Languages of Norway
| Languages of Norway | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Sami and Kven |
| Minority languages |
Romani language Swedish language Finnish language Russian language |
| Main foreign languages |
English (>80%) French German Swedish Finnish Russian |
| Sign languages | Norwegian Sign Language |
| Common keyboard layouts | |
There are a large number of languages spoken in Norway. Of these, the Norwegian language is the most widely spoken and the main official language of the country.
The most widely spoken language in Norway is Norwegian. It is a North Germanic language, closely related to Swedish and Danish, all linguistic descendants of Old Norse. Norwegian is used by some 95% of the population as a first language. The language has two separate written standards: Nynorsk ("New Norwegian", "New" in the sense of contemporary or modern) and Bokmål ("Book Language/Tongue/Speech"), both of which are official.
Known as Språkstriden in Norwegian, the Norwegian language struggle is a movement rooted in both Norwegian nationalism and the 400 years of Danish rule in Norway (see Denmark-Norway). The koiné language (mixed language) known as Dano-Norwegian (Dansk-Norsk) which developed in Norwegian cities was the result of Danish replacing Norwegian as the language of the elite in that country (Danish was used in courts of law, by the cultured, and, after the Lutheran Reformation of 1536, replaced Latin as a liturgical language). An adoption of Norwegian orthography into the Danish language gave rise to the written standard of Riksmål, which later became Bokmål. Nynorsk, a new standard of Norwegian based upon the spoken language in rural Norway, was acknowledged by the parliament in 1885, and in 1892 it was first possible to use Nynorsk as a language of primary instruction. By 1920, Nynorsk was being used widely in western Norway and the mountain valleys, where it still has its stronghold, and Bokmål was used in the more populous areas of the country. Later, attempts were made to reconcile the two standards into Samnorsk, or "Common Norwegian", although this never came to fruition.
...
Wikipedia