The Norwegian Language: The Savage Story of Vikings, Plagues, and Poetry

[@storylearning]

Think Norwegian has a crazy history? Check this out 👉🏼 kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5Pdh5ynl798e7c

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

Vikings doesn't exist anymore tho, and they didn't wear helmets with horns on them either. Stereotype. Just like the Celts, the Vikings/Norse was a cultural movement, and not a fixed ethnicity, nationality or group of people. Slavery was the biggest exsport at the time, and people like to believe that globalism is new, but it's not as they where mixed. In Norway due to pillaging, raping and loothing the British Isles, many at the time where of Celtic decent. Later they would be replaced by the growing numbers of slaves from Russia, Ukraine etc. where Slavic comes from, which means slave in Norwegian. In Iceland they are part Irish/Scottish due to bringing female slaves from Ireland. And the Irish them selves as well as most Brits has Scandinavian ancestry, mostly Norwegian and Danish. Especially in the north. And Viking was a profession basically or what you did, not what and who you where. Most Vikings where farmers, and not heavily trained stationary warriors. One could say we are still doing that today, traveling to exotic new warmer places, drinking, fucking, without the pillaging, looting and raping tho. Also that it's so cold here is another stereotype, as we have 4 seasons, and summers are quite hot, and dry.

[@jmwild22]

@@kilipaki87oritahiti Maybe you should have made the video.

[@herrbonk3635]

@@kilipaki87oritahiti _"Cultural movement, and not a fixed ethnicity, nationality or group of people."_ Well, you obviously read too much postmodern propaganda. Despite some healthy mixing with similar groups, scandis were genetically very homogenous during this time and for many hundred of years to come. "Viking" was an activity, so no "vikings" were farmers really. But it was also a label on individuals that participated in that activity, as you state yourself. Farmers and craftsmen were usually ordinary Swedes, say. (Yes, Swedes (Svear) existed in Svealand long before the state Sverige was formed, even before Svitjod. Look it up.)

[@xotan]

Men jeg jeg snakker norsk ,selv om jeg er irsk, men bare litt. Some Irish surnames have their roots in Scandinavia eg: MacAuliffe = Olaf Macd Manus = Magnus MacIvar = Ivor McLoughlin/Lochlin = son of a Scandinavian McKittrick = son of Sitric (a Norse king of Dublin) And Dublin was founded by the Norse in 841. TYhey called Dyflin from the Irish Dubh Linn (Duv Lin(g) which mean Black Pool.

[@michaelkobylko2969]

I've been learning Norwegian for three years now and there's no doubt that, as a native English speaker, it's quite straightforward to get started with. However, there's no denying that the dialect situation makes understanding the spoken language very challenging. I suspect it's not far off impossible to develop a strong ability to understand Norwegian from all different parts of Norway - you'd just need loads and loads of exposure, which is hard to get. In my own experience, I find speakers from the Oslo area the easiest to understand, but I also find the vast majority of Norwegians willing to slow their speech down or even alter it slightly to help if you're having trouble, which technically they don't have to do as all dialects have equal status and are equally legitimate.

[@AndersLH]

The dialects are pretty varied, and I understand that it could be a challenge for learners. The Oslo area dialect is the closest to the written Bokmål variant, so that shouldn't be too hard. I had a French teacher in university in Trondheim, which has a pretty thick dialect, and she said she struggled to understand it for quite some time, even though she coulf understand most of the stuff she saw on tv, news etc. She told med that eventually it just kinda unlocked for her one day. It was like she leveled up one morning and understood the dialect. Keep at it, bro! Kanskje vi møtes i Norge en dag. ^^

[@Luredreier]

Jeg håper at du får teken på det med tid og stunder. Let me know if you want a translation later, I can both do the meaning and the literal translation.

[@dan74695]

The reason it's easiest for you to understand people from Oslo is because they speak Bokmål, not a dialect. The Oslo dialect is pretty dead. Also, Bokmål is not Norwegian, it's written Danish that's influenced by Norwegian, and Urban East "Norwegian" is its spoken standard.

[@arecold4222]

As a norwegian myself, lived here for 22 years, i still dont understand most dialects

[@dan74695]

@@arecold4222 Slit du røynelege(verkeleg) med dei fleste?

[@ethanninteynine]

I don’t know how you do it Olly but you make whatever language you’re talking about sound so interesting

[@lordofdarkness4204]

He really has a gift for storytelling, which is quite fitting

[@storylearning]

That’s so nice. Thank you!

[@thinker646]

I know. Im totally in love..... No threat to anyone in that, but im going to be a follower for a while!!!

[@sm_artx]

Probably because he lets his enthusiasm and love for languages shine through in his words. We want to celebrate and share other people's enthusiasm about things. That's human nature 😊

[@wereldvanriley7]

As someone learning norwegian, Thank you for making this video. I've been learning norwegian for almost 4 years now and have enjoyed every moment of it. Love from canada

[@fredfred32]

Jeg blir alltid så overrasket når jeg hører om noen snakke om Norge! Jeg blir liksom overrasket om at de vet om Norge. Det er veldig kult å høre om at folk ikke bare vet om Norge men også er interresert nok til å lære seg språket!

[@Neophema]

@@fredfred32 Interessert, Frida. ;)

[@TheArrowedKnee]

@@fredfred32 Er mange i Nord-Amerika som har norske aner vettu :)

[@Totsrocky]

I am from rural Norway, and when a friend of mine was learning Norwegian I had to switch to nokmål, most of all to make it easier for him, since my dialect is pretty different from Bokmål, so it was really fun when he got to a level where he could understand my dialect as well:) Hilsinger fra Norge, great content!

[@Totsrocky]

He learned Norwegian in about 3 months, which was mind blowing, so if you’re speaking a Germanic language and want to acquire new language I would recommend Norwegian as it seems to be pretty easy, good luck

[@Svensk7119]

​​@@Totsrocky He did? Damn! I have been trying it for two years now, though not with a great routine. In fact, no routine at all. So saying, I do admit to always praying (over food) now in Norsk.

[@Totsrocky]

@@Svensk7119 Yeah he did! But I would say the circumstances were perfect, as he was living in a school, where he was surrounded by only Norwegian people 24 hours a day, so he got a lot of input all the time, but I do believe that if you have the opportunity to immerse yourself fully like that, that you will make great progress very quickly! Having a routine like the praying is also nice since you at least keep up with some of the language:) Good luck on your language journey!

[@dan74695]

All traditional dialects are very different from Bokmål, because Bokmål is not based on them. Bokmål is a form of Danish, it's Norwegian Danish.

[@Bjowolf2]

@@Totsrocky And then "you" will even be able to learn Danish & Swedish very quickly after that - it's nearly a three for the price of one package 😁

[@AlexanderJansen]

I think the "bønner" "bønder" patterns are interesting. The two words can be used to mean "beans", "prayers" (bønner) or "farmers" (bønder). The tonal distinction varies by dialect, where some distinguish the two spellings, and some pronounce and alike but differently.

[@Neophema]

I pronounce prayers and beans the same, but farmers differently.

[@iverbyrkjedal7797]

Great video, I didn't expect you to have such a good understanding of the dialects and the written forms of the language, and i felt relatively represented even though my dialect wasn't mentioned. Something interesting I'd like to add about the norwegian dialects is that even though we have two written forms, these are usually not enough to represent our dialects. I feel like these forms are only picking out two specific dialects out of 30 different ones, and for that reason we (especially younger generations) tend to write informally in our own dialects, something which can almost seem unreadable to anyone not from that specific area. I've encountered written dialects that are more difficult to understand than written Jamaican Patois is for the average english speaker.

[@lex0n]

This video made me want to learn norwegian Only issue is that i'm norwegian

[@languagelearning7726]

This is great! I have a big interest in the Norwegian language!

[@anthonyalba8226]

Excellent video. Especially that I have been learning this beautiful language. Loved it.

[@danayang7712]

As a Norwegian, I was so confused when you said Swedish and Danish in the beginning of the video, I almost wondered if you'd gotten a stroke or something, it sounded JUST like me when I speak English! You REALLY nailed that scandinavian accent, and furthermore, when I listened to it a second time (which I had to, thinking "what just happened?") I can tell you did the swedish and the Danish tone actually, totally perfect, (so, not Norwegian, but still scandinavian), I am VERY impressed! You got it all right to my knowledge, I'm marvelling at your work!

[@user-mrfrog]

Skandinavísk tungumál eru heillandi! Þakka þér fyrir frábært myndband! Ég er að læra íslensku!

[@solveigw]

Great video. It's fun to hear a foreigners version of the history of my language. Just one thing, there are several Sami languages, the 3 most common are Northern, Southern and Lule Sami. They are distinct and you might not understand the others if you can speak one.

[@caracrosby104]

Please do a Story Learning book for Greek! 🙏

[@gastonmartinez6316]

I love these language profiles ❤️❤️❤️

[@kingkal81]

Please do a video on learning Dutch. It's one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.

[@Overlycomplicatedswede]

I’m a swede but the Norwegian language,country and it’s people are all beautiful and the people are also the most kind and respectful people I’ve been around. I understand norwegian as it’s stupid similar to Swedish. really good video none the less Love from Sweden

[@elgueromeromero4277]

This is fanastic! I'd been leaning toward learning Swedish instead of Norwegian (my bestemor was from Holmestrand outside Oslo), but an Uncovered course might change that. Unless you're also making a Swedish course too...

[@Adrian13rams]

Jackson!!!!! Love his channel too! Lol hes writing an old norse textbook himseñf right now

[@thor.halsli]

I'm from Norway, and when i saw the tvshow House of the dragon count the way we do in my village i laughed a little. Never heard english count this way before

[@marna_li]

In Swedish it is the same: "Igår lagade jag lunch". It is the natural way for us. So whatever you learn will be applicable in the other Scandinavian languages. Just that the vocabulary and the pronunciation might be a bit different. Different pitch accents. Some words that are in use in Danish and Norwegian appear old or formal to Swedish speakers.

[@Svensk7119]

I am basically subscribed to all the channels you referenced, Olly! Thanks! (Subscribed here, too!)

[@Pabloinjuanderland]

Gjerne and yearn have similar meanings and sounds. I love Norwegian for that reason 🤭

[@sarahlou4233]

I’m currently at beginner level Greek as my partner is Greek so I’d like to converse with my in-laws as they do not speak English. I was wondering if you have any plans for a Greek course/story book?

[@brendanryan6740]

hey there....i am learning greek also....i found a podcast called wee greek.....very helpful....

[@curtiscroulet8715]

This catches my attention: the Norwegian word "gjerne." This looks to me like it's related in meaning and usage to the German word "gern" -- whose usage I never quite grasped in three semesters of university German. I never quite understood the uses of "gern" in preference to the verb "möchten" (to like).

[@londongael414]

In German, it adds the sense that you would be happy to do, or have, or be whatever. It just sounds more enthusiastic (sometimes "politely enthusiastic") - perhaps somewhat like the difference in English between "I'd like to" and "I'd love to". My German's a bit rusty now, and my Norwegian non-existent, so other insights welcome!

[@mayliu5419]

It translate to very much. Eg vil gjerne hjelpa deg. I would very much like to help you. Ja takk, eg vil gjerne ha litt kaka. Yes please I would very much like some cake. Ja me kan gjerne gjøra da. Yes, I'm very willing to do as you suggest.

[@Bjowolf2]

Yes, it is indeed borrowed from Low German "gern' into Norwegian , Danish ("gerne") & Swedish ( "gärna" [yair-nA] ).

[@hotrodjones74]

Takk for å fortelle om språket av forfedrene mine. Det var spennende! Jeg tror at det er bedre å starte å lære bokmål og etterpå lære nynorsk, spesielt for innvandrere. Jeg kan sier at det er ikke så vanskelig å lære norsk som andrespråk. Dessuten er det mange gode serier og filmer på norsk. Jeg anbefaler å se serien "Ragnarok" fra Netflix, det er dritkult! Skål! 🇧🇻💪🍻

[@bellybutthole]

Ikke bry deg om Nynorsk, det er et "made up language" basert på mange dialekter og er ganske irrelevant om du er utenlands, men det kan dog være veldig vakkert:-)

[@linkgrinmbn]

Alt kommer veldig an på hva du vil bruke språket til, om du har lyst til å lære språket for å flytte til vestlandet eller et annet sted med dialekter nær nynorsk så er det veldig viktig å lære nynorsk samtidig som bokmål.

[@jrnsteen8136]

Skål e ikje nokka du sir uten ei øl i handa. Og ragnarok va skit. Glorifisert Hollywood etterligning

[@hkrohn]

In order to help you, this is how I would phrase your comment in Norwegian, with as few corrections as I could: Takk for at du forteller om språket til forfedrene mine. Det var spennende! Jeg tror det er bedre å starte med å lære bokmål og etterpå lære nynorsk, spesielt for innvandrere. Jeg tror ikke det er så vanskelig å lære norsk som andrespråk. Dessuten er det mange gode serier og filmer på norsk. Jeg anbefaler å se serien "Ragnarok" fra Netflix, den er dritkul! Skål!

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

Hvorfor Nynorsk? Gir null mening. Trenger kun bokmål.

[@dalubwikaan161]

It must be confusing on which dialect should you use. This situation is simmilar to Arabic speaking country on Al-fuSha and the spoken forms.

[@Luredreier]

20:04 More then one. We have Northern Sami, Lule Sami, Southern Sami, Kven, Romani and Romanés are languages that's still alive (although southern Sami is on the verge of dying out.) We also had Rodi (another traveler language) and the language of the Forest Finns that has died out in the sense that there's no more native speakers, but you can still find texts written by the Forest Finns for instance, and words from Rodi are still used by the travelers in southwestern Norway (the travelers here that used Rodi where not descendants of the Roma peoples, these where mostly descendants of Germans with some Roma and Norwegians mixed in sailing around southwestern Norway, travelers elsewhere did decend more from the Roma in two migration waves, hence the two separate languages) Those living languages each have some form of official recognition. In the case of the Sami languages they're often official languages at local levels. Romani and Romanés *are* recognized, but talks are still underway in trying to work out exactly *how* to support them. There's been talks about some kind of school supporting remote education, for when they're traveling.

[@olehaugan9555]

Great video 👍 I just wanted to say we actually have three official sami languages, and I think there are about ten in total

[@eivindkaisen6838]

Good summation but some corners have been cut (some for obvious reasons) Knife was, If memory serves, never wiritten snif(r). The k sound is still pronounced in all Scandinavian languages; the s->k in the beginning of a word is very rare indeed. [Middle English spelled it cnife, where c was a k sound]. Apart from æ, ø, and å (which, as stated, all are still present in English) infamous sounds for foregners to pronounce/differentiate is u, y and i. Another feature is the stress of compund words. In most words, the main stress is on the first syllable; and that pattern is preserved in compound words: you may have TWO stressed syllables, one for each word in the compound. "Sommerferie" has main stress on the o sin sommer (summer) and the e in ferie (vacation, holiday) Single vowels are almost always long in stressed syllables UNLESS followed by a double consonant: then it's short.[That spelling pattern was changed in the 1870s; before that some long vowels were doubled while there was only one consonant; a trait that differentiates Nowegianb from Danish, particularly at the end of words.) - the propositions "til", the verb "vil" and the subjunction/preposition "som" are notable exceptions (there are others) with stressed short vowels. Double vouwels are not used anymore (excepting some names for historical reasons, like Haakon/Håkon; the ‘å’ only officially entered Norwegian in 1907). So it's the Sami people, not saami. And that singing quality is dialectical: eastern dialects have a very different sentence melody compared to westen dialects or those in the mioddle (i.e. trøndersk) As the clips in the beginning should illustrate, even after Olly mentioned the singing.

[@lisamarydew]

Olly isn't cutting corners, he's trying to keep the video short. It's an overview. The full details will be in the Norwegian course that's coming out this year.

[@Neophema]

Yeah, but "snifr" is a mistake. It was "knifr" in Old Norse, "kniv" in modern Norwegian.@@lisamarydew

[@Ramngrim]

One small mistake there, about the transfer from Proto-Norse to Old Norse. Proto-Norse (and Proto-Germanic) already had diphtongs.

[@eviesofia4120]

Nobody want nynorsk in school, it is a constant fight. Only reason it is still a subject in school is because Norwegian language Council fights tooth and nail to keep it ( a bunch of old people that don't have to suffer through the thing they wanna keep). They are afraid we'll lose our kulture if they stop torturing us in school

[@Neophema]

I thought nynorsk was great in school. Less effort, better grades, because all you had to do was write nynorsk to get a good grade. Never mind the content of that boring book analysis. ;)

[@ankra12]

As a Norwegian I cant understand certain dialects. I might pick up a word here and there, but overall they are really different from my dialect (Oslo).

[@cecilieb3617]

I’m from Oslo too. The only Norwegians I struggle to understand are people with sloppy pronunciation. Typically: actors in Tv-series/films….

[@alanguages]

Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and parts of Russia, France and some of the British Isles. No mention of exploring Vinland in Canada. 😢

[@InnerEagle]

I have a question, a very serious one, why people tells me it's a language that has no use other than norway itself? I totally love the language btw

[@runedahl1477]

Trust me when I tell you that there are many Norwegians that have considered going to Volda and piss on the grave of Ivar Aasen. The reason for this is all the headache his language that consists of words collected from western Norway dialects because it is very similar to bokmaal but not quite. How much money this have costed nobody knows but all official documents and schoolbooks have to be translated and printed in nynorsk as well. 25% of broadcasts have to be in nynorsk as well. One day I was listening to the news on local radio and I was puzzled by the dialect the news presenter was speaking. It sounded very strange until I realized was it was. The presenter was speaking nynorsk but her tone was that of the north Norwegian dialect. It sounded really strange in my ears.😊

[@Luredreier]

Regarding the separate language thing... Norwegians had a different dialect from the Swedes and Danes even back during the old Norse era, even if it wasn't separate enough to be considered a separate language or say (also it was in a language continuum just like other Germanic languages with every tribe/petty kingdom having its own dialects, western dialects of old Norse just happens to have a lot of mountains and fjords separating them from the eastern ones)

[@Kali-Yuga-Peace-Corp]

What I feel there is never any talk about is the Innland Norwegian/Forest-Norwegian Language. As it is a "mix" of Modern Norwegian/Swedish, Norse and something completly different, that is lost by linguists. And it has none of the written languages. But the Language is so Important, as it covers what has happened in history, for Sailors, Soldiers, Gypsies and Crofters in these areas. as it is called Rural Dialects, and are not even considered.

[@Bronsluv]

What’s with the horns on the helmet on the illustration?

[@Bjowolf2]

You English speaking folks would be totally amazed by how many very similar basic words to yours that we have in "Scandinavian" ( three very similar and mutually intelligible Scandinavian languages with just a little bit of effort - like close cousins of English so to speak ) - just differing slightly in their spellings from their English counterparts and typically along some small and quite systematic sound shifts ( e.g. skal = shall, skift = shift, skarp = sharp, ...vil = will, vind = wind, vild = wild, ... dem = them, deres = their(s), disse [dees-se] = these,..., tænk [taink] = think, tørst [tirst] = thirst etc. ). The grammars also have many similarities with that of a basic (simplistic) English. So all in all these deep similarities and common roots with English fortunately make it fairly easy for Scandinavians to learn English even today (!) - as if we already mysteriously "know" a simple older core Pseudo English in advance and then "just" need to fill in all the gaps, as we go along 😉 If you are interested in seeing how much you can magically understand of our very similar basic vocabularies and grammar(s) here in Scandinavia , you can for instance check out the Danish public service TV DR, which has many programmes with (selectable) subtitles in Danish - very similar to bokmål Norwegian in vocabulary, spelling and grammar ( the Norwegians are just a bit poor at spelling certain words 😂 ). Sometimes you will probably even be able to catch longer phrases and whole basic sentences: D Skal vi [ve] gå [go] ud igen [ee-gain] nu [noo*] for at finde ham [hAm] / dem / min [meen) broder [bro(u)ð-er !] først [first]? E Shall we go out again now (for) to find him / them / my brother first? Denmark: dr.dk App: DRTV For films, TV series & sports you will usually need a VPN service to be able to watch from abroad, but the rest of the programmes are freely available. Norway: nrk.no Apps: NRK TV / NRK Radio ( not sure about their abroad viewing policies? ). Sweden: svt.se Apps: SVTPlay / Sveriges Radio Btw. Old English already had its own version of the runic alphabet earlier on - centuries before the Vikings arrived in England - brought along by the Anglo-Saxon, Frisian & Jutish (Jutland) settlers in Britain between 450 - 650 AD after the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. PS Older English ( Middle English) also used to have this verb second (V2) feature - and you can still find traces of it in some English dialects and expressions ( + in older poetry ).

[@JustLooking]

Mange tusen takk! **kjempeklem**

[@Vininn126]

Your voice okay? Coughing a lot lately?

[@natashacallis2736]

Jeg kan godt lide norsk selvom jeg lærer dansk! 🇳🇴 🇩🇰 jeg tror norsk er lidt svær på grund af dialekterne.

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

They have equally many dialects in Denmark as well, and Sweden...

[@natashacallis2736]

@@kilipaki87oritahiti ja men i Danmark og i Sverige har de også en officiel udtale og sprog, men i Norge taler alle en dialekt fordi der ikke er et ‘standardsprog’

[@alanguages]

Homework. Place the verb second to make it always consistent with Norwegian grammar rule. Sentence: Yesterday, I made lunch. Answer: I made lunch yesterday.

[@ILikeFlags2000]

the word mål sounds like the Korean word mal

[@Xirque666]

There are more than 180 different dialects here in Norway with 8 different personal pronouns

[@astrogeo1]

Who decided there are 180 dialects ? Hard to draw a line. Can you supply a list of them, or a link ?

[@Xirque666]

@@astrogeo1 I meant that there's more than 180.

[@marieparker3822]

The word that the young lady said had no real English equivalent - it sounded to me a bit like 'yearn'.

[@dabeagleigl]

Gierne in norwegian is obviously cognate to german gern.

[@Neophema]

Not a cognate, a direct loan from Low German.

[@dabeagleigl]

@@Neophema Thank you that’s an interesting detail. There are a lot of people who confuse loan words with cognates so I will take your statement as authoritative.

[@Neophema]

@@dabeagleigl I have to admit my mistake. I looked it up in my etymological dictionary, and it is indeed an Indo-European cognate. :) Someone else in this comment section said it's a loan, so I took their word for it.

[@dabeagleigl]

@@Neophema no worries, and thanks. Indo europeban cognates are fascinating

[@James-hs3tu]

So. What good is Knowing 20 languages Your supposed to impress people. ? . If I'm meeting you for the first time

[@bacontf2]

Am I going mad or have you dubbed over yourself?

[@MatheusPereira-eg2nz]

I think he used Adobe's AI technology to enhance the audio, it sounds too dry and a bit weird

[@bacontf2]

@@MatheusPereira-eg2nz That makes sense. Yeah I guess it works quite well for how early doors it is for AI but it's got a long way to go before it sounds natural

[@helloworld7818]

Modern languages don't sound cool anymore. I want to imagine vikings talking it with deep voices.

[@matfhju]

Yea norwegian is a category one language. Untill you move to a New place in Norway and realice that you have to throw away half of what you have learned.

[@WalesTheTrueBritons]

No! “Vikings” was a progression, a raider! Not a people. If Viking is a people then that makes every Welsh person a Bard! every Irish person a drunk! And every Englishman a Knight. Utter nonsense to suggest such things.

[@WalesTheTrueBritons]

Profession!

[@jmwild22]

It wasn't just a profession, since they LIVED "viking" -- they didn't just do it 9 - 5 and then go home and be puppy dogs. Olly made it very clear in this video, anyway, that they were a particular group, not all Norwegians. You're just stirring.

[@mrh4900]

Deez

[@johnnymartinjohansen]

No, no, NO. The sami language is NOT-NOT-NOT "just as important". If you're not sami, it's unlikely you even undestand 5 words of it, and non-samis couldn't care less about that language. There's absolutely no need to learn it at all, and almost no one do.

[@jmwild22]

Relax, Johnny. Every person on this planet's language is important -- that's the point.

[@bellybutthole]

Something is off with your audio...

[@Lemonz1989]

I'm a native Faroese speaker, and I find it pretty neat that Norwegian and Faroese share a lot of similarities, like words and diphthongs. I'm also a fluent speaker of Danish, so the mix of knowledge of Danish and Faroese makes me understand almost everything Norwegian, without ever having been taught it. The funny thing is, I can't speak or write Norwegian, because I literally don't know which words they use or the correct grammar, but when a Norwegian person writes or speaks, I can understand it, lol. I can even catch the meaning of most of the tones (though not all). Another fun fact: We (Faroese) still have a lot of Old Norse words in our language, but many apparently have completely different meanings now. Examples include: -"Slatra" means to gossip/to snitch on somebody/to spill another person's secrets (context dependent), and not slaughter. -"Angr" (now written "angur") means regret, and not anger. -"Snara" means to spin or twist, and not snare. -"Búkr" (now written "búkur") means stomach/belly, and not bug.

[@Firegroupfugl]

Eg kjem frå vest-Noreg, og eg klarer å forstå Færøysk ganske bra sjølv, mesteparten av tida. Det kjem litt an på kva dialekt folk snakkar då, virkar det som. Det er endå enklare å lese! :P

[@Lemonz1989]

​@@Firegroupfugl Lol, yes, some Faroese dialects are really fast-spoken and mumbling, so those would probably be harder to understand 😄

[@Firegroupfugl]

@@Lemonz1989 For sure! xD

[@dotlua]

omg I've never met a native Faroese speaker before! It's really hard to find resources but I'm learning it and really love it :3

[@Lemonz1989]

@@dotlua Hehe, I’m glad you like it 😃 Yeah, it’s too bad that it’s so difficult to learn the language when you don’t live on the Faroe Islands.

[@Jo----]

Hi Norwegian here. Actually Norway got its independence in 1905. 1814 was when we got our constitution. In addition we were not only under Denmark, we bounced back and forth between Sweden and Denmark, and one we all three were the Kalmar union.

[@Jo----]

Also Ivar Aasen was not only a poet but also a teacher. one of his inspirations for making New Norwegian was noticing how difficult it was for students to learn written Danish when speaking their Norwegian dialects.

[@Bjowolf2]

Yes, the good old days 😂 ( Danish)

[@edemoi3817]

I was far a long time in Norway. 1989. Cute peuple. I will try to learn this language. As german speaking it has to be easyer.

[@Jo----]

@@edemoi3817 Øving gjør mester! (Practice makes a master)

[@edemoi3817]

@@Jo---- It is complicated. I had allready had to learn french. I studied in Geneva, Brüssel and Paris . Es wird schon werden. Es ist eine nordmannische Sprache.

[@ben-taobeneton3945]

Thank you for addressing 'pitch accents'. When I learned it was touched briefly if not at all. A very essential part of the language. 🙏

[@thepolyhobbyist]

Yes, but the pitch is different in different dialects. So the examples are only in Oslo dialekt.

[@ben-taobeneton3945]

yes theya re@@thepolyhobbyist

[@Neophema]

Well, the pitch accents are pretty much the same all across eastern Norway, not just in Oslo. It's not like the city of Oslo has its own pitch accents. :p But I agree, it would be cool if he'd included pitch accent examples from all dialect regions. @@thepolyhobbyist

[@thepolyhobbyist]

@@Neophema it certainly have its own dialect. Its similar to other dialects in the region, but distinct oslo region. Travel 40 minutes in any direction and you will hear a different dialect

[@Neophema]

@@thepolyhobbyist I'm Norwegian, I know that. I wasn't talking about dialects. You must have misunderstood my comment? The pitch accent pattern used in that video is found in all eastern Norwegian dialects, it's not specific to Oslo.

[@edemoi3817]

It is like in Switzerland. Each valley has an other german dialecte. But at least they decided to have commun language : Hochdeutsch.

[@lewis9159]

0:29 thanks Olly for censoring France on your map, we wouldn't want children stumbling on this video and finding out about the existence of the French before they were ready

[@jbkhan1135]

As a student of Norwegian, it was really cool to see nearly every one of my favorite Norwegian-themed KZbin channels featured here :-D

[@brendanryan6740]

i am well into the duo norwegian course....but your story method is totally up my alley as well...cheers

[@hkrohn]

As a Norwegian native speaker and a professional linguist, I must say this video is pretty good. The only thing I have to mention is that Nynorsk definitely does not use ì, ù and y` (I don't even find the last one in Unicode). I'm very interested in where you got that false information from, so please respond me if you can.

[@lisamarydew]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_language. Considering ỳ is an Old Norse letter, it's not surprising if it occasionally shows up. ù is normal.

[@Ramngrim]

​@@lisamarydew , but it isn't an Old Norse letter. Standardised Old Norse marks long vowels with the acute accent "ý", not the grave accent. Afaik, grave accent wasn't used in Old Norse.

[@eckligt]

@@lisamarydew It says "citation needed", which makes sense to me, since I have never seen y, i or u with an accent in Nynorsk, and I have read a lot of Nynorsk.

[@natashacallis2736]

Can you do a video about Swedish and Danish? Kan du lave en video om svensk og dansk? Tak!

[@adrianhaugen940]

As a norwegian I have to say that I really enjoyed this video, especially about hearing how norwegian sounds like to people who don't speak it, but there are some errors (if I'm gonna be picky haha): A viking is and was not an ethnicity or a nationality, it was a profession. So not EVERY norwegian living in norway during the viking age was a viking, most were farmers, builders, smiths etc. Vikings were people who made their living by traveling by sea, raping, trading and raiding. Also they didn't just travel/raid/rape in Europe, they were the first europeans to discover North America (Not Colombus), and they also went as far as West Africa and modern day Iraq. Also, Nynorsk is a only a written language/dialect, not a spoken one. It is usually used by people from the West and Midlands, while Bokmål is both a written and spoken language/dialect, mostly used by people from the east, south and north. If you're gonna learn norwegian then I would recommend learning Bokmål, unless you're certain that you are going to move to a part of norway where Nynorsk is used daily. But except from that, this video was great and I have been curious to one day see my own language presented on this channel

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

KLAPP KLAPP! Og som Keltisk, var det en kulturell bevegelse, og ikke en fiksert etnisitet, nasjonalitet, eller befolkning. Kunne ikke sagt det bedre selv lol.

[@eckligt]

Bokmål is _not_ a spoken language. There are people in different parts of Norway that all have enough lexical and grammatical similarities between their spoken language and Bokmål that they have an equal claim to say they "speak like Bokmål", even though the phonology of how they speak is completely different from what you have in mind.

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

just the other day I was thinking if you´ll ever make one on icelandic, well close enough :)

[@rickbierregaard6194]

I took Norwegian lessons about 60 years ago from a friend of my grandmother's in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The book (which I still possess) is called "Teach Yourself Norwegian A book of Self-Instruction in the Norwegian Riksmål" - I've heard your references to Bokmål and Nynorsk, but none to Riksmål. Is this name no longer used?

[@Sofia-Lala]

Bokmål and riksmål are synonymous, but nobody calls it riksmål any longer, it's an old word.

[@Sofia-Lala]

By the way, your last name is super norwegian🙂

[@astrogeo1]

Bokmål and Riksmål isn't the same. Riksmål is a more conservative version of danish Norwegian. Olly didn't mention it. You still have the organization Riksmålsforbundet to keep this (danish) version of Norwegian alive. Loved by the establishment in and around Oslo, and especially by a great part of the political party Høyre ( The Conservatives).

[@eckligt]

As I understand it, the term _Riksmål_ has three different meanings: * The formal, government-sanctioned name for the written standard that later became Bokmål. (The name change happened in 1929, but the first spelling reform after the name change is the controversial one in 1938, which was mentioned in the video. Therefore, it's common to use the term Riksmål for the written standards up until the 1938 reform, but not including that reform. The 1938 reform, as well as other reforms after WWII, were _prescriptive_ and highly ideological, trying to force Bokmål and Nynorsk closer, which was very polarizing and arguably immoral.) * The unofficial written standard that has been maintained privately, on a conservative _descriptive_ basis by the organisation Riksmålsforbundet and its associated institute _Det norske akademi for språk og litteratur_ as a way to protect the written tradition from what they see as unwanted political interference. This privately maintained standard took as its starting point the last official spelling reform from _before_ 1938, namely the 1917 reform. * The general speech among the upper reaches of society in each of the four biggest cities. This was sometimes phrased as "den dannede dagligtale" (the polite/cultured daily speech), and was a pragmatic compromise between the extremely high register of the older "kansellistil" (chancery style) and the speech of the urban working classes as well as rural dialects. While the working classes in the biggest cities have very different speech patterns from each other -- not just phonologically, but also lexically and grammatically -- the upper class sociolects are remarkably similar lexically and grammatically. Their phonological differences would not be represented in writing anyway. So at the time, it would have seemed like an obvious choice to base the written standard on these sociolects. But these sociolects are also termed "riksmål" in their own right. I would add that many other countries don't have government involvement in the curation of their national languages. English, of course, does not have a government language committee, neither in the UK nor the US nor anywhere else. Some countries, like France, do have this. It is not unreasonable for citizens to create a private organisation to advocate for the government to stop trying to micromanage the national language.

[@scottmayes8940]

Norwegian Is My Heritage Languages That I Plan To Learn To Speak.

[@crabclaw_]

20:12 we actually have 3 distinct forms of sami (northern Sami, Lule Sami, and southern Sami), as well as Kven

[@Electrostatic_Fusion]

I'm learning Norwegian and it's surprisingly easy

[@hotrodjones74]

Ja, synes jeg at det er ganske enkelt å lære. Dessuten er det dritkult å lære norsk! Lykke til med norsk!

[@Electrostatic_Fusion]

@@hotrodjones74 tusen takk 🙂😁

[@hotrodjones74]

Værsågod!

[@Totsrocky]

Stå på!:)

[@Electrostatic_Fusion]

@@hotrodjones74 😁

[@lt.axesci5644]

Another thing quite unique is our tendency to speak a few words on an in-breathing, mainly, ja (yes).

[@Ethan7_7]

The "gjerne" in Norwegian might very well be an equivalent of the German "gern"

[@DaWorldGuardian001]

it sounds like "yearn", which makes sense.

[@robinstrand772]

Well, there's no dialect discrimination in Norway, *by law*, but in practice many, especially from the cities, hate on dialects from the countryside. My experience is that people understand as much as they want to understand. Some just hear a little bit of dialect and go "oh, dialect, that's hard, I don't understand" and then don't even try to understand. This goes for Norwegians, not language learners, of course

[@skjekken]

Exactly. If there weren't any problems we wouldn't be handing out a special prize to public figures for simply using their local dialect on television.

[@markgilbreath1980]

I would love to see you make a Short Stories book for Afrikaans.

[@igooa1076]

tbh, I really like this language series, even though there are many other language channels on youtube :) I enjoy every episode. I think it's a good mix of information and entertainment.

[@littledevil8146]

So fascinating!

[@Jmvars]

3:19 This is a modern example but people in Alta, Norway have started using a Saami word "summal" which means "half-assed". Say you're putting away boxes, but rather than stacking them neatly in a room you just toss them in there, then you put them away "summal". They also have weirdly out of place names for places that clearly are just Norwegianized directly from Saami. Another fun fact is the Saami still use runes (but increasingly less) today for common names. Common names like Joavnna, Mihkkal, Johan have their own runic symbols.

[@jmwild22]

That's so cool!

[@TheSpectacledOwl]

As a native English speaker, I’d be in favor of bringing back the runic letters (yes, even Wynn) for modern English. …or even bringing back futhark/futharc, honestly.

[@rastamannorway]

We got our independence in 1905, our constitution was written in 1814, but we reemained a colony to Sweeden after the Danish lost us to them.

[@jrnsteen8136]

The only thing i actually hated is the horned helmets you used in this video. Other then that you did great. Some thing are true and some not. All in all not the worst video ive seen

[@SIeipner]

The singing parts of Norwegian is mostly eastern Norwegian, which is not very Norwegian. But mostly Danish

[@julbombning4204]

I understand Norwegian much, much more than Danish even though Swedish is east Germanic and Norwegian west Germanic?

[@yagult9976]

Hi, I really want to sign up for a course. Is there any way to do this through a paypal account?

[@Storyraymond]

Bra levert❤😊

[@corinna007]

Still waiting for a video about Finnish. 😅

[@P-Mouse]

When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away,

[@forcedragon3986]

Writing of Odin go back to 1. or 2. cent. That thas discovert in the last 2 years .

[@hwadinskij7495]

Norwegian is the gayest language in Scandinavia / Scandinavian

[@kilipaki87oritahiti]

As a Norwegian I'm tired of the stereotype that we ''sing''. The Swedes are way more sing songy than us. It also depends on the dialect. The eastern one goes up at the end of words, the western goes down. Bokmål, our written language is basically Norwegified Danish, yet the real language of Norway are all our dialects hundreds, if not thousands. Bokmål was due to the Danes, as we where under Danish rule as well as Swedish for X years, and the upper class/elite spoke and wrote in Danish. The western dialects was heavily influenced by Duth and German, the south sounds very Danish due to it's close proximity to Denmark. Nynorsk I hate as why does one tiny dialect have more power than the others? Most of us understand Bokmål anyway. Hopefully they will stop make it mandatory to learn Nynorsk in school. And yes we do discriminate, as some dialects are uglier than others. And it's not that long ago that people had to switch to Eastern when moving to the Eastern Norway as they would face a ton of discrimination if they spoke in their own local dialect. Now days dialects has beome cool. And more and more people speak in different dialects on TV, as well as in music etc.

[@Neophema]

Swedish isn't more sing-songy than Norwegian. You just feel that way because you're Norwegian. The Swedes say the same thing about us, that the Norwegian language (all dialects) is so melodic. Both languages have two pitch accents.

[@christerjakobsen8107]

@@Neophema You mean the Swedes say the same thing about Østlendinger (Eastern Norwegians). The rest of the country don't really do the sing-songy thing.

[@liseanettegranheim4404]

​@@christerjakobsen8107the rest of the country do in fact "sing", the tone is just different depending on which part of the country you're from.

[@christerjakobsen8107]

@@liseanettegranheim4404 Not like the Easterners, they're just extreme.

[@skjekken]

There are technically three "R"s, the Spanish, French and American. Someone from Oslo would use the Spanish "R" and the American "R" in the sentence "Barna hadde briller", American in the first word and Spanish in the second. Whereas a person from Kristiansand or Stavanger would use the french "R" for both.

[@Neophema]

There's no voiced alveolar approximant (American R, as you call it) in the Oslo dialect. The sound you're talking about is a retroflex N: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_retroflex_nasal. These are two different phonemes.

[@skjekken]

That may be true. However, my point was that Norwegians have three ways of voicing the written letter 'r', not just two like a lot of people tend to think. The specific phoneme is somewhat irrelevant. But I'm impressed nonetheless @Neophema

[@fruustles]

that guy from sandande sounded like he spoke norwegian with a swedish pronounciation.

[@Neophema]

It doesn't sound like Swedish at all. It sounds very much like Western Norwegian.

[@lordcryo3032]

IT ISNT THE REAL NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE. THE TRUE NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE IS OLD NORSE. THIS FAKE LANGUAGE WE ARE SPEAKING TODAY IS A NORWEGIAN VERSION OF DANISH JUST IMPROVED SO IT DOESNT SOUND LIKE A GUY WITH CP

[@Neophema]

No, we're speaking Norwegian. Not Danish. All the Scandinavian languages changed drastically during the middle ages.

[@1ukzje]

Im learning norwegian, gonna do my masters in norway and get that fat paycheck B). Almost fluent rn

[@mayliu5419]

There is 3 ways to pronounce r in Norway. Fransh and Spanish/German but also the Norwegian type that is rolling in the back of your tongue. Present today in the most well kept dialects in the mountain arias and in the coastal villages.

[@HSLSKD]

I know is maybe too late , but i see your work speaking about norwegian . Can you do one talking about Danish history of language and differences between the two ? - And sorry for my english i don't use it very times !?

[@MAELAET_]

hello from norway

[@Joshi_Mayd]

🎒

[@helloworld7818]

I feel like the Nordic languages inspired Lord of The Rings elves language

[@jarls5890]

It did. Tolkien was a philologist (somebody who studies languages) professionally. If I remember correctly - Elvish was heavily influenced by Finnish. Also - many of the place names on his maps are straight out of Scandinavia. I.e. when I read LOTR back as a teen - he had "Eastfold" and "Westfold". Two major regions of Norway is..."Østfold" and "Vestfold". I happen to live in Østfold. Also I suspect "Fenmark" is taken from Norwegian "Finnmark". etc.

[@christerjakobsen8107]

@@jarls5890 I also highly suspect Tolkien took inspiration for Gandalf in not just Odin, but also Väinämöinen from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. Eru Ilúvatar is also a very Finnish inspired name, likely originating from the Finnish god Ilmatar.

[@DevPreston]

0:45 ø, æ ... and å!