Norwegian language

Norwegian (norsk [nɔʂːk] or [nɔrsk]) is a Nordic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of regional and local variants that are more or less mutually intelligible.

These three mainland Scandinavian languages, along with the two island languages (Faroese and Icelandic) and other now-extinct languages, make up what are known as the Nordic languages (also called North Germanic or Scandinavian). Faroese and Icelandic are no longer mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form, as mainland Scandinavian differs considerably from them.

There are two official forms of written Norwegian: bokmål [ˈbuːkˌmɔːl] (lit. 'book language', 'literary language') and nynorsk [ˈnyːˌnɔʂːk] (lit.: 'new Norwegian'). The Norwegian Language Council recommends the use of the terms “Norwegian bokmål” and “Norwegian nynorsk”.

There is no official standard for spoken Norwegian, but the urban upper-middle class sociolect of Eastern Norway, on which bokmål is based, is the form typically taught to foreign students. This form, called standard østnorsk ('Standard Eastern Norwegian') can be considered the de facto spoken standard of Bokmål.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway. For this reason, the development of modern written Norwegian has been the subject of much controversy in relation to nationalism, the clash between rural and urban discourse, and Norwegian literary history. Historically bokmål is a Norwegianized variant of Danish, while nynorsk is a language created from Norwegian dialects and linguistic purism against Danish. Although now abandoned, an official policy was pursued for a time to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into a common language called Samnorsk i> through a series of spelling reforms. This policy led to the creation of a wide range of alternative forms in both bokmål and nynorsk. The unofficial variant known as riksmål is considered more conservative than bokmål, and the unofficial variant høgnorsk ('High Norwegian'), more radical than the nynorsk.

Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A 2005 survey indicates that 86.3% of the population mainly use Bokmål as their everyday written language, while 5.5% use both and 7.5% mainly use < i>nynorsk. Thus, only 13% frequently write in nynorsk, although most speak dialects that are more similar to nynorsk than < i>bokmål. In general, bokmål and riksmål are more common in urban and suburban areas, while nynorsk is more common in rural areas, especially in Western Norway. The Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) broadcasts in Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all government institutions are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of written publications, and nynorsk in 8% (2000). Despite concerns that the Norwegian dialects could give way to a common spoken Norwegian language close to Bokmål, the dialects have found significant support in local circles and popular opinion, as well as in politics.

Norwegian is one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. According to the Nordic Linguistic Convention, Norwegian-speaking citizens of the Nordic countries have the opportunity to use their own language in interaction with official bodies of other Nordic countries without having to bear the costs of translation or interpretation.

History

From Old Norse to the different Scandinavian languages

Approximate extension of the ancient Nordic and related languages at the beginning of the X century. The red area represents the distribution of the "old western Nordic" dialect; the orange, that of the "old Eastern Nordic". The pink area is the ancient gútnico and the green area points to the extension of other Germanic languages that were still mutually intelligible with the ancient Nordic

The languages spoken in Scandinavia today developed from Old Norse, the extent of which did not differ much from the areas where Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are spoken today. In fact, Viking traders spread the language across Europe to Russia, making Old Norse one of the most widespread languages of its time. According to tradition, King Harald Fair Hair brought the unit to Norway in 872. A runic alphabet was in use at this time. According to the writings found on the stone tablets of this historical period, the language showed a remarkable lack of deviation between different regions. Runes had been in use since the 3rd century. Around the year 1030 Christianity arrived in Norway, bringing with it the Latin alphabet. The first Norwegian manuscripts using the new alphabet began to appear a century later, around the same time that Norwegian began to differentiate itself from its neighbors.

Viking explorers began settling Iceland in the 9th century, bringing the Old Norse language with them. Over time, Old Norse differentiated into two variants: Western and Eastern. West Norse encompassed Norway (including its marine settlements in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Shetland Islands), while Eastern Norse took hold in Denmark and Sweden. The languages of Iceland and Norway maintained their similarity until about 1300, when they became what is known today as Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian.

During the period traditionally dated between 1350 and 1525, Norwegian underwent a transition from Middle Norwegian to Modern Norwegian. The biggest changes were a simplification of the morphology, a more fixed syntax, and a considerable adoption of Middle Low German vocabulary. A similar development took place in Swedish and Danish, keeping the dialect continuum intact in mainland Scandinavia. However, the same was not true of Faroese and Icelandic, which lost mutual intelligibility during this period.

Danish and Swedish domination

In 1397 the Kalmar Union united Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and from 1536 Norway was dominated by the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway. Danish became the most common written language among Norway's educated class. Spoken Danish was gradually adopted by the urban elite, initially at formal events, progressively adopting a more relaxed variety for everyday speech. This variety went through a process of koineization, which included a grammatical simplification and a Norwegian pronunciation. With the end of the union of the two kingdoms, by 1814 the Dano-Norwegian koine language had become the mother tongue of a substantial part of the Norwegian elite, but the more solemn variety—sounding closer to Danish—continued to be used on formal occasions.

Shortly after the end of the union with Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway entered into a new personal union with Sweden. However, the Norwegians began to claim independence by embracing democracy and trying to enforce the constitutional declaration of being a sovereign state. Part of this nationalist movement focused on the development of an independent Norwegian language. Three possibilities were considered: do nothing (written Norwegian language, ie: Danish, different from Swedish), Norwegianise the Danish language or build a new national language from modern Norwegian dialects. The three ways were put into practice.

Danish to Norwegian

Since the 1840s some writers experimented with Norwegianized Danish incorporating words descriptive of the Norwegian landscape and folk life, and adopting a more Norwegian syntax. Knud Knudsen proposed changing the spelling and grammatical inflection in accordance with Dano-Norwegian Koine, known as "cultured everyday speech". Adjustments in this direction were progressively applied in three official reforms in 1862, 1907 and 1917.

Meanwhile, a nationalist movement was fighting for the development of a new written Norwegian. Ivar Aasen, a self-taught linguist, began the quest to create a new Norwegian language at the age of twenty-two. He traveled around the country, comparing the dialects of different regions, and analyzed the evolution of Icelandic, which had largely evaded the influences that had reached Norwegian. Aasen called his work, published in various books between 1848 and 1873, landsmål ('national language', 'language of the country'). The name landsmål is sometimes interpreted as "country language" or "country language", but it seems clear that this was not the meaning Aasen gave it.

The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of much debate during the 19th century. Its proponents claimed that it was the common language of Norway and Denmark, and that it was no more Danish than Norwegian. Supporters of landsmål thought that the Danish character of the language should not be hidden. In 1899 the writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson proposed the neutral name riksmål, which —like landsmål— means ‘national language’. This name was officially adopted with the official spelling reform of 1907. The name riksmål is sometimes interpreted as 'state language', but this sense is at best secondary when compared to Danish rigsmål, from which comes the name.

After the dissolution of the dynastic union with Sweden in 1905, both languages developed further, reaching what are now considered their classical forms after the 1917 reform. riksmål was renamed bokmål ('language of the book') in 1929, and landsmål was renamed nynorsk ('new Norwegian'). A proposal to replace Dano-Norwegian with Bokmål lost out in Parliament by a single vote. The name nynorsk, the linguistic term for Modern Norwegian, was chosen to contrast with Danish and underline the historical connection to Old Norwegian. Today this meaning has been virtually lost and is often understood as "new" Norwegian as opposed to "real" Norwegian bokmål.

Bokmål and nynorsk became closer with a reform in 1938, as a result of a state policy to merge nynorsk and Bokmål into a single language, called Samnorsk ('Common Norwegian'). A 1946 poll showed that this policy was supported by 79% of Norwegians at the time.^{[citation needed]} However, opponents of the policy managed to create a mass protest movement against samnorsk in the 1950s, especially attacking the use of "radical" forms in Bokmål textbooks used in schools. The 1959 reform partially repealed the 1938 reform, but modified nynorsk further into bokmål. Since then bokmål has continued to move back towards traditional riksmål, while nynorsk still follows the 1959 standard. A minority of nynorsk enthusiasts use an even more conservative standard called høgnorsk. The samnorsk policy had very little influence after 1960 and was officially scrapped in 2002.

Phonology

The sound system of Norwegian is similar to that of Swedish. There is considerable variation between the different dialects, but the variety normally taught to foreign students is standard østnorsk.

Consonants

Vowels

Accent

Norwegian is a marginal-tone language with two tonal structures (tones or accents), used to differentiate two-syllable words that would otherwise have identical pronunciation. For example, in many eastern Norwegian dialects, the word bønder ('farmers') is pronounced with tone 1, while bønner ('beans' or 'prayers') does it with tone 2, as in Danish. Although sometimes the spelling difference makes it possible to distinguish one word from the other, in most cases the minimal pairs tend to be spelled the same, since Norwegian does not have explicit accent marks. In most low-tone eastern dialects, accent 1 consists of a low, flat tone on the first syllable, and accent 2, a high tone that drops abruptly on the first syllable plus a low tone at the beginning of the syllable. second syllable. In both accents, these variations in tone are followed by a rise in intonation (syntagmatic accent), the presence and intensity of which indicates emphasis and corresponds to the function of the "normal" accent in languages that lack lexical tone, such as Spanish.. This rise culminates in the final syllable of a stress phrase, while the sentence-final fall, so common in most languages, is either very small or non-existent.

There is significant variation in pitch accent between dialects. Thus, in most of Western and Northern Norway (the so-called "high-tone dialects"), accent 1 falls, while accent 2 rises on the first syllable and falls on the second or near the syllable boundary. The height accents (as well as the peculiar syntagmatic accent of low-tone dialects) give Norwegian a "singing" sound, which makes it easy to distinguish it from other languages. It is interesting to note that stress 1 usually appears on words that were monosyllabic in Old Norse, and stress 2 on words that were polysyllabic.

Written language

Alphabet

The Norwegian alphabet consists of 29 letters.

The letters c, q, w, x, and z only They are used for loans. Some people write their Norwegian surnames using these letters.

Some of the letters accept the use of diacritics: é, è, ê, ó, < i>ò, â and ô. In nynorsk ì, ù and ỳ are also occasionally used. Diacritics are not required, but in certain cases they allow one to distinguish between different meanings of a word; for example: for ('for'), fór (verb ir in the past), fòr ('groove ') and fôr ('fodder' or 'lining'). Loans can take other diacritics, mainly ü, á and à.

Bokmål and Nynorsk

As in other European countries, Norway has an "advisory committee" - Språkrådet (Norwegian Language Council) - which determines, with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, the official spelling, grammar and vocabulary of the Norwegian language. The work of this committee has been mired in controversy for years, and it still has a lot of work to do.^{[citation needed]}

Both nynorsk and bokmål have a variety of optional forms. Bokmål that uses the forms closest to riksmål is known as “conservative” or “moderate”, depending on your point of view, while bokmål i> that makes use of forms closer to nynorsk is known as a "radical". Nynorsk also has forms closer to the original landsmål and forms closer to bokmål.

Riksmål

Opponents of spelling reforms that attempted to approximate Bokmål to Nynorsk continue to use the name riksmål, and use the spelling and grammar prior to the Samnorsk movement. riksmål and conservative versions of bokmål have been the de facto standard for the written language of Norway for most of the 20th century. They were used in large newspapers, in encyclopedias and in a large part of the literary tradition, as well as being the form used by a large part of the population of the capital (Oslo), nearby areas and other urban centers. Since the 1981 and 2003 reforms (in force since 2005), official bokmål can be adapted to be virtually identical to modern riksmål. The differences between riksmål and bokmål could be compared to the differences between British and American English. The Norwegian Academy regulates the use of riksmål, determining what is considered acceptable spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

Høgnorsk

There is also an unofficial form of nynorsk, called høgnorsk, which rejects post-1917 reforms and is therefore closer to landsmål original by Ivar Aasen. Ivar Aasen's Union promotes the use of høgnorsk, but so far its diffusion has not been very extensive.

Current use

Map of official language varieties in Norwegian municipalities in 2007.

About 86.2% of primary and secondary school students in Norway receive their education in bokmål, while 13.8% do so in nynorsk. Starting in the eighth grade, students are required to learn to write in both forms. Of the 431 Norwegian municipalities, 161 have indicated their wish to communicate with the central authorities in bokmål, 116 (constituting 12% of the population) in nynorsk and 156 more They declare themselves neutral. Of the 4,549 state publications in the year 2000, 8% were in nynorsk and 92% in bokmål. The big national dailies (Aftenposten, Dagbladet and Verdens Gang) publish in Bokmål. Some of the major regional dailies (including Bergens Tidende and Stavanger Aftenblad), as well as many political magazines and local newspapers, use both Bokmål and the nynorsk.

Dialects

There is general agreement that the wide range of differences makes it difficult to estimate the number of Norwegian dialects. Variations in grammars, syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation cross geographic boundaries and can create distinct dialects from one village to another. The dialects, moreover, can in some cases be so different that they are unintelligible to those unfamiliar with them. Many linguists point to a trend towards the regionalization of dialects, which causes differences to diminish at the local level. There is, however, a renewed interest in the preservation of the different dialects.

Examples

Here are some sentences where you can see some of the differences between bokmål and nynorsk, compared to the conservative bokmål (more close to Danish), Old Norse, Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic (the closest living language to Old Norse), and other modern Germanic languages.

Morphology

Nouns

Norwegian nouns inflect or decline in determination (determined/indeterminate) and in number. In some dialects, determined nouns are also declined in cases (nominative/dative).

As in most Indo-European languages, nouns are classified by gender, which forces agreement with adjectives and determiners. Norwegian dialects have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, except for the Bergen dialect, which only has two: common and neuter. Bokmål and standard østnorsk traditionally have two genders, as in Danish (and like the Bergen dialect), but the so-called "radical" varieties have three. Today the two-gender pattern has mostly been replaced by the three-gender pattern in spoken standard østnorsk, but is sometimes maintained in "conservative" bokmål.

The declension of regular nouns depends on the gender. Some dialects and varieties of nynorsk extend the declension taking into account the weak and strong neuters and feminines.

As of July 1, 2005, it is allowed to write all female names as male.

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives have two inflectional paradigms. Weak inflection applies when the argument is defined; strong inflection, when the argument is indefinite. In both paradigms, the adjective is declined in degree (positive/comparative/superlative). Strong positive adjectives are also declined in gender and number, agreeing with their argument. In some Southwestern dialects, positively weak adjectives also decline in gender and number, with one form for the feminine and neuter and another for the masculine and plural.

Verbs

Norwegian finite verbs are inflected or conjugated in the mood: indicative/imperative/subjunctive. The subjunctive mood is limited to only a few verbs. Indicative verbs are conjugated in present/past tense. In bokmål and standard østnorsk, the present and past also have a passive form. In some dialects the indicative verbs are also conjugated according to number. The conjugation according to gender or person no longer exists in Norwegian.

There are four non-finite verb forms: infinitive, passive infinitive, and the two participle forms: perfective/past and imperfective/present.

Participles are verbal adjectives. The imperfective participle is not declined, but the perfective is declined in gender (not in bokmål and standard østnorsk) and in number, like strong adjectives in positive degree. The definite form of the participle is the same as the plural form.

As in other Germanic languages, Norwegian verbs can be either strong or weak.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Norwegian are declined in cases: nominative/accusative. Some dialects have preserved the dative case in nouns and also have a dative case, rather than an accusative, in personal pronouns, while other dialects have the accusative in pronouns and the dative in nouns, giving these dialects three different cases.

In the most detailed Norwegian grammar in existence, the Norsk referansegrammatikk, the categorization of personal pronouns according to person, gender and number is not considered inflection. As with nouns, adjectives must agree in gender and number with their pronominal arguments.

Other pronouns do not have inflection. The so-called possessive, demonstrative, and relative pronouns are no longer considered pronouns. Pronouns make up a closed class, which means that normally new elements cannot be added to this class.

The bokmål has two series of 3rd person pronouns: han and hun, which refer to male and female individuals respectively, and den and det, which refer to inanimate or impersonal nouns, masculine/feminine or neuter, respectively. In contrast, nynorsk and most other dialects use the same series of pronouns — han (m.), ho (f.) and det (n.)— for both personal and impersonal references. Det also has expletive and cataphoric uses as in English; for example, in “It rains” and “It was known by everyone (that) he had traveled the world”.

Determinants

The closed class of Norwegian determiners decline according to gender and number, agreeing with their argument. Not all determiners are declined.

Particle classes

Norwegian has five non-inflectional closed classes, that is, lexical categories with grammatical function and a finite number of members that cannot be distinguished by morphological criteria. These are interjections, conjunctions, subjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs. The inclusion of the adverbs requires that traditional adverbs that inflect in degree be classified as adjectives, as is sometimes done.

Compound Words

In Norwegian compound words, the head — that is, the part that determines the class to which the new compound word belongs — is the last part. Only the first part has the main accent. For example, the compound hodetelefoner 'auriculares' has the main stress on the first syllable and is a noun (a type of telephone).

Compound words are written together in Norwegian (often by adding an s or e between words), which can result in very long words; for example, sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (‘maximum likelihood estimator’) or menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner (‘human rights organisations’). Another example is the title høyesterettsjustitiarius (originally a combination of høyesterett 'high court' and the current title, 'justiciar') or the translation of One Night's Dream summer day: In midtsommernattsdrøm.

If they are not written together, each component is read with a major accent and the meaning of the compound is lost; this sometimes happens, sometimes leading to humorous results. Instead of writing, for example, lammekoteletter ('mutton chops'), someone might write lamme koteletter ('stupid cutlets' or 'paralyzed'). The original message may even end up distorted, as when røykfritt ('no smoking', literally: 'smoke free') becomes røyk fritt ('smoke freely')..

Vocabulary

Most of the modern Norwegian vocabulary can be traced back to Old Norse. The most important source of loanwords is Middle Low German, which had an enormous influence on the Norwegian lexical repertoire from the Late Middle Ages onwards, even influencing grammatical structures such as genitive constructions. Currently the largest source of loanwords is English, such as rapper, e-mail, catering, juice or < i>bag (originally an Old Norse loan word).

Some loanwords change their spelling to reflect the pronunciation rules of Norwegian, but in general, the Norwegianized version of these words tends to take a long time to assimilate. For example, sjåfør (from French chauffeur 'chauffeur') and revansj (from French revanche 'revenge') are today the most common forms, but juice is used more than jus, catering more than keitering, service more than sørvis, etc.

Bibliographic references

• Einar Haugen, author of the edition (1965, 1967, 1974). Norwegian-English Dictionary. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.