pickwriters-s
Imagine the cold and snowy mountains, chilling wind, and the beautiful fjords that fascinate you with their beauty.
It is a land of the people that speak Norwegian. A language that remains pure with all the strict rules and expressions that have been there for centuries. While the language may seem challenging for foreigners to master, learning some facts about it can be quite beneficial before you start!
The Old Norse link. Norwegian is considered as a language that has the greatest resemblance to the Old Norse. Although it became a completely different and a separate language from Danish in the 19th century, it still kept several linguistic aspects. An interesting fact is that it has not changed much since then compared to Swedish and Danish.
There are two official forms of Norwegian for writing purposes. There is a classic Bokmål language, which literally means "a language of the books" and the Nynorsk, which means "The New Norwegian". It should be noted that documents in Bokmål take about ninety percent of all official papers, while Nynorsk is used by about 10% of Norwegians. Moreover, several dialects do not have official status.
The language standards are regulated by the Norwegian Language Council. An unusual fact is that it recognizes the Riksmal spelling standard, which is mostly a moderate version of Bokmål. The Hognorsk or the "High Norwegian" is a purist form of Nynorsk. When a person requires an official document translation or works with legal agreements, these two standards are obligatory.
Correct language means respect. Just like they have levels of respect in Korea or Japan, language spelling standards serve this role in Norway. While at it, have a look at reviewed Korean translation services to learn more about language honorifics. Regardless of what language you choose, only a certified translator can work with legal or official documents. Likewise, if you request a website localization, it is best to use a standard Norwegian form.
Understanding each other. Norwegians can mostly understand Danes and Swedes. Even though Icelandic is related to Norwegian, it is not mutually intelligible with it. Considering the Norwegian domination by Denmark for centuries, Icelandic had almost no influence.
Norwegian is a tonal language. It might not say much to people without a linguistic background, yet tonal languages are mostly common for Asian or North African languages. A tonal language example is Chinese where the same word spoken in a different pitch and tone has a different meaning.
5 million speakers. Norwegian is mostly spoken in Norway, yet there are also Norwegian speakers in Canada, the United States (about 432,515 people with the basic language skills and Norwegian ancestry), and South Africa.
Extremely long words. The important part of Norwegian is putting two nouns together, which leads to extremely long words. Such words will not be a part of the dictionary since people usually make them up while talking. Saying "human rights organizations" would result in "menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner" that looks impossible to pronounce!
