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Grammar differences - Bokmål and Nynorsk

I thought it would be better to explain some of the differences between these two official written standards before embarking on the general grammar of Norwegian, so here are some facts on the differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk.

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History

Norway was in a union with Denmark from 1387 to 1814 (Denmark-Norway), and this greatly affected the written language. Norwegian was over the years replaced with Danish in writing. From 1536, Norway was no longer an independent state, as the country then officially became a part of Denmark. Following this, Danish completely replaced Norwegian as a written language, and in the greater towns, primarily Christiania (later, Kristiania, now Oslo) and Bergen. The upper class started speaking a dialect which basically was Danish with Norwegian pronunciation (Norwegian and Danish are very different in pronunciation) while also using some distinctively Norwegian elements.

In 1814 Norway seceded from the union and gained its first constitution, although the country was to be forced into a union with Sweden only a few months later, but this time as a recognized country. In combination with the National Romanticism, the secession from Denmark spurred a desire to outline what was deemed to be typical Norwegian, and the language was one of the most important aspects in this picture. Immediately after the signing of the constitution, it was decided that the written language used in Norway was to be called "norsk" (Norwegian), despite the fact that this language was Danish. Many meant this was far from enough, and a desire to create a new written language that could be called Norwegian was thus born.

Those supporting this idea, could quickly be separated into two groups, those wishing to norwegianize the Danish language by gradually replacing the vocabulary with distinctively Norwegian words, and those wanting to forget all about Danish and make an all new written language based on the dialects. One of the most famous advocates for the latter opinion was Ivar Aaasen, who is known as the father of Nynorsk, as he was the one who established it. During the middle 1800s, he traveled around the country to study and compare the different dialects. Aasen established a language he called "Landsmål" (country language), based on many different dialects, which were much less influenced by Danish. Those advocating norwegianization responded by establishing a written language they baptized "Riksmål" ("nation language"), based on the common cultural heritage with Denmark and the oral language of Christiania. A long-lasting language conflict ensued, which still can be seen today, though it is much less aggressive than before.

The government changed the names of the variants in 1929; Landsmål became Nynorsk (New Norwegian) while Riksmål became Bokmål (book language). Since then, both languages have existed side by side, and they are today more similar than what they were 100 years ago, partly because Bokmål, in the beginning almost indistinguishable from Danish, has gradually been Norwegianized by taking in words and distinctively Norwegian elements from other dialects and Nynorsk, and partly because Nynorsk over the years has been modified many times in order to bring it closer to Bokmål. The idea for a long time was that the two standards would blend together into one official written standard called "Samnorsk" (common Norwegian). This policy however was officially abandoned in 2005.

There are in actuality four written standards of Norwegian, but only two (Bokmål and Nynorsk) are official, the other two are Høgnorsk (High Norwegian) and Riksmål.

Høgnorsk is a more conservative variant of Nynorsk, closer to the norm Ivar Aaasen established, and thus it is considerably more different from Bokmål, possessing few elements from Danish and several inflection patterns that have been abolished in modern Nynorsk. Høgnorsk is also rather puristic when it comes foreign loanwords in general, somewhat similar to Icelandic.

Riksmål is a more conservative variant of Bokmål, and therefore lies closer to Danish. Since 2005 however, the differences between "standard" Bokmål and Riksmål have been very slim, as several Riksmål forms formerly forbidden in Bokmål were taken back into the fold.

Although are two official written variants of Norwegian, there is no variant of the oral language that is considered "standard" by law (although in many ways the common spoken language in Oslo is treated as the de facto "standard spoken variant", being the basis of Bokmål and the variant most commonly used in television and taught to foreigners), and many words in both Bokmål and Nynorsk therefore have different forms, often originating from different dialects. This is more frequent in Nynorsk, as Bokmål underwent a major simplification of infliction patterns and word forms in 2005. Due to the official policy of uniting Nynorsk and Bokmål being dropped, several conservative forms which previously had been forbidden were again allowed in Bokmål, minimizing the already small gap between Bokmål and Riksmål. Nynorsk remained virtually unchanged.

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Differences

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Nouns

One of the key differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk, is that nouns are inflicted in three genders in Nynorsk, while this is optional in Bokmål. In Bokmål, one can instead choose to use only two genders, common (felleskjønn) and neuter (intetkjønn), similar to Danish. In Nynorsk, the common gender is split up into the masculine and feminine gender. As an example, we can use the word klokke, meaning "watch" or "clock". In Nynorsk, this word is feminine, and must be inflicted as such, in Bokmål however, one can inflict as a masculine noun, since masculin and feminine can be grouped as one: common gender.

In Riksmål, being more conservative, there are only two genders, but some nouns which are commonly inflected as feminine in the spoken language (such as "jente", "ku", "klokke") are still inflicted as such.

There are also some differences in inflectional patterns and spelling.

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Vocabulary

There are noticeable differences in vocabulary between the two standards, and stems from the fact that Nynorsk is based on dialects and has inherited Aaasen's wish to also base it on Old Norwegian. Many Nynorsk forms of words are therefore more similar to their Old Norwegian origin than the Bokmål counterpart. One example is the word "legeme", meaning "body" in a more literal sense. This is the Danish variant of the word, in Old Norwegian it was likhamr, and therefore the word is written "lekam" in Nynorsk.

Another example is the word "kirke" (church). This is not the Danish form, but simply how the word is pronounced in the dialects giving birth to Bokmål. The Old Norse origin was kirkja, and in Nynorsk, the word is written "kyrkje".

A more extreme example is the word hverken (neither, either), which is from Old Danish hwærki/hwærkin via Danish. The Old Norwegian equivalent was hvárki; the inflection of the word has given rise to the Nynorsk "korkje".

Sometimes differences in word variants is due to pronunciation and differences between rural and urban dialects, and sometimes Nynorsk uses an entirely different word; sometimes because the Bokmål equivalent is from Danish or Middle Low German (which has given many, many words to Norwegian), in other cases simply because another word is used in some dialects. The word "vise" (to show) for example, is from Old Norwegian vìsa, and is perfectly correct to use in Nynorsk, but the word syne is still used more often.

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Verbs

The inflection patterns of verbs are one of the things that differs most between the two standards. In Nynorsk, a great number of verbs have different optional forms, typically there is one or two main forms that are allowed in all writing, and then one traditional and one radical form that only students are allowed to use when writing. These forms are often designated klammeformer ("bracket forms"), since they are placed in brackets [] in dictionaries. The traditional form originates from older versions of Nynorsk, while the radical form is either adapted from Bokmål or loaned from Bokmål outright. In other cases, there is one main form and one optinal "bracket form" that is not traditional, but instead stems from certain dialects. These forms are there to make the language more flexible, so those using it can use the variant closest to how they speak. For example, the word "skrive" (to write) is in it's Nynorsk main form inflicted:

å skrive - skriv - skreiv - har skrive

to write - write/writes - wrote - have/has wrote

There is no radical form for this verb, but the perfect tense (har skrive) has an optional form: "har skrivi". Many of my friends and myself for example use this form when talking. The optional ending -i instead of -e goes for all verbs ending with -e in the perfect tense in Nynorsk (and Nynorsk only). In Bokmål, this verb is much simpler:

å skrive - skriver - skrev - skrevet

Another example is the verb "gjere" (to do, "gjøre" in Bokmål). "gjere" is its main form, but there is also a radical "bracket form" which is loaned from Bokmål: "gjøre" . The main form inflection is:

å gjere - gjer - gjorde - har gjort

to do - do/does - did - have/has done

The radical form inflection is:

å gjøre - gjør - gjorde - har gjort

Again, this pattern is identical to the one in Bokmål.

There are a lot of these optional patterns and forms, both for verbs and nouns. The system with main forms and "bracket forms" was abolished in Bokmål in 2005, while the system was left intact in Nynorsk. Therefore, the inflectional pattern in Bokmål is much simpler and (in my eyes) easier to learn for Norwegian learners.

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Pronouns

The pronouns are also different, again partly because Nynorsk is based more on dialects and partly because it looks to Old Norwegian:

The order of the pronouns is: English - Norwegian (Bokmål) - Norwegian (Nynorsk). The accusative (object) forms are separated from the nominative (subject) form by a slash (/).

Singular

I/me - jeg/meg - eg/meg

you/you - du/deg - du/deg

he/him - han/ham, han* - han/honom, han

she/her - hun/henne - ho/henne, ho**

it - det - det, han, ho/honom, han, henne, ho***

• ham and han are both valid accusative forms of han in Bokmål, ham is not allowed in Nynorsk.
  • henne and ho are both valid accusative forms of ho (she) in Nynorsk.

Plural

we/us - vi/oss - vi, me*/oss

you/you - dere/dere - de/dykk

they/them - de/dem - dei/dei

• vi and me are both valid nominative forms of vi (we) in Nynorsk.

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Writing

The Nordic languages can be divided into two groups, West Nordic (Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian) and East Nordic (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish).

You may notice that I have placed Norwegian in both groups; that's because Norwegian share traits with both groups. While Norwegian originally was a West Nordic language along with Icelandic (itself stemming from Old Norwegian) and Faroese, the language has been so much influenced from and parallely with the East Nordic group that it is no longer mutual intelligible with Icelandic and Faroese.

One of the differences between the West and East Nordic languages, is that the Western have kept the diphthongs from Old Norse. In Swedish and Danish, many of these diphthongs have vanished, while this has only partially happened in Norwegian, since Bokmål has been influenced by dialects and Nynorsk. Nynorsk on the other hand, has preserved them, keeping to the pattern of staying closer to the dialects.

For example, the Old Norse word ey (island, isle) has in Norwegian become øy, while it in Danish is ø. The øy diphthong has as you can see disappeared. In Bokmål, many words have both a Danish form without it's original diphthong, and a more oral form where the diphthong remains, creating a pair where both variants are official and equal:

bein/ben (bone, leg), stein/sten (stone), feit/fet (fat), leid/led (road, way), leik/lek, rein/ren (clean), øy/ø (island, isle), blaut/bløt (soft)

Note that, in many cases, the meanings and use of the pair words differ somewhat.

The diphthong difference can also be found in verbs, both the infinitive and in the different tenses. The Nynorsk form is placed first:

skreiv/skrev (wrote) - skreik/skrek (screamed) - peip/pep (squeaked, cheeped) - meine/mene (to mean) - leie/lede (to lead)

Far from all words in Bokmål have lost the diphthong:

skaut (kerchief) - naut (fool) - naust (shed, shack) As you may have guessed, Nynorsk has kept the diphthongs, also in words where Bokmål has not or taken in a Danish form as well. The form in Bokmål is placed after the slash:

dau, død/død (dead) - raud/rød (red) - auge/øye (eye) - døy/dø (to die) - meine/mene (to mean)

There are some exceptions to these examples, so don't assume this goes with every word. Remember: many words and expressions in Bokmål and Nynorsk are identical.

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Examples

Other examples of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary are listed below, Bokmål forms are placed first, separated from the Nynorsk form by a slash. Remember that in many cases, Bokmål and Nynorsk have borrowed forms from each other, allowing many Bokmål forms previously forbidden in Nynorsk to be used, and vice versa in Bokmål.

Nouns

sted, stad/stad (place), hjem, heim/heim (world), verden/verd (world), Norge/Noreg (Norway), eksempel/døme, eksempel, sang/song, venn/ven (friend), mandag/måndag (Monday), selv/sjølv (self), hånd/hand (hand)

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Verbs

seile/segle, sigle (to sail), tenke/tenkje (to think), sette/setje (to put), vokse/vakse (to grow), dø/døy (to die)

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Adjectives

morsom/morosam (funny), rød/raud, enig/einig, samd (agreed)

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask:) If you discover I have got some of the facts wong, don't hesitate to correct them, this is a wiki after all:) And remember, this is only some of the basics and far from everything there is to know. I also noticed that this contribution is a little disordered, but I don't have time to fix that now I'm afraid, hope you can forgive that:)

For learning Norwegian Category Uncategorized Level Unspecified Second language English Created May 19, 2008 06:56 Views 981 Share:

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