong verbs, while Nynorsk has different conjugations for all tenses, like Swedish and a majority of Norwegian dialects. Some weak verbs are also ergative and are differentiated for all tenses in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, like
ligge/legge
, both of which meaning 'to lie down', but
ligge
does not take an object while
legge
requires an object.
Legge
corresponds to the English verb 'lay', while
ligge
corresponds to the English verb 'lie'. There are, however, many verbs that do not have a direct translation to English verbs.
Ergative verb
knekke
('crack')
Norwegian Bokmål
Nøtta
knakk
The nut cracked
Jeg
knekte
nøtta
I cracked the nut
Jeg
ligger
I'm lying down
Jeg
legger
det ned
I'll lay it down
Pronouns
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Pronouns
Norwegian personal
pronouns
are declined according to
case
nominative
and
accusative
. Like English, pronouns in Bokmål and Nynorsk are the only class that has case declension. 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. Pronouns are a
closed class
in Norwegian.
Since December 2017, the gender-neutral pronoun
hen
is present in the Norwegian Academy's dictionary (
NAOB
).
33
In June 2022, the Language Council of Norway (
Språkrådet
34
35
started including
hen
in both Bokmål and Nynorsk Norwegian standards.
Pronouns in Bokmål
Subject form
Object form
Possessive
Singular
Plural
Male
Female
Neuter
Singular
1st person
jeg
meg
min
mi
mitt
mine
2nd person
du
deg
din
di
ditt
dine
3rd person
Male,
animate
han
ham/han
hans
Female, animate
hun
henne
hennes
Neuter, animate
hen
hen
hens
Male/female, inanimate
den
dens
Neuter, inanimate
det
dets
Reflexive
seg
sin
si
sitt
sine
Plural
1st person
vi
oss
vår
vårt
våre
2nd person
dere
deres
3rd person
Non-reflexive
de
dem
deres
Reflexive
seg
sin
si
sitt
sine
Pronouns in Nynorsk
Subject form
Object form
Possessive
Singular
Plural
Male
Female
Neuter
Singular
1st person
eg
meg
min
mi
mitt
mine
2nd person
du
deg
din
di
ditt
dine
3rd person
Male
han
han
hans
Female
ho
ho
hennar
Neuter, animate
hen
hen
hens
Neuter, inanimate
det
det
dess
Reflexive
seg
sin
si
sitt
sine
Plural
1st person
vi/me
oss
vår
vårt
våre
2nd person
de/dokker
dykk/dokker
dykkar/dokkar
3rd person
Non-reflexive
dei
deira
Reflexive
seg
sin
si
sitt
sine
The words for 'mine', 'yours' etc. are dependent on the gender of the noun described. Like adjectives, they have to agree in gender with the noun.
Bokmål has two sets of third-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
('he'),
ho
('she') and
det
('it') for both personal and impersonal references, like in
German
Icelandic
and
Old Norse
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
Examples in Nynorsk and Bokmål of the use of the pronoun
it
Nynorsk
Bokmål
Kor er boka mi?
Ho
er her
Hvor er boka mi?
Den
er her
Where is my book?
It
is here
Kor er bilen min?
Han
er her
Hvor er bilen min?
Den
er her
Where is my car?
It
is here
Kor er brevet mitt?
Det
er her
Hvor er brevet mitt?
Det
er her
Where is my letter?
It
is here
Ordering of possessive pronouns
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The ordering of possessive pronouns is somewhat freer than in Swedish or Danish. When there is no adjective, the most common word order is the one used in the examples in the table above, where the possessive comes after the noun, while the noun is in its definite form;
boka mi
('my book'). If one wishes to emphasize the owner of the noun, the possessive pronoun will usually be placed first. In Bokmål, however, due to its Danish origins, one could choose to always write the possessive first:
min bil
('my car'), but this may sound very formal. Some dialects that have been very influenced by Danish also do this; some speakers in
Bærum
and the
west of Oslo
may always use this word order. When there is an adjective describing the noun, the possessive pronoun will always come first:
min egen bil
('my own car').
Norwegian (Bokmål/Nynorsk)
Det er
mi
bok!
It is
my
book! (owner emphasized)
Kona mi er vakker
My wife is beautiful
Determiners
edit
See also:
Nynorsk § Determiners
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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/eigen
egen/eiga
eget/eige
egne/eigne
Determiner forms
eigen
(own) in Nynorsk
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural
eigen
eiga
eige
eigne
Numerals
edit
Cardinal and ordinal number words in Bokmål and Nynorsk
Cardinal numeral
Ordinal numeral
Bokmål
Nynorsk
Bokmål
Nynorsk
null
nulte
én
m.
éi
f.
ett
n.
éin
m.
éi
f.
eitt
n.
første
første
fyrste
to
annen
m.
def.
anna
f.
annet
n.
andre
pl.
andre
(all genres/def./pl.)
36
annan
m.
anna
f.
n.
andre
def.
pl.
tre
tredje
fire
fjerde
fem
femte
seks
sjette
sju
syv
sju
sjuende
syvende
sjuande
åtte
åttende
åttande
ni
niende
niande
10
ti
tiende
tiande
11
elleve
ellevte
12
tolv
tolvte
13
tretten
trettende
trettande
14
fjorten
fjortende
fjortande
15
femten
femtende
femtande
16
seksten
sekstende
sekstande
17
sytten
syttende
syttande
18
atten
attende
attande
19
nitten
nittende
nittande
20
tjue
tjuende
tjuande
21
tjueen
tjueein
tjueførste
tjueførste
tjuefyrste
30
tretti
trettiende
trettiande
40
førti
førtiende
førtiande
50
femti
femtiende
femtiande
60
seksti
sekstiende
sekstiande
70
sytti
syttiende
syttiande
80
åtti
åttiende
åttiande
90
nitti
nittiende
nittiande
100
(ett) hundre
(eitt) hundre
(ett) hundrede
(eitt) hundrede
1000
(ett) tusen
(eitt) tusen
(ett) tusende
(eitt) tusende
Particle classes
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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.
Adverbs
edit
Adverbs
can be formed from
adjectives
in Norwegian. English usually creates adverbs from adjectives by the suffix
-ly
, like the adverb
beautifully
from the adjective
beautiful.
By comparison,
Scandinavian languages
usually form adverbs from adjectives by the
grammatical neuter
singular form of the adjective. This is in general true for both Bokmål and Nynorsk.
Example (
Bokmål
):
Han er
grusom
('He is
terrible
')
Det er
grusomt
('It is
terrible
')
Han er
grusomt
treig
('He is
terribly
slow')
In the third sentence,
grusomt
is an adverb. In the first and second sentence
grusomt
and
grusom
are adjectives and must agree in grammatical gender with the noun.
Another example is the adjective
vakker
('beautiful') which exists in both Nynorsk and Bokmål and has the neuter singular form
vakkert
Example (
Nynorsk
):
Ho er
vakker
('She is
beautiful
')
Det er
vakkert
('It is
beautiful
')
Ho syng
vakkert
('She sings
beautifully
')
Compound words
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In Norwegian
compound words
, the
head
, i.e. the part determining the compound's class, is the last part. If the compound word is constructed from many different nouns, the last noun in the compound noun will determine the gender of the compound noun. Only the first part has primary stress. For instance, the compound
tenketank
('think tank') has primary stress on the first syllable and is a masculine noun since the noun
tank
is masculine.
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 organizations'). Other examples are the title
høyesterettsjustitiarius
('Chief Justice of the Supreme Court', originally a combination of
supreme court
and the actual title,
justiciar
) and the translation
En midtsommernattsdrøm
for
A Midsummer Night's Dream
If they are not written together, each part is naturally read with primary stress, and the meaning of the compound is lost. Examples of this in English are the difference between a green house and a greenhouse or a black board and a blackboard.
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
(lit. 'smoke-free', meaning no smoking) 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 calls', 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 the roof') instead of
På hyttetaket
('On the cottage roof')
Altfor Norge
('Too Norway') instead of
Alt for Norge
('Everything 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')
Syntax
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Word order
edit
Norwegian syntax is predominantly
SVO
. The subject occupies the sentence-initial position, followed by the verb and then the object. Like many other Germanic languages, it follows the
V2 rule
, which means that the finite verb is invariably the second element in a sentence. For example:
Jeg
spiser
fisk
i dag
('
eat
fish
today
')
Jeg
vil
drikke kaffe
i dag
('
want
to drink coffee
today
')
Exceptions to the
rule
are embedded clauses and question phrases.
Negation
edit
Negation in Norwegian is expressed by the word
ikke
, which literally means 'not' and is placed after the finite verb. Exceptions are embedded clauses.
Hunden kom
ikke
tilbake med ballen.
('The dog did
not
return with the ball.')
Det var hunden som
ikke
kom tilbake.
('It was the dog that did
not
return.')
Contractions with the negation, as is accepted in for example English (
cannot
hadn't
didn't
) are limited to dialects and colloquial speech. In this case contractions apply to the negation and the verb. Otherwise
ikke
is applied in similar ways as the English
not
and general
negation
Adverbs
edit
Adverbs follow the verb they modify. Depending on the type of adverb, the order in which they appear in the phrase is pre-determined. Manner adverbs for example, precede temporal adverbs. Switching the order of these adverbs would not render the phrase ungrammatical, but would make it sound awkward. Compare this to the English phrase "John probably already ate dinner." Switching the adverbs' position (
already
and
probably
) to "John already probably ate dinner" is not incorrect, but sounds unnatural. For more information, see
Cartographic syntax
Hun sang
rørende
vakkert
('She sang touchingly beautiful.')
Hun sang
utrolig
høyt
('She sang unbelievably loud.')
The adverb may precede the verb when the focus of the sentence is shifted. If special attention should be directed on the temporal aspect of the sentence, the adverb can be fronted. Since the V2 rule requires the finite verb to syntactically occupy the second position in the clause, the verb consequently also moves in front of the subject.
I dag
vil
jeg
drikke kaffe
. ('
Today
want
to drink coffee.')
I dag
spiser
jeg
fisk
. ('
Today
eat
fish.')
Only one adverb may precede the verb, unless it belongs to a bigger constituent, in which case it does not modify the main verb in the phrase, but is part of the constituent.
Hun spiste suppen
raskt i går
. ('She ate the soup quickly yesterday.')
I går
spiste
hun
suppen raskt
. ('Yesterday she ate the soup quickly.')
Laget som spilte
best
hadde forlatt plassen.
('The team that played the best had left the pitch.')
Adjectives
edit
Attributive adjectives always precede the noun that they modify.
De
tre store tjukke tunge røde
bøkene stod i hylla.
('The
three big fat heavy red
books stood on the shelf.')
Den
andre heldigvis lange tynne
nøkkelen passet.
('The
other fortunately long thin
key fit'.)
Example text
edit
Norwegian pronunciation
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in Norwegian:
Alle mennesker er født frie og med samme menneskeverd og menneskerettigheter. De er utstyrt med fornuft og samvittighet og bør handle mot hverandre i brorskapets ånd.
37
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
38
See also
edit
Norway portal
Languages portal
Det Norske Akademi for Sprog og Litteratur
Comparison of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
Noregs Mållag
Norsk Ordbok
Riksmålsforbundet
Russenorsk
Tone (linguistics)
References
edit
De Smedt, Koenraad; Lyse, Gunn Inger; Gjesdal, Anje Müller; Losnegaard, Gyri S. (2012).
The Norwegian Language in the Digital Age
. White Paper Series. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 45.
doi
10.1007/978-3-642-31389-9
ISBN
978-3-642-31388-2
Norwegian is the common spoken and written language in Norway and is the native language of the vast majority of the Norwegian population (more than 90%) and has about 4,320,000 speakers at present.
Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022).
"Older Runic"
Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Archived
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13 November
2022
"Konvention mellan Sverige, Danmark, Finland, Island och Norge om nordiska medborgares rätt att använda sitt eget språk i annat nordiskt land"
[Convention between Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway on the right of Nordic citizens to use their own language in another Nordic country].
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(in Norwegian). 2 May 2007. Archived from
the original
on 20 February 2009
. Retrieved
4 May
2008
"20th anniversary of the Nordic Language Convention"
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25 April
2007
Faarlund, Jan Terje; Haugen, Einar (1917).
"Scandinavian languages"
Encyclopædia Britannica
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Bibcode
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doi
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S2CID
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Archived
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11 September
2016
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"The Norwegian language"
Norwegian on the Web
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11 September
2016
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www.translation-services-usa.com
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28 July
2024
"Language Conflicts"
Parrot Time
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16 August
2025
Torp, Arne (2001).
"Bokstaver og alfabet"
[Letters and alphabet].
Språknytt
(in Norwegian) (4):
1–
4.
Archived
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. Retrieved
23 June
2018
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"cirkumfleks"
Store norske leksikon
(in Norwegian),
archived
from the original on 22 September 2022
, retrieved
1 December
2023
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"aksenttegn og andre diakritiske tegn"
Store norske leksikon
(in Norwegian),
archived
from the original on 2 December 2023
, retrieved
1 December
2023
"Lov om språk (språklova) - Lovdata"
lovdata.no
Archived
from the original on 30 August 2023
. Retrieved
29 February
2024
Vannebo, Kjell Ivar (2001).
"Om begrepene språklig standard og språklig standardisering"
[About the terms linguistic standard and linguistic standardization].
Sprog I Norden
(in Norwegian):
119–
128.
Archived
from the original on 15 October 2015
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23 June
2018
Kristoffersen, Gjert
(2000).
The Phonology of Norwegian
. Oxford University Press. pp.
–11.
ISBN
978-0-19-823765-5
"Læreplan i norsk (NOR1-05)"
www.udir.no
(in Norwegian Bokmål).
Archived
from the original on 14 July 2018
. Retrieved
19 July
2018
Kornai, András (2013).
"Digital Language Death"
PLOS ONE
(10) e77056.
Bibcode
2013PLoSO...877056K
doi
10.1371/journal.pone.0077056
PMC
3805564
PMID
24167559
Dewey, Caitlin (2013).
"How the Internet is killing the world's languages"
. The Washington Post.
Archived
from the original on 31 January 2021
. Retrieved
30 April
2020
Martin Skjekkeland. "dialekter i Norge". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
"Grammatisk kjønn og variasjon i norsk"
Språkrådet
(in Norwegian).
Archived
from the original on 17 June 2019
. Retrieved
17 June
2019
"Språkrådet"
elevrom.sprakradet.no
Archived
from the original on 14 July 2018
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
Skjekkeland, Martin (10 September 2018),
"dialekter i Bergen"
Store norske leksikon
(in Norwegian),
archived
from the original on 15 May 2019
, retrieved
17 June
2019
Hanssen, Eskil; Kjærheim, Harald; Skjekkeland, Martin (13 September 2016),
"dialekter og språk i Oslo"
Store norske leksikon
(in Norwegian),
archived
from the original on 15 July 2018
, retrieved
14 July
2018
Isaksen, Karoline Kvellestad (11 October 2019).
"Do we really need grammatical gender?"
Forskning.no
. The Centre for Advanced Study.
Archived
from the original on 25 September 2022
. Retrieved
25 September
2022
"Bøying"
www.ressurssidene.no
(in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from
the original
on 3 December 2024
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
"Bokmålsordboka | Nynorskordboka"
ordbok.uib.no
. Archived from
the original
on 14 July 2018
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
"Språkrådet"
elevrom.sprakradet.no
Archived
from the original on 16 July 2018
. Retrieved
17 July
2018
Berulfsen, Bjarne (1977).
Norwegian grammar
(4th ed.). Oslo: Aschehoug.
ISBN
978-82-03-04312-3
OCLC
4033534
Fossen, Christian.
"1 Repetisjon"
www.ntnu.edu
Archived
from the original on 14 July 2018
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
"Språkrådet"
elevrom.sprakradet.no
Archived
from the original on 16 July 2018
. Retrieved
12 July
2018
"Predikativ"
ressurssidene.pedit.no
(in Norwegian Bokmål).
Archived
from the original on 1 March 2023
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
"modus – grammatikk"
Store norske leksikon
(in Norwegian), 20 February 2018,
archived
from the original on 26 May 2019
, retrieved
18 June
2019
"Språkrådet"
elevrom.sprakradet.no
Archived
from the original on 14 July 2018
. Retrieved
14 July
2018
"Det Norske Akademis ordbok"
naob.no
Archived
from the original on 16 October 2022
. Retrieved
14 September
2022
"Hen"
Språkrådet
(in Norwegian Bokmål).
Archived
from the original on 14 September 2022
. Retrieved
14 September
2022
"Ordbøkene.no – Bokmålsordboka og Nynorskordboka"
ordbokene.no
(in Norwegian).
Archived
from the original on 8 October 2022
. Retrieved
14 September
2022
"andre"
ordbøkene.no
(in Norwegian Nynorsk)
. Retrieved
9 July
2024
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
www.ohchr.org
Archived
from the original on 6 September 2025
. Retrieved
7 September
2025
"Universal Declaration of Human rights"
. United Nations.
Archived
from the original on 16 March 2021
. Retrieved
7 January
2022
Bibliography
edit
Olav T. Beito
Nynorsk grammatikk. Lyd- og ordlære
, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1986,
ISBN
82-521-2801-7
Rolf Theil Endresen, Hanne Gram Simonsen, Andreas Sveen,
Innføring i lingvistikk
(2002),
ISBN
82-00-45273-5
Jan Terje Faarlund
, Svein Lie, Kjell Ivar Vannebo,
Norsk referansegrammatikk
, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1997, 2002 (3rd edition),
ISBN
82-00-22569-0
(Bokmål and Nynorsk)
Philip Holmes, Hans-Olav Enger,
Norwegian: A Comprehensive Grammar
, Routledge, Abingdon, 2018,
ISBN
978-0-415-83136-9
The Norwegian Language Council (1994),
Language usage in Norway's civil service
in English
Archived
20 October 2017 at the
Wayback Machine
Arne Torp
Lars S. Vikør
(1993),
Hovuddrag i norsk språkhistorie (3.utgåve)
, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS 2003
Lars S. Vikør
(2015),
Norwegian: Bokmål vs. Nynorsk
on Språkrådet's website
Archived
13 December 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
External links
edit
Bokmål edition
of
Wikipedia
, the free encyclopedia
Nynorsk edition
of
Wikipedia
, the free encyclopedia
For a list of words relating to Norwegian language, see the
Norwegian language
category of words
in
Wiktionary
, the free dictionary.
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for
Norwegian
Wikisource
has the text of the 1905
New International Encyclopedia
article "
Norwegian Language
".
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of:
Norwegian
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for
Norwegian Phrasebook
Ordboka
Archived
9 September 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
– Online dictionary search, both Bokmål and Nynorsk.
Fiske, Willard
(1879).
"Norway, Language and Literature of"
The American Cyclopædia
Norwegian as a Normal Language
, in English, at
Språkrådet
Ordbøker og nettressurser
Archived
16 December 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
– a collection of dictionaries and online resources (in Norwegian) from
Språkrådet
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