Odin Government Ministries Archive ... Norway in facts and figures Norway: Small country with two written languages In many countries in the world, the inhabitants speak and write several different languages. Every now and again, the speakers of the various tongues come into conflict, and when these clashes come to a head, as they often do in our imperfect world, the media end up reporting on them. Very often, both the mass media and the people in countries without language problems have great difficulty understanding why people would argue about something as trivial as language. By Professor Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen It is relatively easy to explain the conflict between Dutch and French in Belgium, or why minorities who speak Basque in Spain, Frisian in the Netherlands or Gaelic in Scotland fight to preserve their special languages. But it is hard for foreigners to comprehend why Norwegians, who 150 years ago did not have a written language of their own and managed quite well with Danish, have, over the past 100 years, developed for good measure two Norwegian tongues. The purpose of this article is to attempt to explain this paradoxical situation. No language barriers Of Norway's population of a little more than four million, 95 per cent speak Norwegian as their native language. Everyone who speaks Norwegian, whether it be a local dialect or one of the two standard official languages, can be understood by other Norwegians. In Norway - as in other countries - not everyone understands everyone equally well, and in particular people from the capital, Oslo, claim that they have a tough time understanding their countrymen from rural areas, while those from non-urban areas have no problem understanding the language of Osloites. In the areas where Norwegian is spoken, there are no real language barriers. However, the minority Sami language is not related to Norwegian, and it is incomprehensible to Norwegian speakers who have not learned it. | |
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