Norwegian dialects

Dialect groups

West and South Norwegian

South Norwegian (Aust-Agder, most of Vest-Agder and Fyresdal, Nissedal, Drangedal and Kragerø in Telemark)

South-West Norwegian (inner parts of Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland (except the city of Bergen), Rogaland (Stavanger), and western parts of Vest-Agder)

Bergen Norwegian or Bergensk (Bergen)

North-West Norwegian (Romsdal, Sunnmøre, Nordfjord, Sunnfjord and outer parts of Sogn)

North Norwegian

Helgeland Norwegian (Nordland county south of Saltfjellet, except for Bindal)

Nordland Norwegian (Nordland county north of Saltfjellet)

Troms Norwegian (Troms county, except for Bardu and Målselv)

Finnmark Norwegian Finnmark county, except for Kautokeino, Karasjok, Tana and Nesseby.

East Norwegian

Vikvær Norwegian (Vestfold, Østfold, and adjacent lowland parts of Telemark, Buskerud and Akershus)

Middle East Norwegian (Ringerike, Romerike, and Oslo)

Oppland Norwegian (southern Hedmark and south-eastern Oppland)

Østerdal Norwegian (northern Hedmark and Bardufoss in northern Norway)

Midland Norwegian

Gudbrandsdal Norwegian (northern Oppland)

Valdres and Hallingdal Norwegian (south-west Oppland and western Buskerud) – see Hallingmål-Valdris

Western Telemark Norwegian (Vinje, Tokke and Kviteseid)

Eastern Telemark Norwegian (Tinn, Hjartdal, and upper Numedal)

Trøndelag Norwegian

Outer Trøndelag Norwegian (Nordmøre, outer Sør-Trøndelag, and Fosen)

Inner Trøndelag Norwegian (inner Sør-Trøndelag, Innherad, Lierne, and Snåsa)

Namdal Norwegian (Namdalen and surrounding coastal areas)

South-eastern Trøndersk (Røros, Selbu, Tydal, Holtålen, Oppdal)

Evolution

Owing to geography and climate, Norwegian communities were often isolated from each other until the early 20th century. As a result, local dialects had a tendency to be influenced by each other in singular ways while developing their own idiosyncrasies. The community of Oppdal, for example, has characteristics in common with coastal dialects to the west, the dialects of northern Gudbrandsdalen to the south, and other dialects in Sør-Trøndelag from the north. The linguist Einar Haugen documented the particulars of the Oppdal dialect, and the writer Inge Krokann used it as a literary device. Other transitional dialects include the dialects of Romsdal and Arendal.

On the other hand, newly industrialized communities near sources of hydroelectric power have developed dialects consistent with the region but in many ways unique. Studies in such places as Høyanger, Odda, Tyssedal, Rjukan, Notodden, Sauda, and others show that creolization has effected the formation of new dialects in these areas.

Similarly, in the early 20th century a dialect closely approximating standard Bokmål arose in and around railway stations. This was known as stasjonsspråk ("station language") and may have contributed to changes in dialect around these centers.

Social dynamics

Until the 20th century, upward social mobility in a city like Oslo could in some cases require conforming speech to standard Riksmål. Studies show that even today, speakers of rural dialects may tend to change their usage in formal settings to approximate the formal written language. This has led to various countercultural movements ranging from the adoption of radical forms of Oslo dialects among political radicals in Oslo, to movements preserving local dialects. There is widespread and growing acceptance that Norwegian linguistic diversity is worth preserving.

The trend today is a regionalisation of the dialects causing smaller dialectal traits to disappear and rural dialects to merge with their nearest larger dialectal variety.

There is no standard dialect for the Norwegian language as a whole, and all dialects are by now mutually intelligible. Hence, widely different dialects are used frequently and alongside each other, in almost every aspect of society. Criticism of a dialect may be considered criticism of someone's personal identity and place of upbringing, and is considered impolite. Not using one's proper dialect would be bordering on awkward in many situations, as it may signal a wish to take on an identity or a background which one does not have. Dialects are also an area from which to derive humour both in professional and household situations.

Distinctions

There are many ways to distinguish among Norwegian dialects. These criteria are drawn from the work of Egil Børre Johnsen (ed.) (1987) Vårt Eget Språk/Talemålet, H. Aschehoug & Co. ISBN 82-03-17092-7. These criteria generally provide the analytical means for identifying most dialects, though most Norwegians rely on experience to tell them apart.

Infinitive forms

One of the most important differences among dialects is which ending, if any, verbs have in the infinitive form. In Old Norwegian, most verbs had an infinitive ending (-a), and likewise in a modern Norwegian dialect, most of the verbs of the dialect either have or would have had an infinitive ending. There are five varieties of the infinitive ending in Norwegian dialects, constituting two groups:

One ending (western dialects)

Infinitive ending with -a, e.g., å vera, å bita, common in southwestern Norway, including the areas surrounding Bergen (although not in the city of Bergen itself) and Stavanger

Infinitive ending with -e, e.g., å være, å bite, common in Troms, Finnmark, areas of Sogn og Fjordane and Møre og Romsdal, Southern counties, and a few other areas.

Apocopic infinitive, where no vowel is added to the infinitive form, e.g., å vær, å bit, common in certain areas of Nordland

Two different endings (eastern dialects)

Split infinitive, in which some verbs end with -a while others end with -e; e.g. å væra versus å bite, common in Eastern Norway

Split infinitive, with apocope, e.g., å væra (værra/vårrå/varra) versus å bit, common in some areas in Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag

The split distribution of endings is related to the syllable length of the verb in Old Norse. "Short-syllable" (kortstava) verbs in Norse kept their endings. The "long-syllable" (langstava) verbs lost their (unstressed) endings or had them converted to -e.

Dative case

The original Germanic contextual difference between the dative and accusative cases, standardized in modern German and Icelandic, has degenerated in spoken Danish and Swedish, a tendency which spread to Bokmål too. Ivar Aasen treated the dative case in detail in his work, Norsk Grammatik (1848), and use of Norwegian dative as a living grammatical case can be found in a few of the earliest Landsmål texts. However, the dative case has never been part of official Landsmål/Nynorsk.

It is though present in some spoken dialects north of Oslo, Romsdal, south and northeast of Trondheim, and in all genuine Germanic varieties in northern Norway and Sweden. The grammatical phenomenon is highly threatened in the mentioned areas, while most speakers of genuine languages have been highly influenced by the national standard languages, using only the traditional accusative word form in both cases. Often, though not always, the difference in meaning between the dative and accusative word forms can thus be lost, requiring the speaker to add more words to specify what was actually meant, to avoid potential loss of information.

While speakers of modern German or Icelandic have a natural sense for the difference between the dative and accusative cases, few people in Scandinavia really understand the contextual difference, even if they have studied German for several years.

Future tense

There are regional variations in the use of future tense, for example, "He is going to travel.":

Han kommer/kjem til å reise. Han blir å reise. Han blir reisan. Han skal reise.

Syntax

Syntax can vary greatly between dialects, and the tense is important for the listener to get the meaning. For instance, a question can be formed without the traditional "asking-words" (how, where, what, who..)

For example, the sentence Hvor mye er klokken? (in Bokmål), Kor mykje er klokka? (in Nynorsk), literally: "How much is the clock?" i.e. "What time is it?" can be put in, among others, the following forms:

E klokka mykje? (Is the clock much?) (stress is on "the clock") E a mytti, klokka? (Is it much, the clock?) (stress on "is") Ka e klokka? (literally: "What is the clock?") Ka klokka e? (literally: What the clock is?), or, using another word for clock, Ke ure' e? Å er 'o? (literally: What is she?).

Diphthongization of monophthongs

Old Norse had the diphthongs /au/, /ei/, and /øy/, but the Norwegian spoken in the area around Setesdal has shifted two of the traditional diphthongs and innovated four more from long vowels, and, in some cases, also short vowels.

West Norwegian dialects have also innovated new diphthongs. In Midtre you can find the following:

Monophthongization of diphthongs

The Old Norse diphthongs /au/, /ei/, and /øy/ have experienced monophthongization in certain dialects of modern Norwegian.

This shift originated in Old East Norse, which is reflected in the fact that Swedish and Danish overwhelmingly exhibit this change. Monophthongization in Norway ends on the coast west of Trondheim and extends southeast in a triangle into central Sweden. Some Norwegian dialects, east of Molde, for example, have lost only /ei/ and /øy/.

Leveling

(Jamning/Jevning in Norwegian) This is a phenomenon in which the root vowel and end vowel in a word approximate each other. For example, the old Norse viku has become våkkå or vukku in certain dialects. There are two varieties in Norwegian dialects – one in which the two vowels become identical, the other where they are only similar. Leveling exists only in inland areas in Southern Norway, and areas around Trondheim.

Vowel shift in strong verbs

In all but Oslo and coastal areas just south of the capital, the present tense of certain verbs take on a new vowel (umlaut), e.g., å fare becomes fer (in Oslo, it becomes farer).

Eliminating /r/ in the plural indefinite form

In some areas, the /r/ is not pronounced in all or some words in their plural indefinite form. There are four categories:

The /r/ is retained – most of Eastern Norway, the South-Eastern coast, and across to areas north and east of Stavanger.

The /r/ disappears altogether – Southern tip of Norway, coastal areas north of Bergen, and inland almost to Trondheim.

The /r/ is retained in certain words but not in others – coastal areas around Trondheim, and most of Northern Norway

The /r/ is retained in certain words and in weak feminine nouns, but not in others – one coast area in Nordland.

Phonetic realization of /r/

Most dialects realize /r/ as the alveolar flap [ɾ] or alveolar trill [r]. However, for the last 200 years the uvular approximant [ʁ] has been gaining ground in Western and Southern Norwegian dialects, with Kristiansand, Stavanger, and Bergen as centers. The uvular R has also been adopted in aspiring patricians in and around Oslo, to the point that it was for some time fashionable to "import" governesses from the Kristiansand area. In certain regions, such as Oslo, the flap has become realized as a retroflex flap (generally called "thick L") /ɽ/, which exists only in Norway, a few regions in Sweden, and in completely unrelated languages. The sound coexists with other retroflexions in Norwegian dialects. In some areas it also applies to words that end with "rd," for example with "gard" (farm) being pronounced /ɡɑːɽ/. The uvular R has gained less acceptance in eastern regions, and linguists speculate that dialects that use retroflexes have a "natural defense" against uvular R and thus will not adopt it. However, the dialect of Arendal retains the retroflexes, while featuring the uvular R in remaining positions, e.g. rart [ʁɑːʈ]

Palatalization

In areas north of an isogloss running between Oslo and Bergen, palatalization occurs for the n (IPA [nʲ]), l ([lʲ]), t ([tʲ]) and d ([dʲ]) sounds in varying degrees. Areas just south and southwest of Trondheim palatalize both the main and subordinate syllable in words (e.g., [kɑlʲːɑnʲ]), but other areas only palatalize the main syllable ([bɑlʲ]).

Voicing of plosives

Voiceless stops (/p, t, k/) have become voiced ([b, d, ɡ]) on the extreme southern coast of Norway, including Kristiansand, Mandal and Stavanger. The same phenomenon appears in Sør-Trøndelag and one area in Nordland.

Segmentation

The geminate /ll/ in southwestern Norway has become [dl], while just east in southcentral Norwegian the final [l] is lost, leaving [d]. The same sequence has been palatalized in Northern Norway, leaving the palatal lateral [ʎ].

Assimilation

The second consonant in the consonant clusters /nd/, /ld/, and /nɡ/ has assimilated to the first across most of Norway, leaving [n], [l], and [ŋ] respectively. Western Norway, though not in Bergen, retains the /ld/ cluster. In Northern Norway this same cluster is realized as the palatal lateral [ʎ].

Consonant shift in conjugation of masculine nouns

Although used less frequently, a subtle shift takes place in conjugating a masculine noun from indefinitive to definitive, e.g., from bekk to bekkjen ([becːen], [becçen] or [beçːen]). This is found in rural dialects along the coast from Farsund to the border between Troms and Finnmark.

The kj - sj merger

Many people, especially in the younger generation, have lost the differentiation between the /ç/ (written ⟨kj⟩) and /ʂ/ (written ⟨sj⟩) sounds, realizing both as [ʂ]. This is considered to be a normal development in language change (although as most language changes, the older generation and more conservative language users often lament the degradation of the language). The functional load (the sum total of words that use this /ç/ - /ʂ/ distinction) is relatively small, and as often happens, sounds with small functional loads merge.

Tonemes and intonation

There are great differences between the intonation systems of different Norwegian dialects.

First person pronoun, nominative plural

Three variations of the first person plural nominative pronoun exist in Norwegian dialects:

Vi, (pronounced /viː/), common in parts of Eastern Norway, most of Northern Norway, coastal areas close to Trondheim, and one sliver of Western Norway

Me, mø or mi, in Southern and most of Western Norway, areas inland of Trondheim, and a few smaller areas

Oss, common in areas of Sør-Trøndelag, Gudbrandsdalen, Nordmøre and parts of Sunnmøre.

First person pronoun, nominative singular

There is considerable variety in the way the first person singular nominative pronoun is pronounced in Norwegian dialects. They appear to fall into three groups, within which there are also variations:

E(g) and æ(i)(g), in which the hard 'g' may or may not be included. This is common in most of Southern and Western Norway, Trøndelag, and most of Northern Norway. Some places in Western Norway, it's common to say "Ej".

I (pronounced /iː/), in a few areas in Western Norway (Romsdal/Molde) and Snåsa in Nord Trøndelag

Jé [je(ː)], jè [jɛ(ː)], or jei [jɛi(ː)], in areas around Oslo, and north along the Swedish border, almost to Trondheim, as well as one region in Troms

The word "not"

The Norwegian word for the English not exists in these main categories:

ikke [ikːə] – Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen, Ålesund, most of Finnmark, Vestfold and low-land parts of Telemark, and some cities in Nordland. ikkje [içːə] – most of Southern, Northern and Western Norway. ittj [itʲː] – Trøndelag ikkj [iç:] - parts of Salten District, Nordland itte [iːtə] or ittje [itʲːə] – areas north of Oslo, along the Swedish border inte [intə] ente [entə] – Mostly along the Swedish border south of Oslo in Østfold

Examples of the sentence "I am not hungry," in Norwegian:

ikke: Jeg er ikke sulten. (Bokmål) ikkje: Eg er ikkje svolten. (Nynorsk) ikkje: I e ikkje sulten. (Romsdal) ittj: Æ e ittj sulten. (Trøndelag) ikkj: E e ikkj sulten. (Salten) ke: Æ e ke sulten. (Narvik)

Interrogative words

Some common interrogative words take on forms such as:

Related reading

Vikør, Lars S. (2001) The Nordic languages. Their Status and Interrelations (Oslo: Novus Press) ISBN 82-7099-336-0