Learning Norwegian from scratch - how difficult is it? The official language of Norway: how it came into being, what it is like and what types it is divided into.

Danish

This podcast is good for those who want to prepare themselves a little for their journey through the land of Prince Hamlet. Short episodes (from 3 to 5 minutes) from Radio Lingua Network will help you learn to count to ten and qualitatively congratulate your local acquaintances on all major holidays. The course consists of only 10 lessons, so it is the easiest and quick way overcome the fear of Danish consonant collapse.

One of the peculiarities of the Danish language is that the pronunciation and spelling of words in it can be radically different from each other. And if English is so widespread that errors in pronunciation do not always prevent us from understanding each other, then this trick may not work with Danish. In order for foreigners to learn how to correctly pronounce the sounds of this Scandinavian language, the Speak Danish website was created. By clicking on individual words and phrases, you can hear how to pronounce them in standard Danish.

This site helps you get started with Danish grammar through various exercises. The exercises themselves are divided by topic into forty modules. The only oddity of this resource is that the list of modules is given in alphabetical order, and not according to the principle of which lesson to start with and which to continue with. But if you try to create your own construction set from these modules, then, having mastered all the tasks, you can eventually reach the pan-European language level A2.

Swedish

Studying foreign language You can start by listening to songs. For example, about Carlson, who lives on the roof, or about trolls who have trouble sleeping - in case we're talking about about Swedish. The Say it in Swedish website contains several songs that are interesting both from a musical point of view and from a grammatical point of view. By learning them, you can understand verb tenses and expand your vocabulary. In addition, this resource contains several lessons for beginners and a recommended must-listen topic about Swedish cinnamon snail buns.

This site is for those who already understand Swedish well, but cannot yet listen to unadapted radio. Ten-minute episodes of programs for foreigners are posted here, broadcast from Monday to Friday evenings by radio station P4. Unfortunately, for some reason, the site does not yet post full transcriptions, but only short description stories. The printed analogue of these radio news can be called the adapted newspaper 8 Sidor - with simple news texts.

Norwegian

This podcast can be recommended to those who want to set themselves up for learning Norwegian. As with all Radio Lingua Network series, each episode condenses the new information you'll need to remember into one minute. After listening to all 10 lessons from Teacher Dog, you will be able to introduce yourself, ask for directions to the library and say the right word, when you want to clink glasses with your Norwegian friends.

This Norwegian language course has been developed specifically for international students at the Trondheim University of Science and Technology. The materials posted online are a traditional textbook with accompanying audio materials that can be listened to on different speeds. Each chapter contains a huge number of grammar exercises and tasks to test listening comprehension. There are ten chapters in total: six of them are for complete beginners, and the last four are approaching the A2 language level.

This adapted newspaper is not only for those learning Norwegian. The goal of its creators is, in principle, to make reading news resources more accessible. Here preference is given not only to simple and clear sentences, but also in large print. Recently, this weekly newspaper also had an audio version. Therefore, this site is increasingly recommended for those who are learning the language on their own or simply want to keep it active.

Official language of Norway

The official language of Norway is Norwegian, but many other languages are spoken in the country. The Norwegian language has some similarities with two Scandinavian languages: Danish and Swedish. Concerning colloquial speech, then the language of Norway is similar to Icelandic and the language of the Faroe Islands.

A small part of the Norwegian population uses the Sami language, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family. Despite the small number of native speakers of this language, it was even given official status in some regions of Norway. Eg, road signs and any other public information must be duplicated in two languages: Norwegian and Sami.

Knowledge of foreign languages is gradated according to age. Thus, people of the older age category mostly know English language, because they studied it at school. Modern young people have been studying German or French as a foreign language in recent decades. In addition to them, Italian and Spanish are gaining popularity.

Oslo has the largest number of ethnic groups, making Norway's linguistic diversity most well represented.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia about the Norwegian language
The Norwegian language (Norsk norsk) is a language of the Germanic group spoken in Norway. Historically, Norwegian is closest to the Faroese and Icelandic languages. However, due to the significant influence of the Danish language and some influence of Swedish, Norwegian is generally close to these languages as well. More modern classification places Norwegian along with Danish and Swedish in the group of mainland Scandinavian languages, as opposed to the island Scandinavian languages.

Languages in Norway (www.visitnorway.com)
Norway has three languages. Two of them are similar, but the Sami language has a completely different origin.

Both Norwegian languages are used in government agencies, schools, churches, radio and television. Books, magazines and newspapers are also published in both languages.

Anyone who speaks Norwegian, be it the local dialect or the two standard official languages, will be understood by other Norwegians.

The Sami language, spoken by the indigenous people of Norway, has equal status with the Norwegian language in the northern provinces of Troms and Finnmark.

Language situation in Norway (www.lingvisto.org)
There is hardly a professor in the country who would be so fluent in the two official languages: Dano-Norwegian (bokmal, Bokmal) and New Norwegian (nynorsk, Nynorsk) to write an article without ever looking in a dictionary. Professor Reider Djupedal from the University of Trondheim, in an attempt to somehow justify the presence of two official languages in the country, writes about the democracy of the state and the peculiar bilingualism of the inhabitants of Norway.

Language situation in Norway (www.norwegianlanguage.ru)
The language situation in Norway is unique and represents clear example unsuccessful language planning.

In a country with a population of less than 5 million people, two literary languages are officially functioning at once, but a significant part of the population speaks dialects, and the rules established by linguists for both literary languages are not observed in practice either in literature or in the press, which forces some philologists to talk rather about two, but four literary languages in Norway.

The normal development of the Old Norse language was interrupted in the Middle Ages, when Norway became part of the Danish kingdom. As a result, Danish became the language of the Norwegian elite, and then the majority of the townspeople spoke Danish with local Norwegian features in vocabulary and phonetics. This is how Riksmål (“sovereign speech”) arose - the first Norwegian literary language, which is closer to Danish than to the Norwegian dialects.

In the nineteenth century, however, a movement began to recreate literary language on a local dialect basis, which led to the emergence of Lansmol - “the language of the country”.

Norway - Norwegian language
The official language in Norway is Norwegian. Despite Norway's ethnic homogeneity, two forms of the Norwegian language are clearly distinguishable.

Bokmål, or the book language (or Riksmål - the official language), used by most Norwegians, is descended from the Dano-Norwegian language, common among educated people during the time when Norway was under Danish rule (1397–1814).

Nynoshk, or New Norwegian language (otherwise called Lansmol - rural language), received formal recognition in the 19th century. It was created by linguist I. Osen on the basis of rural, mainly Western, dialects with an admixture of elements of the medieval Old Norse language.

About a fifth of all schoolchildren at will chooses to train as a nurse. This language is widely used in rural areas in the west of the country.

Currently, there is a tendency to merge both languages into a single one - the so-called. Samnoshk.

It is logical to assume that in Norway they speak Norwegian. It would seem that we can put a confident end to this, but in reality everything is not so simple. The language of the fjord country, like any other, has its own varieties, as well as internal divisions of the official language. Norwegian exists in two forms on the territory of the state: Bokmål and Nynoshk. The first, as you might guess, is used mainly in bookish speech, and the second is New Colloquial Norwegian. Moreover, both options are popular and widespread.

A little history

However, the ancestor of modern Norwegian is Old Norse. It was spoken in several countries: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Viking traders, along with their goods, “distributed” the language throughout European countries and even managed to deliver it to some regions of Rus'. This is probably why Old Norse became one of the most widely spoken languages in the world at that time. Then it divided into western and eastern. The first option was “to the taste” of Norway and Iceland, and the second was used in Sweden and Denmark.

Basics

The main forms of the language used by a good part of the country's inhabitants are Riksmål and the aforementioned Bokmål. The latter originated in medieval times. Written Danish became the foundation for it. In the mid-19th century, nynoshk began its history. Linguist Ivar Osen gave it life, although Nynoshk is a collaboration, so to speak, of the dialects of western Norway. Traveling around the country, the young philologist compared dialects, studied them, and soon his work found a home in several books that were published at the end of the same century. Nynoshka also has an unofficial form, which is known as “high Norwegian”. It cannot be said that “High Norwegian” is popular, but nevertheless it is closest to Osen’s creation “The Language of the Country”.

About 20 thousand people in the country speak the Sami language. Its history is somewhat different, but it deserves special attention, given the fact that Sami is noticeably different from official Norwegian.

Dialects

Every corner of the country has its own dialects, the number of which exceeds several dozen. But they are all divided into two groups: Western Norwegian and Eastern Norwegian. In fact, the differences are quite significant and they lie not only in grammar, syntax, etc. Speakers of one dialect sometimes absolutely cannot understand their fellow speaker who speaks a “different” language.

Another one interesting feature northern language lies in the absence of the concept of pronunciation norm. For a Russian-speaking person, this is, of course, a priori strange, but formally, any Norwegian, speaking his own dialect, has the right in any setting, be it a gala reception or friendly gatherings, to use the features of his own dialect. For example, residents of Oslo consider their pronunciation norm to be the standard East Norwegian dialect, which is also the official language of the media.

New old letter

The Norwegian alphabet consists of 29 letters. By the way, the letter “å” can be considered a special feature of this language. Oddly enough, it appeared only in 1917. Borrowed it from Swedish- it existed there back in the 16th century.

How to learn Norwegian

If you are thinking about seriously studying Norwegian, it is better to choose courses and work hard enough to study grammar. The Viking language is very different from the Slavic group, so analogies and general rules it is almost impossible to get it out.

In 1917, Norwegian underwent grammatical changes. So it was decided to remake some borrowed words in the “Norwegian way”. In Norway, this is done by the language council, which determines the norms and rules of the language - Norsk språkråd.

But the grammar of the “northern dialect” will please those who do not like for a long time pore over studying the correct construction of sentences. Let's take for example the verb "to be", which in Norwegian sounds like "er". It is mandatory for all European languages and has the same form for absolutely all pronouns: “jeg”, “er”, “du”, “vi”. To express negation, you need to insert the particle “likke” after the verb: “jeg er” (I am) “jeg er likke” (I am not). If you want to ask a question, you should place the pronoun after the verb: "er jeg?" (I have?). Similar laws apply to the verb “ha” (to have): “jeg har”, “du har”, “vi har”. There is also a curious thing connected with articles. Definite article there is no such thing in the language, so to point out something, you just need to move the article to the end of the word: “en katt” (cat) turns into “katten”. There are three such articles in Norwegian: “en” for the masculine, “ei” for the feminine and “et” for the neuter.

English is also Norwegian

In general, almost everyone in Norway speaks English. You can always explain yourself in it, and as they say, you need to know. However, if you decide to learn Norwegian on your own, you need to remember a few simple and universal rules.

Alphabet

First, you need to become familiar with the letters of the alphabet. Take your time. Remember how they are written, how they are pronounced, and do not forget about transcription. When the alphabet ceases to cause surprise and indignation, you can work with the dictionary. Start by memorizing simple words. It’s better if you can find video lessons on correct pronunciation that are suitable for you on the Internet. The system is the same as when learning a language at school: write down new information in your notebook along with the transcription and gradually begin to memorize everything. The main thing is not to try to memorize it right away. a large number of material. Now it is important to learn to speak correctly, and only then gradually increase the load.

Let's move on to grammar

Decide which written language you will study. This is where you have to sweat a little. You will need special literature specifically to study the chosen option. Follow the rules and advice from teaching aids. Be sure to write down the main points and try to select examples yourself. At this stage, it is not speed that is important, but quality. Be sure to complete all the exercises to consolidate your knowledge.

Important tip! Don't try to learn several written languages at once - real confusion will occur.

Just to quickly understand phonetic features and quickly learn to memorize words, you need audio/video materials. Listening to native speakers during lessons and beyond is an integral part of learning any language. Of course, for this practice it is better to use video footage. Try to learn to understand what is being said without a dictionary or hints.

Choosing a training format

Nowadays, distance learning is increasingly gaining popularity even in secondary schools. For some, this format of learning a foreign language may be ideal, but the “remote” option is far from universal. If, nevertheless, the first method is preferable for you, it is important to think through the details of such training. Individual lessons via Skype may be considered. There is also a group learning technique with other students in an online class. This approach may be alarming at first, but the teachers of online services are quite competent and use only modern textbooks in their lessons. In addition, the advantages include independence from geolocation - you can study where it is convenient for you and choose the time based on your own schedule. Unless you should always have high-speed Internet at hand, but in major cities It's not a problem. If classes are held with a group - as a rule, there are 3-4 people in them - there is an opportunity to practice dialogues and improve language skills. The teacher pays sufficient attention to each student, which allows them to master grammar and vocabulary in a short time.

Online classes

There are so-called online classes as a type of distance learning. Now this method is increasingly gaining popularity among online services. Small classes of 10 people are formed and trained in a special software. The disadvantages of this method include the fact that the teacher will not be able to devote much time to just one student.

We learn the language as a whole company

The distance learning method of language is also possible for corporate clients. Typically, employee groups are formed of 10 people. An increase in this indicator will contribute to a decrease in quality educational process. Classes are held in a closed format - only for employees of one company. Lessons in work time allow the company to control the training itself. Such services are used by clients who want to enter the Norwegian market. Also, Norwegian companies, in turn, can provide a similar reception for Russian-speaking colleagues.

Group training

How alternative method Group training may be considered. His main feature is that students learn from each other by practicing pronunciation. Such groups should be attended by “students” with the same level of training and at least having a certain base. But sometimes, when there are people among the students, it’s better those who know the language, beginners can learn a lot from them.

Learning from a native speaker

Of course, the most effective method are classes with a native speaker. There are many advantages to such training. Firstly, the student will be able to improve his pronunciation and expand his vocabulary with expressions that Norwegians most often use in colloquial speech. And the culture of the country will not remain on the sidelines.

Motivation

But if the problem is motivation, you can try to take part in language marathons. Such events usually have more than a hundred people. The idea is that participants compete with each other in completing tasks for which they are awarded points. Various prizes await those who score a large number of points. This technique greatly helps motivate a person.

In conclusion, I would like to add that before you begin to actively immerse yourself in learning Norwegian, the main thing is to understand why you want to study it and where it may be useful to you. But even if this becomes your harmless hobby, you will never regret having the opportunity to speak freely with a native Viking in his native language.