Archive for 'Language'
“sj” vs. “kj” Posted by kari on Jan 9, 2010
If you haven’t already been confused about the difference in these two sounds, “sj” and “kj”, I hope this post prevents any future confusion regarding the matter. There is a small, but important difference between the pronunciation of the two; it is sometimes difficult for beginners to hear the difference, and even more difficult to…
norske navn Posted by kari on Oct 27, 2009
Norwegian names (notice there is no “er” ending on the indefinite plural “names” because navn is a one-syllable “et” noun). It’s always for me to learn about names and their origins or what name something equates to in my own language. Names are kind of funny things, right? It seems people can always come up…
Lange ord Posted by kari on Aug 6, 2009
long words. Norsk is notorious for long words, most of which are conglomerations of several words. A professional linguist would probably be able to tell you why this is the case, but I can give speculation a shot-why create an entirely new word when you can use 2 or more existing words to describe something? …
Water Posted by kari on Jul 6, 2009
Vann. It covers the majority of the earth’s surface and is essential for all life forms. Norway is home to many bodies of water, including streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, fjords, seas, oceans, harbours, etc. As I mentioned in the last post about nude beaches in Norway, even if public nudity were not accepted as much as it is…
Sami Posted by kari on Jun 27, 2009
This is a picture of a Sami couple in traditional costume in Oslo on Syttende Mai in 2006. Upon first glance, this word looks like it could be Japanese, but it is not. The Sami people are the indigenous people that inhabit parts of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They are among the largest…
the passage of time Posted by kari on Jun 3, 2009
I think it’s about time I address the concept of time since there are so many words that describe it and stand for it. You might be wondering what I mean. I mean days of the week, months in the year, long ago, in the future, tomorrow, etc. So we’ll be looking at both nouns…
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…