Norwegian

Norwegian is a North Germanic Language spoken in Norway. It is a decedent 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 make it 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 dialect). 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	u
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 /oː/, /o/ and occasionally /ʉ/.
• a is /aː/ and /a/.
• æ is /æː/ and /æ/.

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.

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.

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.

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

Verbs

The infinitive in most Norwegian verbs is formed by the root and -e, i.e. kjøpe (buy), skrive (write), like (like), and prøve (try). There are quite a few exceptions to this rule, especially if the verb roots are one syllable, or if the root of the verb is different than the infinitive form (irregular), such as være (to be, whose present form is er) or bo (live).