Norwegian language

Norwegian is an official language of Norway and the Nordic Council.

About 4.7 million (4,700,700) people speak Norwegian.

Writing system

Norwegian uses all 26 letters in English, along with the letters Æ, Ø, and Å. However, the letters c, q, w, x, and z are only used in loanwords.

There are two types of written Norwegian: Bokmål and Nynorsk. In 2005, about 86.3% of native Norwegians use Bokmål, 5.5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7.5% only use Nynorsk. This means that about 91.8% of Norwegians use Bokmål, while only 15% use Nynorsk.

History

Norwegian comes from an ancient language called Old Norse. In 782, King Harald Fairhair united Norway. Christianity came to Norway around 1030. Christianity brought with it the Latin alphabet, which is the one used today. Before then, a runic alphabet was used. In the 800s, Old Norse began to separate into Eastern and Western dialects. Eventually, Western Norse changed and changed until it became Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian around the year 1300. From 1350 to 1525, Old Norwegian changed more until it turned into Middle and then Modern Norwegian, the kind used today.

Authors and poets

Some famous Norwegian writers are Henrik Wergeland, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, and Sigrid Unset. Hamsun and Unset even got Nobel Prizes for their works!

Basic words

Hilsener	Greetings
Hallo	Hello
Hei	Hi
God dag	Good day
God kveld	Good night
God morgen	Good morning
Hvordan har du det?	How are you?
Ha det bra	Good-bye
Vi snakkes i morgen	See you tomorrow
Grunnfraser	Basic phrases
Takk skal du ha	Thank you
Ingen årsak	You are welcome
Beklager	Sorry
Unnskyld	Excuse me
Snakker du engelsk/norsk?	Do you speak English/Norwegian?
Hvor er toalettet?	Where is the bathroom?
Jeg liker...	I like...
Jeg liker ikke...	I don't like...
Jeg heter...	My name is...

Anthem of Norway

Kongesangen (The Norwegian royal anthem)

Norwegian	English
Gud sign vår konge god! Sign ham med kraft og mot sign hjem og slott! Lys for ham ved din Ånd, knytt med din sterke hånd hellige troskapsbånd om folk og drott!	God bless our good king! Bless him with strength and courage, bless home and palace! Guide him with Your Spirit, tie with Your strong Hand holy bands of allegiance around people and sovereign!
Høyt sverger Norges mann hver i sitt kall, sin stand, troskap sin drott. Trofast i liv og død, tapper i krig og nød, alltid vårt Norge lød Gud og sin drott.	Loudly swear men of Norway each in his calling, his station, loyalty to the sovereign. Loyal in life and death, courageous in war and need, always our Norway obeyed God and its sovereign.