Entering Norway by car, you will see signs saying “Norge”. You will also see signs saying “Noreg”. Norway having two official written languages is not exactly intuitively; no wonder tourists keep reporting to the Public Roads Administration about mortifying misspellings on Norwegian highways.
Updating my LinkedIn profile the other day, I actually had difficulties translating the names of the official Norwegian languages into English. Checking with the Norwegian Language Council however, I found that they recommend the terms “Norwegian Bokmål” and “Norwegian Nynorsk”.
For the majority of Norwegians, Norwegian Bokmål is the main language. Norwegian Nynorsk on the other hand can easily be categorized as a minority, with only 10-15 percent of the Norwegian population using this as their main language. However, public institutions are required by law to use both written languages and a minimum of 25 percent nynorsk (although they don’t always follow the law).
A common misunderstanding however is that Norwegians speak nynorsk. In actual fact no one really does, as it is a written language, created by linguist and poet Ivar Aasen. In the 1840s, Aasen travelled around the country, listening and taking notes on all the different dialects he heard. In 1848, based on all these dialects, he published the book “Det norske Folkesprogs grammatikk” (“Grammar of the Norwegian folk language”). And thus, Nynorsk was born.
Many Norwegians with Norwegian Nynorsk as their secondary language find it difficult to master, as it really is written in a completely different way than the language of the majority. Born in Sunnmøre, nynorsk is automatically my main language. Hence, I got the benefit of learning both; nynorsk since elementary school, and bokmål through television, books and media in general, and later at school as my secondary Norwegian language.
I`ve also been asked if Norwegians can understand the other Scandinavian languages. The answer is yes- usually we can. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are, mostly, very much alike, although all three languages hold many dialects, some of them less easily understood than others (such as my own, I keep hearing). Most Norwegians also find Swedish more comprehensible than Danish, although written Danish is often perceived as easier to understand than written Swedish. This has got to do with the fact that Norway was under Danish rule up until 1814. Danish was therefore the official written language in Norway for a long time, greatly influencing the Norwegian language of today.
Finally, a small illustrative example: The sentence “actually, there is controversy regarding the written languages” would in Norwegian Bokmål be: “Det er egentlig uenighet angående de skriftlige språkformene”. In Norwegian Nynorsk, the same sentence could be written as follows: “I røynda rår det usemje kring dei skriftlege målformene”. Of course tourists get confused. Norwegians do, too!
Norway. Meaning? 