Norwegian language

Norwegian (<a href="/facts/Endonym/8pyd1nE9">endonym</a>: norsk [ˈnɔʂːk] ⓘ) is a <a href="/facts/North_Germanic_languages/zocYfWp8">North Germanic</a> language from the <a href="/facts/Indo-European_languages/L34TfgSr">Indo-European language family</a> spoken mainly in <a href="/facts/Norway/wlDRKRTR">Norway</a>, where it is an official language. Along with <a href="/facts/Swedish_language/1DkSIXkH">Swedish</a> and <a href="/facts/Danish_language/sTcGXTMJ">Danish</a>, Norwegian forms a <a href="/facts/Dialect_continuum/0QAuqxp3">dialect continuum</a> of more or less <a href="/facts/Mutually_intelligible/h1SbX0wN">mutually intelligible</a> local and regional varieties; some <a href="/facts/Norwegian_dialects/Ehu9AzDF">Norwegian</a> and <a href="/facts/Swedish_dialects/X1CEWEau">Swedish dialects</a>, in particular, are very close. These <a href="/facts/Scandinavia/KpLQ40kl">Scandinavian</a> languages, together with <a href="/facts/Faroese_language/1nf145FG">Faroese</a> and <a href="/facts/Icelandic_language/4GmzhaoT">Icelandic</a> as well as some <a href="/facts/Extinct_language/ayaLa4DU">extinct languages</a>, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two <a href="/facts/Germanic_languages/BxAJX3Kf">Germanic languages</a> with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of <a href="/facts/Old_Norse/3dIvgsm5">Old Norse</a>, the common language of the <a href="/facts/Germanic_peoples/N16QoPA7">Germanic peoples</a> living in Scandinavia during the <a href="/facts/Viking_Age/sP3Ax2wX">Viking Age</a>.
Today there are two official forms of written Norwegian, <a href="/facts/Bokm%C3%A5l/9HkIMEGV">Bokmål</a> (Riksmål) and <a href="/facts/Nynorsk/9eLmL1Lu">Nynorsk</a> (Landsmål), each with its own variants. Bokmål developed from the <a href="/facts/Dano-Norwegian/t4udgDwB">Dano-Norwegian</a> language that replaced <a href="/facts/Middle_Norwegian/F3bTlAsC">Middle Norwegian</a> as the elite language after the union of <a href="/facts/Denmark%E2%80%93Norway/1BByzm5P">Denmark–Norway</a> in the 16th and 17th centuries and then evolved in Norway, while Nynorsk was developed based upon a collective of spoken Norwegian dialects. Norwegian is one of the two official languages in Norway, along with <a href="/facts/S%C3%A1mi_languages/A5pnbf3y">Sámi</a>, a <a href="/facts/Finno-Ugric_languages/byPsWtAK">Finno-Ugric language</a> spoken by less than one percent of the population. Norwegian is one of the working languages of the <a href="/facts/Nordic_Council/y1Kd1xKP">Nordic Council</a>. Under the <a href="/facts/Nordic_Language_Convention/ER9gMICn">Nordic Language Convention</a>, citizens of the <a href="/facts/Nordic_countries/uaqX7z81">Nordic countries</a> who speak Norwegian have the opportunity to use it when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for any <a href="/facts/Interpreting/7NxWE3xS">interpretation</a> or <a href="/facts/Translation/2foI82so">translation</a> costs.

Norwegian language open-in-new

Norwegian language