Norwegian! A North Germanic Language of Norway

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Special thanks to Jens N. Nielsen for his Bokmål samples and help, as well as René Mikalsen for his Nynorsk samples.

Current patrons include these lovely people:

Anjo Barnes, Auguste Fields, Behnam Esfahbod, Bennett Seacrist, Brandon Gonzalez, Brian King, Can Cetinyilmaz, Clark Roth, Fiona de Visser, Georgy Eremin, Guillermo Jimenez, Jacob Madsen, John Moffat, Leon Jiang, Marcelo Loureiro, Matthew Etter, Michael Arbagi, Michael Cuomo, Nobbi Lampe-Strang, Patrick W., Rosalind Resnick, Ruben Sanchez Jr, Sebastian Langshaw, ShadowCrossZero, Victoria Goh, Vincent David, Yuko Sunda, Adam Powell, Adam Vanderpluym, Alen, Alex Hanselka, Ali Muhammed Alshehri, Alvin Quiñones, Andrew Woods, Angeline Biot, Aous Mansouri, Ashley Dierolf, Atsushi Yoshida, Avital Levant, Bartosz Czarnotta, Brent Warner, Brian Begnoche, Brian Morton, Bruce Stark, Carl saloga, Charis T'Rukh, Chelsea Boudreau, Christian Langreiter, Christopher Lowell, David LeCount, Debbie Levitt, Diane Young, DickyBoa, divad, Divadrax, Don Ross, Donald Tilley, Ed B, Edward Wilson, Eric Loewenthal, Erin Robinson Swink, Fabio Martini, fatimahl, Grace Wagner, Greg Boyarko, Gus Polly, Hannes Egli, Harry Kek, Henri K, Ina Mwanda, Jack Jackson, James and Amanda Soderling, James Lillis, Jay Bernard, Jens Aksel Takle, JESUS FERNANDO MIRANDA BARBOSA, JK Nair, JL Bumgarner, John Hyaduck, Justin , Kevin J. Baron, Konrad, Kristian Erickson, Krzysztof Dobrzanski, Laura Morland, Lee Dedmon, Leo Coyne, Leo Barudi, Lincoln Hutton, Lorraine Inez Lil, Luke Jensen, M.Aqeel Afzal, Mahmoud Hashemi, Margaret Langendorf, Maria Comninou, Mariana Bentancor, Mark, Mark Grigoleit, Mark Kemp, Markzipan, Maurice Chou, Merrick Bobb, Michael Regal, Mike Frysinger, mimichi, Mohammed A. Abahussain, Naama Shang, Nicholas Gentry, Nicole Tovar, Oleksandr Ivanov, Oto Kohulák, Panot, Papp Roland, Patrick smith, Patriot Nurse, Paul Shutler, Pauline Pavon, Paulla Fetzek, Peter Andersson, Peter Nikitin, Peter Scollar, Pomax, Raymond Thomas, Renato Paroni de Castro, ReysDad, Robert Sheehan, Robert Williams, Roland Seuhs, Ronald Brady, Ryan Lanham, Saffo Papantonopoulou, Scott Irons, Scott Russell, Sergio Pascalin, ShrrgDas, Sierra Rooney, Simon Blanchet, Simon G, Spartak Kagramanyan, Steeven Lapointe, Stefan Reichenberger, Steven Severance, Suzanne Jacobs, Theophagous, Thomas Chapel, Tomáš Pauliček, Tryggurhavn, veleum, William MacKenzie, William O Beeman, William Shields, yasmine jaafar, Yeshar Hadi, Éric Martin.

Music

The song accompanying Paul's life-changing jokes: “Sax Attack” by Dougie Wood.
Outro: “Gisele Revisited” by South London HiFi.

The following images were used under Creative Commons share-alike license:

Still images which incorporate the above images are available for use under the appropriate share-alike license.

00:00 Brainstorming session with Mickey
00:40 The origin and classification of Norwegian
01:55 The origins of Bokmål and Nynorsk
04:27 Bokmål pronunciation & Orthography
09:16 Bokmål grammar
13:59 Side by side comparison of Bokmål and Nynorsk
17:51 Final comments
18:22 The Question of the Day

[Langfocus]

(Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)

OMG, a language with only one form of a verb per tense. That is so beautiful.

[chandler]

Norwegian is the first language that I have actually enjoyed learning! As a native English speaker, I have struggled to learn a second language and gave up multiple times. Then I discovered Norwegian and something just clicked! The simple grammar, easy conjugations, and many recognizable words. If you are thinking about learning Norwegian as an English speaker, I would highly recommend it. Jeg elsker norge!

[ZenoxCombe]

This man knows more about my own language than I do

[MMM]

I'm Swedish and to me, all Norwegians sound like eternally happy kindergarden teachers. There's something about the intonation of the sentences.

[sasthemento]

My uncle actually avoided a speeding ticket by demanding to get the letter in Nynorsk instead of Bokmål. Anyone one in Norway have the right to get official documents in the written Norwegian language they learnt as kids, and the police office didn’t bother to translate the document for him

[Cae_the_Kitsune]

Ah, the three genders. Women, men, and mountains.

[alexanderstormdahl]

Watching this as a Norwegian feels like taking a class where you already know all the answers. I feel so proud, thank you.

[SaintElvardielSHMD]

I'm a native speaker of Norwegian and must say your video is very accurate and well made. Now to answer your question, I live in the South East part of Norway and use the Bokmål standard in writing and speaking. In my experience it's easy to understand all the dialects, except maybe some strange words you learn along the way. My grandma had an accent more similar to Nynorsk so I learned it from a young age. There are lots of people who speak with a dialect locally and in media. It's generally thought to be a quality that your dialect is specific to a region and it's not something people hide or are ashamed of. I find the different dialects charming and comforting in their own special way.

[tr-h]

"Jeg vil spise" isn't really the correct translation of "I will eat". "Jeg vil spise" means "I want to eat". "I will eat" is "Jeg skal spise". I believe the word "skal" is a cognate of the English word "shall"

[karolgdynia]

When you learn Norwegian, eventually you get to the point when you have meaningful talk with a Norwegian folk. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation you really start to believe in your language skills. And then... a new guy joins the chat and you face the reality. You can understand just one dialect. Another 100 are waiting for you 😂
Ok. It's not so bad, but almost 😂

[mortentefre]

Here are some dialect variations to the word “I”:
Jeg, eg, je, jæ, e, æ, i.
Spoken Norwegian can be a challenge.

[joonaaskr]

You are honestly better at explaining grammar than our Norwegian teachers over here

[mecolour]

I’m Norwegian and watching this.. I guess I’m just checking in to see if I can still speak it 😂

[hkonhkon]

There are so many dialects that you can often tell exactly what town the person you are speaking to is from

[thavibu]

As a Norwegian I often find it easier to understand Swedish or Danish than some of the Norwegian dialects

[shipwreck]

My favorite Narnia book: The Woman, the Man, and the Mountain.

[bebop]

So I'm learning my own language, in another language. I should go to bed


Edit: This is one of my more mediocre comments and somehow it's probably the most liked one. I now see why boring comments have thousands of likes

[alfhildr]

Fun fact: it's common courtesy that if you receive an official/formal email you should respond with the same written Norwegian as in the email you received. Always fun growing up listening to my dad curse under his breath as he tried to figure out how to respond to his work emails in Nynorsk (New Norwegian) - he has always hated Nynorsk hah.

[-RunninNGunnin-]

I'm from Finland. My friends have told me that when I'm very very drunk I start speaking Norwegian :D