Most of the people in Norway speak Norwegian, a Scandinavian North Germanic language closely related to Danish. There are two variants of the language, Bokmål (also called Riksmål) strongly influenced by Danish; and a more rural version, Nynorsk, based Ivar Aasen's work to develop a standard Norwegian language (Landsmål) based on local dialects. There are also communities of Lapps or Laplanders and Finns who came to Norway thousands of years ago. Many minority languages are now found among the recent immigrants.
Most materials used in Norwegian research are written in Norwegian. Although you do not need to speak or read Norwegian to do research, you do need some knowledge of the language to understand the records. You may also find some Latin words in Norwegian records. A list of words in various local dialects found in local histories can be found at Norwegian Dialect Word List.
Alphabet and Pronunciation[edit | edit source]
| Letter |
Pronunciation
|
| A |
[ a ] as in car
|
| B |
[ b ] as in buy
|
| C |
before i,e,y [ s ] as in circus
before a,o,u [ k ] as in camping
|
| D |
[ d ] as in dog
|
| E |
[ e ] as in get
|
| F |
[ f ] as in fine
|
| G |
[ g ] as in girl
|
| H |
[ h ] as in hat
|
| I |
[ i ] as in ski
|
| J |
[ y ] as in yes
|
| K |
[ k ] as in kite
|
| L |
[ l ] as in live
|
| M |
[ m ] as in map
|
| N |
[ n ] as in now
|
| O |
[ o ] as in school
|
| P |
[ p ] as in pen
|
| Q |
[ kv ] as in quiz
|
| R |
[ ɽ ] like a Scottish r
|
| S |
[ s ] as in see
|
| T |
[ t ] as in tea
|
| U |
[ u ] as in flu
|
| V |
[ v ] as in violin
|
| W |
[ v ] as in violin
|
| X |
[ ks ] as in tax
|
| Y |
[ y ] as in syrup
|
| Z |
[ z ] as in zoom
|
|
Other Letters
| Letter |
Pronunciation
|
| Æ |
[ a ] as in sad
|
| Ø |
[ u ] as in burn
|
| Å |
[ aw ] as in saw
|
|
Language Aids and Dictionaries[edit | edit source]
- Bråtveit, Kari, Norwegian dictionary : Norwegian-English, English-Norwegian, London : Routledge, [2015?], available at Worldcat.org
- Holland, J Gill, Norwegian dictionary & phrasebook : Norwegian-English, English-Norwegian, New York : Hippocrene Books, ©2003., available at Worldcat.orgv
- Žiūkaitė-Hansen, Laura, Norwegian practical dictionary : Norwegian-English, English-Norwegian, New York : Hippocrene Books, ©2011., available at Worldcat.org
- Omniglot: Norwegian language, alphabet and pronounciation, Norwegian language learning material
- Norgesskolen: Norwegian Summer School - two week school in language in culture
- Concordia Language Villages: Norwegian
