{"id":1535,"date":"2013-01-20T16:30:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T16:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2014-08-22T18:41:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:41:13","slug":"the-two-flavours-of-norwegian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/the-two-flavours-of-norwegian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Two Flavours of Norwegian"},"content":{"rendered":"

As some of you may know, there are two kinds of Norwegian:\u00a0bokm\u00e5l<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0nynorsk<\/strong>. (Okay, I\u2019ve promised you this post for a while now!) There\u2019s no need to worry \u2013 these are just two different ways of writing the same language. I mean, even English-speakers can\u2019t agree on whether the mix of black and white should be written\u00a0grey<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0gray<\/em>! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In 95 % of the cases, the Norwegian you\u2019re going to encounter, will be\u00a0bokm\u00e5l<\/strong>. (That\u2019s also the language you\u2019ll learn through Transparent\u2019s courses<\/a>.) It might, however, be nice to know something about\u00a0nynorsk<\/strong>\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n

In 1814, Norway got its first constitution and dropped out of a political union with Denmark, where it had been for 4 centuries (only to enter a new union with Sweden). During the years with the Danes, Danish<\/a> had become the official written language in Norway. City people, particularly of the upper classes, spoke a kind of \u201dNorwegianized Danish\u201d. People in the countryside kept on speaking dialects that were less influenced by Danish, and a little bit more similar to the\u00a0gammelnorsk<\/strong>\u00a0(Old Norwegian) of the Viking Age.<\/p>\n

Now, what to do? Some people, notably Knud Knudsen (1812-1895) proposed keeping the Danish written language, while slowly reforming it and making it more \u201dNorwegian\u201d. This proposal is the origin of modern\u00a0bokm\u00e5l<\/strong>, which literally means \u201dbook language\u201d. Today, it is distinctly Norwegian, but still has a lot in common with Danish. The phrase \u201dI have a boat\u201d is\u00a0Jeg har en b\u00e5d\u00a0<\/em>in Danish, but\u00a0Jeg har en b\u00e5t<\/strong>\u00a0in bokm\u00e5l Norwegian.<\/p>\n

Ivar Aasen (1813-1896) dreamt of a \u201dless Danish\u201d and more \u201dauthentic Norwegian\u201d language. For decades, he travelled the Norwegian countryside, gathering information about Norwegian dialects. He eventually launched an entirely new written language, based on rural dialects. His proposal went on to become modern\u00a0nynorsk<\/strong>, which means \u201dnew Norwegian\u201d (as a continuation of the Vikings\u2019 Old Norwegian). If you\u2019re used to bokm\u00e5l, nynorsk may seem a bit more Icelandic or even German. \u201dI have a boat\u201d is\u00a0Eg har ein b\u00e5t<\/strong>\u00a0in nynorsk.<\/p>\n

Today, about 13 % of all Norwegians use nynorsk in their everyday lives. Nynorsk has its stronghold in Western Norway, while the Oslo area is almost 100 % \u201dbokm\u00e5l\u201d. Both languages are official, and every Norwegian schoolchild has to learn \u2019em both. (A lot of parents and children complain about this!)<\/p>\n

Please note that bokm\u00e5l and nynorsk are\u00a0written<\/em>\u00a0languages. Most Norwegians are proud dialect-speakers, even in settings where Englishmen or Germans would switch to a \u201dstandard language\u201d. Just turn on Norwegian tv, and you\u2019ll hear! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Some decades ago writing something in nynorsk was almost a political statement. There was a \u201dlanguage war\u201d going on that would leave foreigners baffled. Nowadays, it is more of a personal choice. Some people choose to write in nynorsk because they find it closer to their own dialect. Other people pick it up because they think it is somehow more beautiful or \u201dpoetic\u201d than the majority language.<\/p>\n

Next week, I\u2019ll be sharing some easy phrases with you, in both \u201dflavours\u201d of Norwegian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As some of you may know, there are two kinds of Norwegian:\u00a0bokm\u00e5l\u00a0and\u00a0nynorsk. (Okay, I\u2019ve promised you this post for a while now!) There\u2019s no need to worry \u2013 these are just two different ways of writing the same language. I mean, even English-speakers can\u2019t agree on whether the mix of black and white should be…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8214,274066,274067,8215,146],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-language","tag-bokmal","tag-ivar-aasen","tag-knud-knudsen","tag-nynorsk","tag-spelling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1948,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions\/1948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}