Comments:

1. 

    

   S:

   Thanks for this post. It can be quite depressing when learning Norwegian, as I am, to tune into Norwegian radio and hear nynorsk and have very little idea of what is being said because it sounds so different to bokmål

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @S Yes, I know! 🙂
     I’m quite a fan of nynorsk myself, but when you’re a new learner, it mostly gets confusing…

2. 

    

   Ulrike:

   Hi 🙂 I live in Oslo, deep in bokmål-territory. Last year I was sitting through 3 hours of Nynorsk-Theatre at Det Norske Teatret and that was quiet an experience :).
   How do you pronounce words in nynorsk like “kva”, “Kvor”, “kven”? Do you speak the “k”?

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @Ulrike Hei,
     nynorsk words are generally pronounced ”like they’re written”. So yes, you do speak the ”k” in those words! Kva = [kva]. 🙂

3. 

    

   David Eckhoff (Eekhoff):

   Most of my ancestral writings/history are written in Nynorsk. It has been difficult to translate due to the lack of a good Nynorsk-English dictionary.

4. 

    

   Carlislemike:

   Thanks for your information. I taught English in Aalesund, on Sula, 40 years ago and have forgotten my Norske. (Well I can still read with some blanks where nouns or verb endings stump me) I mean to renew my study but was confused by the Bokmål/Nynorsk application. Looks like I learnt the former but spoke with a smattering of the latter. Mange takk

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @Carlislemike Thanks for your comment, Carlislemike! I hope you’ll be able to refresh your Norwegian skills.

5. 

    

   Rita:

   Hi, I would like to learn Norwegian and especially Nynorsk, but I find it quite difficult, because there is too little material on the Internet. Can you recommend any websites, please! I only have Nynorsk grammar… Especially I need to learn pronunciation… Thanks!

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @Rita @Rita
     Unfortunately, there are very few Nynorsk courses for foreigners… 🙁
     I would recommend listening to a Bokmål course, and take the pronunciation from there.
     Remember, there’s really only one Norwegian language: NN and BM are just different ways of writing it.
     If you take a Nynorsk phrase like ”Eg likar ost” (I like cheese), someone from Oslo will pronounce it with an Oslo accent, someone from Bergen will give it a Bergen melody… You can hear a bit of pronunciation here: http://da.forvo.com/languages-pronunciations/nn/

     Does anybody know some good Nynorsk resources online?

6. 

    

   Alan Robinson:

   Well I’ve lived in Denmark for donkey’s years, during which I’ve had dealings with Norwegians quite a few times. I have to say I understand perfectly Bokmål, but Nynorsk is about as intelligible to me as that weird Swedish they speak in Skåne.

   Moreover, when I speak Danish to a Nynorsk speaking Norwegian, I get the sense they revel in my perplexity at their replies. I can understand they insist on Nynorsk when speaking with other Norwegians, but can’t they switch to Bokmål when it is a matter of simple communication? Or do Nynorsk speakers prefer English to Bokmål?

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @Alan Robinson @Alan
     ” Or do Nynorsk speakers prefer English to Bokmål?”

     Good point, Alan! Some are quite ”aggressive” about Nynorsk…

     But please do remember that Nynorsk is only a way of WRITING Norwegian!
     Norwegians don’t really speak Nynorsk – they speak dialects.
     The dialect in Oslo is very close to Bokmål – therefore some people say they ”speak Bokmål” (which is not true: they speak Oslo dialect). Likeweise, the dialect in Sogndal is very close to Nynorsk – but the don’t speak Nynorsk, they just speak their own dialect! 🙂

     Norwegians will NOT compromise on their dialect, as they’re generally very proud of their roots. They also expect everybody else to understand them. That’s why, on Norwegian TV, you’ll hear people speaking in Trøndelag dialect, in Stavanger dialect…

     You’re right, heavy dialect speakers SHOULD take more care when speaking with Danes!
     In Denmark, we don’t have the ”I’m proud to speak my dialect, and everybody has to understand me” attitude.
     For example, a Sønderjysk speaker will switch to Rigsdansk (Common Danish) when he’s on holiday in Copenhagen.

     I heard about a Sogning (someone from Sogn og Fjordane) who was visiting Oslo. He wanted to order a sausage, so he said, in his dialect: Eg vil tinga ei pylsa! (I’d like to order a sausage.)
     The Oslo guy didn’t understand a word! (In Oslo dialect, it would’ve been: Je(g) vil bestille en/ei pølse.) But the Sogning just repeated his phrase. He refused to change any of his words. In the end, he just went away without any sausage. He’d rather starve than alter his dialect! But that’s an extreme example, though. 🙂

7. 

    

   MOHAMMAD:

   I WANT MORE LESONES LIKE THAT BUT HOW CAN I GET MORE NYNORSK LESONES I WANT TO LEARN NYNORSK COZ I LEAVE IN SOGN OG FJORDANE

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @MOHAMMAD Hei Mohammad! I would love to do a Nynorsk blog. Unfortunately, this blog has to cater to the majority of Norwegian learners = Bokmål. Maybe I could do another Nynorsk post. Thanks for your interest and good luck in beautiful Sogn! 🙂

8. 

    

   Neil:

   My great grandfather immigrated from Stavangar (hope I spelled that right) to America in the late 1800s. I recently got a copy of a journal he kept during a visit back to Norway in 1904. I know he learned to read and write before a Norwegian language had been taught in schools, so his initial literacy was in the Danish used in Norway in the 1870s. (He could write both the regular Latin alphabet and the then-moribund Gothic cursive used in Norway.) I cannot make any sense out of some passages in his 1904 journal, and I wonder whether he was writing in dialect. I can find no online sources to help me. Here’s the first line (at least as I interpret it via his cursive handwriting): “åg elskar du vogande lanar…” (that last word might be …I’m not sure). I think is ‘Oh!’. I believe is a form of ‘to love’ or ‘love’, though it’s not spelled with an ending online. I think is some form of ‘to cradle’, but I’m not sure. is ‘you’ (I assume). Is it something like: “Oh love, thou cradlest [lanar?]”? Any help you can give would be appreciated.

   • 

      

     Bjørn A. Bojesen:

     @Neil Hei Neil! That sounds a bit like dialect to me. 🙂 If you change some of the vowels, it makes a bit more sense: ”Eg elskar dei vogande lanar.” ”I love the xxx-ing xxx-s.” Oh, actually I think it could even be ”og elskar du vogande lanar…” ”and if you love xxx-ing xx-s”. Do any of the readers know the meaning of ”vogande lanar”? Any help would be appreciated. 🙂 PS Yes, you might be right it has something to do with ”craddle”. But I’m still confused.