Norwegian! A North Germanic Language of Norway

[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone! If you're learning Norwegian, check out NorwegianClass101 ►( bit.ly/Norwegianclass101 )◄ - one of the best ways to learn Norwegian. For 33 other languages, check out my review! ► langfocus.com/innovative-language-podcasts/ ◄ (Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)

[@RiverWorksCo]

I signed up to Norwegian class because I want to learn the language. Thanks for the tip. I'm learning bokmål on Duolingo already but I want to make it a bit more complex. If that makes any sense. Good video tho 👍

[@sigynfoxy69]

as a Norwegian person i have to admit the way you say bokmål and nynorsk is just- GREAT you sound like you know how to speak Norwegian

[@pieredepleintdedordogne8013]

i'd say norwegian has so much more to offer than most people think. learning about bokmål especially when your native language is english, gives you a great insight that will help you with learning other germanic languages. long live Norway and their weird way of speaking danish! just kidding norgies, love yous to bits!

[@sigynfoxy69]

@@pieredepleintdedordogne8013 our history is really interesting too! You should read some about it ^-^

[@seanruss08]

@@RiverWorksCo I've played Norwegian on Duolingo quite a lot and enjoyed it. Where'd you sign up for language class, is it online? thanks

OMG, a language with only one form of a verb per tense. That is so beautiful.

[@TheShanoGamerPlays]

I know right😄

[@mountainheap]

It's nice... and then you discover that there are a lot of irregular verbs in Norwegian. :)

[@danielvanr.8681]

Afrikaans is even more user-friendly. Imperative, infinitive and present tense are identical (with very few exceptions). Past tense has merged with present perfect, and the past participle is formed by tacking "ge" in front of the verb. 😎

[@LaVieDeReine86]

It's identical in danish also.

[@danielvanr.8681]

@@LaVieDeReine86 And in Swedish / och på svenska. ;)

[@chandler224]

Norwegian is the first language that I have actually enjoyed learning! As a native English speaker, I have struggled to learn a second language and gave up multiple times. Then I discovered Norwegian and something just clicked! The simple grammar, easy conjugations, and many recognizable words. If you are thinking about learning Norwegian as an English speaker, I would highly recommend it. Jeg elsker norge!

[@RandomNorwegianGuy.]

I'm Norwegian and I feel the same for English

[@n3x0n35]

Good our language is good then. Yes it is easy to learn.

[@acer-xx5cf]

jeg har begynt å lære norsk; 😊 jeg elsker Norge ♥️♥️

[@n3x0n35]

@@acer-xx5cf bra du har lært språket vårt da

[@acer-xx5cf]

@@n3x0n35 takk 😊; Jeg lærer norsk fra youtube og Duolingo; jeg kan skrive og forstå norsk. men jeg vil definitivt finne det er vanskelig å snakke med norge folk 😅🇳🇴

[@ZenoxCombe]

This man knows more about my own language than I do

[@SauceyRedHN]

ikr, we don't have to think about the rules, I didn't know half of this, or I've just forgotten cuz I never cared, I just go off of what I know.

[@rajoba7981]

@@SauceyRedHN If I start thinking of rules, I soon doubt that I have a mother tongue at all, and begin to suspect I just make a lot of it up on the go :-D

[@brage2333]

Hei jeg er norsk= hello i am norwegian

[@lillyhasund1846]

Same

[@athlan03]

That happens in every language. We just use the language and don't care about the rules and stuff.

[@SaintElvardielSHMD]

I'm a native speaker of Norwegian and must say your video is very accurate and well made. Now to answer your question, I live in the South East part of Norway and use the Bokmål standard in writing and speaking. In my experience it's easy to understand all the dialects, except maybe some strange words you learn along the way. My grandma had an accent more similar to Nynorsk so I learned it from a young age. There are lots of people who speak with a dialect locally and in media. It's generally thought to be a quality that your dialect is specific to a region and it's not something people hide or are ashamed of. I find the different dialects charming and comforting in their own special way.

[@sjokomelk]

You still use a dialect when speaking. It is the "south eastern Norwegian/Oslo area dialect". Nobody in Norway talks in pure Bokmål or Nynorsk.

[@SaintElvardielSHMD]

That's correct because bokmål and nynorsk are written languages. I guess I was referencing the connection between the dialects that are in the bokmål dominant areas with the nynorsk dominant areas. I remember now that my grandma used to talk nordnorsk or "North-norwegian".

[@sasthemento]

My uncle actually avoided a speeding ticket by demanding to get the letter in Nynorsk instead of Bokmål. Anyone one in Norway have the right to get official documents in the written Norwegian language they learnt as kids, and the police office didn’t bother to translate the document for him

[@Ricky911_]

Lmao

[@NoahNobody]

I once avoided a parking ticket by contesting that the warden didn't have the ability to travel forward in time. It worked.

[@alegoncalves472]

Xd

[@tr-h7217]

"Jeg vil spise" isn't really the correct translation of "I will eat". "Jeg vil spise" means "I want to eat". "I will eat" is "Jeg skal spise". I believe the word "skal" is a cognate of the English word "shall"

[@polinapopova1178]

T R-H it’s acceptable to use «vil» if the context allows it, but «skal» is more specific for sure

[@dionysiussidorius4615]

But we could try to use 'will' in the meaning of desire, the same as 'vil' in the meaning of plans because English will is cognate to 'vil' And yes, actually you're right.

[@illillyillyo]

Omg I was trying to figure out why it’s “skal” but if it’s a cognate of “shall,” then that makes so much freaking sense!!!! This is so exciting, I love it.

[@angharadhafod]

@@illillyillyo In English, the words "will" and "shall" have essentially merged to one meaning. Occasionally, usually archaically, one still hears "will" being used to express desire. This is a loss to the English language, and since learning Norwegian I do to some extent try to reintroduce this into my English. "I shall" - it is something I am going to do. "I will" - it is something that I wish to do.

[@xtremeslots8074]

I was gonna correct you but these guys just did it so u already know

[@alexanderstormdahl2562]

Watching this as a Norwegian feels like taking a class where you already know all the answers. I feel so proud, thank you.

[@SauceyRedHN]

I'm a fellow Norwegian and I have completely forgotten most of these rules xD (går på VG1)

[@ttg4723]

@@SauceyRedHN haha eg å

[@duplicake]

Veldig Ja

[@noahwankenobi2371]

Same

[@trond-erikbroks7770]

Had the exact same feeling for the first two minutes of the video, until I realised I would fail miserably.

[@MMM18092]

I'm Swedish and to me, all Norwegians sound like eternally happy kindergarden teachers. There's something about the intonation of the sentences.

[@gridbullgaming7777]

this ^

[@malinfelicia5140]

Bahahah

[@willmcpherson2]

Makes it much easier to learn 😄

[@briteddy9759]

You gave Norwegian a very nice compliment. Swedish is also a beautiful language.

[@MD-zr1wy]

Well, it really depends on the dialect.

[@Cae_the_Kitsune]

Ah, the three genders. Women, men, and mountains.

[@Luredreier]

Kudos. ^^

[@sundhaug92]

Masculine, feminine, none, (and for pronouns we also have non-binary)

[@Luredreier]

@@sundhaug92 It was a joke... But thanks for reinforcing the stereotype that we have no humor... -_-

[@TheAurgelmir]

Unless you are in Bergen, a city surrounded by mountains, and which has only masculine and mountain nouns. Yes, even women are masculine in Bergen.

[@SwBeyond]

You can also identify as Fjord.

[@mortentefre7760]

Here are some dialect variations to the word “I”: Jeg, eg, je, jæ, e, æ, i. Spoken Norwegian can be a challenge.

[@lucianatykhelle6405]

After one year living in Norway, Bergenstest B, very proud og myself, I got a job. One week after starting, an offshore worker called me and said he was going home. I couldn't understand him as he said something like Eg sku hjim, or something. It took me some minutes to get it. Lol

[@siljeuglenes9789]

@@lucianatykhelle6405 i have lived in Norway my entire life and i dont allways understand..... and verry manny dont understand me

[@EirikAnd99]

Not to mention æg and ei

[@cirlex5104]

@@EirikAnd99 and ej. Theres probably other aswell

[@ole998]

Let`s not forget the classical «ej»

[@thavibu]

As a Norwegian I often find it easier to understand Swedish or Danish than some of the Norwegian dialects

[@thomashaapalainen4108]

As a northern American I find Scots a separate west Germanic language easier to understand than the American southern dialect

[@olehenriknor]

Nå må vi ikke gå av skafte her, dansk er uforståelig av alle, til og med av dansker

[@fiddibelow]

Vossamål kan være vrient

[@jeanettehamilton5941]

Jørn Middelborg at Thavibu Sir, maybe you can help. I met someone on line said was born in Norway England but moved to the United States years ago. I'm having problems understanding the dialect. He writes English better than he speaks it. we've never met in person. He's working in Alaska till December this year. we've spoken once on the telephone. but mostly always online. is this possible for him to have a deeply Norwegian accent although he has English speaking training from the school's systems.

[@Luredreier]

@@jeanettehamilton5941 Um, what exactly do you need help with if I may ask?

[@shipwreck9146]

My favorite Narnia book: The Woman, the Man, and the Mountain.

[@karolgdynia]

When you learn Norwegian, eventually you get to the point when you have meaningful talk with a Norwegian folk. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation you really start to believe in your language skills. And then... a new guy joins the chat and you face the reality. You can understand just one dialect. Another 100 are waiting for you 😂 Ok. It's not so bad, but almost 😂

[@artlover5060]

Also for outsiders with more Scandinavian knowledge, those who are from Western Norway sound like they're from Denmark while those far up in Northern Norway sound like they're from Sweden and honestly let's not talk about Norwegians from Trønderlag.

[@systrame1522]

@@artlover5060 I mean most norwegians do understand most of the dialects. I have no problem with the dialect from Trøndelag and the dialect from Western Norway.

[@artlover5060]

@@systrame1522 But I also believe that the ability to understand other dialects depends on where you're from.

[@systrame1522]

@@artlover5060 That is true, I suppose I am lucky to be from the place I am from which is in the Eastern Part of the country. I am capable of understanding most of the dialects.

[@PSNGauder]

@@artlover5060 As a Trønder, I have difficulties with Danish and certain dialects in Sogn. The rest is no problem. Swedish is easy peasy.

[@hkonhkon6953]

There are so many dialects that you can often tell exactly what town the person you are speaking to is from

[@65fhd4d6h5]

Is this true? That would be fascinating!

[@larsmartinbrevik8334]

@@65fhd4d6h5 in the big cities you can even hear what part of town they're from, based on their dialect

[@rispaareva]

@@65fhd4d6h5 its possible, but requiers some careful listening and quite a lot of knowladge about it. Hearing which part of the country you are from is realy easy.

[@andyjay729]

China: Hold my huangju

[@Gummi1984]

Probably because before there were roads in Norway, travelling between regions was so difficult because of the mountains and fjords, that people rarely did it and simply stayed in their area. That's my guess. We had this problem in my country Iceland in the past, thus we developed different accents, but in modern Iceland the regional accents are fading in most parts and Icelandic is sounding more and more the same no matter where you are.

[@alfhildr9678]

Fun fact: it's common courtesy that if you receive an official/formal email you should respond with the same written Norwegian as in the email you received. Always fun growing up listening to my dad curse under his breath as he tried to figure out how to respond to his work emails in Nynorsk (New Norwegian) - he has always hated Nynorsk hah.

[@cornstalks4122]

Honestly same hater nynorsk av hele mitt hjerte (person uten hunkjønn her (bergenser))

[@bjornmu]

Not just common courtesy, if you work for a public office you *must* answer in the same Norwegian, at least if it's a formal reply.

[@filipavp2]

Very interesting ! Thanks for the fun fact ^^ I'm Polish living in France and I love your language. I will start to learn Norwegian really soon and then go and see your beautiful country. Wish me luck haha PS: I guess I will chose bokmål for his historic value but it looks like a tough game with those two variants. ^^'

[@mackereltabbie]

As a civil servant, I have to do this. Honestly it's not that hard :) just have to adjust spell check and read it out loud to make sure it doesn't sound too stiff (avoid passive constructions!!!)

[@Luredreier]

@@filipavp2 Both have historic value. However you're probably picking right anyway. There's more users of Bokmål then Nynorsk so it's a good start and something you'll see more off.

[@joonaaskr]

You are honestly better at explaining grammar than our Norwegian teachers over here

[@mecolour591]

I’m Norwegian and watching this.. I guess I’m just checking in to see if I can still speak it 😂

[@Mario_Skoglund]

MeColour: samme

[@paolanataliadelgado2986]

I didn't know Norwegian was soo complicated! Hahaha I'm Argentinian and I work in customer service at an airport. It's funny when argentinians ask for Norwegian flights (domestic and international fligts operates in Argentina). They use so many funny ways 😂 It's very difficult for us to pronunce "Norwegian". I'd like to know Norwegian. Is it possible to communicate in English?

[@Mario_Skoglund]

Cool man

[@Mario_Skoglund]

#Norwegian.com

[@nee2199]

Øæåøæåøæåøæåøæåøæåøæåøæåø

[@Ecolopa]

As a native Faroese speaker, it's really fun to hear Nynorsk. It's pretty dang similar to Faroese, especially with its pronunciation and spelling of certain words. 😄

[@Tankervoy]

Ecolopa I’m from Northern Norway and I find many similarities between my dialect and Faroese. Especially in how it’s pronounced. I sometimes feel more of a linguistic familiarity with the Faroese than with the languages in southern Scandinavia!

[@joankim123]

As a Norwegian with a Faroese friend, when I'm overhearing her talk, pretty frequently I'll subconsciously focus on what she's saying because I mistake it for Norwegian. It will sound like regular Norwegian without an accent. And then the next sentence I may not understand a single word.

[@toolcruise]

Faroese sounds kinda like Norwegian with an English accent to me. Faroese has that English R.

[@Tankervoy]

ToolCruise My Northern Norwegian dialect has that R as well

[@toolcruise]

LPjan Hvor i Nord Norge er du fra?

[@madshagen5849]

As a Dane, reading Norwegian is like reading badly spelled Danish (ie Norwegian ortography actually makes sense...). Listening to Norwegian is like listening to an over-the-top person who just, in the morning, drank a can of coffee, took 10 km of skiing and snorted a line of kokaine, while I, poor Dane just came out of bed and is still sipping through my first cup of coffee... (overfriske nordmænd!!! slap af!!!)

[@ohrosberg]

Absolutely right. And we Norwegians think that you Danes - after slipping out of bed and sipping coffee are chewing on a hot potato while trying to speak - hehe... I have to add though, that I have been reading text and not realising that it is Danish before reading about half an A4 page of it. It can be that similar. Also, visiting a Danish Zoo years back I was stopped by a roughly seven year old boy who sternly told me and my wife: "Hvorfor taler I så merkeligt? Min mor og min far sier at jeg alltid må tale riktigt" (Why are you speaking so weird? My mother and father tells me that I always have to speak correctly) and went on about how his parents were adamant about his pronunciation of words. Oh well, we have laughed at that so many times, and the parents of the kid looked very flustered and never approached us... So yes, "det er deiligt å være Norsk i Danmark". (It is great to be Norwegian in Denmark).

[@ganjafi59]

Mads Hagen when I read Danish I feel like I'm reading the most fancy and rich person version of Norwegian. I feel like a Norwegian embedsmann from the 1800's :p

[@stonywings5888]

This is more or less what my new Danish classmate said. Sometimes she just stares at me like "hææ?". At the same time I often miss what she is saying cuz of the potato :p

[@nolbo38]

Danish people with a potato stuck in their throat while they speak

[@danishdude6750]

@@ohrosberg "And we Norwegians think that you Danes - after slipping out of bed and sipping coffee are chewing on a hot potato while trying to speak" That's what we do.

[@maren5140]

i'm a native Norwegian and i found it very interesting to learn how our sentences are built up, it's not something you pay much attention to when you're fluent. I write Bokmål and speak a dialect very close to bokmål, with a big influence from english and german. and YES it is very annoying to have two languages, i mean, it's easy to understand norwegians speaking Nynorsk, it just sucks that you have to write exams in the other language.

[@OsoMarcol]

Yes, you’re beautiful. You MUST BE Norwegian the most beautiful women in the whole world.

[@maren5140]

@@OsoMarcol from what I heard (don't take my word for it) the reason why there are so many beautiful women in Scandinavia is that Vikings kidnapped the beauties from other countries, like England

[@steffen6987]

morsomt hvordan du tror nynorsk er et annet språk

[@jenniegjerdsbakk9478]

@@steffen6987 noken gonga høres nynirsk ut som et anna språk, og ej he vokse opp med nn som hovudmål.

[@steffen6987]

@@jenniegjerdsbakk9478 "høres ut" man snakker ikke nynorsk. nynorsk er en av de to "skriftlige" målformene. lol

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

Due to the whole dialect continuum, it can be easier for some Norwegians to understand western swedes than it is to understand some other groups of Norwegians.

[@peterfireflylund]

Marco Meijer Some of those Western Swedes live in territory stolen by Sweden...

[@christoffervogt4622]

Most norwegians are very good at understanding other dialekt almost automatically

[@roatskm2337]

Actually some times norwegians have an easier time understanding his Swedish neighbours, better than a norwegian living in the western part of Norway! :D

[@eriknorrby8340]

@@peterfireflylund well, it is rightfully ours so...

[@Utgardaloki76]

@@peterfireflylund Some of those western Swedes live in territories stolen by the Norwegians later taken (back) by the emerging Swedish kingdom.

[@-RunninNGunnin-]

I'm from Finland. My friends have told me that when I'm very very drunk I start speaking Norwegian :D

[@SauceyRedHN]

lmao

[@Rimrock300]

Finnish is actually Norwegian, but words are turned backwards and many equal letters added just to confuse attackers. Like Norwegian 'Hallo', Finnish 'oollaah' This my grandmother told me.

[@sigridrp]

Oh dear. I go the other way round: my mother tongue is Norwegian, but I speak Finnish when I’m drunk. Are you my mirror twin??

[@Marita360brat]

Weird. I’m from Norway and when I’m very very drunk my friends say I start speaking Finnish

[@emmaa4997]

I'm from sweden and when I'm drunk I start speaking finnland-swedish

[@reaumurg423]

I'm learning Norwegian for one and a half years now and I just love the variety of the dialects. I have the great wish to go to Norway. I love Norway! Jeg har begynt å lære meg norsk for et og et halvt år siden og jeg elsker mangfoldet i de forskjellige dialektene. Jeg har det store ønsket å få reise til Norge. Jeg elsker Norge!

[@smagodt7642]

Nynorsk er betre! Så kjekt at du vil reise til Norge, håper dette kjem til å gå i oppfyllelse, og så vil eg absolutt anbefale å reise til vest-landet (western part of Norway) som verkeleg har den vakreste naturen i Norge, Europa og kanskje til og med verden. Besøk Sognefjorden!! Det er eit must!

[@reaumurg423]

@@smagodt7642 Ok, jeg skal prøve! Takk for svaret! Jeg håper å reise til så mange landsdeler som mulig og Vestlandet er faktisk en del som jeg synes er kjempevakker!

[@pederwikheimaas2925]

just a tip: if you are going to norway you should check out Flåm. they have fjord safari and you should take the flåm train up to the zipline take it down and cycle rallarvegen back to the city

[@Xirque666]

@@smagodt7642 Sjekk ut Nærøyfjorden som er op Unescos Verdsarvliste. Innerst i fjorden Dom er ein av Armand til Sognefjorden, så ligg Gudvangen og Viking Valley.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I can recommend studying here! :) If not for anything else, then to experience all the four seasons in a magnificent landscape (might have to travel some times depending of location)

[@jackjohnson2309]

Having spent most of the last year studying Norwegian, this all still sounds so complex and complicated when laid out and explained, but it all becomes very intuitive pretty quickly. That’s been my experience so far at least, coming from American English.

[@Jerimbo]

Last time I was this early, the North Germanic languages were still Old Norse

[@jamespfp]

First to the Thing, eh?

[@Odinsday]

Last time I was this early, we were still speaking Proto-Germanic.

[@Radio.Raptor]

I know for a fact that is a lie... You couldn't possibly have watched this over dialup!

[@jamespfp]

@@sebastianplaum4667 The word "Thing" survives in English, of course; not everyone understands that this means a "Meeting", a place where unions might be formed... #GROSS XD

[@jamespfp]

@@Radio.Raptor XD #Priceless

[@rhov233]

Norwegian here: I write a somewhat mixed version when I do personal communication with some local dialect words. I write Nynorsk or Bokmål depending on who I am communicating with at work. I understand every dialect, though some dialects from the middle of the country takes a bit more focus while listening to understand.

[@LuulitaCD]

@@dan78789 Doesn't look right to me. That would be "with whom I communicate". But, English is my second language, and I'm by no means an expert.

[@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231]

Daniel Pedersen Who cares?

[@cleliac.2470]

@@LuulitaCD I don't know how useful or helpful it really is, but I found this: english.stackexchange.com/questions/7932/with-who-vs-with-whom and this: www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/who-versus-whom

[@ghlscitel6714]

@@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231 me. I paid money to learn english. If "whom" is no longer valid I want my money back.

[@ragnarostheelementallord9760]

Kor du e ifra?

[@bebop777]

So I'm learning my own language, in another language. I should go to bed Edit: This is one of my more mediocre comments and somehow it's probably the most liked one. I now see why boring comments have thousands of likes

[@andreashaveraen4325]

"He´s to dangerous to be kept alive!"

[@justmart4455]

Sleep Isac, sleep.

[@smagodt7642]

Samme her hahahaha, egt høyre eg på kor mykje feil han tar, men whatever

[@smagodt7642]

@Matty Bruno Lucas Zenere Salas .... "I'm doing the same thing, but really I am just listening to how much he gets wrong, but whatever". You're welcome.

[@Spinal1]

samma her

[@christiansyversen3935]

I speak a version of bokmål (Oslo), everyone (virtually) understands each other, Norwegians are the best out of the Scandinavian countries (maybe because of all the different dialects) of mutual understanding between all “3” languages, (it’s been researched), followed by the Swedes and dead last: the Danes who often can’t tell the difference between Norwegian (speak slowly and meticulously, maybe even throw a word we stopped using 200 years ago, if they are willing to answer in Danish and not English, congratulations!) and Swedish... If I had a dime for every time they thought I was Swedish, me answering Norwegian and them suddenly being nicer, I’d be set...

[@beorlingo]

I remember a train trip way back in the north of Sweden. A Danish school class was on a trip. There was me from Stockholm and this norrlänning dude. They understood him well, me, to them I was speaking greek.

[@jojokerus]

When I had lived in Oslo for a few years I was helping a friend on his fathers farm in Voss. We were moving sheep around and the farmer told me to "lat att grinda". I said "hva?" and he repeated himself several times but I was clueless. He walked me down to the gate to the pasture and demonstrated how to close it. Then I understood that what would have been "lukk igjen porten" for a city person is "lat att grinda" on the farm in Voss.

[@ToreKlock]

Reminds me of an expression we use (humorously) to tell someone to shut the door: "Lat att grinda! kynne frys!" meaning "Close the gate, the cows are cold".

[@peterudbjorg]

Som det stod på planovergangene langs Numedalsbanen: "Vara dykk for tog - lat at grinda!" :)

[@flaket2869]

That is the advantage of having cousins living on a farm

[@Squossifrage]

No, “port” is used to refer to a gate or wide opening in a wall. A gate in a fence is called “grind”. An Oslo native would have said, “lukk igjen grind(en|a)”.

[@haukerikjacobsen3580]

@@Squossifrage or, you know... They use "port". I'm from Stavanger and I said "selv" instead of "sjølv" for around 19 years until I decided I wanted to use my own dialect. You don't always follow the "standard" of the dialects respectively.

[@mywave82]

As a Norwegian speaker: Having two different versions of the written and spoken language in everyday life is OK, since we are exposed to both through national TV broadcast etc since we are children. In school however it is harder, since you often have a tendency to only learn one of them well, but the local language exams in junior high and high school are done twice. So for people that have minor learning disabilities, it can lead to not being able to study further at university, since they are both on the list of required classes that must have been passed. If you however have major learning disabilities, you can get exception. For the local dialects, it can be tougher. Most people that grow up in areas were the spoken dialects diverts far from either of the official written languages, some few have a tendency to try speak closer to the written form when speaking to strangers; sometimes with mixed results. All in all, it makes it interesting to be a tourist in our own country.

[@bollabjorn2410]

As a fellow Norwegian (northwestern dialect speaker with bokmål written background) I would say that for me the most challenging aspect of learning nynorsk is that there is so little exposure to be had to spoken standard nynorsk that it is totally drowned out by nynorsk sounding dialects that may not be "correct" nynorsk. This makes my preferred non-painful way of learning languages by listening a lot and parroting useless. And even having put some effort into learning it via text and in school, the lack of exposure to the spoken language kills the language feel. Rather, going by feel will inevitably drop you into some dialect.This is speculation on my part, but maybe Latin poses the same problem if you speak say Italian.

[@Kushufy]

It's not OK at all, nynorsk needs to be made illegal and they should discontinue teaching it in schools. There's no reason for it exists, all it does is make less people understand each other and bloat up the school system. It's a stain on this country and only a symbol of toxic nationalism and xenophobia

[@snowgw2]

I think you should've stressed that Nynorsk and Bokmål are WRITTEN languages. Hardly anyone speaks pure bokmål as it is written. I write primarily Nynorsk, but my dialect is square between the two, using words from both languages. Nynorsk is great because it allows for substantial grammatical variations, up until 2013 you could even use i-endings in certain verbs.

[@bxzidffbxzidff]

Yeah, it's interesting how different the spoken language of people using the same written form are. Here in Bergen we speak so differently from the people in the east, with many similarities to nynorsk, but we are still a proud enclave of bokmål in the west.

[@sugarinmywounds]

@Eurovision MGP Yeah, Standard Østnorsk, but not Bokmål. It is simply impossible to speak bokmål or nynorsk, because they are only written languages, although many dialects are very similar to how they would have sounded.

[@cirlex5104]

@Eurovision MGP That's not true. No one says "jeg" for instance. They say "jei"

[@trymstensvig746]

Eurovision MGP that is not true. Oslo people doesnt speak Bokmål. They speak the Oslo dialect.

[@BadByte]

As grown man I still hate "nynorsk" and the sadist Ivar Aasen. So many hours spent on crap that is not in any way useful, Klingon would have been more useful than nynorsk.

[@ColinBarbaria]

As an American who is half Scandinavian with no cultural ties to my heritage but desperately wants to learn Norsk. This has helped a lot! Tusen Takk!

[@giuseppecoppola315]

duolingo does a pretty good job with norwegian in my experience, but it's got only bokmål thou

[@WGGplant]

@@kilipaki87oritahiti but Norwegian is arguably the best language to learn if you wanna start learning more Scandinavian languages.

[@SyndDetGaming-2.0]

@@giuseppecoppola315 Å lære seg norsk kan virke som om det går greit med Duolingo, men etter hvert som man kommer videre blir uttalelser av enkelte ord helt feil. Av og til blandes det mellom tonefall, andre ganger virker det som det blir uttalt på en ikke-eksisterende måte. Trykk blir ofte lagt på feil deler av ordene, og utdaterte eller feil ord blir brukt. Jeg har fullført norsk på Duolingo, selv om norsk er morsmålet mitt fra før. Jeg hadde lyst å sjekke kvaliteten på norsk-kurset, i tillegg fikk jeg øvd litt på engelsk.

[@sundhaug92]

Interestingly: For spoken norwegian, the gender of the noun may depend on the dialect

[@ximono]

Some (older) people have been able to tell where I'm originally from, simply by which gender I use for certain nouns.

[@CaptainEarls]

@@ximono if the car is female, it's easy

[@valskraacapo720]

@@CaptainEarls You mean like “Bila” instead of bilen in Sør-Trøndelag

[@CaptainEarls]

@@valskraacapo720 yep XD

[@valskraacapo720]

@@CaptainEarls xd

[@gustavalbers3238]

As a German, I could understand about a third of the words you used to show the pronunciation.

[@linajurgensen4698]

Gustav Albers I‘m German and sameee

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

English-speaker here whose second language is German: more than a third.

[@victorcapelo2840]

As a dane I understood everything - especially bokmål :)

[@gustavalbers3238]

@@mikesummers-smith4091 The Scandinavian languages are nearer to English than to German.

[@victorcapelo2840]

Gustav Albers, no they are not. German is much closer to e.g. Danish than english is. But danes learn english from a very young age.

[@rayelgatubelo]

Norwegians: We have two written standards of our national language. Yugoslavians: Hold my rakija.

[@alexmood6407]

Yugoslavs have five written standards in two different alphabets of the same language. Just don’t tell Croats this, they’ll go mental. Saying this, differences between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are no greater than between Standards of Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Serbo-Croatian.

[@TheJopeToons]

Chinese script in Serbo-Croatian? Yes?

[@Dracopol]

Two alphabets serb you well...

[@mehrcat1]

In Germany, as a waiter in a Yugo restaurant I picked a few words I'll never forget my surpise at hearing a mother saying to her naughty kids, "Pitsch ke te materna" Calling her own kids Mother****ers was an eye opener. Words spelt onomatopoeically. I think she was speaking Croat but I KNEW what she was talking about.

[@Tjalve70]

@@mehrcat1 Well, here in Norway, it's not unusual for mothers to call their kids "grisunge", which means "child of a pig". So essentially they're calling themselves pigs.

[@Un1corns]

The fact this man knows more about Norwegian/Norway than I do, and I talk Norwegian and I’ve been living in Norway my whole life.

[@AnimeChan11]

Norwegian speaker here, thought I'd let you in on something interesting about these languages! Swedish is quite similar to Norwegian in speaking, but Danish speaking is generally harder to understand for both Swedes and Norwegians. But in writing Danish is honestly almost the same as Norwegian and Swedish is very different from both Danish and Norwegian. I find it pretty interesting at least. Also most Norwegians understand all the dialects in Norway, although some find dialects very hard. Both Swedish and Danish is usually harder for those who don't understand other Norwegian dialects, a personal theory of mine is that it is mostly due to the diversity of the dialects they've grown up with. Older generations even had Swedish TV growing up and thus are well versed in it. Also Swedish uses words that aren't as common, if used at all, in Norway, which I guess is expected as it is a different language, but Danish is pretty much same same. Fun fact: Norwegians like to tease Danes about their pronunciation saying Danish sounds like Norwegian with a potato in their throat.

[@MeldinX2]

I'm from Sweden and i can confirm it's alot harder to understand Danes when they are speaking. It's alot easier to understand a person from Norway for sure. Oh and Sweden also likes to tease Danes but perhaps for other things! :D

[@richardblackhound1246]

I would just like to point out though that although Swedish has quite different spelling rules from the other two languages, it's still pretty easy to read if you know Norwegian or Danish. I am only a beginner / intermediate student of Norwegian but I can read Swedish YT comments and newspaper articles and understand most of it.

[@tegneren]

I agree with your theory about dialect diversity, but I also think that those from the south east are in general worse at understanding dialects from more "exotic" places like northern or western norway. At least in my experience as i have had to serve as translator on many occations for them, never for anyone from the west or northern norway. My theory for that is that most TV and radio is in standard southeastern bokmål, at least for us who grew up in the 80' and 90', so they didnt get exposed to that many dialects

[@nitink.a567]

So you people like to bully , Danes ? I now know why Kevin magnassuen , always looks grumpy.😜🤣

[@ole7146]

We like to bully each other, but hey it's all banter. Here's an example of Danes making fun of Norwegians. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIe3hniqedd0gdk

[@st0kkke]

Fun fact about Norwegian. I as a Norwegian, understand better when a Swedish person talk instead of writing. In Danish, we can read and understand more than if they talk! It's very weird even though all three is very close to each other

[@anusername4013]

This is true

[@mcplutt]

Detta kan jeg ikke begripe :-)

[@norgeball3971]

I‘ve learned Norwegian at my university in Germany, and at the moment I‘m taking Danish classes. Just here to say: I‘m completely in love with Norwegian and comparing Danish and Norwegian is very interesting. Anyways, it‘s always good to get to know more about it, thank you for the interesting video!

[@chillbro2275]

Did you learn Norwegian or Danish through German or through English?

[@norgeball3971]

@@chillbro2275 thanks for asking! I‘ve learned both through German. How‘s it going for you, which language have you chosen?

[@chillbro2275]

​@@norgeball3971 hey cool. How do you say Norwegian and Danish in German? thanks for asking as well. I chose Norwegian. I'm having trouble with the pronunciation and getting the accent close. So while you're learning Danish, do you feel that you leverage German, English, or Norwegian the same amount or does any of these 3 help a little more than the other two?

[@norgeball3971]

@@chillbro2275 it‘s „norwegisch“ and „dänisch“ in German. German itself has been quite helpful, indeed. Once you have learned one of the Scandinavian languages though, I feel like this is your „main“ language from that area, and even though you try getting closer to say Danish or Swedish after learning Norwegian - they will recognize this from your pronunciation. But it really is a great advantage when talking about vocabulary. There are a lot of similarities. Danish and Norwegian basically use (and that‘s just my uneducated guessing here) around 85-90% of the same words. Except for the counting system (that‘s total insane in Danish, if you ask me😄). Norwegian is a good choice btw, I wish you the best of luck in learning and have fun!

[@petterbossum4716]

Main difference is that spoken Norwegian has a chance of being understandable ;)

[@linnsther4575]

I most commonly use bokmål "book language" and since I'm from the south my dialect is a lot like that too. The understanding of other dialects varies from person to person and from where you grew up. People who have grown up in the north often have a harder time understanding Danish and like Swedish more. People from the west tend to not have a great time understanding "trøndersk" or "vallemål" since non of them are close geographically. This of course may vary depending on the individuals language understanding and adaptation. As an example I can understand both Danish and Swedish equally easily, since I've grown up in the south. That's because my natural dialect is closer to Danish than most others and I've been exposed to it from a young age, due to living so close to Denmark. A fun fact is that the idea of any dialekt or pronunciation is correct is so imprinted in the nation that even TV shows and radio programs people use their own dialect. Same with dubbed shows. The dialect is even often used to add depth to the characters because a lot of dialect have different properties. My dialect from the south is most often used by the "old wise grandpa", same with "trøndersk". While the dialect from around Stavanger could be used by preppy gossip girls. This of course also may vary, but it's a fun thing to try and analyze when watching Norwegian dubbed shows. Why did they choose that exact voice actor?

[@Rule-zc3md]

this is so true! i am from northern norway, i understand swedish pretty much like if i was fluent in it (it helps that my steph father is swedish) and i can read danish considering bokmål is pretty much a copy paste, but understanding a danish person when they are talking... they could be talking in Greek and i would understand just as much... its so foreign to me, i understand icelandic better than danish. but i find that tv is primarily south norwegian, so much so that when we played pretend as kids, like with action figures for example, we would adopt a south eastern dialect, and its super uncommon for kids to play pretend in their native dialect here, and one trope on TV that i find kinda funny is when you finally find someone with a northern dialect on TV its always the ''idiot'' with a super hyperbolic northern dialect. edit: it hit me... the reason we didnt play pretend with our native dialect may be because of that trope lol...

[@LeeGee]

Fascinating to hear this, and reassuring to hear it is still so strong! 40-years ago I was a lad in the UK and had family from across the UK (Dublin, Belfast, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle, London, Devon) -- all areas had a distinct dialect with words and phrases foreign to the others, and historically and sociologically fascinating and beautiful as dialects are, it seems radio, TV, the Internet and motorways have all conspired against them, and relatively few speak them nowdays.

[@chillbro2275]

very interesting thank you. What language/dialect is used for movies about Norse mythology, or Vikings, or other period pieces?

[@toremkinen1847]

@@chillbro2275 In what media I've consumed vikings and the like are usually portrayed with accents from rural western Norway, which is also closest to Nynorsk, the written language.

[@mehridin]

Eh, folk som vokser opp i nord har ikke større problemer med å forstå dansk enn folk som har vokst opp i "sør". Det er noe du har funnet på selv. Mitt inntrykk er stikk motsatt.

[@violentcat345]

What an intense amount of information you have managed to pack so neatly into an 18 minute video! I really enjoy learning about how a language functions and why and this has to be one of my favourites, I'm sure I'll be coming back to this video and looking more deeply into each topic touched on.

[@vkompis]

Norwegian here! 1: I usually use write in nynorsk when I’m back home in western Norway, and bokmål if I’m communicating with people from other parts of the country as well as public offices. To my friends I always write in dialect (sunnmørsk). 2: yes, it is no problem to communicate with people using other varieties. We learn both standard forms of written Norwegian in school, and the wide variety of dialects are represented on TV on a daily basis. So we have a lot of practice in listening to nuances in the different dialects. I think that is a part of the reason why Norwegians are better at understanding danish and swedish than Swedes and Danes are in understanding Norwegian.

[@kkt1986]

I learned nynorsk in school (I'm from Karmøy in the south-west, which is a neutral municipality with regards to written standards), but after high school I tended to write bokmål unless I was chatting with people from my own dialect area (in which case we'd communicate writing in our dialect). It was only after I moved to Molde to study, and made friends from Sunnmøre, that I "rediscovered" my nynorsk; when I chatted with them online, and they did so in their own dialects, it just came naturally to me to respond in nynorsk.

[@olehenriknor]

Learned nynorsk as a secundary language in school, and bokmål as primary. And now that they have made nynorsk our primary or standard form I'm pissed that everything is written in nynorsk. No idea why this happened, it doesn't seem like anybody here wanted this. PS: I'm from Bergen

[@nobbisjrr]

@@olehenriknor Just change your primary language back to Bokmål. If you cant do it yoursel, your parents can.

[@olehenriknor]

@@nobbisjrr ...not sure if this was a joke, but the government didn't change the language of my computer. It's just that everything the government and institutions like schools and universities write is in nynorsk now, for example uib.no and skyss

[@Dovndyr13]

Not sure I agree, most danes say they understand norwegian (i guess oslo mål) better than swedish, except in greater copenhagen where a lot of shop staff is from skåne. Still I would say it depends on the person. I know several norwegians who have a problem understanding several norwegian dialects. And a lot of norwegians use english in denmark because they have a problem understanding danish.

[@choijae-hyoung3601]

This guy even understands the dog language. I admire him.

[@程修凡-r8r]

i think he used Google translate

[@audinos4827]

Dogwegian

[@WiseMasterNinja]

It's a northern dialect of the dog language called Nyhund

[@erkinalp]

@@WiseMasterNinja =)

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

Paweł mówi po piesku.

[@JonBA94]

As an Icelander, nynorsk feels much more natural and relatable, though standard bokmal isn't very hard to understand either

[@dikrox6151]

Because Icelandic is the closest language to Old Norse and the one that changed he least, and Ny Norsk was an attempt to bring back Old Norwegian which was some sort of Old Norse dialect back then.

[@galadriel3039]

So can you understand what they wrote in old norse. We in Sweden cant

[@dikrox6151]

@@galadriel3039 Ye, although some nynorsk words are similar to rikssvenska than Bokmål

[@JonBA94]

@@galadriel3039 In most cases it's not difficult, though how words are strung together in sentences of archaic/medieval scripts can occasionally be perplexing. My dad grew up in Sweden, and he always thought it was strange that he could understand what was written on old runestones but his friends and schoolmates couldn't. But I believe modern Scandinavians can understand at least some, even if limited, old norse.

[@jeschinstad]

@@JonBA94: Very, very little, but yes, there are some old norse sentences that I can understand as a bokmål speaker. If I met a viking, I think that we could probably teach each other how to communicate, given enough time, but it would be much easier with a modern Dutch.

[@SmileyNoteblock]

Having 2 standard variants of norwegian is cool and all, untill it's time for your norwegian exam where you basically have to do two exams, one in each variant

[@SuperHansimann]

only need to take one exam. either in bokmål or nynorsk. Or English if you're an exchange student.

[@consumerproducts]

You get to choose your exam language. If you want nynorsk and they only have bokmål, you actually have the right to demand a new exam. That said, anyone who understands either language, will easily understand the other.

[@SmileyNoteblock]

Well I guess it must be different depending on where you live then. Here we have one grade for "hovedmål" (main variant) and one grade for "sidemål" (secondary variant). I got norwegian as my 10th grade exam in middle school, and we had two exam days, one for each variant

[@siljemygland7571]

Men de sier jo at de som lærer nynorsk på barneskolen får litt bedre karakterer senere

[@aitor.online]

Real shit. I was never good at Nynorsk and in my opinion if it were up to me nynorsk should have been chosen as norways official written language. would have made my life alot easier 100 years later lol

[@verAlvyn]

Norwegian is my favourite foreign language! Norsk er mitt favorittfremmedspråk! Hilsen fra Polen!

[@dajdasdq]

Tomasz Otto hei Bartek, kan du fikse noe for meg?

[@diouranke]

Interesting, a rare ocasión where my little esperanto actually helped me recognize a word, fremda in esperanto means foreign, I assume fremmedsprak may mean foreign language

[@einarbolstad8150]

That's good to hear, Tomasz, so you won't mind me pointing out that it should be "favorittfremmedspråk" in one word in this case. You certainly don't want to be a særskriver or orddeler. ;-)

[@verAlvyn]

@@einarbolstad8150 No, I don't mind at all. I'm still nowhere near proficient speaking but hey! I do my best :-)

[@einarbolstad8150]

@@verAlvyn That is all one can do!

[@vitortadeucarramaomello4491]

I love this channel, I am very keen on languages and history. Being Brazilian, my mother language is Portuguese, but I also speak fluently English, French and Spanish. I have an intermediate degree on German and Italian and also basic notions of Arabics, Chinese mandari and Russian, and a Doc in History of Law. Your classes give me a great outlook on different languages and the relationshop between them.

[@kjellarnedrag9915]

Great video, its my everyday language, and its cool that people from another nation can provide so much insight. When talking about learning Norwegian, my impression is that people from Holland moving over here tends to adopt the language faster than people from any other nation.

[@joggabonkers6380]

Dutch and Scandinavian languages is very similar in writing. Its easy enough to read a dutch paper, the talking part on the other hand...

[@Muchoyo]

@@joggabonkers6380 Isn't Dutch Railways something like Nederlandse Spoorwegen? Easy to understand for a Norwegian, since Oslo's public transport used to be operated by a company named Oslo Sporveier, basically referring to the tram or streetcar part of it. Nowadays its name is simply "Ruter".

[@EliasHasle]

@@Muchoyo And in Dutch airports, there are signs pointing to "Innstappen". I don't remember whether it is the luggage delivery point or the boarding area, but it sounds great for Norwegians. "Å stappe" means to press/squeeze/stomp(?), and "å stappe inn noe" means to stuff in something, like overfilling a bag or drawer. "Potetstappe" is mashed potato. "Innstappen" sounds like the place where either passengers or their luggage are stuffed/packed/squeezed tightly into the airplane. 😁

[@EliasHasle]

I have the same impression. They seem to become exceptionally well integrated within quite a short time. 😊 They often look more "typically Norwegian" than a lot of Norwegians, and many speak clearer and cleaner Norwegian than most natives. Some struggle with the 'r' sound(s), though. If they can make the fricative 'r' used in Bergen, they are OK, but some speak with that soft Dutch/English 'r' sound, revealing they are not born here.

[@OndskapensHersker]

Having such a variation in the"same language" makes it a bit easier understand other Germanic languages, as you are already used to interpreting variations of the same words.

[@Paragorn]

Fabian? For et sammentreff xD

[@OndskapensHersker]

​@@Paragorn Great minds think alike! ^^

[@Flushable5000]

It's all fun with dialects until you hear the thousands of dialects in western Norway. Also the further north you go the more finnic and russian the accent sounds like

[@timomastosalo]

Finnic languages don't have the same accents as Russian, except those that have been under Russian rule for centuries, so east of Finland and Estonia. . Listen to the Hydraulic Press Channel for the broad Finnish accent in English, and Crazy Russian Hacker for a broad Russian accent. Estonians are also Finnic, but they a have more German, Baltic and Russian accent than the Finns. And the Sámi languages have their own accents, in Scandinavia influenced by Scandinavian languages a bit. The common things in them are the R (except Russian has 2 versions of it - with or without the y sound), and there's no tone 1 vs tone 2 difference.

[@melaniescarlet01]

How about the dialect in Trondelag?

[@sjukfan]

Some northern Norwegian dialects share things with northern Swedish dialects, pretty weird to hear.

[@reneperez2126]

thats why they called continuum

[@hegekristiansen1859]

*Laughs in Molde*

[@ZenFox0]

I’ve only started learning Norwegian, but having studied German, it strikes me as partly like English, partly like German, partly like both, and partly its own thing, distinct from either English or German. Actually more like overlapping circles of a Venn diagram, since Norwegian, English, and German all share certain cognates, but you get the idea. Examples: (also with Dutch) Norsk / English / Deutsch / Nederlands ------------------ absolutte / absolute / absolut / absoluut adresse / address / Adresse / adres and / (duck) / Ente / eend arbeid / (work) / Arbeit / (werk) arm / arm / Arm / arm åpen / open / offen / open bank / bank / Bank / bank bar / bar / Bar / bar bark / bark / Borke (Rinde) / bark barn / bairn (child) / (Kind) / (kind) berømt / (famous) / berühmt / beroemd bilde / (picture) / Bild / beeld billig / (cheap) / billig / (goedkoop) bit / bit / Biss | Bisschen / beet | beetje bjørn / bear / Bär / beer blå / blue / blau / blauw bok / book / Buch / boek brev / brief / Brief / brief bro / bridge / Brücke / brug broren / brother / Bruder / broer brun / brown / braun / bruin brød / bread / Brot / brood butikk / boutique / Boutique / (winkel) CV / CV / (Lebenslauf) / CV dag / day / Tag / dag datter / daughter / Tochter / dochter dei / thae / (sie) / (ze) du / thou (you) / du / *du dyr / dear (expensive) / teuer / duur dyr / deer (animal) / Tier / dier dør / door / Tür / deur egg / egg / Ei / ei elefant / elephant / Elefant / olifant elg / elk / Elch / eland eple / apple / Apfel / appel etasje / (floor) / Etage / (vloer) fange / (prisoner) / Gefangene / gevangenis fantastik / fantastic / fantastisch / fantastisch farge / (color | colour) / Farbe / (kleur) farlig / (dangerous) / gefährlich / gevaarlijk fengsel / (prison) / Gefängnis / gevangenis fest / fest | festival / Fest / festival fett / fat / Fett / vet film / film / Film / film fisk / fish / Fisch / vis fjernsyn / (television) / Fernseher / (televisie) flagg / flag / Flagge / vlag flaske / flask / Flasche / fles for / for / für / voor fri / free / frei / vrij frukt / fruit / Frucht / fruit fugl / (bird) / Vogel / vogel full / full / voll / vol gaffel / (fork) / Gabel / gaffel (vork) glad / glad (happy) / (glücklich | froh) / (gelukkig | vrolojk) glass / glass / Glas / glas god / good / gut / goed grønn / green / grün / groen gul / (yellow) / Gelb / geel hard / hard / hart / hard (helg) / weekend / Wochenende / weekend himmel / (heaven | sky) / Himmel / hemel historisk / historic / historisch / historisch hjem / home / Heim / (thuis) hotell / hotel / Hotel / hotel hund / hound / Hund / hond hvit / white / weiß / wit hytte / hut / Hütte / hut (høyre) / right / Rechte / recht innsiden / inside / Innenseite / binnen interessante / interesting / interessant / interessant iskremen / ice cream / Eiscreme / ijsje jeg / I / ich / ik jobb / job / Job / (baan) jordbær / (strawberry) / Erdbeere / aardbei kabin / cabin / Kabine / cabine kald / cold / kalt / koud karrier / career / Karriere / carrière katt / cat / Katze / kat kino / (cinema) / Kino / (bioscoop | cinema) (kjøtt) / flesh / Fleisch / vlees klar / clear / klar / klaar kniv / knife / (Messer) / (mes) kokk / cook / Koch / kok (kone) / wife / Weib | Frau / vrouw kort / short | curt / kurz / kort kvinna / queen / (Frau | Dame | Königen) / (konnigen) kopp / cup / (Tasse) / kop kort / card / Karte / kaart krabbe / crab / Krabbe / krab ku / cow / Kuh / koe kurv / (basket) / Korb / korf kusine / cousin / Cousin / (neef) (kveld) / evening / Abend / avond lampe / lamp / Lampe / lamp land / land / Land / land lang / long / lange / lang langsom / * longsome | langsome / langsam / langzaam lett / light / licht | leicht / licht lilla / lilac (purple) / lila / lila (purper) lik / like | alike / gleich / gelijk liten / little / (klein) / luttel lunsj / lunch / (Mittagessen) / lunch lærer / (teacher) / Lehrer / leraar mange / many / (viel | viele) / (veel | vele) mann / man / Mann / man melk / milk / Milch / melk meny / menu / (Speisekarte) / menu (spijskaart) midnatt / midnight / Mitternacht / middernacht minutt / minute / Minute / minuut morgen / morning / Morgen / morgen mulig / (possible) / möglich / mogelijk museum / museum / Museum / museum mus / mouse / Maus / muis møy (jente) / maiden (girl) / Mädchen / meid | meisje natt / night / Nacht / nacht natur / nature / Natur / natuur niese / niece / Nichte / nicht nudler / noodle / Nudel | Knödel / knoedel ny / new / neu / nieuw (og) / and / und / en olje / oil / Öl / olie om / (around) / um / om onkel / uncle / Onkel / (oom) oransje / orange / orange / oranje (øl) / beer / Bier / bier palass / palace / Palast | Palais | (Schloss) / paleis pappa / papa | pop / Papa / papa | pa par / pair / Paar / paar park / park / Park / park pasta / pasta / Pasta / pasta radio / radio / Radio / radio rar / rare (strange) / rar / rar referanse / reference / Referenz / referentie region / region / Region / regio rein / reindeer / Ren | Rentier / rendier ren / (clean) / reinigen / rein restaurant / restaurant / Restaurant / restaurant rett / right / recht / rechts (rev) / fox / Fuchs / vos ridder / (knight) / Ritter / ridder rik / rich / reich / rijk riktig / right / richtig / recht ring / ring / Ring / ring ris / rice / Reis / rijst rom / room / Raum (Zimmer) / ruimte rosa / rose (pink) / rosa / roze sak / (case) / Sache (Fall) / (geval) salt / salt / Salz / zout | zilt så / so / so (damit | also) / zo sekund / second / Sekunde / seconde senter / center | centre / Center / centrum sentrum / (city) center | centre / Zentrum / centrum sitron / citrus / Zitrone / citroen skilpadde / (turtle) / Schild(kröte) / schildpad skjold / shield / Schild / schild små / small (little) / (klein) / small sol / Sol (sun) | (Sonne) / Sol (zon) spesielt / special / speziell / speciaal stein / stone / Stein / steen stolt / (proud) / stolz / (trots) streng / strict / streng / streng | strikt sukker / sugar / Zucker / suiker suppe / soup / Suppe / soep svart / (black) / Schwarz / zwart sverd / sword / Schwert / zwaard sykkel / (bi)cycle / (Fahrrad) / (fiets) søster / sister / Schwester / zus | zuster sønn / son / Sohn / zoon tak / (roof) / Dach / dak takk / thanks / Danke / bedankt tallerken / (plate) / Teller / (bord | plaat) tante / (aunt) / Tante / tante tomat / tomato / Tomate / tomaat tre / tree (beam) / (Baum) / (boom) tykk / thick / dick / dik tårn / tower / Turm / toren umulig / (impossible) / unmöglich / onmogelijk uke / week / Woche / week ulv / wolf / Wolf / wolf ung / young / jung / jong vann / water / Wasser / water varm / warm / warm / warm vegetarianer / vegetarian / Vegetarier / vegetariër vei / way / Weg / weg vi / we / wir / wij vin / wine / Wein / wijn århundre / (century) / Jahrhundert / (eeuw) (-) not a cognate * archaic

[@GustavSvard]

I thought there were gonna be like 10 or so examples. But, no, you went for it. That's quite a list! As a Swedish speaker who also knows English (obviously) and took a bit of German in school, the close relations between all the Germanic languages is very clear. That list is just a tiny beginning of what the full list would be! :) Plus that many loan words that aren't evolved from Old Germanic are often borrowed from the same source in most of our languages (i.e. Latin, Greek, etc).

[@ZenFox0]

Gustav Löwgren lol - Tack! I’m probably a little Aspergerish in that once I start doing something, I have trouble letting it go. Part of me wanted to list all the other cognates, which no doubt number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, and the other part of me regretted it halfway through the list I had. It was an effort not to list Swedish, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Low German, Yiddish, Schwyzerdütsch, and Afrikaans. :)

[@GustavSvard]

@@ZenFox0 You're still missing a fun one: Älvdalska! iirc has a couple of aspects that even Old Norse usually had evolved away from. More limited vocab though. Saw a linguistic show on Swedish television where the host tried to learn a bit and did get into it - but then he asked about current national politics and everyone just switched to standard Swedish. turns out a lot of the concepts of modern politics and such issues just don't exits in that language.

[@ZenFox0]

Gustav Löwgren Gustav Löwgren I never knew about Älvdalen / Övdalsk / Elfdalian. I’ll check it out. Tjär tokk fer! You also just reminded me of Old Gutnish, Gothic, and Old English / Anglo-Saxon. That could be my hobby if I ever retire. :) Lett språk ir older naug. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfdalian www.omniglot.com/writing/elfdalian.htm theconversation.com/fight-on-to-preserve-elfdalian-swedens-lost-forest-language-41642

[@ZenFox0]

Dat is heel interessant. Het klinkt als veel extra werk, maar helpt bij het leren van meerdere talen. Lykke til med Norsk!

[@creativename3256]

1. I use bokmål for writing and Østlandsdialekt when I'm speaking. 2. Yes, I mostly understand other dialects. They tend to include a lot of different dialects in TV-show's for children, so that it'll be easier to understand as we grow up. I still run into dialect words I've never heard before from time to time, though.

[@superstandard]

I was raised in Oslo, I use bokmål. I can understand most dialects, the exception being the dialects in the most northern parts of Norway. Also Swedish is very easy to understand, Danish is very difficult. What's interesting is that I can understand Swedish which is considered another language a lot more than some other Norwegian dialects which are all considered the same language.

[@adamkinsten9231]

SuperStandard danish is much easier for me

[@tor-einarjarnbjo1661]

That sounds strange. The dialects in northern Norway are much more similar to the Oslo dialect than most dialects in western and southern Norway.

[@verAlvyn]

I've been learning Norwegian since some time. I can usdestand Swedish more spoken than written and Danish much more written than spoken :D

[@kallebirgersson710]

As a swede who has spent a lot of time in Norway I understand most dialects including the northern, but have sometimes problems with those from smaller places on the westcoast, especially islands. Sounds like they are still speaking like they did in the viking age

[@gunnarkvinlaug7226]

Funny facts, most folks in Oslo comes from northern Norway.

[@robinheiborgstrand660]

As a Norwegian and a linguist this is a fun and exciting video to see. It really covers Norwegian well, especially "bokmål". Still there are a few things I would like to add: In the Eastern part of Norway called "Østlandet", most dialects tend to become more and more similar to an Oslo standard dialect. I live in one of those areas. I think it's a shame, and try to speak as thick of a dialect as possible, and even write in that dialect, as much as possible. I even write and speak more dialect than my parents. This has had an effect on my friends and family, so I hope for it to spread even more, outside just my town. I would hate for the dialects to disappear. Østlandet also mostly writes in "bokmål" even though many of the dialects are more similar to "nynorsk". Nynorsk is still widely hated among many people who don't have it as their first written language. We are forced to learn it in school, and many students and parents are unhappy with it. This might be the reason why the dialects are merging towards a more Oslo-way of speaking. If anyone has any question regarding the Norwegian language and dialects, either written or spoken, feel free to ask. And thank you for making this video. I've never seen anyone cover the Norwegian language this good without a lot of mistakes and misconceptions.

[@gunnarkvinlaug7226]

Well, I had Nynorsk as a first language in school and had to learn Bokmål as well so fair and squarred, right?

[@robinheiborgstrand660]

@@gunnarkvinlaug7226 Well, yes, but "bokmål" is more used in common media, so it's easier to learn. So I get why people don't like it. At the same time, my spoken dialect is more similar to "nynorsk", so if "nynorsk" was the standard written language of my area, it would maybe be easier to learn how to write as a child, and even might save the dialects from being lost to "Oslo-mål". Personally I have been messing around with the idea of having regional written languages as well as one national written language, or something like that. So say we split Norway into 20-30 or maybe even something like 50 regions or something like that, and then have those written langauges used within that area. So that the amount of regional langauges wouldn't matter, because between the regions only the national written language would be used. This way you would be able to write in your own dialect, saving it from being lost the way mine is, while still being able to communicate simple on a national wide level.

[@Twiggyay]

@@gunnarkvinlaug7226 For å sitére Wikipedia: "Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90%[6] of the population in Norway." I tillegg bor omtrent halvparten av Norges befolkning på Østlandet, så det er vel ikke heeeelt rettferdig å si at det er like kjipt for dere å lære dere Bokmål som andre veien.

[@gunnarkvinlaug7226]

@@Twiggyay Sanninga er kva man gjør den til! Ei lygn blir aldri sannere uansett kor mange som forteller den. Bokmål er og blir dårlig dansk og burde vært kasta ut herfra ved frigjevinga i 1814. Og for å sitere Mark Twain: You should not belive everything written on Internett.

[@Twiggyay]

@@gunnarkvinlaug7226 jeg kom med to objektive argumenter for at bokmål er og blir den foretrukne skrivemål for den norske befolkning, men ditt var at det jeg sa er løgn? Kom igjen nå, nynorsk-gutta! La oss krangle saklig!

[@synneschjelderup4807]

we norwegians love to see other people talk about our country. You made a good choice choosing the topic for your video x'D

[@Luredreier]

Jepp. ^^ We're really a bit self absorbed sometimes. :-P

[@ludvigbertiniushillergrnne1711]

True, we're all pretty patriotic

[@Luredreier]

@@ludvigbertiniushillergrnne1711 Eh, I wouldn't call it patriotic. But meh...

[@leonstrand5847]

ja samme hær

[@nieron]

As a native Norwegian I can imagine how challenging it is for foreigners to understand some of the Norwegian dialects

[@Achillionable]

As a non-germanic speaker foreigner who just started to learn Norwegian (Bokmål), it's very interesting to see the differences between Nynorsk and Bokmål. I feel like Bokmål is the perfect mixture of western and eastern Germanic languages, having similarities to Icelandic on the one hand and to Danish on the other hand. Yet, the differences in pronunciation by the Danish are so damn high that I believe I would have an harder time understanding them compared to other Norwegian dialects. But I've really just started Bokmål, I'm maybe wrong. Jeg høper å bo i Norge en dag :) ...and hopefully knowing Bokmål in advance won't be too much of a problem in case I get to live in a Nynorsk or some random dialect region ahah.

[@Maiky295]

I've just started learning Norwegian with my stepmom, who is from Oslo. But as a native speaker it's sometimes difficult for her to make standard rules. You can't imagine how fucking much this video helped out. Tusen takk!

[@MrImadeU]

"Norsk har ikke regler"

[@Knightonagreyhorse]

16:15 Just a note: -ar ending in plural indefinite is masculine while -er ending is feminine. It is a grammar rule that is quite consistent.

[@ogaansho]

From somalia , you are the best Mr Paul ... أنت شخص مجتهد ،ولكل مجتهد نصيب .

[@erikliljeberg1796]

Ugh, Somalia is a shity place..

[@ogaansho]

@@erikliljeberg1796 that's what in your mind Mr Erik , Somalia is a nice place - you are welcome any time .

[@erikliljeberg1796]

@@ogaansho I don't wanna die like that one naive couple did.

[@exentr]

The pitch accent exists in central Scandinavia. I speak Northern Norwegian. My dialect do not have pitch accent. Hence Northern Norwegian is easier for foreigners. In Norway we have two main dialect areas which is Western Norwegian (incl Northern Norwegian) and Eastern. This is partly why Norwegian has two written standards. One phenomenon in the speech divide Norwegian in Western and Eastern is jamvektsloven (The equilibrium law, I think in English). This is an interesting phenomenon.

[@petterbossum4716]

Hmm, Det forklarer kanskje hvorfor jæi følær at trøndern ente er så gæærn å forstå!

[@thomasreinfjord3288]

jeg er fra Oslo og trøndere snakker rart

[@EliasHasle]

In what way does "pitch accent" not exist in the north? I know the "language melody" is different there than in the south, but it still arises from multiple tonemes, right? You do not pronounce "bønder" and "bønner" the same, do you? (Perhaps a bad example, since they may also differ by other traits than the tonemes.)

[@exentr]

@@EliasHasle My bad. It is a pitch accent in the north or intonation but there are no tonem. There is no differense the way 'bønder' and 'bønner' are pronounced. Pitch accent/intonation only as far as I understand. The context will decide.

[@sturlamolden]

Western and Northern Norwegian have high-tone pitch accent. As do most Swedish dialects. South-Eastern Norwegian has low-tone pitch accent. As do Swedish dialects in close proximity, notably Värmländska. For English speakers, the low-tone pitch accent is what makes the sound of the Swedish chef in the Muppet show.

[@linajurgensen4698]

I love Norway, Norwegian and *the* Norwegians.😊 Greets from Germany!❤️

[@vetar3372]

Hallo fra Norge!

[@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231]

i min åsikt, svenska är bättre än norska, men norge är vackrare än sverige.

[@karl1799]

Have you traveled to Norway as a tourist before, Linda?

[@vetar3372]

@@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231 Det er nok sant, men i det minste så er ingen av oss Dænsgø

[@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231]

@@karl1799 Yes.

[@KiralearnsNorwegian]

I'm still waiting to find out how to tell my boss to go to hell in 50 different languages.

[@doomsaier1]

dra til helvete din jævla idiot! = go to hell you fucking idiot! my pleasure....

[@KiralearnsNorwegian]

@@doomsaier1 Splendid, thank you! HAHAHA

[@manmoth_1990]

"Du kan ta det faens stygge trynet ditt og stappe det så langt du kan oppi rævhølet mitt hvis du fortsetter å behandle meg slik på jobben." That's if you're reaaaally angry and about to quit. God jul! Lars

[@timomastosalo]

Watch the Simpsons intro, tip: Bart

[@wilsons2882]

Kira are you still learning Norwegian!?

[@Tomasu321]

Norwegian here: I'm from the South of Norway so I speak a mix of bokmål and nynorsk. I think in general everyone can understand each other without difficulty. Especially since we are aware of the idiosyncratic parts of our dialects and can normally substitute difficult words out with the purer form from either nynorsk or bokmål. I like the dialects, they give you alot of information just from the way people speak, you can usually with some practice place where people are from down to the nearest large city. There are som experts that can pinpoint what town you're from aswell. But in general the more nynorsk you speak the easier you will understand everyone else. I think it comes down to the fact that even tho both languages are official, bokmål is used in the capital and therefore you are exposed to alot of bokmål. But people from the east who grow up speaking and writing bokmål usually resent nynorsk and are not very exposed to it. So while the rest of Norway are used to learn multiple words with the same meaning the Eastern part does not. So if I speak with my flavor of Norwegian in say Oslo, people will have a hard time understanding. We can talk easily, but I might need to slow down so they can grasp more context and familiar words so they can decode the unfamiliar words.

[@Va4mp1_]

As a Norwegian person, I really enjoyed this video and I’m happy to see others enjoy it too. And for the questions, I speak and write bokmål. It’s sometimes difficult to speak with others who have heavy accents or who speak Nynorsk due to different words and pronunciation , but I still manage to understand most of what they’re saying.

[@julian.16]

Do you know where is Aurora from? She uses the gutural R

[@frostflaggermus]

@@julian.16 pretty sure she's from stavanger!

[@marienilsen2812]

@@julian.16 Bergen

[@sjurbarstad1541]

To answer the questions: I always use bokmål, except when I teach Nynorsk, as I am a teacher. I always speak my local Oslo dialect. Both bokmål and nynorsk are written languages and therefore cannot be spoken. To answer the other question - having two languages is impractical, expensive and mainly just a hassle.

[@sablahedning]

me skolle bare skrive som me preke i plassen for alle deia stomme bokstavane, møkje greiare^^

[@sjurbarstad1541]

@@sablahedning de ær jæ ikke eni i ass. Det er lett å lese for de som snakker samme dialekt, men veldig krevende hvis man snakker en annen.

[@foolishnob2776]

Det å setta å skriv på dialækt ska da væl itj vårrå bale å førrstå. Hadd da væl vorre lættast om talemåle hadd slådd sæ innj og skriftspåkan kvorve

[@sjurbarstad1541]

@@foolishnob2776 åssen truru de hadde gått i højsterett nårr de ska tållke låve sjåmm æ sjkrevet på masse fåssjellije dijalekkter fra runnt åmm i lannet? Åssen ska de gå i meddisin? De hadde tatt lang ti, de hadde blitt mange missfåsjtåelser å lanne hadde funka myje dålire. I tillegg hadde alle me dysleksi ævtomatisk blitt jort till analfabeter. Selvfølgelig skal vi ha et standardisert skriftspråk. Uten det hadde ikke samfunnet fungert.

[@sjurbarstad1541]

@@sebastianplaum4667 Å bruke begrepet tilbakestående skulle jeg ønske vi sluttet med på 50-tallet, men jeg er helt enig i at det ser fryktelig dust ut å skrive på dialekt.

[@txviking]

Awesome to see a video about my native language. Tusen takk!

[@Arizzly]

Stian O wow som noen gidder å bry seg

[@xXIceShowerXx]

Tusen takk = Tausend Dank (german) = Thousand "thanks" ?

[@BlackbirdBandit]

@@Arizzly Æ bryr mæ!

[@x000000001x]

I still cannot believe that this is actually "germanic language" ... It literally seems like there's nothing in common with german or english :D

[@Mili-bedili]

@@x000000001x "Germanic" just refers to the language of the old tribes. Even the current German language itself is very different from what the old tribes spoke. Current spoken English is hardly similar to Old English

[@feilvei4498]

Hello! Norwegian here. I will try to answer your questions as good as possible: 1. I definitely use bokmål in my writing. I speak the dialect "Trønder" with some influences from other dialects as well. That was the way I learned it at school, so that's what I do, naturally. Most of my friends from my home place and my friends at the place I'm studying (Valsøyfjord and Inderøy, respectively) write in their dialects. Writing in Bokmål may seem too formal to some, which I can understand, but I am literally unable to write in my own dialect. 2. Can I easily communicate with people who use other varieties? Depends how close to my own dialect it is. Can I understand someone from Bergen or Nord-Norge perfectly? Hell no, I probably have to ask "Hæ?" which is basically saying "Say that again?". Norwegian dialects can be so different that I can understand a swede much better than a Norwegian from a different county than me. Other than that, it shouldn't be too difficult. Translating words that are different in other dielects over to our own comes kinda naturally and I wish I could explain it better.

[@Ahahahhafsgsbsvehan]

hey, i have a question. how do you decide whether to use “om” and “hvis” and also between “vil” and “skal”?

[@feilvei4498]

@@Ahahahhafsgsbsvehan Vil: 'Want to' Skal: 'Am going to' [do something] Om and hvis are highly interchangable. However, in this context: 'In' two hours! Wrong: 'Hvis' to timer! Correct: 'Om' to timer!

[@eirikmoltu553]

'om' in a context meaning 'if' : "om jeg hadde" = "if I had" is implying a wish in a stronger sense than "Hvis jeg hadde", which is more straightforward hypothetical. The former is also somehow more solemn/ bookish I think and not so often used in daily speach (expressing wish). Normally "om" is used with another meaning : "om to timer" = "in two hours" . The same with "vil/skal" in a context meaning " going to": "vil" is more formal ( probably closer to Danish?). It is somehow implying " want to" do something and sounds nicer than "jeg skal" which is more like " I will do it whatever". At least that is my layperson opinion.

[@faux3401]

To answer your questions, as a norwegian from outside Bergen: When texting or messaging people i usually write Nynorsk or just write dialect, which isn't correct but it's faster because its how I talk. But when doing work emails and such I tend to write in Bokmål just because it seems more formal in a way. And yes, most dialects are easy enough to understand when talking, and I know both nynorsk and bokmål pretty well as we had both in school. Very nice video!

[@nordicmind82]

I'm Swedish but have lived in Stavanger and hung out in Oslo. I have heard horror stories about villages around Bergen. Do you know of "dialects" anywhere there that you yourself may have problems understanding?

[@tormodhamnebukt487]

If you write formal "nynorsk" you sound like some hick from way out west, even though it is perfectly good as a formal language :P

[@Mokkachino100]

I am Norwegian, and I use bokmål. I speak Trøndersk, so I have no problem understanding other dialects in Norway, and even Sweeden and Denmark, but sometimes people do have trouble understanding me, especially Swedes.

[@Vingul]

Ha ittj no probblema med det neh! Bare kødder med deg ;-)

[@shaunteloduro7013]

Kult

[@aularound]

Jag tror det kan vara för att vi svenskar (tyvärr) inte blir så mycket exponerade för norska och danska. Fast nu har det blivit lite skillnad på det eftersom att Skam har blivit väldigt populär i Sverige, så där får ungdomarna lära sig lite, dock är det väl Oslo-mål de talar i den serien misstänker jag. Hade gärna sett att det fanns lektioner i skolan där man fick lite grundläggande kunskaper i de andra nordiska språken. För det är ju inte så svårt bara man får höra det lite! Med norska känner jag att bara man lär sig de ca 30 vardagliga orden som skiljer sig, så går det ganska så lätt sen. Har hört Tröndersk lite och tycker att halva tiden så är ni väldigt lätta att förstå, låter precis som svenska, men sen blir det lite svårare ibland.

[@heidifarstadkvalheim4952]

Then you shouldn’t use a big letter in trøndersk … that’s the English way. 😉

[@Mokkachino100]

@@heidifarstadkvalheim4952 I wrote in English, didn't I? 🙄

[@tr-h7217]

In writing I use Bokmål. In speech I speak Urban East Norwegian, a dialect common in urban parts of south-eastern Norway. It developed from Dano-Norwegian koine and is basicly spoken Bokmål.

[@ivansidorov6464]

English: my spelling is the most awful French: that's where u r wrong kiddo Norwegian: hold my øl

[@siljeuglenes9789]

We kinda speak as we pronounce things, we just pronounce things weirdly.... and we have at least two ways of spelling things....... and twenty ways to pronounce them......

[@gregorflopinski9016]

Hold min ringnes fatøl

[@justsara1238]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂👌

[@karl-erlendmikalsen5159]

Vi er virkelig ikke ille mann. Engelsk og Fransk er horrible når det kommer til samsvar mellom staving og uttale. Norsk er direkte progressivt med tanke på skriftspråk, da vi faktisk har et utvalg som gjør endringer i offisiell staving ettersom språket endres.

[@st0kkke]

Løye haha

[@rthelionheart]

I had a girlfriend from Sweden years ago, she told me once that whenever someone speaks Danish, it sounds like they have something stuck in their throat😂

[@ThatNorwegianBiker]

Kids often play "danish" by putting a potato or something in their mouth and talking around it, it sounds very similar :D

[@jarleskogly8388]

@@ThatNorwegianBiker Kanelsneil.

[@jarleskogly8388]

@@ThatNorwegianBiker Sjokoløøøe sneil

[@TheBarser]

Well for a danish person, Norwegian sounds like a person that got something stuck up their arse.

[@ho-wm7jy]

TheBarser swedes think the same lol

[@grdev3066]

Long live Norway! We were in Oslo in december, and in the center we saw huge crowd dancing around christmas tree, and we joined them. I am curious to learn some phrases and return back!

[@mar754]

Were you near Aker Brygge in December 2018? I was there too back then!

[@MrFilip-qr1qk]

Интересная история

[@siljeuglenes9789]

First thing to learn can be "juletre" -christmas tree, im really looking forward to "jul" already

[@grdev3066]

@@siljeuglenes9789 Thanks!)

[@skrutu77]

Your first example "gang" only means time if it's used in the context of something simmilar to 'Once upon a time' or 'Det var en gang', usually it refers to a hallway or enterance :)

[@EmmaVZ]

And in Dutch; Ingang is entrance and gang is hallway. (and uitgang is exit)

[@aaronmarks9366]

Based on that, we should start saying in English "Ingang" and "Outgang" ;)

[@ownpetard8379]

English has "gangway" which is a raised pathway to get on or off a boat. Also, in the imperative, it means to make a path (get out of the way).

[@romanr.301]

So like "vez" in Spanish or "fois" in French. Whereas "time" in the sense of the progress of existence or events, is "tid"

[@Hagledesperado]

@@EmmaVZ Wow, that's close to Norwegian. Inngang, gang, utgang.

[@stevebloodymckenna]

I've been learning Norwegian for almost 4 years now and could relate to all of this. The Nynorsk and Bokmål differences, the 3 genders that are some times two, the double definite forms like "den hvite bilen", the silet d, t, and g's, among many other quirks. Kjempebra video!

[@thomasrocker7408]

I've got a 3 year old Norwegian Elk Hound and I can't understand a word he says.

[@Purple_Box]

Being Finnish I had to learn Swedish at school. Because of that I understand written Norwegian pretty well. However spoken Norwegian, (all dialects) is quite difficult to understand.

[@Bjorn2055]

Fråga how many Norwegians understand anything in Finnish?! Except for kippis 🇫🇮

[@Purple_Box]

D-2055de BjørnB That’s a good start 😄

[@Gkvhkbt]

Finlandssvenska borde vara Nordens genemsamma språk för att Finlanddsvenska är så rent uttalat. En nyfiken fråga till dig: Vad tycker du är lättast att lära sig, Svenska eller Finska? Jag vet att det låter som en dum fråga, men enligt statistik så är Finska ett av världen svåraste språk då gramatiken är väldigt...komplex. Jämfört med Svenskan :) Hälsningar från Sverige!

[@Purple_Box]

Daniel Mårtensson Jag kan faktiskt inte svara därför att finska är mitt modermål. Det stämmer, att för en som inte har lärt det i barndom, är det nästan omöjligt att lära perfekt. Gramatiken är komplex och orden långa.

[@Gkvhkbt]

@@Purple_Box Tack för svar. Jag tänkte att om Finskan skulle vara svårare för exakt alla att lära sig, oavsett bakgrund. Läste någon statistik för länge sedan att Finska och Ryska samt Kinesiska/Japanska är mycket svåra språk. Detta har med som du säger att det är komplex gramatik och mycket att memorera, vilket gör det svårt. Jag tycker att Svenskans "en" och "ett" är svårt för det är något man måste memorera och det finns inga regler. Därmed så är Engelskans "a" och "an" enklare att lära sig.

[@abcabcboy]

Nynorsk doesn't have a "tendency" to use -ar, where bokmål uses -er. Nynorsk uses this in masculine nouns, with a few exceptions. It is a clear rule, not a "tendency".

[@egrettacaerulea]

I suppose he used it because a source or two varied or he wasn't sure of his conclusion or notes, but to be clear, 'tendency' is often used as a euphemistic understatement.

[@g4fly4ever8]

Norway having many accents Arabic: Hold my non-alcoholic beer

[@artlover5060]

*non-alcoholic beer* I appreciate the accuracy

[@200555280]

Keep it halal always

[@artlover5060]

@@200555280 *Haram has left the chat*

[@willet2275]

On Muhammad's beard! Hold my personal goat!

[@artlover5060]

@@willet2275 *Taqiyya wants a talk with you*

[@andyarken7906]

Except for there being only one Standard German, the situation in Norway and Switzerland seems to be really similar. Many dialects to learn for a foreigner!

[@akselkvalsvik6707]

As a Norwegian who grew up in two different regions of Norway, Stavanger in my early childhood and then Oslo in my teens, I learned to speak both dialects and I still use them seperatly in different situations in my day to day life. I now live and work in Oslo, so it's only natural for me to speak the dialect of this region at work, at the store, in other formal and informal situations, and with my friends in Oslo. As most of my family are from the region surounding Stavanger, I always speak that dialect when im on the phone with them or when we have a get together with the family. My sister also lives in Oslo, but she always stuck with her dialect from the Stavanger region, and we always talk together in that dialect - even when i'm with her AND my Oslo friends (then I tend to switch between the two of them)! The difference between those dialects are so noticable that I often hear from people, who are used to me speaking one dialect and then suddenly hear the other, that I sound like a completely different person. Sadly, many Norwegians tend to look upon my choice of keeping both dialects, as me having been forced to "lose" my old dialect and or not being able to "stick with it". I like to look at my choice as no different than what people from foreign countries do: the learn the local language but of course they keep their mother tounge, henceforth they use both! That's exactly the way I feel about the two dialects I speak. But dialects here, unfortunately, don't have that same status and are not aknowledged as something that needs to or could co-exist alongside each other in the same manner as two languages. That's at least the impression I'm left with after doing so my self for the last 12+ years. My sister, for instance, lived several years in Denmark and learned to speak Danish fluently. And that was met with great admiration back home, even though Norwegian and Danish are quite mutually intelligible and she could have easily just spoken Norwgian with some adjustments and use of danish words. But the difference is that they have the status of being two different languages. But don't get me wrong, most Norwegians like the wast array of dialects we have, but the notion of someone using one over the other just doesn't sit very well with many Norwegians, especially the generations above my own (I'm 25 y/o). I'm also fluent in German and just love learning more about languages and lingvistics, and I take pride in being able to speak two different Norwegian dialects and will continue doing so! Thanks for reading :) And as always, great video, Paul! Thanks for choosing Norwegian as todays topic! Loved it!! :)

[@chrismne92]

I think those who can speak and write both variants should be considered lucky. I though that differences between dialects are not so big. It must have been unusual for you at first when you moved to oslo and had to switch from one to another dialect.

[@jacosaur2287]

Tusen takk! Jeg er så glad at du anmeldte mitt språk! Jeg elsker Norge og jeg håper at dette oppmuntre folk for å lære norsk! Fantastisk video!

[@alanvt1]

Jeg leare norsk

[@beorlingo]

I second that

[@shelterit]

Bokmål speaking norwegian here. Loved this video, really enjoyed it. Maybe it's reductive as it's common in a lot of germanic languages, but one of your latter sentences used 'arbeidsløshet' which are compound words. It's one of the main things I actually miss (I live in Australia) in English (they're not totally gone, only mostly) as it's one of the more poetic sides to the language and really interesting how the different compounds interact, how some words are more compoundable than others, and how the archtecting of compound words is an art all in itself (and not just a stream of words strung together for context). Would also be great to have a 'slide' of examples of one of those sentences in a variety of both bokmål and nynorsk varieties. We even have different varieties of bokmål (written and oral) just in Oslo alone! Madness!

[@MoreAgain9]

I'm currently learning Norwegian via Duolingo, and this video has helped to make a sort of systematic sense of things I've learned. Takk!

[@ingvildsvendsrud6937]

It’s so funny to hear non-Norwegian people pronounce Norwegian words. Is like: “it’s.. [bokmål]” And why did I learn more about the Norwegian grammar here than in school😅

[@fannybrasse]

he said it once. still pretty funny to hear tho

[@yayu984]

That's not how you use those brackets

[@Louisanna0]

When i write in like formal settings, or at like school, in emails and texts to people that isnt from the same place as I am, i write in bokmål. But when im like texting a friend, or my mom, or someone that i know understand what i write, i write in my dialect. When i talk i ONLY talk in my dialect, i find it pretty weird to change my dialect tbh🤷🏻‍♀️ But if the person dont understand a word or something that i say, i just say it in the oslo-dialect. Many people struggle to understand what i say sometimes, bc i live far into nowhere, and i have a very thick ‘trønder’ dialect.

[@davidlim2985]

This reminds me of "Fun with Flags" in The Big Bang Theory.

[@austin4768]

This is by far the best explanation I've come across regarding the difference between bokmal and nynorsk.

[@Arinomi68]

@Langfocus I'm a North Norwegian that lives in the south. I exclusively speak North Norwegian to other Norwegians, regardless of where they're from. I will, however, "soften" my dialect to make myself more understandable. In writing, it depends on who I'm writing to. I write bokmål to people with other dialects or if I don't know which dialect the other person speaks. I write Northern to other Northerners, unless it's a formal setting like a job application or an email. Then I'll use bokmål. I sometimes have problems understanding people with vastly different dialects from my own, especially rural dialects. Dialects can vary from village to village, so much so that I can often hear the difference between my own city or region and a nearby one. Dialects are considered a part of our identity, which we often wear with pride, especially when we are in different parts of Norway. I'm not a linguist, but I am interested in dialects and the culture around them, so if you want to know more, just ask :)

[@lizevingamos7063]

I am Norwegian, and to answer your question. 🇳🇴 18:22 1) In writing, I use for the most part Bokmål because I am from Oslo. In speech, I speak with my own dialect "Oslo-dialect" or østlandsk dialect. 2) Yes, I think it is easy to communicate with other people in Norway because we are used to other dialects.

[@siljeuglenes9789]

Då hakje du møtt dei riktige dialektane

[@martinkase5842]

Tok en biltur inn i indre enfold. Var veldig stor forskjell, og det var knapt en times kjøring.

[@eyolfos]

To the QOTD: I'm Norwegian, grew up in the most conservative part of nynorsk-land, in Sogn, thus obviously wrote nynorsk in school, although my spoken language is very clearly a bokmål-related dialect. When I switched, in high school, i retained the dialect-based elements as much as I could (this was in the 80s, so politics was also part of it; and you can do that, since orthography is fluid in Norwegian). After a number of years living in Denmark, my then radical bokmål has gradually turned into a very conservative version. I now live in Sweden, which has some substantial similarities with nynorsk, but the effect is NOT that I swing towards nynorsk again - on the contrary: whereas Danish influences on bokmål are perfectly ok, Swedish influences are more immediately noticeable, so I tend to avoid anything that may sound like a Swedish influence. Yes, it's complicated...

[@bluecolibri9413]

I love the part at 11:56 Also I am Norwegian, so to answer your question at the end of the video; I normally use bokmål, but i learn nynorsk at school and can write that too. My regional dialect is influenced by both of them, so we are very diverse here. You can pretty much talk however you like, and people won't think much of it.

[@juliemagnussen3316]

WE NEED SOMETHING BIG FOR THE CHANNEL! - well there is a lot of self centered Norwegian people, who likes to watch videos about them selves! 😂

[@JanGaarni]

I'M ONE!!! :D :D :D :D

[@juliemagnussen3316]

JanGaarni same :p

[@RexVelde]

^

[@The_joker-hm4zs]

guilty

[@peterudbjorg]

Måtte se den. Tenkte jo ikke på at norsk var *så* innviklet… Men så har vi jo fått tutet øra fulle med det siden vi var små… :P

[@ronin667]

The practice of using different adjective declension for definite and indefinite forms is the same as in German (der hohe Berg - the high mountain; ein hoher Berg - a high mountain). As for the different standard varieties: The dialectal situation is very similar here in Germany, except only one dialect made it to becoming the standard variety. It would be perfectly imaginable that there could be another standard variety. Also, the standard varieties of German used in Austria and Switzerland are slightly different from that in Germany, but not as different as Bokmål and Nynorsk.

[@thegoodlydragon7452]

As I understand there used to be a standard low German variety during the Hansa, but this pretty much died after reunification, and so even though much of Germany is covered in local dialects, the northern dialects largely got replaced by standard German.

[@thegoodlydragon7452]

This is why Germans say that the way they speak in Hannover is closet to the written standard, even though Plattdeutsch was traditional there at one time.

[@ronin667]

@@thegoodlydragon7452 That's right. In the North, you will only hear dialects from elderly people or in very rural areas. In the South, even young people will speak dialect as their everyday language, and some elderly people are outright unable to speak Standard High German, although they of course understand it.

[@samneibauer4241]

@@ronin667 I was an exchange student in germany (from America) from August 2018 to June 2019. I lived between Aachen and Köln in a little village, going to school in a small city. Most people spoke standard German in their daily lives, but it was the fun thing to do to speak with a Kölsch accent. However, this was only a watered down version of Kölsch consisting of only a couple sound changes and some slang. When I actually went to Köln for the first time, I realized that Kölsch is far more complicated and different and should be considered its own distinct language. Sadly, I didn't experience any other dialects during my stay.

[@Vizzie-]

Native Norwegian here. Thanks for such a great and accurate video! To answer your second question: People who grow up in Norway are exposed to all sorts of dialects from early on. Some people have parents who speak a different dialect than the one native to the area they have settled in, and if not they will at least most definitely encounter other dialects in kindergartens, schools, or through TV-shows, radio programs etc. This makes it easy to understand people who are speaking other dialects, as you basically grow up with a diversity of spoken dialects.

[@steinarhatlen2622]

I am Norwegian. And another thing about the Norwegian language is all the words that we merge into one word. For instance: ''landsdels­beredskaps­fylkesmanns­embete'' which every adult in Norway will understand. It means: ''regional emergency county governor's office'' And there is another word here: ''fylkes­trafikk­sikkerhetsutvalgs­sekretariatsleder­funksjon'' which is the same as: ''county traffic safety secretariat manager function committee''

[@jeschinstad]

That's bad Norwegian and those words would never be used. But there are some long ones. For instance, supreme court justice, is høyesterettsjustitiarius.

[@anyarasan8529]

Idhsjshdbsjjsabjs

[@Muchoyo]

Except for fact that "fylkesmann" recently was replaced by the gender neutral term "statsforvalter"🙄 Makes sense, as it is my impression that most holders of this office are female former parliament members. I haven't checked the balance, though.

[@Muchoyo]

@@jeschinstad well, that's the title of the head justice only, to be exact.

[@jeschinstad]

@@Muchoyo: Chief justice, yes, that's what I tried to say. :)

[@Narnendil]

As a Swede it's fascinating how sometimes bokmål seems more similar to Swedish, and sometimes it's nynorsk.

[@jdizzle3627]

It would be like speaking standard English in daily life and then having to go to court speaking like Shakespeare LOL "Yeah mom, I'm looking forward to it! I can't wait to see you and Da- ugh... hold on, Mom. My Lawyer is calling on the other line. Just a sec... Good morrow sire. How dost thine evening venture? Hast thou brought tidings of good joy to mine ears?"

[@Correctrix]

*doth

[@ZenFox0]

I’d be okay with this. 😄

[@connordavis3984]

@widhbnw efDwdwDW you have no soul

[@jbjaguar2717]

Or alternatively, it's like normal life in Glasgow: "Ryt fannybaws hooz tricks? Wantin ti introduce us tae yur pal? Ah seen yeez stoatin aboot roon Tescoes nawis lit, fucks'at wae Tam?" "Sorry, I'm from England." "Aw. I said, I was wondering what your name was, I saw you and my friend Thomas walking near the supermarket yesterday and wondered who you were."

[@nathanielcrosby2426]

@@ZenFox0 Me too.

[@Raven-Winter]

Hei ! Jeg lærer norsk ! I'm learning Norwegian ! This video is very useful, I already know most of it but I still did learn some things about the pronunciation I didn't know. The video is very well made. I agree that Bokmål is quite simple when it comes to conjugaison and grammar, but still a bit difficult to learn as every languages I can't imagine France having 2 different written standards, due to history and the fact that parisian French was forced into people, so much that regional languages have almost disappeared. I wish that France were more like Norway and respectful of local languages and dialects.