Norwegian for LingQ? I'm willing to help out

Open Forum
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Hi there,

Like to topic says, I’m willing to help out in supplying you guys with content for Norwegian. I’m a native in the language, and I know that the materials for learning this language on the internet are somewhat scarce.

Ragnar

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Hi Ragnar,

Thanks for the offer. We hope to add more languages next year sometime so we will be calling on you then for Norwegian!

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I would actually be intrested in learning Norwegian. But Bokmal or Nynorsk?

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Hej TaKen. Jag har många vänner från Norge och jag har velat lärande det spraken, men jag är lärande Svenska därför av en bristande resurser. Det skulle vara trevligt om du skulle göra Norsk!

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I could also help with supplying content for Norwigean. I am also a native speaker. I guess bokmål is the best since it is most common.

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Mixy, I heard from a someone (Who is from Nordlenning) that Bokmål is mostly used in Oslo and that if you go outside of Oslo it tends to have more of a Nynorsk influence to it. I noticed a blending of both in the Bergen dialect as well. So I think we should aim for both.

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I can do both, although I would prefer only doing Nynorsk since it’s much closer to my own dialect and therefore feels more natural to me.

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If Norwegan LingQ ever sees the light of day, should there be Nynorsk and Bokmål, or just Norwegian? We have all kinds of English (Spanish, Portuguese, French et.c.) varieties, and most are happy with it. Can’t we just tag the lessons “Nynorsk” or “Bokmål”?

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That sounds like a good idea

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If i had learned Norwegan, it helps me to get a job in 2010 Expo. but i missed the chance. It’s pity.

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It may have been asked before (here or at HTLAL): how do Norwegians view the two? Two languages or two established varieties? Sometimes I think that second-language learnes are a bit obsessed with Nynorsk vs. Bokmål, American vs. British English, European vs. Brazilian Portuguese, German vs. Austrian German, Parisienne vs. Quebec French and so on, whether a speaker of A can understand a speaker of B…

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Well, strictly speaking Nynorsk belongs to the West Scandinavian branch (along with Faroese and Icelandic), while Bokmål is classified as not really either (West or East Scandinavian) but somewhere between. Now the tricky business about viewing these two as different languages is that most native speakers normally don’t but foreigners might. In my opinion this has to do with little to no exposure to the language (like in Oslo). In addition Nynorsk is composed of the Norwegian dialects who ideally preserved most of the Old Norse vocabulary. For example, “Jeg drar” (i.e. I go [somewhere]") in Bokmål, would be “Eg fer” in Nynorsk (Icelandic Ég fer).

I’ve spoken standard Nynorsk with people familiar with standard Bokmål and they’ve found it very difficult to comprehend, even if that’s how my own dialect and many other Norwegian dialects more or less sound like (i.e. the Norwegian language and not the Dano-Norwegian koiné originally spoken by the Norwegian urban elite).

Hopefully there are more native Norwegians here who’d like to give their own opinion about this. I would view them as two established varieties of Norwegian to avoid a lot of fuss, although I would’ve liked to see them as two separate languages. In general people who grow up in an urban environment are very hostile towards Nynorsk since it differs from their Danish vocabulary. So although I’m someone who grew up on the countryside and write in both varieties, you can’t expect someone from Oslo to willfully be doing the same.

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Norway is a small country, so I am not holding out much hope that we will ever see Norwegian language content here on LingQ.

But, I am learning it on my own and use LingQ’s Swedish section as a poor substitute occasionally.

I vote for Bokmål.

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There are several things that we would like to have before adding a new language. The first is that there needs to be content, including the 3 beginner lessons (Greetings and Goodbyes, Eating Out, Who is She) translated into the target language along with several other lessons for intermediate and advanced learners if possible.

Having content available is a big motivator in which language(s) we add next. However, in the end we hope to add as many languages as possible to the site :slight_smile:

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There are several things that we would like to have before adding a new language. The first is that there needs to be content, including the 3 beginner lessons (Greetings and Goodbyes, Eating Out, Who is She) translated into the target language along with several other lessons for intermediate and advanced learners if possible.

Having content available is a big motivator in which language(s) we add next. However, in the end we hope to add as many languages as possible to the site :slight_smile:

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I am using online editions of Norwegian newspapers and magazines for content. I find that the content is both interesting and challenging. Not interested in scripted conversations.

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What ever happened to adding Norwegian to Lingq? I see that these posts have been going on since 2008 with various volunteers who offered to create content, but the last post seems to be back in 2010 and I don’t see Norwegian as an option right now three years later? I might be missing something or perhaps there are newer posts somewhere else explaining why we don’t yet have it but I was wondering if anyone has any information on this? I’ve really been trying my best to use any resources I can for Norwegian but soon I’ll be done with the Assimil and Teach yourself content and I’m a bit worried as to where I’ll be able to go after that to continue improving… unless I just have to try to find television and books in Norwegian somehow.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Robin

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Robin, Norwegian still exists here but it’s hidden. Login - LingQ
It will appear for everyone again once it fulfils the new rules: New Languages on LingQ

1 Like
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@Robin
As Ress notes, LingQ Norwegian is here:

There are relatively few lessons, but everything that I have studied is top quality.

Other resources that I have found follow. I don’t know enough about most of them to give them an endorsement, but they look useful.

Online bookstores:

Both stores are in Norwegian. I was able to understand enough to buy and download two audiobooks from Lydbokforlaget.

Online news sources

Free Web Courses

Old Norse classics translated into Norwegian (but no sound):

Movie

Sophie’s World (Sofies verden): - YouTube In Norwegian with English subtitles. A bit longer than 3 hours and 3 minutes. Complete mini-series. I have watched this a couple of times. The movie is reasonably interesting and there is lots of spoken Norwegian.

So far, no other Norwegian movies with English subscripts have turned up in my Youtube searching. Save for one very bad horror movie, whose name I have forgotten. I would have watched it despite how bad it was, but there was very, very little dialogue.

Youtube “lessons”.

A few Norwegians have posted videos that are limited in number and cater to beginners, but I have found them useful (being a beginner). Look for these channels:

Edited to correct the url to Gutenberg books in Norwegian.

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