ITALIAN Man Tries To Learn NORWEGIAN | Mediterranean VS Nordic
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Links to the video tutorials in order of appearance
• Norwegian Personal Pro...
• Simple Norwegian #2 - ...
• Learn Norwegian in 30 ...
The Norwegian language, known as "norsk" in Norwegian, stands as a fascinating testament to Scandinavia's rich linguistic heritage. Descended from Old Norse, Norwegian evolved alongside its Nordic siblings Swedish and Danish, yet followed its own unique path shaped by historical and political forces.
Norwegian exists in two official written standards: Bokmål and Nynorsk. This unusual situation emerged from Norway's complex political history, particularly its long union with Denmark. Bokmål, used by about 85-90% of Norwegians, developed from the Danish-influenced written standard used by urban elites during the Danish rule. Nynorsk, on the other hand, was created in the 19th century by Ivar Aasen, who sought to create a written standard based on rural Norwegian dialects that had maintained more of their Old Norse characteristics.
The language features several distinctive characteristics that set it apart from its Germanic relatives. Unlike English, Norwegian maintains a system of grammatical gender for nouns, with most dialects using three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. However, the language has largely shed the complex case system of its Old Norse ancestor, retaining only vestiges in pronouns and certain fixed expressions.
One of the most striking features of Norwegian is its remarkable dialect diversity. Unlike many European nations where standardization has led to dialect leveling, Norway embraces its dialect variations. It's completely normal and accepted for Norwegians to use their local dialects in all contexts, from casual conversation to professional settings. This acceptance of dialect diversity reflects Norway's egalitarian social values and its respect for regional identity.
The tonal aspect of Norwegian adds another layer of complexity. Like Swedish, Norwegian is a pitch-accent language, meaning that words can have different meanings depending on their tonal pattern. For example, "bønder" (farmers) and "bønner" (beans) are distinguished primarily by their pitch accent in many dialects. This feature, relatively rare among European languages, traces back to the prosodic system of Old Norse.
Norwegian vocabulary reveals much about the language's history and cultural connections. While it shares many cognates with other Germanic languages, it has been influenced by Low German (during the Hanseatic period), Danish (during the union with Denmark), and more recently, English. Yet Norwegian has also maintained a tradition of creating new words from native elements rather than borrowing foreign terms. For instance, "datamaskin" (computer) literally means "data machine," and "mobiltelefon" is often shortened to "mobil."
The language's syntax is notably straightforward compared to many other European languages. Like English, Norwegian follows a Subject-Verb-Object word order in main clauses. However, it employs the V2 rule, meaning the finite verb must be the second element in main clauses, leading to inversion when another element begins the sentence. This creates constructions like "I går spiste jeg brød" (Yesterday ate I bread), where the verb maintains its second position.
Modern Norwegian continues to evolve, adapting to new social and technological realities while maintaining its distinctive character. Recent decades have seen debates about gender-neutral language, the integration of English loanwords, and the future relationship between Bokmål and Nynorsk. Some linguists argue for an eventual merger of the two written standards, while others maintain that linguistic diversity remains a cultural asset worth preserving.
The vitality of Norwegian in the face of increasing global English influence demonstrates the language's resilience. While many Norwegians speak excellent English, Norwegian remains the preferred language in most domestic contexts. This linguistic confidence, combined with Norway's strong educational system and cultural institutions, suggests that Norwegian will continue to thrive as a modern, dynamic language while preserving its unique heritage.
The story of Norwegian illustrates how language reflects and shapes social identity. Its dual written standards, embrace of dialect diversity, and ongoing evolution mirror Norway's journey from Danish rule to modern independence, and from rural agrarian society to prosperous technological nation. As Norway continues to change, its language will undoubtedly continue to adapt while maintaining its distinctive character.
#norwegian #languages #metatron
Links to the video tutorials in order of appearance
th-cam.com/video/eXJUJxPGtxg/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/4-z90-ftgY0/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/IzBug3GHoeA/w-d-xo.html
Hi I am a norweagian all I can say is we usally learn our languages like this: as a baby norweagian then English as a kid and then usally Spanish at 16
You speak Norwegian very well, and you spoke the Oslo dialect very well which is the one of our primary southern dialects. It's a amazing to hear how good you are your first time practices to speak Norwegian.
One tip for Metatron, though, is that the R-sound in words like "går" is a single-tap r, not a roll or trill. When the pronunciation is exaggerated like in the video he reacts to (or when singing in a choir for instance), then it becomes a trill or roll, but in normal speech the tongue only comes into contact with the roof of the mouth once. Double-consonant r's like in "borre", it's still just a double-tap. Triple-tap r's sounds rrrussian!
Hello! Norwegian here! i was overly exited seeing you were trying my language! and i have to say! your prononiation is supriengly good! in fact, some of the bether i have heard from a non-norwegian speaker!
Ja, jeg følte det samme. Jævla random at han gjorde en norsk video
I was kinda surprised that it's same pronunciation of us and them in English! ❤😊
@teodoraustin3505 Ikke sant! jeg vil ikke si nei til mer av dem!
@@MaiMChan1991 Ja, det er veldig uvant å se utlendinger reagere på det norske språket.
@teodoraustin3505 uvant, men definitivt velkommen! vi trenger mer av disse
Knowing English is a good starting fir Norwegian.
German is even closer related given English is so influenced by French.
@@RansomMemoryAccess
Actually German is more closely related to English than it is to Norwegian (albeit all the Germanic languages are ofc related). And although English has a lot of French influence, Norwegian and English share nearly an identical sentence structure with each other and their grammar is more similar than it would be with Norwegian and German . But if you speak any Germanic language really then that would help when learning a Nordic language
@@RansomMemoryAccess es, but more people learn English as a second language than those doing for German.
@@C_In_Outlaw3817depends if grammar or vocabulary are your bigger problem. Vocabulary is certainly much closer to German, especially if you are from the North
If you know Scandinavian, English and German you can read Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon) and understand it.
Well done. Second best I ever heard from an Italian, as I once met a guy with pitch perfect ear for languages from Rome. (A truly incredible experience I will never forget. Didn't even think it was possible)
Doing pretty good - small detail for you, the letter "å" does not have a diacritic or other accentuation - it's a distinct letter, the 29th in the Norwegian alphabet. After Z, we use Æ, Ø, and Å, generally pronounced like the "a" in "bad", the "u" in "burn", and the "a" in "all", respectively. You got the "å" pretty much spot on right away.
pronounced like the "o" in "born"...
@@ThePurelightning That, too, is a good way to describe "å".
NO QUESTIONS ASKED. DID SEE A SECOND OF THIS, I JUST WANT MORE!!! Let me also say that Italian is best from Romance language group :D
what about Portuguese? A good second, before French and Spanish I hope.. even before Romanian
We have three unique letters in the norwegian alphabet: Æ, Ø and Å.
Æ is basically a very wide sound, similar to the way the "a" sounds in the english name "Sam"
Ø is very close to what you did. It's a "uh" sound, but even more clear if that makes sense.
Å is a sound similar to the way "au" sounds in the english name "Paul" (a name which is actually has a norwegian version written like "Pål")
I hope that helps.
he would be familiar with them Æ and Ø is in the phonetic alphabet
They’re not unique to Norsk. Old English uses Ethel (æ) a lot.
Æ is easy it's on the IPA as itself, I'll write it the German way Ö is just Schwa but with different rounding and slightly more back.
And Å is like the o in Cloth. That's the actually closest sound I can think of to it. And no my Icelandic keyboard doesn't have the ø letter on it.
@@kokofan50 Sure, but Old English isn't exactly a common, nor living language.
I was not saying norwegians "invented" these letters.
@@livedandletdie The ø is also in the IPA, though.
Bra jobba Metatron! Like Italia , Norway has a lot of dialects even tho the population is smaller than the city of London, would be fun to see you look into that and react:D just as a example here are some of the ways the different dialects say I . Jeg,Eg,Jæ, jé, jè, jei,e, æ, æg, æi, æig, jei, ej, i,eig,jæ,
How to say "I" you mean. 😉 For "me" it would be meg, me, mæ, mei.
@@mariiris1403 haha yes you Are right 😂
Endelig! Bra jobbet, Metatron!
Love this, as a Norwegian who just started learning Italian. Thank you youtube algorithm!
To be a viking you must master the æ, ø and å
True æ ø å
Æ e i A æ å.... 🙂
Danish next please, please! That will be hilarious! Prepare yourself for your first Danish lesson with a big hot potato in your mouth!
As a Norwegian I'd like to see that too😅
As a Scanian I must say that Danish would be very difficult for Metatron, he should be happy that there's no official Scanian language and resources for it, because oh boy, do people from Sweden moving down here have it hard learning to understand things we say.
And I'm probably from the worst part... and that's probably because I still can speak in dialect, and not Swedish with an accent.
Only word he needs to know in Danish is kamelåså
In certain Norwegian dialects (all the examples you heard were from Eastern Norway), the sounds -rt, -rd, -rn, -rs, -rl and -lt are retroflex consonants. That was the "not that strong R" you heard in "hvordan", or the "sh" in "norsk".
I'd say it's only in certain Norwegian dialects where this is _not_ the case.
korsan?
awesome, now do Danish! very similar but there's way less tongue rolling in the pronunciations !
I think your tone and the way you say the sentences is very good! If you worked on Norwegian, then I’m sure you’d get very far.
Your norwegian is pretty good for your first time. You could learn it pretty fast, cause your prononcement of the "å" and "ø" are spot on and you dont have the english/american wovels and the "R's" especially.
As a Norwegian, you did great man. I watched your video about Xioma learning Sicilian and how nice you felt about him taking an interest in your language and culture, and I feel the same way you do about you learning a bit of my language and taking interest in it and our culture. So thank you!
You were right about the å and ø, but you have yet to encounter the æ
The East Norwegian used in the tutorial videos is the dominant 'status' dialect. Maybe the easiest to learn because of that. Other dialects can differ a lot. They all have their charm, though.
Du got surprisingly good pronunciation... Picked that shit up real fast.... 👊
As a Norwegan from the west og Norway, we say the Meg with a hard g.
Welcome to the dialects of Norway. There's a new one for each new town, village or fjord you enter.
Norwegian*
@@haraldharam9334 Fy shit ja, det er ikkje greit å vær Vegan, takk for retting.
M-eh-g
@@haraldharam9334 takk for rettelse, har ikkje lyst til å vær vegan
Danish would be hilarious.
He needs to buy potatoes first 😂
Norwegian is in all practicality Danish .
@@jamieflame01 how dare you!?
I'll get my potatoes 🥔 out the kitchen 1st, lol. I'd choose Norwegian 1st choice to learn , Danish would be last on the list 😂
@@jamieflame01 no danish is Norwegan with out a potato in the mouth
Great video as always. If you are interested in Norse language, a modern survivor is Norwegian Høgnorsk. It is a conservative form of Nynorsk, one of Norway's 2 official written forms. It keeps cool features like dative nouns and reflexive verbs, as well as pre-Danish vocab. For example Høgnorsk "Ég med bæzta tjódom vandrast". Compare to standard Bokmål "Jeg vandrer med de beste folken". There's barely anyone talking about this beautiful language.
Lol as a Norwegian never heard of “Høgnorsk». Never in school either🤣🤣🤣 And we don’t say it like that in Norwegian. Guess you’re not one?
@@kilipaki87oritahiti I am from Norway. Høgnorsk is a form of Nynorsk closer to the version before the merge of Nynorsk and Bokmål (Samnorsk). Det er synd at dú ikkje har høyrt tala um det Høgnorska mål, leid fýr det at ég ikkje kann tala ell skríva í Bókmål serskilt godt. Éi skjót søyking å Wikipedia så finn dú litt informasjón um det Høgnorska mål. Gaman og sæl, ha det bra.
@@mxbmvnvmbncmbn jeg bruker bokmål i daglitale, men elsket nynorsk på skolen ( rart hva man liker), dette var før man kunne bokmåle nynorsken om du skjønner, skulle ønske det var Høgnorsk:)
@@Goldenhawk583 Ja det er jó litt meira gaman når mann kann umsetja frå eitt mål til éin annan. Nynorsk er jó sonen til Høgnorskem og Bokmålem, så dei er jó litt líkleg.
@@mxbmvnvmbncmbn veldig sant, og jeg liker så godt hvordan det høres ut:) Det er moro å lese kommentarene dine bare for språket :) takk :)
I think you did very well 👍😊
As a native Norwegian I can say that your pronunciation is really good! What gives you the most away is the way you pronounce “u”. I don’t really know how to explain the correct pronunciation, but the way you say it sounds a lot like “o” in my ears. I think you did great and love the idea of these types of videos from you.
Non-norweigan norweigan speaker here. One of the most important words you will ever master is Hæ?
Not sure if its on your radar to ever do this with Polish, but it'd be a blast to see you try it. Given vowels between Polish and Italian are very very similar, and you have Chinese experience with consonants (sonorants and ch, zh sounds etc) you may be very good at pronunciation.
I also can't wait to see this.
«Jeg heter Metatron» was unwittingly hilarious, Trond is a fairly common name
Not bad!
I think you did well with the pronunciation.
I have been a Norwegian teacher for foreigners for 6 years and I must say, well done Metatron, I am impressed. You certenly have an ear for languages.
she isn't 50. if she is, I'm moving to Norway tomorrow.
your welcomed to norway
and she is about 18-27
Vedlig bra jobba! Stor fan fra Norge!
You are doing great! Just remember the "G" at the end of "Jeg" is mute. But you sounded just awesome, especially considering it is your first attempt at our nordic tongue. Thumbs up! 🙂
Worth pointing out that all of these teachers were speaking Bokmål, which is one of two standard versions of norwegian. Perhaps for the next video, you could take a lesson in the other one; Nynorsk.
You did the best out of any non-Norwegians I have heard ever trying to speak Norwegian. You are Italian, are Italians usually this good with foreign languages? I am surprised.
Well, if you're Sicilian, the chances are you're party of Norman descent, as they're the ones who overthrew the Arab rulers. And the Normans in turn were of mixed Frankish and Norse descent. We're all connected in Europe :)
Ditto for the irish & scottish .....we are all hidden vikings
YAY, so cool you tried Norwegian!
You did pretty well, I'm impressed😃
And now you can learn all the millions of Norwegian dialects. :)
We don’t have millions, but about 1200.
@@kilipaki87oritahiti Of course not, I'm Norwegian myself. It was meant as a joke.
I think you did great! 🤩👌🏻
I think you did pretty well. Norwegian is split in to 2 official written forms: Bokmål and Nynorsk. These are however not what most Norwegians speak, only what they write. What is spoken are Norwegian dialects, these are mostly mutually intelligible for native speakers, which I assume ends up being the most challenging aspect for anyone trying to learn the language.
Can confirm. These dialects are not making it easier.
For anybody interested, the dialects heard here and in most learning material is from the east of Norway, and it is quite different both in pronunciation and lexicon from the west coast.
We have over thousands of them and I dont understand this so called «challenge» you’re all referring to because if you learn the Eastern dialect, you will understand most by default.
@@kilipaki87oritahiti Det kæn vara litt gørlleit for dom som itte har tala mye Norsk, spesiellt for dom som itte har lært no anna språk enn morsmålet sitt før. Noen folk har bedre språkøre og lærer dætti kjappere.
@ the logic is pretty straight forward. For any given word of phrase there are many different nuances for how it is said. So your brain must be cultivated to understand each of those. That’s all there is to understand. And this is a well understood challenge in developing Norwegian listening skill.
@@theherkwell, I'm sort of a myth when it comes to hearing, the problem becomes having access to dialects for heavy immersion...
Being Sicilian makes you an honorary viking in my opinion. The Normans (who were technically Christian vikings) were the ones that reconquered Sicily and Malta from the Arabs in 1030-1090AD 😁
Wow, cool! I´m Norwegian, and your pronounciation is very good! This is the dialect of the Oslo part of the country, so you will fit right in, in the countrys capitol. Crossing the germanic/roman - language barrier is difficult, as the sentence structure is so different (I speak Spanish), so here is a tip: Once you have understood the difference in sentence structure, try saying (well, thinking) sentences in your OWN language in the sentence structure of the language you are trying to learn, regularly. Once I started practicing thinking in Norwegian with Spanish sentence structure, I cracked the code quickly :)
As a Norwegian, you saying it really well. Keep up the work
Also, a note about the pronunciation of R. It is only normally thrilled when speaking slowly or for emphasis; when Norwegians speak at full speed, they normally pronounce it as a flap/tap in stead. Many speakers also pronounce it same as in English if it comes at the end of a syllable.
How did you do? You seemed to have fun. Always important. You sounded quite good to my Swedish ears. Unfortunately you have to Danish next if you haven't already. My condolences.
You remarked on the soft je sound the 'g' makes at the first in the pronouns ('meg' / 'deg'). Did you notice the difference when saying 'Norge'?
A pleasant surprise! You have a very good grasp on the pronunciation of Norwegian. Given you are well-versed in many others languages and are eager to learn others, you have what we call "godt språkøre". Which basically translates to having "good language ear", if I were to translate it literally. A better way of translating it would just to say that you have a very good grasp on it. Another great video from you Metatron.
as they say, if you have a musical ear and half a dozen languages under your belt, the next dozen is a cake walk- excellent pronounciantion, Metatron :)
Hi Metatron - nice to see you trying out norwegian. I however notice that there is a well of questions on this that the makers of these videos don't address. Because what you are taught here is a certain dialect from eastern Norway spoken by the majority of norwegians livng around the capital. The rest of Norway is quite diverse and pronounciation is quite varied example jeg "jei" becomes "æg", "eg" "je", "æ", "i" and much more
Thanks for the video as I got to learn along with you. I have learned a different nordic language (Icelandic) the past couple of years and some of these phrases and pronunciation are very similar.
Write something about Norway in the title and then you might aswell til dial +47 because you're calling us all!
Your pronunciation is pretty good, learning Norwegian or swedish and danish for that part is fairly easy as they are very siimilar to English in many ways
Norweigan, cool you are trying Scandinavian languages, as a Dane it could be so cool if you tried Danish as well, now that you have made a video about Swedish and Norwegian, it would fit if the next language is Danish 😊
Dude of course you would say " Yes " 😅😆🤭 to her ...yes I know you start to love this language 🤣🤣🤣
Ø is like a rounded E in the same way that German Ü is a rounded I. In fact, Ø is kinda like German Ö
Now you have to try Danish!
You should try Icelandic, or Danish
Dönsk tunga er bedst
You're doing great! Norwegian is not that hard, especially if you are an English speaker. The tones might be a bit unusual at first though.
heter isn't name
it's basically saying
I'm called ___
We used to have a similar word in english, but it's not used anymore.
Other languages “my name is” phrases are often literally “I call myself” as well.
It's the same as mi chiamo in Italian, me llamo in Spanish, je m'apelle in French, ich heiße in German, etc. English is the stand-out here by dropping "I am called" ("I am hight", by the time it stopped being used. Middle English: "I am hight John"; Modern English: "I am named John". You can see the obvious similarity between norwegian heter, middle english hight, and modern german heiße!) in the middle English period in favor of "My name is".
I am from Norway from Norway! You say every word perfectly!
Norwegian isn't complicated if everybody speak clear "bokmål" like this guy. The problem is that most Norwegians won't.
Jeg, the English "I" comes in following variations depending on dialect:
Je, e, jæ, æ, æg, eg, i
Another thing is that we join words a lot. Like the English use can't instead of can not. However this happen just in spoken form. F.ex
do you want-vil du-vi'ru
Or to use a humorous example
Fall-Datt
Did she fall-Datt'a
Did she fall off-Datt'a ta
Did she fall off again-Datt'a ta att
Did she fall off again then-Datt'a ta att da
Imagine a Norwegianvdaying this fast and confidently, it would most likely sound more like a drum whirl for someone unfamiliar with the language.
-
And if you are an native from the wrong part of the country you also have no clue.
Forget the dialects. The Oslo dialect is not the easiest either. Neither is mine. F.eks: Mæ di da'a da= mæ hennøm = med ham. Just forget it.
I'm Norwegian and your pronounciation is really good for a first timer.
love your video :D
You should give the West-Norwegian standard language too.
In Norway we have two versions of standard Norwegian ( Bokmål in the east and north and Nynorsk in the west )
We actually don't have "standard Norwegian" we have 2 official different written dialects, Bokmål and Nynorsk, where one is more eastern Norwegian and the other western Norwegian. Vocally however, there's no standard Norwegian, only dialects.
As a swede, good luck with Danish 😂😂😂😂😂 R.I.P.
Not even Scandinavian know what they're doing with their mouths.
It's actually the country/language where children develop their speach latest in the world. It's so hard for the kids to understand what their parents and teachers are doing hahaha!!!!
Please do! 😊
That's interesting, as a Dane I had no idea, but I guess it makes sense haha. Out of curiosity, from where have you heard/seen this fact?
just a heads up, the massive amount of dialects existing in norway, would phonetically make norwegian almost like 20+ languages depending on location.
What is in this video, is close to only spoken in a few areas (oslo area). You can think of it like how formal posh english is compared to the rest of the english language.
I'm surprised how well you did as a complete newcomer to the language. If I was to criticize your pronouncations, there are a few nitpicks, but I'd completely understand what you were saying if you came up to me on the street and pronounced these the way you did.
Did you know that there are at least ten ways to say the word "I" in Norwegian? Here they are: jeg (yey), jæi (yay), je (ye), jæ, eg, e, ei, i, æ, æg.
Veldig bra! (Very good)
You should look up Norwegian retrofleks. It affects the rs, rt, rn and rd combos. For example “barn” (children) is pronounced like barn in English. Rs in Norsk makes it Norshk.
Det: The t is silent. Probably the most common silent letter in Norwegian.
Metatron, the sentence you were looking for is, ‘Jeg liker å lage mat.’ (I like cooking.)
Rule of thumb only - not definitive. Å pronounced like the "oa" in boat "ø" pronounced like the "ir" in bird and "æ" pronounced like the "ae" in aerial. Going from Kirkenes in the north to Bergen there are 5 different ways to express the personal pronoun. There are three official languages, Bøkmal, Nynorsk and Samisk but each little place up and down the country has its own dialect. Each of the 5 million inhabitants speak therefore their own blend of Norwegian so the lingua franca is standard English
Å is not a diphtong. It's a vowel that is similar to how the French, German and Italians pronounce 'O'. Quite simply. Norwegian 'O' is pronounced more closed, similar to the Italian 'u'.
However, lots of words with 'o' in them are pronounced like if they had been written with an "å".
Please note: If we want a dipthtong, we always write it with two vowels, or sometimes, 'eg' like in jeg, meg, deg, seg. Those are exceptions.
We have nine distinct vowels. They are not diphtongs.
These are dophtongs: ei, au, øy, oi.
Excellent work! While the "Å" (see the circle - conveniently shaped the way your lips are when saying it) may be pretty unique to the Scandinavian countries, the "Ø" is (AFAIK) at least inspired by the Latin digraph OE - as in French "soeur". The letter not mentioned here, "Æ" comes from Proto-Germanic. See for instance Old English Æ ("ash") - same letter, pretty much same pronunciation.
I am Scottish but have lived in Norway nearly fiftten years. Your pronounciation was very good, almost perfect. It took me about a yearto be well understood here and to understand. however it was a year or two after before i could undertsand people regardless of their dialect. They can be very dfferent here in Finnmark we say æ not jeg adn mæ not meg. In the western part of the land they say meg instead of we and the pronounce the g at the end. For me at least as a Scots Finnmarking it was the Stavanger dialect with whichwas the hardest to understand.
Finnish could be an interesting next exploration: despite being one of the languages spoken "lassù", it is completely different from the other Nordic languages, and has some phonetic aspects that bring it closer to Italian, such as double consonants. The Italian spoken in some Finnish films or series I've seen is surprisingly good, probably for this reason. It even has long and short vowels you should be accustomed to from Latin.
Last year I chatted on the internet with an Italian from the Lombardy region who claimed Icelandic descent based on his surname which sounded very similar to the now dead former Italian prime minister!
"Takk for sist" is generally something you only say when there's someone you did something fun or interesting with. Like you met someone at a party, and now you meet them again in a different setting - then you say "Takk for sist." If not then you say something like "Hyggelig å møte deg" (Nice to meet you), or more informally "Hyggelig"
No insult at all. You did it great. The only thing I was laughing of was your comments 👍
One thing to learn when pronouncing Norwegian is that we have long vowels. Very common mistake that makes everyone know you're not a native speaker. 😂 Also, the way we pronounce the vowels is not always like in English, it's more like IPA in most cases, and it's not like a in-between thing, which I did hear you do sometimes, it's all out IPA in most cases, with some few exceptions like "o" can be pronounced like "å", but it's not like a sound in between, it's either "o" or "å" :D
Like many non native Norwegian's, you push to hard on "R"s, except for that you're doing extremely well in your pronounciations.
When it comes to "G"s not being pronounced to much, especially in Bokmål, it stems alot from Danish.
Before there was a Norwegian dictionary there was only a Danish one, and the higher educated population would be educated in Danish, which is why the Danish dictionary was adopted, hence why Bokmål is named (bokmål literally translate as book tounge as its based upon a Norwegian pronounciation of Danish dictionary). and as such "G" often are under-pronounced in Norwegian, while youll see them more highly-pronounced in Danish.
The G thing is a bit difficult. In Jeg, it's obviously not pronounced as a hard G but more as a ye. In other words, such as Jeger (Hunter), it's pronounced as a regular G. Genser (Sweater) is also a regular G, just as in English Gargle or Gone.
Of all the languages I’ve dabbled in, as a Native American English speaker, there is no easier language to learn than Norwegian. There are very few difficult sounds to learn, SO MUCH same/similar vocab, simple rhythm, probably the most difficult thing is learning gender, but that’s the case for almost every non-English language it seems.
An interesting fact about Norwegian is that it has two standardized written forms despite only being spoken in one country. We call these written forms Bokmål and Nynorsk. In a way this is similar to the difference between American and British English spelling, except the differences are way bigger. Officially Bokmål and Nynorsk are actually considered separate written languages. Bokmål was originally based on written Danish, but with extensive spelling reforms designed to make it closer to Norwegian, whereas Nynorsk was designed from the ground up to be a written represenation of Norwegian.
Both Nynorsk and Bokmål were attempts at creating a distinct written Norwegian language, but in my personal opinion, I would say that Nynorsk does a much better job of representing the Norwegian language, which is ironic considering the fact that most Norwegians still use Bokmål. In general tutorials like the ones in this video, as well as most learning materials for Norwegian, will use Bokmål since that's the more commonly used written standard, but unfortunately that means that Nynorsk often gets cast aside and forgotten, and as a result, very few foreign learners even consider learning it.
Nynorsk does a good job of representing the spoken Norwegian language in select regions of Norway (mostly on the west and south coast). It does a poor job of representing the spoken language in the east and northern parts of the country. When a third of the population lives in just the greater Oslo area (where Bokmål is the norm, and is closer to the way people speak than nynorsk is) and roughly half in the whole eastern region, it should be obvious that it is incorrect to claim nynorsk better represents the average "norwegian speaker". Bokmål, while not explicitly made for that purpose, does better emulate the way the majority of Norwegians speak.
@@KayJay01 Most North Norwegians choose Bokmål for their writing language for that reason, even though the North Norwegian dialects are arguably closer to Nynorsk than Bokmål.
@@KayJay01I beg to differ. Northern dialects traditionally have a lot more in common with Nynorsk than Bokmål. I actually happen to be a northerner who used to write Bokmål but later switched over to Nynorsk because it felt closer to my own dialect.
And during the last century Nynorsk was actually fairly common in large parts of Northern Norway. My own school actually switched from Nynorsk to Bokmål as late as 1983.
In Norwegian, "u" is pronounced as an /y/, same as in French; "o" is pronounced as /u/, same as "oo" is usually in English; while the unique letter "å" is pronounced as a regular /o/.
I really want you to try out the third Scandinavian language, danish. It's a lot like norwegian, but more harsh like german.
Since you mentioned you didn’t know how to say some of the letters:
Å - you were right. This letter is pronounced basically like “o”.
Ø - say the sound of “e” (like in Italian) but shape your lips as though you were going to say “o”. So your tongue should be set to say “e” while your lips are poised to say “o.”
Y - similar to Ø, but instead of shaping your lips to say “o” you shape them to say “u.”
Takk så mye, Mætatrånn
I wonder if it might be easier for people to learn Bergen dialect rather than Oslo dialect. Oslo has a lot more compounded words and pronounciations, such as the seemingly random instances of S becomming Sh. Bergen dialect is a lot more phoneticallt written, at least «proper» Bergen dialect. There are a LOT of sub dialects, but the one spoken in the hillsides on the northern side of the city is generally very straight forwards
Kind reminder I should get back to learning this language
Det ordner seg nok. Nårtid kommer du på kaffe?
Nice pronunciations!!
You had a throwaaway question in there that I can answer :)
How would you use "takk for sist" if you had not met the person before? You wouldn't. You only use that if it is someone you have met before.
Your pronounciation is good :)
Thumbs up.
You did fantastic, problem is, we have 2 official written languages, and this was just one of them, Bokmål, and it's basically a modified danish, it's also the easiest for foreigners to learn, however, if you want to travel outside of the Oslo Area/eastern Norway, then the other written language, Nynorsk, will help you.
Also a thing that throw foreigners of, is that they have learned Bokmål, and learned how to speak that, but then they sit down on a bus/train, and visit another part of the country, and they don't understand anything because of...Dialects, and a lot of them.
There's no such thing as an official vocal standard Norwegian, we all use dialects, some that are close to Nynorsk and Bokmål, others that are a mix of it,, some have Danish or Swedish mixed into it, etc giving Norwegian at least 7 different ways to say "I", including "Jeg" from Bokmål and "Eg" from Nynorsk (Nynorsk is based upon Norwegian dialects, specially frim the western parts of the country).
Some of the dialects are more different than between Bokmål and Danish or Swedish.
Ham is the strict object form of the word Him, but Han is also allowed so it's much more common. More likely the word Ham will go - or has to an extent already - go out of regular use. It's more of a written form, only used in certain formal settings. It's bordering on archaic. So, that's why I use it as often as I can, obviously lol.
@@kebman "Ham" is not really traditionally used in most (or any?) Norwegian dialects. The reason it's used in Bokmål is just that it's a leftover from Danish. So it's not that the han-ham distinction is disappearing in a lot of places, it's just that it never existed in most places to begin with.
@@peter-andrepliassov4489 It certainly exists in novels, and in old films and theatre pieces. Just about any piece spoken by North Norwegian National Theatre actor Lars Andreas Larsen (RIP), for instance. You may even hear it spoken by (extremely) conservative gentlemen on the west side of Oslo.
icelandic would be super fun to watch. I once tried it and every word was like a tongue twister. I can pronounce each sound separately but when they come together, I just have no idea how my tongue's supposed to move. it also has the weirdest l sound.(with all the respect to icelandic people. really love your language)
As a native Norwegian speaker, I am looking forward to this video.
So funny that we keep teaching foreign language learners the literally least "Norwegian" form of language that exists in this country, as it reflects so much Danish etymology that it might very well be seen as a form of formal Danish dialect with an approximation of Stockholm pronunciation.
Zzz blablabla
All Norwegian dialects are variants of Germanic, as are Danish and Swedish. Many speakers with dialects near the 'Nynorsk' writing will claim that the dialects near 'Bokmål' are nearly Danish (and therefore 'less Norwegian'), which is mostly incorrect. That reflects the old quarrel between our two writing systems, which is connected to our history being 'under' Denmark for several hundred years. It’s a fascinating story.
The East Norwegian used in the tutorial videos is the dominant 'status' dialect. Maybe the easiest to learn because of that. Other dialects can differ a lot.
@@LarsOleBergersen Etymology doesn't care about bokmål or nynorsk. Old Norse split into West Old Norse and East Old Norse, where Norwegian (and Icelandic) belongs to the western branch. Language that has been passed down from West Old Norse, through local developments over centuries on Norwegian soil is etymologically Norwegian. Urban East Norwegian (as spoken in Oslo, for example) mostly show developments with this trajectory: East Old Norse > uniquely Danish developments such as the strong reduction of short /a/ to /e/ when not under stress (and so on) > then injected into the eastern part of Norway and labelled "Norwegian" even though it does not represent any unbroken line of Norwegian development.
@@darkness_visible What would you call modern English 'etymologically', I wonder; French? The influence and change after the Norman invasion was enormous. I guess you would still call it English. Back to Norway: consider the huge German influence on all Norwegian with the Hansa trade from Bergen. The Bergeners even lost their female gender. Compare Icelandic to East and West Norwegian. The two latter are much closer to each other; almost similar compared to the former. Icelanders can read Norse fairly easily, all Norwegians have to have special training; it's like a foreign language. True, West Norwegian have kept some Norse elements lacking in East. But that is also true the other way round. In any case, Norse is not the 'true, original' Norwegian; it's just a stage in a continuous development of the North Germanic languages in Scandinavia+Iceland. There were people here before the Viking age; they spoke REALLY differently; see the early Rune stones. In the Medieval period, the Nordic languages were lumped together and called dǫnsk tunga ('Danish tongue), e.g. by Snorre. The Norse areas in 'England' were called 'Danelagen' (Danish law). So no Norwegian dialect can escape the Danish heritage. And does it matter?
I think you did very well! 👏 Our orthography is quite "historical", so our pronounciation has developped quite a bit. Lots of silent letters and other goodies. Like the skj being pronounced like English sh before the vowels a, e, o, u, æ, ø and å. Before i and y, you skip the J in the writing. (Some exceptions ...)
Your Ø was quite good, but could be more closed and stronger.
Sometimes the R isn't pronounced in consonant cluster, but change the consonants behind. Like in "norsk". The s is then pronounced similar to "skj" (=sh) instead. Just to touch upon the comments you made.
now you gotta try danish. the three main scandinavian languages. and as a danish guy who understands a little bit of norwegian. youre pronouciation is actully okay, id describe it as a little above 7 year old. what you gotta work on is youre "ø" personally id describe it as the sound arnold swartzanegger makes when he pronounces the "y" in 'byrd'
Well done! 🇳🇴
I'll try to be as clear as possible: it's a very difficult language, and so are almost all other germanic languages.
We're lucky that english is the way it is. If it hadn't been influenced by french, the language would be much closer to norwegian.
As a native speaker of a romance language, I find, at least for me, this group of languages very complicated to learn and pronounce.
Norwegian sounds to me like a true "final boss" in germanic languages. I had contact with the German language for a long time due to attempts to learn it for leisure. Dutch already starts to get complicated when compared to german. Now, norwegian is incredibly difficult. The norwegian people can be proud of every child who speaks this language effortlessly. 😅
But I loved the sound of the language. 😍
I find these languages not too difficult to pronounce despite having a few odd sounds in each. What is nice is that some unique sounds are shared between them, (Swedish and Norwegian are similar, as well as Icelandic/Faroese)
Grammar/Vocabulary is what I find more difficult.
I don’t agree. Dutch and German is way harder than Norwegian which is my 1st language and native tongue. Dutch is worse that German as it’s very similar, yet not at the same time because the all the German sounding words gets thrown in.
@@kilipaki87oritahiti It's quite interesting. If I understood correctly, you said you are a native norwegian speaker and find german more complicated to learn. In my case, as a native speaker of a romance language, I had fewer problems with german. Even so, german is a very complicated language as well. Norwegian and dutch are very complicated languages for me.
In grammatical terms Norwegian is quite easy if you already know English. German has way harder grammar than Norwegian, and so does Icelandic.
@@kilipaki87oritahiti Meanwhile Dutch peeps learn Norwegian in like a week lol.
Hei is not normally used as goodbye in Norwegian. Hei hei, on the other hand, is! In Swedish they use Hej då as goodbye (hi then). I also use Hei då as goodbye in Norway since I've got fam in Sweden and go there often :p
Ikke dårlig! Det er alltid fasinerende å observere andre nasjonaliteter prøve seg på mitt morsmål =)
Hilsener fra Mandal, Sør-Norge =)