[Wikipedia-l] Bokmål and Nynorsk - examples

[Olve Utne]

At 14:16 11/11/2004 +0000, James R. Johnson wrote:
>Could you give some examples of the differences between the three forms of 
>Norwegian?

Hello James,
Bokmål and Riksmål are, as already mentioned, slightly different subsets of 
the same. The Riksmål end of the scale has a higher number of -en, -ene and 
-et endings (rather than -a) as well as a higher number of monophthongs (e, 
ø rather than ei, øy, au). Some word forms that are relatively frequently 
used in Riksmål and very infrequently in Bokmål are: nu (Bm. nå; Nn. no) = 
now; efter (Bm./Nn. etter) = after; sprog (Bm. & Nn. språk) = language.

Riksmål tends in general to be closer to Danish, Bokmål tends to be closer 
to Nynorsk.

The differences between mainstream-to-conservative Bokmål and mainstream 
Riksmål are too small to necessarily show up in a sample of, let's say, 
some 5-10 lines or so of text.

The differences between Bokmål (w/Riksmål) and Nynorsk are greater. Mainly, 
the personal pronouns vary (Nn. "eg", Bm. "jeg" = I; Nn. "dei", Bm. 
"de/dem" = they/them; Nn. "vi"~"me", Bm. "vi" = we; etc.), there is a fully 
extant three-gender system in Nn., as opposed to the two-gender or 
modified/expanded two-gender system in esp. conservative Bokmål and 
Riksmål; the Old Norse / Icelandic diphthongs are kept in most cases in 
Nn., but more often monophthongised in Bm./Rm. (Nn./Bm. bein, Bm./Rm. ben, 
bone(/leg); Nn. blaut, Bm. blaut/bløt, Rm. bløt = wet); there is much more 
direct-tense writing in Nynorsk than in Bokmål -- one strongly prefers to 
"investigate" rather than to "perform an investigation"; loan words from 
German are lower in number and more infrequently used in Nynorsk; etc.

The following are some examples of Nynorsk and Bokmål, with other 
Scandinavian written languages being thrown in for the perspective -- 
please bear in mind that differences within the Bm.~Rm. contrast are 
subtle/fussy and that the examples are a bit of an over-simplification in 
that respect. (Also please bear in mind that these examples are coming off 
the top of my head here and now, so I apologise in advance for errors I may 
have committed in the Swedish or Danish.

Sv: Jag körde hem hennes bil.
Nn.: Eg køyrde heim bilen hennar.
Bm.: Jeg kjørte heim bilen hennes. ~ Jeg kjørte hennes bil hjem.
Rm. Jeg kjørte hennes bil hjem.
Da:: Jeg kørte hendes bil hjem.
= I drove her car home.

Sv.: Jag målade alla husen röda.
Nn.: Eg måla alle husa raude.
Bm.: Jeg malte alle husa røde.
Rm.: Jeg malte alle husene røde.
Da.: Jeg malede alle de hus røde.
= I painted all the (those) houses red.

Sv.: Pojkarna och flickorna gette getterna hela veckan lång.
Nn.: Gutane og jentene gjette geitene heile veka lang.
Bm.: Guttene og jentene gjette geitene hele uka lang.
Rm.: Guttene og jentene gjette gjetene hele uken lang.
Da.: Drængerne og pigerne gedte gedderne hele ugen lang.
= The boys and the girls herded the goats all week long.

Sv.: Hon hadde mycket lång erfarenhet av att hantera farliga ämnen.
Nn.: Ho hadde svært lang røynsle med handsaming av farlege stoff.
Bm.: Hun hadde meget lang erfaring med håndtering av farlige stoffer.
Da.: Hun hadde lang erfarenhed i at håndtere farlige stoffer.
= She had a lot of experience in handling dangerous substances.

Sv.: Förenta staternas utrikespolitik medför stor oenighet i hela världen.
Nn.: Utanrikspolitikken åt Sambandsstatane er grunn til mykje usemje verda 
ikring.
Bm./Rm.: De forente staters utenrikspolitikk forårsaker mye uenighet verden 
rundt.
Da.: De Forenede Staters udenrigspolitik forårsager megen uenighed værden 
rundt.
= The United States' foreign policy causes much controversy around the world.


Enjoy! :-)

All the best,

Olve



___________________

Olve Utne
http://utne.nvg.org