Norwegian Language Blog

I remember my Norwegian professor (the only native professor I had at St. Olaf) telling our class one time that the Norwegian language is barbaric.  Think of what it would have sounded like to listen to barbarians talk to each other.  “He go to movie theater.”  “She want to Spain.”  In current American English, we would say “He wants to go to the movie theater.”  “She wants to travel to Spain.”  In Norwegian these phrases would translate to “Han går på kino.”  “Hun skal til Spania.”  They are a lot shorter and quite frankly, just more simple.  They look and sound a bit barbaric, don’t they?

The simplicity of the language is one of the reasons why I love it so much.  Norwegian verbs do not require conjugation.  For example, “I go, you go, he/she goes, we go, you (pl.) go, they go” in Norwegian is “jeg går, du går, han/hun går, vi går, dere går, and de går.”  The verb stays the same regardless of the subject.  When you think about it, why would verbs in the same tense ever need to be conjugated?  As far as I’m concerned, there is no purpose. 

Not only are verbs in the same tense not conjugated, but sometimes you can simply leave a word out and people will completely understand you.  In the first paragraph I shared a couple of phrases that seem like they are missing something.  In Norwegian when you say you are going to the movies or going skiing or going on a walk you can simply say “jeg går på kino” or “jeg går på ski” or “jeg går på tur.”  The key of course is knowing which of these phrases operate this way and which do not.  Just thought I’d applaud the language for being so simple sometimes. 

As I was writing the above pronouns, I caught myself capitalizing pronouns such as I.  In Norwegian, the only time the pronoun “I” (jeg) is capitalized is when it begins a sentence.  Days of the week and months of the year follow the same rule-only at the beginning of a sentence are they capitalized.  And back to “I” not being capitalized…I think I might have an idea about why this is the case…perhaps the Janteloven.  I will write a post on this at a later date. 

Stay tuned!

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Not that I encourage driving while intoxicated here in the United States, or anywhere for that matter, but be extra careful if you are out having a good time in Norway and you are the driver.  Norwegian law states that an individual with a BAC (blood alcohol content) at or over .02% is over the legal limit.  In the United States, any number equal to or greater than .08 is considered over the limit.  As you can see, Norway is much stricter when it comes to drinking and driving.  Many countries in the world have a legal limit of .08, but the only country greater than that is Swaziland (0.1).

In the United States, a DUI or DWI (depending on the circumstances-speed, other cars involved, etc.) usually merits a ticket, a fine, and a court hearing.  An individual can get multiple DUIs and not ever go to jail.  In Norway, on the other hand, every offender goes to jail for a minimum of 3 weeks if he/she is caught driving with a BAC above .02.  There is a prison in the small village of Ilseng (near Hamar, which is in the southeastern part of the country) where drunk driving offenders spend time.

I personally think that Norway has done it right once again.  Norway has very few problems with drinking and driving compared to the U.S.  Despite the fact that there are much fewer people in Norway and fewer people driving cars because of the excellent public transportation, the low instance of drinking and driving in Norway can be greatly attributed to the strict legal limit and the serious consequences.

When I was in Norway, people were very considerate of this law.  Very seldom did I know about someone driving after they had had more than one beer.  It’s pretty cool how much people respect it.  Friends simply take turns being designated drivers.  So when you’re in Norway in a similar situation, remember to be smart and take turns driving sober.  Don’t want to get stuck in jail for 3 weeks!

And now for some related Norwegian vocabulary…

å drikke= to drink             drikker = drinks         drakk = drank

alkohol = alcohol               øl = beer                     vin = wine

brennevin =  the general term for distilled spirits-literally means “burnwine”

full = drunk               bakfull = hungover (apparently not in my dictionary, but Norwegians use this)

brus = pop (if you are the designated driver)

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I come from a part of the country that is full of norsk heritage.  I grew up in Northfield, MN, attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and currently reside in Northfield, MN.  St. Olaf College was founded by Norwegian immigrants for the purpose of educating Norwegians.  Although St. Olaf prides itself on other things things now, including it’s internationally renowned musikk department and fantastic study abroad programs, the norsk influence is still very apparent.  There is a norsk department that teaches beginning to advanced norsk language and litteratur, as well as kultur and historie.  Approximately 50% of the student body hails from MN and probably about that very percent has blond hair, blue eyes. (lyst hår and blå øyner).

I went out east to New York to visit my brother at college once and all of his friends from the east coast couldn’t believe that I had real blond hair and blue eyes.  There are very few people from that part of the country relative to the midwest that have these features (that aren’t fake, that is).  Whenever I would talk about going to Norway, guys would always ask about the blond haired, blue eyed girls.  I think most people assume that all Norwegians have blond hair and blue eyes.  In fact, I thought so too prior to my first trip there.

Much to my surprise, there were many nordmenn (general term  used for Norwegians, haven’t quite hit the point of political correctness concerning such words) with very dark hair and dark eyes.  This is especially true of the coastal areas, specifically along the western coast.  When I was in Bergen for the first time I saw a lot of people with dark features and initially assumed that they were foreigners.  After talking to them, I realized that they were indeed natives.

I didn’t think much of it at the time until I took a Scandinavian history class and learned about the Hanseatic League or League of the Hansa.  The Hansa was an alliance of trading cities spanning much of Northern and Eastern Europe.  Bergen was one of the primary cities in the Hansa.  It is my understanding that the influx of people from different parts of Europe are partially responsible for the greater number of dark haired, dark eyed nordmenn.

Of course there are still lots of blond haired, blue eyed Norwegians in Norway, but the stereotype is not completely accurate.  Another common assumption is that Norway is an ethnically homogenous population.  Although this was true until recently, there is actually quite a large immigrant population in Oslo.  I’ll share more about this another day though!

Happy Halloween!  I happen to be the only one at my work that is dressed up…..I guess everyone else was joking.