Norwegian

Norwegian is a North Germanic Language spoken in Norway. It is a descendant of Old West Norse.

Norwegian Norsk
Spoken in:	Norway (Norge /(Nynosrk) Noreg)
Conworld:	Real world
Total speakers:	4.8 million native.
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic      West Old Norse Norwegian
Basic word order:	SVO, OVS/V2
Morphological type:	Isolating (mostly)
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
unknown	1525 C.E.

Norway

The primary location where Norwegian is spoken is in Norway. The name Norway in English comes from the Anglo-Saxon name Norðweg meaning North-way. This is also seen in Old Norse in the word Norðmaðr which means both North-man and Norwegian (in that sense they might be one in the same).

Norwegian has two standards, Nynorsk and the more popular written variation Bokmål. Norwegian Orthography is very close to that of Danish, because for a long time the Danish had control over Norway. However, the spoken language is closer to Swedish. This means Swedish and Norwegian people would more easily understand each other in conversation, while Danish and Norwegian people would better understand each other's written languages. Danish speakers can understand Norwegian better than the reverse, due to Norwegian having a different phonetic structure to orthographic spellings. This makes Norwegian as a language dead center between Swedish and Danish.

Phonetics and Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n				ɳ				ŋ
Plosive	p	b			t	d			ʈ	ɖ			k	g
Fricative			f	v	s		ʃ		ʂ			ç			h
Affricate					ʦ		(ʧ)
Approximants												j
Trill						r				(ɽ)				(ʀ)
Lateral Approximant						l				ɭ

• Most of the letters are identical with their IPA equivalents, such as: b, p, t, d, f, v, j, h, s, l, r, m, and n.
• When an r is in front of another consonant, it can become retroflex. These include rs /ʂ/, rt /ʈ/, rd /ɖ/, rl /ɭ/, and rn /ɳ/. This also differs by dialect, and can result in /ʀs/ /ʀt/, /ʀd/, /ʀl/, and /ʀn/ are used.
• The orthographic k is pronounced /k/ except when in front of a i /i/, y /y/ or j /j/, where it becomes a /ç/. tj is also pronounced /ç/.
• w is pronounced /v/.
• sk is pronounced /sk/ except when in front of i /i/, y /y/, or j /j/, where it becomes /ʃ/ (except in some dialects). sj is also pronounced /ʃ/.
• g is pronounced /g/ except when in front of i /i/, y /y/, or j /j/, where it becomes /j/. At the end of a word, g is often either not pronounced or becomes a /j/ sound.
• In some dialects /v/ is pronounced /ʋ/ instead.

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Central	Back
	Unround	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
High	iː - i	yː - y	ʉː - ʉ	uː
Mid	eː - e/ɛ	øː - ø	ə	oː - o /ɔː - ɔ
Low	æː - æ		aː - a
All entries are: Long - Short

In Norwegian there is a separation between Long and Short vowels. There are minimal pairs such as tak /taːk/ roof, verse takk /tak/ thanks.

• y is /yː/ and /y/.
• ø is /øː/ and /ø/.
• e is /eː/, /e/, /ɛ/, or /ə/.
• i is /iː/ and /i/.
• u is /ʉː/ and /ʉ/.
• o is /uː/, /oː/ and occasionally /ɔ/.
• a is /ɑː/ and /ɑ/.
• æ is /æː/ and /æ/.
• å is /ɔː/ and /ɔ/.

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Norwegian originally had three genders, Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. However, in many of the later stages and most of the modern dialects, the Masculine and Feminine genders have merged into a Common gender. However, even in Bokmål the feminine gender does occasionally exist. Because around 75% of nouns were once Masculine or Feminine, that is the amount which is Common, leaving 25% for the Neuter gender. The feminine gender does in

Number

There are two numbers in Norwegian: Singular and Plural. Singular is the usual state of the noun, and the form found in the dictionary. The Plural is formed by adding -er to the end of the noun. In neuter nouns with one syllable, the plural can be identical to the singular.

Articles

There are two types of articles for English, Indefinite and Definite. The number also comes into play, the indefinite plural is mentioned above. The definite articles in Norwegian are attached to the end of the noun. The indefinite article would go before the noun. The Common form is en, and et for the Neuter form. So to say a dog it is en hund, and the dog is hunden. And to say a hotel it is et hotell, and the hotel is hotellet. In the plural, the informal ending is -er and the formal ending is -ene. So to say dogs it is hunder, and the dogs is hundene. And to say hotels it is hoteller, and the hotels is hotellene. In monosyllabic neuter nouns, the indefinite plural ending -er is not present, though all other forms are. So the singular form in the indefinite of a house is et hus and the plural indefinite form of house is just hus, with the definite being huset and husene in the plural. Quite a few Norwegian nouns have a irregular forms.

Genitive

Old Norse, like its (sometimes distant) relatives Old English, Icelandic, and High German, had a complex series of cases that would be used for every noun. All of them had around four (Old English had the remnants of a 5th, which later died away) and were as follows: Nominative (subject), Accusative (direct object), Dative (indirect object), and Genitive (possessives). However, in modern Norwegian, like Danish and Swedish, the first three cases were merged into one, and the Genitive somehow survived (like in Modern English). The ending, similar to English, is -s.

Noun Paradigm

	Indef. sing.	Def. sing.	Indef. pl.	Def. pl.
Common	en hund	hunden	hunder	hundene
Neuter polysyllabic	et hotell	hotellet	hoteller	hotellene
Nt. Monosyllabic	et hus	huset	hus	husene

Adjectives

Adjectives agree with nouns according to gender, definiteness, and number. There is a Common indefinite, Neuter indefinite, and everything else (which all have the same form). The common indefinite form is usually the root of the adjective. The Neuter indefinite article often has an ending of -t. For everything else, such as indefinite plural, definite plural, definite common, and definite neuter, the ending -e is the regular ending. There are several forms which do not take the proper endings, such as forms which end with -ig or in most cases, -sk which don't have a neuter indefinite form, but does have the -e in the plural. There are also those which add -tt in the neuter indefinite, especially if its stem ends in a vowel and the vowel length must be preserved. Some have to convert the last consonant in words ending with two consonants, into a t. An example might be sunn to sunt.

Adjectives with articles

In the cases of the indefinite article, the normal article is added before the adjective, such as en god hund, et godt hotell, or gode hunder . However, in the definite cases, something new is added. In these cases, a definite article is used before the adjective. The normal definite article is added to the end, as well as this additional article. So the examples above become de gode hunden, det gode hotellet or de gode hundene.

Adjective Paradigm

Using god good.

	Indef. sing.	Def. sing.	Indef. pl.	Def. pl.
Common	en god hund	den gode hunden	gode hunder	de gode hundene
Neuter polysyllabic	et godt hotell	det gode hotellet	gode hoteller	de gode hotellene
Nt. Monosyllabic	et godt hus	det gode huset	gode hus	de gode husene

Adverbs

Most adverbs that are formed from Adjectives use the neuter form, so god good, becomes godt well. Another major ending for adverbs is -vis, with examples such as gradvis gradually. There are several other adverbs which have their own specific meanings and usages, such as the negation ikke not, nå now, lenge long, and alltid always.

Some adverbs change form depending on if the verb is a verb of motion or not. Most of the differences involve the suffix -e, but others such as her vs. hit here and der vs. dit there are a bit more irregular. Examples of this might be:
Komm hit! Come here! Jeg er her. I am here.

Pronouns

Subject Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First	jeg	vi
Second	du	dere
Third Masculine	han	de
Third Feminine	hun	de
Third Common/Neuter	den/det	de

Object Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First	meg	oss
Second	deg	dere
Third Masculine	ham	dem
Third Feminine	henne	dem
Third Common/Neuter	den/det	dem

Reflexive Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
First	meg	oss
Second	deg	dere
Third	seg	seg

Preposition

The following is a list of prepositions:
av - of, from, by
blant - among, belong to
etter - after,
for - for,
fra - from
før - before
hos - at, with
i - in
med - with
mellom - between
mot - against, towards
om - about, around, concerning
over - over
på - on, in
til - until
under - under, during
ved - at, with by

Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

og - and
men - but
eller - or
for - for, because
samt- as well as
både...og - both...and
enten...eller - either...or
hverken...eller - neither...nor

Subordinating Conjunctions

at - that
da - as, when
fordi - because
siden - since
ettersom -since
dersom - in the case that
hvis - if
med mindre - unless
om - if, whether
skjønt - although
enskjønt - although
selv om - even if, even though,
når - when(ever)
etter at - after
før - before
innen - before, until
mens - while
fra - from, forth
så lenge som - as long as
for at - so that
så - so that, so
så at - so that
silk at - such that
enn - than
jo...jo/jo...desto - the...the
Likesom - like
som - as, like
som om - as if
så...som - as...as

Verbs

Main Articles: Norwegian Verbs
The infinitive in most Norwegian verbs is formed by the root and å before it (similar to English to) and by adding -e unless the word has one syllable, i.e. å kjøpe to buy, å skrive to write, å like to like, and å prøve to try. There are quite a few exceptions to this rule, such as if the root of the verb is different than the infinitive form (irregular), such as å være (to be, whose present form is er). For monosyllabic verbs, the root is the form given, and since almost all Norwegian verbs end with a vowel, these usually don't need the -e suffix. Examples include å se to see, å bo to live.

Four Classes

• The first form, or class I, is a large class of verb and includes most verbs with the stem having a double consonant (gemminated or not) at the end.
• Another large class is class II, which has a long vowel and a single consonant in the stem. Many in this category can end with ll, mm, nn, ld, or nd. The gemminated ones often drop the second one in the past tense.
• Class III ends with a diphthong or -g or -v.
• Class IV ends with a stressed vowel.

Present

Norwegian verbs are not distinctive according to person and number in the subject. This means that the subject is required in order for the sentence to be understood. The verbs å være to be and å ha to have are important verbs that also do not make a distinction according to person and number. A few verbs have irregular forms in the present tense. Here are some examples, one from each of the four classes, with pronouns included:

Present tense
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg snakker	vi snakker	jeg liker	vi liker	jeg prøver	vi prøver	jeg bor	vi bor
2nd person	du snakker	dere snakker	du liker	dere liker	du prøver	dere prøver	du bor	dere bor
3rd person	han/hun snakker	de snakker	han/hun liker	de liker	han/hun prøver	de prøver	han/hun bor	de bor

Future

The future tense is formed in Norwegian in a similar way to the way it is formed in English. It uses modal verbs, specially vil and skal, which are related to English will and shall. The former, vil which is related to German wollen as well, means more along the lines of want in the future tense, and shall is more like apathetic in nature. The expression kommer til å is another one used to express the future tense, which is equivalent to English to be going to. Here are the samples using the same verbs above.

Future tense
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg skal snakke	vi skal snakke	jeg skal like	vi skal like	jeg skal prøve	vi skal prøve	jeg skal bo	vi skal bo
2nd person	du skal snakke	dere skal snakke	du skal like	dere skal like	du skal prøve	dere skal prøve	du skal bo	dere skal bo
3rd person	han/hun skal snakke	de skal snakke	han/hun skal like	de skal like	han/hun skal prøve	de skal prøve	han/hun skal bo	de skal bo

Simple Past

This is used in a way similar to English

Past tense
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg snakket†	vi snakket	jeg likte	vi likte	jeg prøvde	vi prøvde	jeg bodde	vi bodde
2nd person	du snakket	dere snakket	du likte	dere likte	du prøvde	dere prøvde	du bodde	dere bodde
3rd person	han/hun snakket	de snakket	han/hun likte	de likte	han/hun prøvde	de prøvde	han/hun bodde	de bodde

†And alternate ending is -a instead of -et.

Present Perfect

The perfect tense is used with the verb ha + verb form.

Present Perfect tense
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg har snakket	vi har snakket	jeg har likt	vi har likt	jeg har prøvd	vi har prøvd	jeg har bodd	vi har bodd
2nd person	dere har snakket	du har likt	dere har likt	du har prøvd	dere har prøvd	du har bodd	dere har bodd
3rd person	han/hun har snakket	de har snakket	han/hun har likt	de har likt	han/hun har prøvd	de har prøvd	han/hun har bodd	de har bodd

Passive Voice

The passive voice is formed two different ways in Norwegian. The first involves an auxiliary verb, å bli, meaning become or remain, and the past participle of the verb. The other way involves adding -s to the end of the verb.
With å bli:

Passive compound construction
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg blir snakket	vi blir snakket	jeg blir likt	vi blir likt	jeg blir prøvd	vi blir prøvd	jeg blir bodd	vi blir bodd
2nd person	du blir snakket	dere blir snakket	du blir likt	dere blir likt	du blir prøvd	dere blir prøvd	du blir bodd	dere blir bodd
3rd person	han/hun blir snakket	de blir snakket	han/hun blir likt	de blir likt	han/hun blir prøvd	de blir prøvd	han/hun blir bodd	de blir bodd

With -s:

Passive voice
Infinitive	å snakke to speak		å like to like		å prøve to try		å bo to live
	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.	sing.	pl.
1st person	jeg snakkes	vi snakkes	jeg likes	vi likes	jeg prøves	vi prøves	jeg bos	vi bos
2nd person	du snakkes	dere snakkes	du likes	dere likes	du prøves	dere prøves	du bos	dere bos
3rd person	han/hun snakkes	de snakkes	han/hun likes	de likes	han/hun prøves	de prøves	han/hun bos	de bos

Modals and Auxiliaries

The Modal verbs and Auxiliaries have few forms, but they do including infinitives and past tenses. The Auxiliaries are necessary for a lot of things such as the perfect and passive formations They are as follows:

English	Infinitive	Present	Past	Perfect
Modals
to ought to, should	å burde	bør	burde	å ha burdet
to need to	å få	får	fikk	å ha fått
To be able, can	å kunne	kan	kunne	å ha hunnet
to have to, must	å måtte	må	måtte	å ha måttet
shall, will, should	å skulle	skal	skulle	å ha skullet
to dare to	å tore	tør	torde	å ha tort
to want, will	å ville	vil	ville	å ha villet
Auxiliaries
to have	å ha	har	hadde	å ha hatt
to be	å være	er	var	å ha vært
to become	å bli	blir	ble	å ha blitt

Sources and Links

Janus, Louis. Norwegian: Verbs & Essentials of Grammar 1999. McGraw-hill.

This page is by Timothy Patrick Snyder

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