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Norwegian Language Facts

If you’re thinking about learning Norwegian it’s always good to know a little about the origins and history of the language you are learning. Here, Cactus Language offers up our most interesting Norwegian language facts:

  • Norwegian
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5 Interesting Norwegian Language Facts

1. Norwegian is a North Germanic language

Norwegian is originally derived from Old Norse. It differentiated itself from Danish in the 19th century, as part of the independence movement in Norway. Norwegian is mutually intelligible with Danish and Swedish.

2. There are around 5 million native Norwegian speakers

Norwegian is primarily spoken in Norway, where it is an official language.

3. Norwegian has two official forms of written language

The two forms of Norwegian language are Bokmål (literally “book tongue”) and Nynorsk (literally “new Norwegian”):

Both forms are regulated by the Norwegian Language Council. Other forms of Norwegian include Riksmal (“national language”) and Hognorsk (“High Norwegian”).

4. Norwegian shares similarities with Danish and Swedish

On one hand, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are mutually intelligible owing to their common history. Icelandic, on the other hand, is not mutually intelligible with Norwegian, despite the two languages being related. If both Iceland and Norway have been dominated by the Danish for centuries, Iceland was less influenced by Danish due to its isolation.

5. Norwegian is a tonal language

Tones are rare in Indo-European languages, and are more commonly found in Asian languages such as Chinese.

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