{"id":1459,"date":"2012-09-17T20:11:26","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T20:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2012-09-17T20:17:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T20:17:19","slug":"not-every-a-is-a-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/not-every-a-is-a-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Every A is a Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

\u201dGutta p\u00e5 tur\u201d was a popular tv show a few years ago. The name means \u201dThe boys on tour\u201d. In official bokm\u00e5l, it should\u2019ve been \u201dGuttene p\u00e5 tur\u201d. Plural \u201dthe\u201d forms of masculine nouns ONLY end in -ene in the standard language, but a word like \u201dgutta\u201d is often heard in East Norwegian dialects (including Oslo).<\/p><\/div>\n

Remember when we talked about Langfjella<\/a>, the mountain range that causes the clouds to drop all their rain in Western Norway, leaving Eastern Norway a lot drier? Now, what kind of name is Langfjella <\/strong>really\u00a0\u2026 it has an -a ending, so clearly it must be the \u201dthe\u201d version of a feminine noun, right? Well, not quite so. One of the most frustrating\/fascinating things about languages is the fact that there\u2019s always exceptions<\/span>! In Norwegian there may be even more variation than in most other languages, as you\u2019ve got loads of dialects and two official written languages (bokm\u00e5l<\/strong>, the most widely used form, and nynorsk<\/strong>, which I promise to tell you something about in a while). Language is a political question in Norway, and there\u2019s quite a bit of tension between those who think that the written language should be conservative and \u201dbookish\u201d, and those who argue that it should rather be \u201dcolloquial\u201d and closer to the (spoken) dialects. Trying to appease both camps, Norsk spr\u00e5kr\u00e5d<\/a>, the Norwegian Language Council, has allowed some \u201ddialectal\u201d forms with a-endings to enter the official dictionaries. You already know the feminine, so let\u2019s look at the remaining \u201da-words\u201d:<\/p>\n