Basic Norwegian: marwex89

[marwex89]

Basic Norwegian: marwex89

"Grunnleggende norsk: marwex89"

So, this is a "tutorial response" to SweeD's tutorial on basic swedish (Basic Swedish: SweeD). I have even officially asked Jordan (yeah the Admin himself) if he thought it was OK to post tutorials covering human languages - not only programming languages. He didn't just say: "OK" - no, he even went as far as saying that: "Being a forum with members from all around the world it could possibly help us understand one another better." Yup.

So let's go on, people: Norwegian. As you might know, I am a native speaker of this fantastic language, and I will try to learn you some useful(?) things about it. A note: I will not talk about Sami - the language of the Sami. The Sami are the indigenous people of Norway, but their language is very different to Norwegian (more similar to Finnish).

Now, first of all, you should know that there are two - 2 - different written norms of Norwegian. One is called Bokmål (literally: book-language), the other is called Nynorsk (literally: new-Norwegian). To explain this, I'll have to dive into Norwegian history - well, much like in school.

Bokmål is, we can say, a "norwegianization" of Danish. As you might (not) know, Denmark officially ruled Norway for 400 years (until 1814). Then, the "upper class" in Norway (educated, rich and cool people) wrote Danish, and spoke something somewhat similar to Danish. After we got away from Denmark (just to be given away to Sweden - but that's another story), we wanted our own written language, and Bokmål was born. Of course, today's modern Bokmål is quite different from Danish. But the similarities are present, and most norwegians can therefore understand written Danish.

So to Nynorsk. Well, this is what you get when one man (Ivar Aasen) goes jogging around in Norway, picks up what he believes are the best parts from a number of dialects, and creates a language from that. The result is fine, though pretty different from Bokmål. Nynorsk has, of course, also been modernized a lot, and Bokmål and Nynorsk keep becoming more similar (because both are continually edited relative to how we actually speak).

When we go to school, we can choose between Nynorsk or Bokmål as our main written language (more or less dependent on how we speak). This is (for example) the one we will use for most tests. The majority of people pick Bokmål. Nynorsk is mainly used in the west. We do have to learn both, however, but focuses on one.

So, a quick note about dialects. In Norway, a guy from Oslo is not necessarily going to understand a guy from some rural area in the west. The guy from the west will however probably understand the guy from Oslo, because we hear the Oslo dialect all the time, on TV, for instance. The Oslo dialect is also quite close to Bokmål, while some dialects really aren't close to anything... Bottom line: Norwegian dialects are very different, and can differ greatly locally as well.

Enough history, let's learn some hard facts.

First of all, the alphabet. I believe it is unique, but not very different from the English. In fact, it is exactly the same, but with three additional vowels at the end: Æ, Ø, and Å. So the alphabet looks like this:

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Ææ Øø Åå



Chapter One: (Kapittel en)
- Basic Norwegian Phrases You Must Know

ENGLISH = BOKMÅL (NYNORSK)
Hello, I am a tourist. = Hei, jeg er turist. (Hei, eg er turist.)
I don't understand you... = Jeg forstår deg ikke... (Eg forstår deg ikkje...)
Got drugs? = Har du dop? (Har du dop?)
Can I have a beer, please? = Kan jeg få en øl?* (Kan eg få ein øl?)
Can I borrow this gun?** = Kan jeg låne dette geværet? (Kan eg låne dette geværet?)
Do you speak english? = Snakker du engelsk? (Snakkar du engelsk?)


*Note: Norwegians are not as polite as other people. We don't usually say "please" when asking for a beer.

**Note: Gun in English can mean pistol as well as larger firearms, like shotguns. The Norwegian word "gevær" (which I traslated with) can not mean pistol, only larger firearms, like shotguns and rifles. To avoid confusion, don't use a pistol in Norway.



Chapter Two: (Kapittel to)
- Norwegian Phrases You Should Know

ENGLISH = BOKMÅL (NYNORSK)
Where is the nearest toilet = Hvor er nærmeste toalett? (Kvar er næraste toalett?)
Police! = Politi!* (Politi!)
Fire! = Brann! (Brann!)
Call an ambulance! = Ring etter ambulanse! (Ring etter ambulanse!)
Darn, I hate cell phones. = Pokker, jeg hater mobiltelefoner. (Pokker, eg hatar mobiltelefonar.)
What's wrong with your hair? = Hva er galt med håret ditt? (Kva er gale med håret ditt?)


*Note: Emergency number is 110 for fire, 112 for police, and 113 for ambulance. Don't ask what happened to 111, I do not know.



Chapter Three: (Kapittel tre)
- The MSN conversation

ENGLISH = BOKMÅL (NYNORSK)
Hi! = Hei! (Hei!)
Bye! = Ha det! (Ha det!)
How old is your sister? = Hvor gammel er søsteren din? (Kor gamal er søstera di?)
I love you = Jeg elsker deg (Eg elskar deg)
How are you? = Hvordan går det? (Korleis går det?)
Thanks, fine, you? = Takk, bra, du? (Takk, bra, du?)
Good = Bra (Bra)
Splendid = Utmerket (Utmerka)
Very = Svært (Særs)
See you later! = Ser deg senere! (Ser deg seinare!)
Yes = Ja (Ja)
No = Nei (Nei)
Maybe = Kanskje (Kanskje)
Anything else? = Noe annet? (Noko anna?)
OK = OK (OK)
Sorry = Beklager (Orsak)*
I am a nice cat. = Jeg er en snill pus. (Eg er ein snill pus.)


*Note: If you actually say "Orsak" on the street, expect people to LOL It's never used, rarely even in written text, but it's funny



Chapter Four: (Kapittel fire)
- Lines to get some chicks

"Your eyes are blue as the water in my toilet..." (I learnt this one from a girl from Kosovo... Works great!) = "Øynene dine er blå som vannet i toalettet mitt..." (Nynorsk: "Auga dine er blå som vatnet i toalettet mitt...") - Very romantic. :001_tt1:

"Can't we just go home and scr*w?" (Why make it complicated?) "Kan vi ikke bare gå hjem og knulle?" (Nynorsk: "Kan vi ikkje berre gå heim og knulle?")

"Come to me, little girl, I got cookies..." (Note: Make sure there is no police around before trying this...) = "Kom til meg, lille jente, jeg har kjeks...." (Nynorsk: "Kom til meg, vesle jente, eg har kjeks...")



Chapter Five: (Kapittel fem)
- Learn to count

We will now learn to count!

0: null
1: en (Note: In Nynorsk = "ein")
2: to
3: tre
4: fire
5: fem
6: seks (Note: no, not sex, like in Swedish.. We are not that funny, I'm afraid..)
7: sju
8: åtte
9: ni
10: ti

More than 10 = many = "mange".

That will do, I think. If you encounter problems, ask for paper & pen ("Can I have paper & pen, please? I do not know how to say that number." = "Kan jeg få papir og penn? Jeg vet ikke hvordan jeg sier det tallet." (Nynorsk: "Kan eg få penn og papir? Eg veit ikkje korleis eg seier det talet.")).

Or send me an email, and I'll try to answer within a week or five.



Chapter Six (Kapittel seks)
- Closing words

So, this brief tutorial has come to an end. But, feel free to ask any questions/translations/whatever-Norway-related in this thread, I'll be glad to help/enlighten/bore you. So long, dudez.

[Jordan]

Hei, Takk! +rep
Nice read, maybe I'll understand you better now?

[amrosama]

nice tutorial,
ill read it tomorrow with a coffee mug
+rep

[marwex89]

Hahaha, takk guyz Who knows, Jordan, maybe you will And Amr: Go to sleep, man.

[Orjan]

du må ikke glömme guleböj..... ;-)

[marwex89]

Hahaha, thx for reminding me, Ørjan

Banana = banan (guleböj in Swedish)

[Vswe]

Very good marwex +rep.

Pokker, jeg er turist, Hvor er nærmeste søsteren. <-- Does that work

[marwex89]

haha, not really.. "Pokker, jeg er turist" is OK. But I'm not sure what you wanted to say with the second one..? "Where is the nearest sister" would be "Hvor er nærmeste søster?"

Posted via CodeCall Mobile

[Vswe]

Originally Posted by marwex89

haha, not really.. "Pokker, jeg er turist" is OK. But I'm not sure what you wanted to say with the second one..? "Where is the nearest sister" would be "Hvor er nærmeste søster?"

Posted via CodeCall Mobile

I was close though

[marwex89]

Sure It seems like my tutorial helps