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Norwegian Compound Words

Nov 22 2011

Small Animal Clinic

Menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner (human rights organizations) is one of the longer compound words in Norwegian. Others include sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximum likelihood estimator), and En mMidsommernattsdrøm (A Midsummer Night´s Dream).

The Norwegian language has quite a few compound words in it. In my experience as a new student of the Norwegian language, as well as as an instructor, compound words can be difficult for new learners. Especially at the beginning, it can be difficult to separate the individual words within compound words. You may have just learned the word menneske (person) but when you see it with rettighetsorganisasjoner, it looks completely different and you might not notice it right away. It becomes even more difficult when the word you may know is in the middle of a compound word, i.e. natt in midsommernattsdrøm. The word natt kind of gets lost.

Although it may be difficult, learning compound words is important in understanding and speaking Norwegian. The reason for this is because compound words are words themselves separately and you can severely mislead or misunderstand your audience if you use compound words by themselves. An example of this is: lammekoteletter (lamb chops) broken up into lamme koteletter (lame or paralyzed chops). Another example is røykfritt (smoke-free) or røyke fritt (smoke freely), the exact opposite of the intended meaning. The reason these easy-to-make errors exist is because usually one word is a noun and one word a verb or an adjective so the tense of the words can change as well as involve an action.

I think compound words are a fun part of the language to learn about because you learn about several different words in one and it quickly teaches you to pay attention to detail. It is also important to stress the right syllable in compound words (i.e. stress lamme in lammekotelleter).

And to name a few more:

smult ring (lard ring) and smultring (doughnut)

klippfisk (clipfish) and klipp fisk (cut fish)

århundre (century) and år hundre (year one hundred)

sommerfugl (butterfly) and sommer fugl (summer bird)

I like compound words. They´re fun.

The Valdres Region of Norway

Posted by kari No Comments

Nov 9 2011

The other day I posted about Rakfisk Festival, which is a festival that takes place every year in celebration of fermented trout and char, as well as other local food production and handicrafts. Fagernes, a small city in the region of Valdres, Norway is where the annual festival takes place. Although I´ve driven through Valdres, I did not really know that much about the region–until now. So, I thought I´d write a bit about the Valdres region of Norway and what it is known for, what one can do there, etc.

First, I´d like to begin by saying that the dialects people speak from this central region of the country are very different than the rest of the country. When I studied at the University of Oslo, I had a class with a girl named Karine who was from Valdres and I could literally barely understand her. My Norwegian is by no means perfect, but I am fluent and I can understand all other dialects I´ve heard. This one was tough though. I mean, it was almost like the different between spoken Norwegian and Danish-she used completely different words sometimes. For example, here are some words where you can see a marked difference between a Valdres dialect and standard bokmål:

Examples of local words Squirrel - Norwegian: ekorn, Valdres: ikødn All right (as in an all right person) – Norwegian: grei, Valdres: snodig (which in Norwegian normally means strange/funny) Lonely - Norwegian: ensomt, Valdres: aule

Oppland County

Let´s move on to geography and demographics. Valdres belongs to the fylke (county) of Oppland and is made up of 6 municipalities:

Sør-Aurdal (The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bagn)
Nord-Aurdal (The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Fagernes)
Vestre Slidre (The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Slidre)
Øystre Slidre (The administrative centre of the municipality is the village Heggenes)
Etnedal (The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bruflat)
Vang (The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vang i Valdres)

Valdres is situated between the valleys of Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal (dal means valley) approximately halfway between Oslo and Bergen. The major European highway E16 runs through it and it also has an airport (in Fagernes). This part of the country is stunning with all of the mountain ranges and valleys and small farms.

Historically, agriculture was a major industry in Valdres, but today tourism and trout fishing have surpassed agriculture as forms of livelihood. There is plenty to do for tourists who visit Valdres. Valdres is well known, as mentioned earlier, for trout fishing, as well as cycling, hiking, horse riding, rafting, golf, and of course skiing in the winter.

Let´s go to Valdres!

Learning Norwegian Numbers

Posted by kari No Comments

Nov 1 2011

I have found several excellent videos to help you learn your numbers in Norwegian:)

You can find one of them that will help you learn Norwegian Numbers. Don’t be distracted by the woman’s sensual voice or the fact that she mentions her favorite number is 69. Apparently she was not aware that the number 69 has a sexual connotation in the U.S…..In any case, the video is educational and I think very helpful. You will probably notice a few things:

1) The number 7 is “sju” or “syv” depending on the dialect spoken

2) The “v” in “tolv” (12) is silent.

3) 6 is “seks” and is pronounced like “sex” but 16 is “seksten” and is not pronounced like “sex-ton” but rather “sigh-sten” 60 is back to the pronunciation like 6…”seksti” pronounced “sex-tee”

4) A similar progression occurs for the number 8 and it’s various forms (18, 80). ”Åtte” is 8 and is pronounced “oat-uh.” ”Atten” is 18 and is pronounced “ah-ten” (notice also there is no “halo” over the a like there is in the number 8). ”Åtti” is 80 and is pronounced “oat-ee.”

Another video, which is far less controversial and was posted by a very sweet sounding young girl .

I just discovered this website as well that has various games for you to play to help you learn the numbers. They are pretty cool. Check it out here!

I find the following information found on Wiki Books quite interesting myself. You can learn a bit more about the history behind Norwegian numbers and where some of the spelling and pronunciations come from. I hope you enjoy learning about Norwegian numbers! It’s important to review them often to really learn them.

Numeral	Literal	Additional information
0	Null
1	Bokmål: én (masc.), éi (fem.), ett (neuter) Nynorsk: éin (masc.), éi (fem), eitt (neuter)	In Bokmål, masc. and fem. are sometimes merged into a common gender (én). The common gender is inherited from written Danish and is therefore not allowed in Nynorsk, which has always used three genders. Origin: Old Norse einn (masc.), ein (fem.), eitt (neuter)
2	To	Earlier tvo in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse tveir (masc.), tvær (fem.), tvau (neuter). Some dialects still uses tvei, tvæ and tvau.
3	Tre (tri)	Earler tri in Nynorsk, still part of the official orthography, but not to be used by the authorities. Origin: Old Norse þrír (masc.), þrjár(fem.), þrjú (neuter).
4	Fire	Earlier fjore in Nynorsk, before gradually being replaced by fire. Origin: Danish fire, Old Norse fjórír (masc.), fjórar (fem.), fjǫgur(neuter).
5	Fem	Origin: Old Norse fimm.
6	Seks	Origin: Old Norse sex.
7	Sju (syv)	The spelling syv was banned from the official orthography in 1951, but re-introduced in 2005. Nynorsk has always used sju (originallysjau). Origin: Old Norse sjau, Danish syv
8	Åtte	Earlier åtta in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse átta.
9	Ni	Earlier nio in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse níu.
10	Ti	Earlier tio in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse tíu.
11	Elleve	Origin: Old Norse ellifu.
12	Tolv	Origin: Old Norse tólf.
13	Tretten	Earlier trettan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse þrettán.
14	Fjorten	Earlier fjortan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse fjórtán.
15	Femten	Earlier femtan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse fimtán.
16	Seksten	Earlier sekstan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse sextán.
17	Sytten	Earlier sjauttan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse sjautján.
18	Atten	Earlier atjan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse átján.
19	Nitten	Earlier nitjan in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse nítján.
20	Tjue	Earlier tyve in Bokmål and tjugo in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse tjogu, tuttugu, Danish tyve.
21	Tjueén	Earlier én og tyve in Bokmål, ein og tjugo in Nynorsk (meaning “one and twenty”). As of 1951, tens are mentioned first (like in English “twenty one”). Old Norse used both tuttugu ok einn (“twenty and one”) and einn ok tuttugu (“one and twenty”).
22	Tjueto
23	Tjuetre
24	Tjuefire
25	Tjuefem
30	Tretti	Earlier tredve in Bokmål. Origin: Old Norse þrír tigir (simplified and contracted to tretti), Danish tred(i)ve.
40	Førti	Earlier førr in Bokmål, fyrti in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse fjórir tigir, fjórutigi (fyrti, førti), Danish fyrre (førr).
50	Femti	Origin: Old Norse fimtigi.
60	Seksti	Origin: Old Norse sex tigir.
70	Sytti	Earlier sjautti in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse sjautigi.
80	Åtti	Earlier åtteti in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse áttatigi, áttatiu.
90	Nitti	Origin: Old Norse níu tigir.
100	(Ett) Hundre	Earlier hundrede in Bokmål, hundrad in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse hundrað.
101	(Ett) hundre og én/éin	May be spelt in one word (hundreogén).
102	(Ett) hundre og to
103	(Ett) hundre og tre
104	(Ett) hundre og fire
105	(Ett) hundre og fem
125	(Ett) hundre og tjuefem
200	To hundre
300	Tre hundre
400	Fire hundre
500	Fem hundre
1 000	(Ett) tusen	Earlier tusund in Nynorsk. Origin: Old Norse þusund
2 000	To tusen
3 000	Tre tusen
4 000	Fire tusen
5 000	Fem tusen
1 000 000	Én million	Origin: derived from Latin mille (“thousand”).
2 000 000	To millioner
3 000 000	Tre millioner
4 000 000	Fire millioner
5 000 000	Fem millioner
7 473 259	Sjumillionerfirehundreogsyttitretusentohundreogfemtini
1 000 000 000	Én milliard	Origin: derived from French

Typical travel related questions in Norwegian

Posted by kari 1 Comment

Sep 30 2011

My job has given me the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling. Every month I travel somewhere for at least a few days, sometimes 2 weeks. Although my colleagues and I usually have some sort of connection with someone who either lives or has lived in the cities we visit, we still find ourselves asking the typical tourist questions. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think most people who want to learn a foreign language actually want to be able to use it in some fashion. While most Norwegians speak English very well, I would think many of you would like to be able to walk Karl Johan and ask a native Norwegian a question in Norwegian.

I made a list of all of the questions that I asked Philadelphia natives (or people that have lived there long enough to answer these questions) last weekend. You will also find the answers to these questions below as well.

1. Hvor er den beste italiensk restaurant? Where is the best Italian restaurant?

Den beste italiensk restaurant finnes i Gammel by og det heter Ralph´s. The best Italian restaurant can be found in Old City. It is called Ralph´s.

2. Når stenger utestedene? When do the places to go out (another word for bar, club, places to go out) close?

Utestedene stenger kl. 2. The places to go out close at 2.

3. Hvor er den nærmeste jernvarehandel? Where is the nearest hardware store?

Den nærmeste jernvarehandel er cirka 2 km nord fra sentrum. The closest hardware store is about 2 km north of the center.

4. Hvis man vil kjøpe en gave til noen hjemme, hvor kan man shoppe litt? If one wants to buy a present for someone at home, where can one shop a bit?

Det er mange butikker ved hovedgaten midt i sentrum. There are many stores on the main street in the center.

5. Hvor lang tid tar det å kjøre til flyplassen fra hotellet? How long does it take to drive from the airport from the hotel?

Det tar 25 minutter å kjøre til flyplassen fra hotellet. It takes 25 minutes to drive to the airport from the hotel.

6. Hva er denne byen mest kjent for? What is this city most known for?

Denne byen er mest kjent for Philly Cheesesteaks og Brotherly Love. This city is most known for Philly Cheesesteaks and Brotherly Love.

7. Hvilken cheesesteak er bedre-den fra Geno´s eller Pat´s? Which cheesesteak is better-the one from Geno´s or Pat´s?

Pat´s lager bedre cheesesteaks, absolutt. Pat´s makes better cheesesteaks, absolutely.

8. Har hotellet et treningssenter? Does the hotel have a fitness center?

Ja, hotellet har et treningssenter på andre etasjen. Yes the hotel has a fitness center on the second floor.

9. Kan man ta egen alkohol til restauranten? Can one bring one´s own alcohol to the restaurant (BYOB)?

Ja, det er mange restauranter i Philadelphia der man kan ta med egen alkohol. Yes, there are many restaurants in Philadelphia where one can bring one´s own alcohol.

10. Hvor mange timer forskjell er det mellom Philadelphia og Minnesota? How many hours difference is there between Philadelphia and Minnesota?

Mellom Philadelphia og Minnesota er det 1 time forskjell. Between Philadelphia and Minnesota, there is one hour difference.

Of course if you are traveling in Norway, you will ask much different questions, which I will address in a later post. However, I thought in this post I would make the content a bit more familiar to you so that you can concentrate more on sentence structure and vocabulary.

God natt! Good night!

Norwegian Baby Names

Posted by kari 4 Comments

Sep 28 2011

Although I am not planning on having barn (children) for some years yet, I often find myself brainstorming options for baby navn (names). I have always been of the opinion that it must be extremely difficult to choose a navn that will stick with your barn for the rest of his or her life. First of all, there are so many great names, it seems like it would be so difficult to choose the one you and the other parent like the best. Secondly, some navn that seem suitable for a barn simply are not suitable for a voksen (adult). Lastly, a navn might just simply not fit an individual. I know several people that have changed their birth navn to something else because they really disliked it.

In any case, every barn needs a navn and most turn out just fine. I have a very traditional and popular Norwegian navn-Kari. I think it suits me and I like it much better than the 2nd choice my parents were considering-Rebecca (sorry to the Rebecca´s out there-the navn just wouldn´t fit me.

As with most things, navn go through historical cycles as far as popularity. Names that were popular hundreds of years ago are popular again today. However, there are of course many navn used today that did not exist hundreds of years ago, or they are spelled differently now.

I encourage you to watch and listen to You Tube video in which a native Norwegian pronounces Norwegian baby gutt og jente navn (boys and girls names).

Interesting navn facts:

-In 1904, the male navn Kristian was the most popular. In 1953, it was down in the 90s and by 1974, Kristian came back and is still a very popular Norwegian navn.

-1 in 5 Norwegian navn are originate in the Bible.

-Mohammed is the most popular male navn in Oslo.

-Norwegian parents are not choosing names that include the uniquely Norwegian alphabetic characters æ,ø, and å because they are typically difficult to pronounce for non-natives. I personally think this is a bummer because names with these characters are usually pretty strong names that would be a shame to see disappear (although they will likely come back in the future some time). I´m thinking of names like Jørgen, Bjørg and Bjørn, Håkon,

Please find here a list of popular navn used in Norway:

M/F	Norwegian Baby Names	Meaning of Name	Origin
F	Aasta	love	Old Norse
M	Åge	ancestors	Norw.
F	Ågot	good	Norw.
M	Aksel	father of peace	Norw.
M	Alf	lives in the netherworld	Norw.
F	Alfhild	elf battle	Norw.
F	Alva	elf army	Norw.
F	Alvar	elf army	Norw.
M	Amund	bridal gift	Norw.
M	Anders	strong; manly	Greek
M	Andor	eagle of Thor	Norw.
F	Andras	breath	Norw.
F	Anette	grace; mercy	Norw.
F	Annbjørg	eagle protection	Norw.
F	Anne	grace; mercy	Norw.
F	Anniken	favor; grace	Norw.
F	Annikin	favor; grace	Norw.
M	Anton	inestimable	Latin
M	Aren	eagle; rule	Norw.
M	Aricin	eternal; king’s son	Norw.
M	Arild	war chief	Norw.
M	Arkin	eternal; king’s son	Norw.
F	Arna	eagle	Norw.
F	Arnbjørg	eagle protection	Norw.
M	Arne	eagle	German
M	Arnljot	frightens the eagle	Norw.
M	Arvid	tree of eagles	Norw.
M	Asborn	divine bear	Norw.
F	Ase	god	Norw.
F	Åse	tree-covered mountain	Norw.
M	Åsgeir	spear of the gods	Norw.
F	Åshild	fighting woman	Norw.
M	Askel	father of peace	Hebrew
F	Aslaug	god; consecrated	Norw.
F	Astrid	divine strength	Norw.
F	Asvoria	divine prudence	Norw.
F	Aud	prosperity; happiness	Norw.
F	Audhild	fighting woman	Norw.
F	Audny	new prosperity	Norw.
F	Audun	deserted or desolate	Norw.
M	Audun	friend of prosperity	Norw.
M	Axell	father of peace	Hebrew
M	Bard	fight; lovely	Norw.
M	Baste	reverenced	Greek
F	Beate	happy	Norw.
M	Bendik	blessed	Latin
F	Benedikt	blessed	Norw.
F	Bente	blessed	Norw.
F	Bera	bear	Norw.
F	Bergliot	helpful light	Norw.
F	Berit	magnificent	Celtic
M	Birger	rescue	Norw.
F	Birgit	magnificent	Celtic
M	Bjarne	bear	Norw.
M	Bjarte	bright	Norw.
M	Bjørn	bear	Norw.
M	Bjørg	help	Norw.
F	Bodil	penance	Norw.
M	Borg	from the castle	Norw.
F	Borgny	help; new	Norw.
M	Brede	broad; the glacier	Norw.
F	Brenda	flame; sword	Norw.
F	Brita	from Britain	Norw.
F	Brynhild	coat of mail	Norw.
F	Camilla	ceremonial attendant	Latin
M	Canute	knot	Norw.
F	Catherine	pure	Greek
M	Cort	short	Norw.
M	Dag	day; brightness	Norw.
M	Dagfinn	from Finland	Norw.
F	Dagmar	Dane’s joy	Teutonic
F	Dagny	day; brightness	Norw.
F	Dagrun	secret lore	Norw.
F	Dale	valley	Old Norse
M	Darby	deer estate	Norw.
M	Davin	brightness of the Finns	Norw.
M	Denby	village of the Danes	Norw.
F	Disa	active spirit	Norw.
M	Donalt	world ruler	Celtic
F	Dordi	gift from God	Greek
F	Dorte	God’s gift	Greek
M	Dreng	young man	Norw.
F	Edit	wealth	Norw.
M	Egil	awe inspiring	Norw.
M	Einar	warrior; leader	Norw.
M	Eirik	ever-ruler	Norw.
F	Eldrid	fire; lovely	Norw.
F	Elga	pious	Norw.
F	Eli	the illustrious	Norw.
F	Elise	consecrated to God	Norw.
F	Erica	ever powerful	Old Norse
M	Erik	ever powerful	Norw.
M	Erlend	chief; turned	Norw.
M	Erling	descendant	Norw.
M	Eskil	vessel of God	Norw.
M	Espen	divine bear	Norw.
F	Eva	life	Hebrew
M	Eystein	turned toward luck	Norw.
M	Filip	lover of horses	Greek
M	Finn	from Finland	Norw.

See this website for much more information on Norwegian navn, including those that signify bravery and heroism.

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