Norwegian Genealogical Word List

This list contains Norwegian words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Norwegian-English dictionary. (See the "Additional Resources" section below.)

Norwegian is a Germanic language like Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. There are two official dialects in Norway. Prior to 1915 most Norwegian records are in a language closer to written Danish than to modern Norwegian. You may also want to refer to the Danish Genealogical Word List.

Records published after 1915, such as family and local histories, are in modern Norwegian. Most differences between modern and old Norwegian are simply a matter of spelling. Carefully study the section below on spelling. This will help you find the words in this list.

LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS

Variant Forms of Words

In Norwegian, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries— married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. For example:

 

Mann	man	Kone	wife
Mannen		the man		Kona	the wife
Menn	men	Koner	wives
Mennene	the men	Konene	the wives

Alphabetical Order

Written Norwegian has three letters not found in the English alphabet: Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å). In most record sources prior to 1915, Å (å) is written as Aa (aa) and filed at the beginning of the alphabet. Modern Norwegian dictionaries, indexes, the Locality section of the Family History Library Catalog, and this word list use the following alphabetical order:

a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  s  t  u  v  w  x  y  z  æ  ø  å

Spelling

Spelling was not standardized when most early records were made. The following spelling variations are common:

  

	aa used for å		j used for gj
b used for p	ld used for ll
c used for k	nd used for nn
d used for t	q used for k
e used for æ	u used for v
f used for v	w used for v
g used for k	x used for ks
i used for j	ch used for k
tj used for kj	hj used for j

Examples:

"gjørtler" spelled as "giørtler"
"mann" spelled as "mand"
"kvinne" spelled as "quinde"

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Norwegian-English dictionary. Several Norwegian-English dictionaries are available at the Family History Library. These are in the Scandinavian collection. Their call numbers begin with 439.82321. Family History Centers can obtain the following dictionaries on microfilm:

Scavenius, H. Glydendals Ordbøker; Norsk-Engelsk [Gyldendal’s Dictionaries; Norwegian-English]. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1945. (FHL film 1,224,705, item 4).

cavenius, H. Glydendals Ordbøker; Engelsk-Norsk [Glydendal’s Dictionaries; English-Norwegian]. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1945. (FHL film 1,224,705, item 3).

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the Family History Library Catalog under NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE - DICTIONARIES and in the Locality section under NORWAY - LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES.

KEY WORDS

In order to find and use specific types of Norwegian records, you will need to know some key words in Norwegian. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Norwegian words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Norwegian words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Norwegian records to indicate marriage.

English	Norwegian
banns	lysninger
birth	fødte, født
burial	begravelse, jordet
census	folketelling
child	barn
christening	døbte, døbt
clerical district	prestegjeld
confirmation	konfirmasjon, konfirmerede
death	døde, død
engagement	forlovelse, trolovelse
father	far
female	kvinnekjønn
husband	ektemann
index	register
male	mannkjønn
marriage	copulerede, egteviede, gift, vielse
military	militær
mother	mor
moving in	innflyttning
moving out	utflyttning
name, given	fornavn
name, surname	etternavn
parents	foreldre
parish	sogn
probate	skifte
vaccination	vaccinerede, vaksinert
wife	hustru
year	år

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)