By Roser-Agnès Navarro
Did the Vikings speak Norwegian?
Is it true that all Nordic languages are similar?
How difficult is it to learn Norwegian?
These are just some of the questions that arise among those interested in Norwegian, and in this article, we will answer these and more.
To say that a language is easy or difficult to learn does not make much sense, since each person is different and the degree of difficulty of learning a language depends on the characteristics and situation of each person.
A Nordic language, such as Norwegian, will undoubtedly be more difficult for a Spanish speaker to learn than a Romance language such as Italian or Portuguese. However, it has certain characteristics that make it very easy to learn compared to other languages, such as German or Czech (to give examples of European languages).
Origins of Norwegian
Norwegian, along with Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese, are the so-called Norse languages, all of them originating from Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings (note: they spoke, but did not write, since they used runes, a much simpler alphabet than Latin, which did not allow the writing of long texts).
Of all these languages, Icelandic is the one that today most closely resembles Old Norse, while Norwegian, Danish and Swedish have evolved to be quite different from both their mother tongue and their sister language.
In fact, the evolution of Norwegian has been strongly conditioned by the country’s history, offering such curious features as the fact that there are currently two standards considered to be the official written Norwegian language.
A bit of history
Norway was under Danish rule from 1380 until 1814, when it came under Swedish rule. These periods are known as the union with Denmark and the union with Sweden, respectively.
During the Danish rule, the official written language was Danish. This meant the disappearance of written Norwegian and that spoken Norwegian was relegated to a familiar and colloquial context, which, moreover, was largely influenced by the language of the neighbouring country.
On the other hand, during the union with Sweden, Swedish was not imposed as the official written language, so the movements that sought the recovery of written Norwegian gained strength. Two were the most prominent, contributing to the creation of the written standards of today’s Norwegian.
Nynorsk
On the one hand, the linguist Ivar Aasen travelled all over Norway collecting data and characteristics of the different dialects in order to create a genuine written standard that would unite all speakers in the country. From this current comes what is known as nynorsk (literally “new Norwegian”).
Bokmål
On the other hand, there was a current that defended an adaptation of Danish written with Norwegian spellings, which was what had been used during the period of union with Denmark.
This written language is called bokmål (literally “book language”) and was the variant used mainly by the wealthier and more influential classes.
Today, it is the most widely used written language in Norway (among other cities, in the capital, Oslo).
Of course, both standards share many elements of grammar, one of them being the existence of three genders for nouns.
Three genders in nouns
Yes, yes, you read that right, three genders! Norwegian, in addition to the masculine (hankjønn) and the feminine (hunkjønn), has the neuter (intetkjønn).
For speakers of languages such as Spanish, where there are only two genders, this can be confusing, not only because of the existence of the neuter, but also because the masculine and feminine in Norwegian do not always correspond to the masculine and feminine in Spanish.
In addition, another interesting fact is that, in general, professions in Norwegian do not have a gender marker to indicate whether the job is performed by a man or a woman (e.g., teacher is lærer, -enIt is a masculine noun, and is used to talk about a teacher as well as a female teacher).
And now, the million-dollar question: What is this “-en”? Is it a typographical error? Not at all, it is usually used in dictionaries to mark the definite form of the noun, because in Norwegian there are no articles as in English (although this statement is simplifying it a lot, because some of them do).
Norwegian articles
Although with some nuances, Norwegian does not have articles, or at least not as we understand them in the Romance languages.
To indicate whether an object is known or not, in English we use either the indefinite articles (like “a teacher” or “some teachers”) or the definite articles and definite articles (“the teacher” or “the teachers”).
In Norwegian, only the indefinite singular form uses the article, which also serves to mark the gender of the word (masculine, at; feminine, ei; and neuter, et).
The rest of the forms are marked with a suffix, so all nouns have four forms: singular indefinite, singular definite, plural indefinite and plural definite. Thus, for example, lærer would look as follows:
- A teacher = At lærer
- The teacher = Lærerat
- Some teachers = Lærere
- The teachers = Lærerne
Although it may seem complicated, we could say that this is the most complex thing about Norwegian grammar, which is generally much simpler than that of the Romance languages, especially when it comes to verb forms.
Simple verb forms
Continuing with the example, there are three verb modes in Spanish (indicative, subjunctive and imperative), within which there are several present, preterite and future tenses.
In addition, there are three non-personal forms for each verb (infinitive, participle and gerund).
Norwegian, on the other hand, is much simpler: there is no subjunctive and there are far fewer verb tenses (there is not even a gerund). In addition, the verbs do not vary according to the person, but the same form is used for all of them.
So, what does it take to learn Norwegian?
Surely with all this information, curiosity for this language has increased exponentially. The only thing you need (besides an interest in Norway, its language and culture) is motivation and a desire to learn.
Norwegian is a very rich language and closely linked to landscapes, traditions and a way of understanding and enjoying life, a life linked to the exuberant nature of the fjords and forests.
And there’s more…
In addition, today we have a wealth of resources that are ideal complements to Norwegian lessons:
- Follow Instagram accounts with stunning photographs of Norwegian nature.
- Read newspapers in Norwegian and find out what politicians in the North are talking about.
- Listen to podcasts in Norwegian and discover who the Vikings really were.
- Become a follower on X (formerly Twitter) of the latest Norwegian influencers.
- Access Norwegian national television to discover your new favourite series.
Learning Norwegian is much easier than it may seem. And who knows, maybe one day, you will even decide to come and live in Norway.
