Modern Norwegian

Form of the Norwegian language after the 16th century
Modern Norwegian
Moderne norsk; Standard østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian), Høydansk (High Danish)
RegionNorway
Era16th century to present
Language family
Indo-European
  • Germanic
    • North Germanic
      • Continental Scandinavian
        • Norwegian
          Danish
          • Modern Norwegian
Early forms
Old Norse
Writing system
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-1no
ISO 639-2nor
ISO 639-3nor
GlottologNone
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Modern Norwegian (Norwegian: moderne norsk) is the Norwegian language that emerged after the Middle Norwegian transition period (1350–1536) until and including today. The transition to Modern Norwegian is usually dated to 1525, or 1536, the year of the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the kingdoms of Denmark–Norway (1537–1814). It can be further divided into Early Modern Norway (1536-1848) until the separation from Denmark, and Newer Modern Norwegian from then to now.[1]

In contrast to Old Norse, Modern Norwegian has simplified inflections and a more fixed syntax. Old Norse vocabulary is to a considerable degree substituted by Low German, and this is the main reason why Modern Norwegian, together with contemporary Norwegian in general, Danish and Swedish, is no longer mutually intelligible with Insular Nordic (Icelandic and Faroese), except from some Nynorsk/Høgnorsk and dialect users to a lesser extent.

While Modern Norwegian is a linguistic term with a specific historical meaning, contemporary Norwegian also includes the Dano-Norwegian koiné dialect from Oslo, that evolved into Standard Østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian) and the related official written standard Bokmål. Standard Østnorsk is spoken by a large and rapidly growing minority of Norwegians in East Norway, and Bokmål is by far the most widely used written language, even among users of Modern Norwegian dialects.

References

  1. ^ Venås, Kjell; Nordbø, Børge; Thorvaldsen, Bernt Ø. (2023-02-24). "moderne norsk". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-02-04.
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Varieties
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West and south
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Trøndersk
North
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According to contemporary philology
Anglo-Frisian
Anglic
Frisian
Historical forms
East Frisian
North Frisian
West Frisian
Low German
Historical forms
West Low German
East Low German
Low Franconian
Historical forms
Standard variants
West Low Franconian
East Low Franconian
Cover groups
High German
Historical forms
Standard German
Non-standard variants
and creoles
Central German
West Central German
East Central German
Upper German
North
Historical forms
West
East
East
Language subgroups
Reconstructed
Diachronic features
Synchronic features
  • Italics indicate extinct languages
  • Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.
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