Norwegian Language Blog

Small Animal Clinic

Menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner (human rights organizations) is one of the longer compound words in Norwegian.  Others include sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximum likelihood estimator), and En mMidsommernattsdrøm (A Midsummer Night´s Dream).

The Norwegian language has quite a few compound words in it.  In my experience as a new student of the Norwegian language, as well as as an instructor, compound words can be difficult for new learners.  Especially at the beginning, it can be difficult to separate the individual words within compound words.  You may have just learned the word menneske (person) but when you see it with rettighetsorganisasjoner, it looks completely different and you might not notice it right away.  It becomes even more difficult when the word you may know is in the middle of a compound word, i.e. natt in midsommernattsdrøm. The word natt kind of gets lost.

Although it may be difficult, learning compound words is important in understanding and speaking Norwegian.  The reason for this is because compound words are words themselves separately and you can severely mislead or misunderstand your audience if you use compound words by themselves.  An example of this is: lammekoteletter (lamb chops) broken up into lamme koteletter (lame or paralyzed chops).  Another example is røykfritt (smoke-free) or røyke fritt (smoke freely), the exact opposite of the intended meaning.  The reason these easy-to-make errors exist is because usually one word is a noun and one word a verb or an adjective so the tense of the words can change as well as involve an action.

I think compound words are a fun part of the language to learn about because you learn about several different words in one and it quickly teaches you to pay attention to detail.  It is also important to stress the right syllable in compound words (i.e. stress lamme in lammekotelleter).

And to name a few more:

smult ring (lard ring) and smultring (doughnut)

klippfisk (clipfish) and klipp fisk (cut fish)

århundre (century) and år hundre (year one hundred)

sommerfugl (butterfly) and sommer fugl (summer bird)

I like compound words.  They´re fun.

Perhaps you have spent a lonely Thanksgiving away from your family, maybe even out of the country.  Fear not, if you happen to be in Norway for some reason during Thanksgiving and you are not with your family or other Americans, you can still enjoy a feast close to those we love here in the U.S.  As November is the only month that I have not spent in Norway, I have not been tasked with making Thanksgiving matretter (dishes) and finding friends to enjoy them with in Norway.  I do have several American friends who have spent Thanksgivings in Norway and they always seem to have a good time and enjoy the mat, despite the fact that Norwegian matbutikker (grocery stores) are nothing like the giants here in the U.S.

If you are in a larger city in Norway, you will likely find one or more of the following matbutikker: ICA, Meny, Coop, Rimi, Rema 1000.  While buying mat in Norwegian matbutikker is relatively comparative to the U.S. in terms of cost (relative to other ´costs of living´), matprodukter that are not common in Norway will of course be dyrere (more expensive).  Items that you will be able to find relatively easily are kalkun (turkey) either at a matbutikk or a slakter (butcher), søtpoteter (sweet potatoes), and tranebær (cranberries).  You will have difficulty finding frozen pie crusts for sure, as well as gresskar purée (pumpkin purée) and certain urter (herbs) that you may enjoy in stuffing or some other matrett.

I was looking for stories from Americans who have made Thanksgiving dinners in Norway and I came across this blog.  It´s about a woman who has to make Thanksgiving dinner for her Norwegian husband and family (who have never eaten it before) and she really has no idea what she´s doing, but everything turned out awesome.  And….they had an eating contest-hard to imagine with a small Norwegian family, but very funny.  Check out the blog here.

Although Norwegians do not typically celebrate Thanksgiving, many American families with Scandinavian descent include things like lefse (or maybe lutefisk or fenelår) in their Thanksgiving meal.  My family always has lefse at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter actually.  It´s just kind of a dessert that ends up on most holiday dining tables.

Happy Thanksgiving whether you are in Norway or anywhere else in the world.

takk-thank you

takknemlig-thankful

While I haven´t been to Norway for over a year now (crazy that it´s been that long, gotta get back for a visit), I was very much reminded this past weekend of a very fun experience I had in Norway last fall.  This weekend my boyfriend and I took my dog, a weimaraner (pointing breed) up north for å jakte etter fasaner (to hunt pheasants) near Lake Mille Lacs.  We hunted for a couple of hours in the late morning and early afternoon and guess what?  We continued to shed layers until we got down to our t-shirts.  That is pretty crazy for mid-November in Minnesota.  I remember last fall up in the mountains in Salangen Fylke (County), Norway we were also in t-shirts some days when the sun shone bright and there was little wind.  Then there was a day or two when we were all wearing layer upon layer of clothing including vinterluer (winter hats) and hansker (gloves).

While fuglejakt (bird hunting)  in MN, or any kind of jakt for that matter, is different than å gå på jakt i Norge both because of the type of dyr (animals) and the different topography and climate, the rules and reasons for engaging the activity are similar, as is the popularity.  I can´t seem to find good data on the number of jegere (hunters) in Minnesota, but because Norway has a state-run association of jegere og fiskere (Norges jeger og fiskerforbund), I know that 120,000 individuals are medlemmer (members) of this association.  These 120,000 medlemmer belong to 570 local jeger og fisker klubber.

rype (grouse)

Last fall in Norway, I went with a friend and his fellow jeger og fisker venner (friends) up into the mountains in Salangen Fylke  for å jakte etter rype (grouse).  I had my hund (dog) along and another guy had his very experienced flushing hund.  The Weimaraner rase (breed) is a peker rase (pointint breed), but (perhaps because she had no training whatsoever), she did not peke.  She was, however, very helpful retrieving.  The other hund would peke, someone would skyte (shoot)  and my hund would hente fuglen (retrieve the bird).

As it turns out, she did the same this weekend when we jakte etter fasaner!  We´d walk through the tall grass and try to get her to run in there to scare up fugler.  She didn´t peke at all, but if we shot a fugl, she was extremely helpful in finding it.  I swear these were super fugler!  Several of them were såret (wounded) and were very difficult to find after they ran around in the brush.  Stella did a great job though!

In any case, now you know a few Norwegian words associated with fuglejakt.  I will write a post later with more specific information on the kind of fugler one can jakte.