Norwegian Dialects

The Norwegian language is usually divided into various different dialects. Since there is no official standard Norwegian the dialects are used in every area of life and can be heard both on TV and in the radio. Many Norwegians take pride in being able to determine a person’s geographical origin based on their dialect which makes the question “Where are you from?” unnecessary.

 

We will try to provide you with some examples of dialects that come from areas in Norway where they tend to differ greatly. There are approximately five such areas in the nation, each of which consists of a number of subdialects. For now we will just focus on two of them, Trøndersk and Bergensk. As a learner of Norwegian it is essential that you are able to comprehend the various dialects as you will most likely encounter them in a number of situations.