Norwegian: a gender neutral language?

Is Norwegian a gender neutral language?
Not at all!
So how to use Norwegian politically correct in the 21st century? Learn it in this video.
🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴 Learn Norwegian with a fascinating story instead of boring dialogues:
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Beginners: courses.skapago.eu/lp/norwegi...
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📘📘📘 Textbook: www.skapago.eu/nils

[@averynhiell]

Thank you so much for this wonderful video! (:
I’m learning Norwegian, and I’m nonbinary, so I’m wondering: what form of “venn” would you use if the gender was unknown, nonbinary etc.?
Also, how common is it to use “forelder”, “søsken”, and “barn” in the singular? And are there genderneutral alternatives for “onkel/tante”, “fetter/kusine”, etc.?

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

The tendency is to use the masculine form when we're not sure about the gender. For example you would say "vennene mine" regardless of the gender. You can definitely use barn in the plural, and also søsken and forelder, though this is rare. I'm not aware of a gender neutral alternative for onkel/tante.

[@averynhiell]

@@TheNorwegianSchool Alright, thank you! ^^

[@user-qb8sn5si7v]

Takk for interessant informasjon .

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

bare hyggelig

[@Jorge_i_Norge]

Takk

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

Bare hyggelig :-)

[@AmitDXB-sp3em]

I wanna learn Norwegian language. Could you suggest the best option?

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

Check out my story-based Norwegian course: courses.skapago.eu/lp/norwegian-course-beginners-nils-ds/

[@xolang]

That’s very interesting. My father tongue is also pretty much genderless.
There’s this one prophet in the Bible called Elisa, which is the successor of Elia. I reckon in English they’re called Elisha and Elijah respectively.
Anyway, I thought that Elisa is a female prophet, and I remember wondering how come she’s bald, because there’s this one story where she gets mocked for being bald.
So I thought that it was normal for female prophets to be bald headed.
I realized that Elisa is actually a man when I read the story (it’s in the book of 2nd Kings btw) in English. I was already 16 year old by then.
I felt something was off when I read it, and then I realized that him, his, he are being used instead of her(s) and she.
Back to the Germanic languages, I reckon that in English it’s not unusual to hear/read an actress being referred to as an actor. Even when she’s talking about herself.
I also think the use of -mostly grammatically masculine- nouns to cover all genders is the most practical and in fact inclusive thing to do, since by using an extra female form, those who are neither female nor male get excluded.
I guess just as we distinguish sex and gender, we can also consider grammatical gender as its own separate category, so that a noun may be grammatically of a certain gender, but encompasses all genders and all sexes.
Since you’re a German, it’s also worth noting that in the former GDR the use of grammatically masculine profession names for women was completely normal. Even Angela Merkel, who grew up in GDR, referred to herself in the beginning as “Kanzler” instead of “Kanzlerin”.
Great video anyway. Tusen takk!
--18.8.2023

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

Thanks for the background info!

[@themisplaced]

The irony of referring to a genderless "father" language. 😂

[@vineyardworker]

Nils is non-binary.

[@TheNorwegianSchool]

Maybe, who knows :-)

[@andyharpist2938]

They can use these terms as they wish but the red line for myself is when man must use these terrible figures of speech. When they become mandated in law.
(German is going to have a hard time of it).

[@schoolingdiana9086]

If languages don’t change like that, they become dead, like Latin. To remain a living, viable language, they always change as they have throughout time--or else I’d be typing in Old English and this video would have been about Old Norse.