Norwegian language

History

Image:Old norse, ca 900.PNG 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 Norway (including its overseas settlements in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands), while Eastern Norse developed in Denmark and south-central 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 the period traditionally dated to 1350-1525, Norwegian went through a Middle Norwegian transition toward Modern Norwegian. The major changes were simplification of the morphology, a more fixed syntax, and a considerable adoption of Middle Low German vocabulary. Similar development happened in Swedish and Danish, keeping the dialect continuum in continental Scandinavia intact. This did however not happen in Faroese and Icelandic so these languages lost mutual intelligibility with continental Scandinavia.

In 1397, Norway entered a personal union with Denmark, and from 1536 Norway was subordinated under the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. Danish became the commonly written language among Norway's literate class. Spoken Danish was gradually adopted by the urban elite, first at formal occasions, and gradually a more relaxed variety was adopted in everyday speech. The everyday speech went through a koineization process, involving grammatical simplification and Norwegionized pronunciation. When the union ended in 1814 the Dano-Norwegian koine had become the mother tongue of a substantial part of the Norwegian elite, but the more Danish-sounding solemn variety was still used on formal occasions.

Norway was forced to enter a new personal union shortly after the liberation from Denmark, this time with Sweden. However, 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. Three major paths were available: do nothing (Norwegian written language, i.e. Danish, was already different from Swedish), Norwegianize the Danish language, or build a new national language based on Modern Norwegian dialects. All three approaches were attempted.

From Danish to Norwegian

From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianized Danish by incorporating words that were descriptive of Norwegian scenery and folk life, and adopting a more Norwegian syntax. Knud Knudsen proposed to change spelling and inflection in accordance with the Dano-Norwegian koine, known as "cultivated everyday speech". A small adjustment in this direction was implemented in the first official reform of 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 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".

The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of hot dispute through 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 meant that the Danish character of the language should not be concealed. In 1899 the neutral name Riksmål or "National Language" was adopted.

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") — the names Dano-Norwegian and Norwegian lost in parliament by one single vote.

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 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. 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 uses a more conservative standard called Høgnorsk. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002.

Sounds

The sound system of Norwegian is similar to Swedish and Danish, 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

The retroflex consonants are mutations of [ɾ]+any other alveolar/dental consonant; rn [ɾn] > [ɳ], rt [ɾt] > [ʈ], rl [ɾl] > [ɭ], rs [ɾs] > [ʃ]. Rd across word boundaries (“sandhi”), in loanwords and in a group of primarily literary words is often pronounced [ɾd], e.g., verden [ˈʋæɾdn̩], but it may also be pronounced [ɖ] in many dialects. In most words, however, rd is pronounced either as /r/ (typically in western and northern Norway and in standardised pronunciation) or as [ɽ] (typically in south-eastern Norway), e.g., fjord [fju:r]/[fju:ɽ].

In Western Norwegian more guttural realizations of the /r/-phoneme are very common. Depending on phonetic context voiceless, Template:IPA, or voiced uvular fricatives .Template:IPA, are used. Most of the dialects 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. Most western and northern dialects do not have these retroflex sounds.

The unvoiced stops are regularly aspirated.

Vowels

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.

Tonemes

Norwegian is a pitch accent language with two distinct tonemes. They are used to differentiate two-syllable words with otherwise identical pronunciation. For example in the Oslo dialects, the word "bønder" (farmers) is pronounced using tone 1, while "bønner" (beans or prayers) uses tone 2. Though the difference in spelling occasionally allow the words to be distinguished in written language, but in most cases the minimal pairs are written alike, since written Norwegian has no explicit toneme marks. In Oslo Norwegian (and probably in most of eastern Norway, the so-called low-tone dialects), tone 1 uses a low flat pitch in the first syllable, while tone 2 uses a high, sharply falling pitch in the first syllable and a low pitch in the beginning of the second syllable. In both tones, these pitch movements are followed by a rise of intonational nature (phrase accent), the size (and presence) of which signals emphasis/focus and which corresponds in function to the normal accent in pure intonation languages. That rise culminates in the final syllable of an accentual phrase, while the utterance-final fall that is so 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-tone dialects) tone 1 is falling, while tone 2 is rising in the first syllable and falling in the second syllable or somewhere around the syllable boundary. The pitch tones (as well as the peculiar phrase accent in the low-tone dialects) give the Norwegian language a "singing" quality which makes it fairly easy to distinguish from other languages with the exception of Swedish. Interestingly, accent 1 generally occurs in words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, and accent 2 in words that were polysyllabic in that language.

In morphology, especially in Nynorsk and Radical Bokmål, the tonemes take on a central rôle in marking grammatical categories. Thus, the ending (T1)-en implies determinate form of a masculine monosyllabic noun (båten, bilen, (den store) skjelven), whereas (T2)-en denotes either determinate form of a masculine bisyllabic noun or an adjectivised noun/verb ((han var) skjelven, moden). Similarily, the ending (T1)-a denotes feminine singular determinate monosyllabic nouns (boka, rota) or neutrum plural determinate nouns (husa, lysa), whereas the ending (T2)-a denotes preteritum of weak verbs (rota, husa), feminine singular determinate bisyllabic nouns (bøtta, ruta, jenta).

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

Main article: Norwegian 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.

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 and Swedish. Among the spoken dialects, the dialect of the city of Bergen is the only one with only two genders.

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 (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 ("Pieces of tuna", 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)

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

• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000) The Phonology of Norwegian ISBN 0-19-823765-0
• Rolf Theil Endresen, Hanne Gram Simonsen, Andreas Sveen, Innføring i lingvistikk (2002), ISBN 82-00-45273-5

External links

Template:InterWiki Template:Interwiki Template:Wikibookspar

• 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
• Norwegian-English Dictionary (2)
• Tritrans: translations between English, Spanish and Norwegian
• 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).
• ALBIS Vocabulary tool with Norwegian (bokmål)Template:Link FA