Language Research

The peculiarities of the language situation in Norway are the product of Norwegian and Nordic history. The languages of the three main Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, are so similar that the inhabitants for the most part understand each other when using their own language with people from the other countries. This is true throughout Central Scandinavia, because the language evolved from a common Nordic tongue.

One thousand years ago, when Nordic pioneers settled in Russia and Western Europe, and on the islands in the Atlantic Ocean from the Orkneys and Shetland islands to Greenland, the same common Nordic language was spoken throughout the entire region. The differences in dialects that existed then were insignificant, far smaller than the dialectical variations found today in each of the Nordic countries.

Around 1,000 AD the same language, Old Norse, was spoken in Norway and Iceland. The Norse sagas, skaldic poems, and Eddas were written in Old Norse. In Iceland, due to their geographic position as an isolated outpost, the Old Nordic language was not influenced and changed by other languages and remains closer to the original dialect.

Norway is not the only country in the world with lots of dialects or accents, or the only one with two official languages. Others have even more, for example Belgium has 3 official languages, but only Norway has 2 Norwegian languages.

SAMI

The Sami are an indigenous people who form an ethnic minority in Norway, Sweden and Finland. From about the 16th century, Sami have inhabited nearly all the areas of the Nordic countries where they now have permanent settlements. In Norway, there are believed to be between 40,000 and 45,000 Sami.

Section 1-5 in the Sami Act states that Sami and Norwegian are equal languages and thereby establishes that Sami is one of the official languages in Norway along with Bokmål and Nynorsk.

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