Archive for May, 2009
Camping season Posted by kari on May 31, 2009
Camping sesong. It is upon us. Less than half of the year where I reside (in the upper midwest) is suitable for camping in a tent. Of course staying in a cabin is always an option despite the season or the weather, but rustic camping is a whole different ballgame. I, personally, love to camp. …
How do Norwegians tie the knot? Posted by kari on May 29, 2009
Et bryllup. They have et bryllup (a wedding). Today Norwegian weddings look very similar to weddings in the U.S. and other European countries. However, historically, Norwegian weddings were much more ceremonial and traditional. First of all, all brides and grooms would wear bunads-traditional Norwegian costumes. Men wore white silk shirts, dark wool stockings and knickers…
False friends Posted by kari on May 26, 2009
As in other languages, one can find in Norwegian words that appear or sound similar to words in English, but differ in meaning. These are called false friends. I always thought these were called false cognates, but I was mistaken. False cognates are pairs of words in different languages that have similar meaning, but lack…
Cognates Posted by kari on May 22, 2009
This post is a long time coming. As you have likely noticed by now if you’ve had any experience with Norwegian, there are many cognates between the Norwegian and the English languages. Several reasons account for this, such as the fact that Norwegian is a Germanic language and Norweigan grammar is probably the simplest grammar…
Grønne ting Posted by kari on May 19, 2009
Green things. I think it is time to focus on adjectives. Today I will focus on the adjective -green- grønn. La oss snakke om grønne ting- let’s talk about green things. Gress er grønt (grass is green). Notice that I removed one ‘n’ and replaced it with a ‘t’ because gress is a neuter noun…
Gratulerer med dagen! Posted by kari on May 16, 2009
In Norwegian, “gratulerer med dagen” can either mean “happy birthday” or it can be said on a day like syttende mai to mean something like “congratulations on this day!” It’s almost a happy birthday to Norway-to celebrate the day that the country adopted it’s own constitution. So at midnight tonight, you should all show off your Norwegian and…
Syttende Mai Posted by kari on May 14, 2009
Syttende mai is the 17th (syttende) of May (mai-notice months are not capitalized, unless of course they come at the beginning of a sentence). Norwegians celebrate syttende mai because it is the anniversary of their Constitution day or Grunnlovsdagen. In 1814, a small group of Norwegian men, the Constituent Assembly, signed the constitution on May…