This is the next post in a series on the great Norwegian language struggle between 叠辞办尘氓濒 and Nynorsk. Click here to read the background post and here to read the first part of Bryce's conversion guide… here is part two. Enjoy, share and comment 馃檪

Consonant Alterations

You didn't think it would be as easy as throwing a few 鈥渏鈥�'s around a bit and doubling some letters did you? Sorry peeps, but there's a bit more to it than that. Let's start with three changes which are pretty easy to understand: 鈥渒v鈥� 鈫� 鈥渉v鈥�, 鈥渕n鈥� 鈫� 鈥渧n鈥�, and 鈥渒(n)鈥� 鈫� 鈥済(n)鈥�.

Now comes the tricky(-er) part 鈥� the magical letter g. Yeah, magical. ‘Cause not only does it transform instelf into vowels, it can even make itself disappear. The general transformations are “g” 鈫� “i” after a vowel like “e”; “g” 鈫� “y” after a vowel like “酶”; and “g” 鈫� 鈥淥h my god, it's disappeared!鈥� after the vowel combination 鈥渆i鈥�.

Diphthongs and Common Vowel Alterations

Diphthongs are two vowels that come together beside each other in total harmony to make a new and peaceful tomorrow. English is full of diphthongs (house, coin, liar, liar, pants on fire), but none of these are as awesome as the Modern Norwegian diphthongs which go all the way back to the bloody Vikings! Rock and Roll!

Did you wake up this morning thinking you could excited about diphthongs? Me neither. But here are the three Viking vowel combinations, and their 叠辞办尘氓濒 equivalents: 鈥渆i鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆鈥�, 鈥溍竬鈥� 鈫� 鈥溍糕��, 鈥渁u鈥� 鈫� 鈥溍糕��. Let's confuse ourselves with examples.

Maybe you noticed that most people write stein in 叠辞办尘氓濒, and that sten is an optional, secondary spelling. You're right! 叠辞办尘氓濒 is a bit inconsistent with how it chooses to represent these viking vowels, but you're just going to have to live with it 馃檨

In addition to the diphthongs, the Modern Norwegian 鈥渦鈥� often corresponds to 叠辞办尘氓濒 鈥渙鈥�, and Modern Norwegian 鈥渙鈥� can correspond to one of 鈥渁鈥� , 鈥溍モ��, or 鈥渦鈥�. I don't really know the rules for when you choose one or the other (there probably aren't any), but I think it's enough just to be aware that there are these possibilities.

Inflections

Unfortunately, Modern Norwegian and 叠辞办尘氓濒 don't have the same inflections. Fortunately, they're pretty similar, and it's much much much much much much much easier going from Modern Norwegian to 叠辞办尘氓濒 than it is the other way around. The basic rules are: 鈥渁r鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆r鈥�, 鈥渁ne鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆ne鈥�, 鈥渁re鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆re鈥�, 鈥渁st鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆st鈥�. Pretty easy. Of course, nothing can be completely easy, so I'm going to explain two of the more common irregularities (the others you can just learn as you come across them).

In 叠辞办尘氓濒, if I wanted to write 鈥渢he houses鈥� or 鈥渢he ships鈥� I would write 鈥渉usene鈥� and 鈥渟kipene鈥�. In Modern Norwegian, these words are written 鈥渉usa鈥� and 鈥渟kipa鈥�, so the 鈥渁鈥� here corresponds to 鈥渆ne鈥� in 叠辞办尘氓濒. However, not every 鈥渁鈥� at the end of a word should be changed to 鈥渆ne鈥�, because Modern Norwegian always writes feminine words as feminine, so 鈥渏enta鈥� and 鈥渂oka鈥� would be 鈥渢he girl鈥� and 鈥渢he book鈥� (which you will recognise from 叠辞办尘氓濒鈥�, and so should be left as they are.

Miscellaneous

Well, this is a long post, but we're nearing the end now. Good on you for sticking it out so far. This is the last section, and just covers some sundry items that I didn't cover elsewhere, so be prepared for an eclectic mix of jazz, verbs, and third items.

In Modern Norwegian there are these verbs which don't end in -r in the present tense. Instead, they either have a different form (like how 叠辞办尘氓濒 氓 vite 鈫� vet), or the stem is used by itself. So, 叠辞办尘氓濒 trenger, sitter, kommer (needs, sits, comes) are written treng, sit, kjem in Modern Norwegian.

A very common phrase in Modern Norwegian is 鈥淢e sj氓ast鈥� – see you later. It's made up of 鈥渕e鈥�, which means 鈥渨e鈥�, 鈥溍� sj氓鈥� which is 鈥溍� se鈥� in 叠辞办尘氓濒, and 鈥�-ast鈥� which is the passive. In 叠辞办尘氓濒, this would be 鈥渧i sees鈥�.

In Modern Norwegian, 鈥渉an鈥� (he) and 鈥渉o鈥� (she) are used instead of 鈥渄en鈥� (it) when referring to an object. So if you see 鈥淓g likte filmen. Eg likte han ogs氓.鈥�, then 鈥渉an鈥� here refers to the film (since it's film-en, masculine), and not some dude.

Pronouns in Modern Norwegian all different and confusing, so here's a chart of the more different and confusing ones.

What I've covered so far isn't going to be enough for you to actually write Modern Norwegian (if you want to do that, buy the book Norwegian Nynorsk by Peter Hallar氓ker), and it's not a complete overview of the differences, but it's enough to stop you from being so confused about things. If you ever come across a word in Modern Norwegian that you don't know, then the dictionaries at lexin.no (Nynorsk 鈫� 叠辞办尘氓濒, Nynorsk 鈫� Engelsk) will give you a helping hand.

Okay, I think I'm going to lie down now.

The post Converting Nynorsk to 叠辞办尘氓濒 – Part Two appeared first on 乐播传媒.

This is the second post聽in a series on the great Norwegian language struggle between 叠辞办尘氓濒 and Nynorsk. Click here to read the background post! This post is written by Bryce, a student of Nynorsk…

Having read my last two articles on how to say please in Norwegian, and how to say thank you in Norwegian too, you may be wondering how someone who can only spell venlegst [vennligst] correctly in square brackets after having spelt the same word incorrectly could possibly have the CAJONES to lecture to YOU about how YOU should use Norwegian. How dare you talk about my cajones like that! 聽It's not spelt wrong; it's Modern Norwegian, also known as听狈测苍辞谤蝉办.

I know what you're thinking: hang on, how does he know what I'm thinking? 聽Was I right? 聽No? 聽Okay, how about: what is this Modern Norwegian? 聽How is it different from 叠辞办尘氓濒, G-d's own language? 聽Why does it even exist? 聽Is this part of some conspiracy to make Norwegian even more difficult to learn?

To answer all these question thoroughly, I need to write several leather-bound volumes conveying detailed knowledge in the fields of language history, sociolinguistics, and comparative grammatics. 聽聽But since I don't have the patience to do that right now, I'm going to just split this infinitive and give you a quick run-down on how to cheat at reading Modern Norwegian by turning it into 叠辞办尘氓濒.

I must warn you that this is probably going to be an extremely dry list of one-way correspondences, so in order to mitigate boredom, I've hidden six clues in the text which explain the location of a treasure (actually, I haven't, but that would be fun, wouldn't it?). 聽The aim here is to have a post which I can point to explaining a bit about Modern Norwegian to help those readers who can't read Modern Norwegian yet (that way, I don't have to keep on writing stoopid 叠辞办尘氓濒 in stoopid brackets stoopid).

I'm going to divide up the differences between Modern Norwegian and 叠辞办尘氓濒 into the following categories: geminates, palatals and breaking, consonant alterations, diphthongs and common vowel alterations, inflections, and finally miscellaneous. 聽Confused? 聽Yeah, well, linguistics is hard bro/sis. 聽I'll try to explain the terms as we go along, and there will be lots of examples, and so many tables your eyes will pop out of your head and onto your keyboard in sheer delight.

Geminates

This is where two consonants of the same kind come together (like the star sign gemini is two twins). 聽叠辞办尘氓濒 uses geminates a lot more than Modern Norwegian (the reasons for this are boring and historical), so if you come across a word you're not sure of, try doubling the middle or final consonants, and you might get something more recognisable.

Palatals and Breaking

Two exciting terms here (I'm sure you can handle it); palatal basically means 鈥渏鈥漵 all over the place, and breaking means pretty much the same thing. 聽The reason I've given them two different names here is very linguistically involved, and I wanted to show off my skills. 聽Impressed? 聽No? 聽Then we'll move on.

Modern Norwegian loves the j-sound loads more than 叠辞办尘氓濒. 聽A lot of Modern Norwegian verbs have a 鈥渏鈥� on the stem, and even some nouns, too. 聽The trick here then, is to remove the 鈥渏鈥� and see if it's any closer to something in 叠辞办尘氓濒.

Both Modern Norwegian and 叠辞办尘氓濒 are guilty of breaking (technically, it's only 叠辞办尘氓濒, but then we'd need to introduce another term, and it's enough already), and to make things more complicated, they both do two different kinds. 聽I'm going to show you the table first, and then once you've gathered all the pieces of your brain together again, I'll talk you through it.

The first two rows show that Modern Norwegian 鈥渏u鈥� and 鈥渏o鈥� sometimes correspond to 叠辞办尘氓濒 鈥測鈥�. 聽What's happened here is that the 鈥渂roken鈥� sounds 鈥渏-u鈥� and 鈥渏-o鈥� correspond to the unbroken 鈥測鈥� (think of broken and unbroken here as interrupted and uninterrupted, like the j-sound is interrupted by a u-sound, and the y-sound is an uninterrupted y-sound). 聽In the next two rows, the Modern Norwegian 鈥渆鈥� has been broken into 鈥渏e鈥�. 聽So the tips for this chart is to turn ju,jo 鈫� y and try adding a 鈥渏鈥� before the 鈥渆鈥� to see if you can get a more 叠辞办尘氓濒-ish word.

Phew! 聽Okay, take a break, go get yourself a cup of tea and relax for a bit (it's what I'm doing). 聽Now, onward, to part two!

The post Converting Nynorsk to 叠辞办尘氓濒 – Part One appeared first on 乐播传媒.

Politeness differs all over the world. But in the vast majority of cultures, there is a way of conveying thanks. That's true in Norway. While the word for thanks is simple, there are ways of going further that are great to learn and fun to use.

In my last contribution, we looked at how to not say “please” in Norwegian. You may have gotten the impression (probably because I gave it to you) that Norwegians are rude queue-jumpers who constantly ask you to buy them beer without ever saying please.

Now that may or may not be always true, but there is one area of politeness where Norwegians exceed even the wildest dreams of bowler-hatted Brits: saying thank you.

Learn Norwegian Now: Norwegian Class 101 / The Mystery of Nils

Norwegians say ‘thank you' all the time. I can't decide whether it's a national pastime or some sort of endemic disease, but which-ever it is, I like it.

How to say thanks in Norwegian

In Norwegian, saying 鈥渢hank you鈥� is even easier than in English. You just say takk. That's it.

No need for the 鈥測ou鈥�, just say 鈥渢hanks鈥�: takk. However, make sure to pronounce the a short, and the k long.

It's an important distinction, because fint, takk means 鈥渇ine, thanks鈥�, but fint tak means 鈥渘ice roof鈥� (that was my best joke – hope you liked it). So, in English, the correct pronunciation is tack and not tark.

More ways to say thanks in Norwegian

Of course, you can embellish upon this to get even more specific types of thank-yous.  These include super-secret Norwegian thank-yous which you MUST say at the appropriate times if you want to maintain to be accepted in society. Let's take a look at some of these:

Some of these you may have heard before, and if you start noticing them, the sound waves will create a permanent tattoo in your inner ear, because they really are used that often.

Let's start from the bottom, and then jump around a bit in a confusing pattern.

The first time someone said the phrase “tusen takk” to me it was for handing them a spoon, something which may have been worthy of a single thank-you, but probably not a thousand.

I assumed this thanker was being patronising, giving me the sort of thanks reserved for saving a cat, or giving someone a bicycle for their birthday (one with gear and bullhorn-shaped handlebars), and was therefor being sarcastic.

However, “tusen takk” is actually used in a way that is much closer to 鈥渢hanks a lot鈥�, or 鈥渢hanks very much鈥�. So it looks like that thanker wasn't such a, uh, thanker after all.

When a simple thank you isn't enough!

A lot of these thank-yous are said at specific times or in specific circumstances, and are mandatory.

When you meet your Norwegian friend for the first time since spending time together, you are required to thank them for that time by saying “takk for sist”.  This literally means “thanks for last time” and shows that you appreciate the time you spent together.

Learn Norwegian Now: Norwegian Class 101 / The Mystery of Nils

If you're working for a Norwegian company, then at the end of the day, you'll probably hear a lot of people letting off a round of “takk for i dag” randomly around the office, indiscriminately assaulting co-workers with politeness.

It's a really nice way of saying 鈥淚'm going home, suckers鈥� (actually, you're saying thanks for all the little things your co-workers did for you today).

Another commonly heard thank-you at work is “takk for innsatsen”, meaning 鈥済ood work鈥�. This is usually said at the end of a difficult or long day, or a special effort to get something done.

If you're invited to a friend's house for dinner, then you should use a napkin. What?  This is about thank-yous is it? Alright, you must say “takk for maten” (thanks for the food) once you've finished eating, to show that you appreciate the time and/or money put in to making/ordering the food.

If, after eating your friends your cooking, and inspecting their cat-rescue equipment, you decide it's time to go, then when you've got your wellingtons, waterproof-trousers, and heavy winter jacket on, and are half way out the door, you should say in a sort of sing-song voice “takk for n氓”!

Since, apart from the three-hour slide show of their trip to Agder, you had a good time, and want to thank your friend for this (if you're not interested in thanking your friends for anything, then leave after dessert – you've got what you came for).

If you manage to use “takk for laget”, then your Norwegian friends will think you've been reading this blog, since it's only used quite rarely (it's the most secret of the Norwegian secret thank-yous).

You say it if you've spent a good deal of the day together, and want to say something lovely.  Again, you're telling the person that you appreciate that they're giving up some of their precious, precious time to sit around with you and eat ice cream/go to an antiques fair.

Get your thanks in early

As with thank-yous in your own language, the most important thing in Norwegian is to be the one to say them first, because otherwise you'll look like you're just copying someone else, and will not get the full politeness-credit.

If you're not quick enough, then, in a one-on-one situation, you can reinstate your position in the politeness hierarchy by saying berre hyggeleg [bare hyggelig] 鈥� “don't mention it”.

This list is not exhaustive (although making it was exhausting), so keep your ears out for other exciting(?) things Norwegians say thanks for.

Speaking of saying thanks, this article did take up quite a bit of my time, and there is a comment section, you know…

The post A Thousand Thanks: How to Say Thank You in Norwegian appeared first on 乐播传媒.

How to say please in Norwegian

You could be forgiven for thinking Norwegians are rude: service levels are as low as the fjords are deep; there is no intuitive sense of where anyone is in a queue; and shoving is an acceptable substitute for saying 鈥渆xcuse me鈥�. Worst of all, they don't even have a word for “please”.

Yeah, that's right my friend: no word for “please”. Go back and read that again (I'll wait). Unbelievable, right? And, it's almost completely true, too!

The thing is, English is a pretty weird language. We don't know how to spell sanely, we take words from other languages without even asking, and we have a word for “please”. Just to be clear, cross-linguistically, actually having a word for “please” is the weird thing to do.

Okay, so German has bitte, but French has s'il vous plait, and Gaelic mas e do thoil e. These are phrases, ladies and gents, and Norwegian (like most of the world's languages) works this way too (okay, so there are some single words which are sometimes translated as 鈥減lease鈥�, but not always, so cut me some slack).

Let's take a look at some of the ways to say “please” in Norwegian:

Man, too bad about that last one, there. Wait a minute! Isn't ver s氓 god what you say when someone thanks you for something? Uh…yeah, it is. And it means “please”, as well (and maybe some other things I'll save for another bedtime story).

The thing is, Norwegian words don't always map one-to-one with English, and vice versa. Maybe it would help if you got to see some examples? Look down there! I've found some examples!

You got all that? Are you comfortable with using these phrases? Good, 'cause they're hardly ever used. Okay, you'll see venlegst on signs commanding you to do things (real polite, guys, telling me what to do; hrumph), and maybe once in a blue moon (that's a month where there are two full moons 鈥� check your calendars, guys) or in a very formal situation (like a wedding, or becoming a Mafia Don) you'll hear the others, but if you use these phrases like they're caster sugar on a Victoria sponge, then you're going to sound damn needy. I can't stress this enough. If one of your Norwegian friends tells you to say ver s氓 snill, the correct response is “Pff, I ain't gonna beg, Kari”.

So if Norwegians don't say “please”, how come they still manage to live in a civilised society? Well, since there's no “please” expression, every way of saying a sentence goes up a politeness level compared to English, and Norwegian adds another one at the very bottom. Look at this chart, now with three columns!

Did you see what they did there? In Norwegian, turning a command into a “Can you” question is enough to make it polite enough for everyday use. So, the hypothetical Norwegian says “Can you …”, and the sentence is magically translated into the more polite “Could you …”. And what's more, the quite rude and expectant “Are you …” becomes the familiar, but by no means abrasive “Can you …”.

That's pretty sneaky, Norwegians 鈥� and it's just enough to be polite.

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