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?  Even if it’s longer than it’s English counterpart…no reason, as far as I’m concerned.  Norwegian is a simple language and the abundance of words strung together to describe one thing is definite evidence of this simplicity-one of the many reasons I love norsk. 

Time to learn some lange ord!

menneskerettighet means human rights (et mennekse is a human, en rettighet is a privilege or right)

lungebetennelse means pneumonia (en lunge is a lung, en betennelse is an inflammation)

luftfartsdirektoratet means Civil Aeronautics Administration (luftfart means aviation, et direktorat is a Directorate)

en forbedringsanstalt is a reformatory (forbedring means improvement and en anstalt is an institution)

inflytelsesrik means influential (en inflytelse is an influence, rik is rich)

et helsetilsyn means hygiene (helse is health, et tilsyn is an inspection)

hemmelighetsfullhet means secretiveness (hemmelig means secret/confidential, hemmelighet is secrecy, and het is the common subject for abstract nouns, meaning -ity, -ment, or -ness)

folkevandring means migration of nations (et folk is a people, or in this case a nation, en vandring is a hike, a ramble, or walk)

et tilleggsspørsmål means a supplementary question (tillegg is in addition to, et spørsmål is a question)

en standpunktkarakter means a mark based on character (et standpunkt is a standpoint and en karakter is a character)

et tankeeksperiment is a hypothesis or supposition (en tanke is a thought and et eksperiment is…well I think you can figure it out)

There are many more of these long word/multi-words.  Of course we have them in English and I imagine in all languages, but norsk seems to have an abundance of them.  And aren’t they fun to say?

�