Norwegian for Genealogy and Everyday Use Tre Lag Stevne Austin, MN 2018 August 10 John Reindl

Is this relevant? No - We now have Google translate and better scanners Yes- Still useful: while Google translate is good with some Bokmål, it is not perfect Yes - Genealogy has own jargon – some are ‘old’ words Yes -There are lots of dialects Yes - Scanning and translating cumbersome But, obiously, it is not possible to teach – or learn – a foreign language in a single seminar session.

Three Really Helpful Web Pages http://www.101languages.net/norwegian/ offers a variety of very useful resources, all for free. https://www.duolingo.com/course/no-BO/en/Learn-Norwegian-Bokm%C3%A5l-Online free interactive site to learn Bokmål http://martinroe.com/blog/index.php/norwegian-genealogy-dictionary-2/ Super site for genealogical terms including causes of death Also You Tube – one in 3 minutes ! Another – learn 1000 words while you sleep (5 hours+), or phrases (8 hours!)

And, Now, the Boring Part – Grammar I have studied 10 foreign languages. For Norwegian, this was about 3 years in community college and 1 summer in Norway Grammar sets up the framework. Then, is just a matter of filling in the vocabulary I can send you an eight page write up and these overheads.

Norwegian is SIMPLE!! Comparatively, that is. Very similar sentence structure to English Many similar words to English NO conjugating of verbs – ever!! Most verbs follow regular forms Noun forms are generally regular NO noun cases!!

Some exceptions to simple Nouns have gender – masculine, feminine, neuter there are 3 letters not in English – å, æ and ø spelling is not a constant, both with some consonants and some vowels Togstad = Tokstad Bækken = Bekken Håkon = Haakon

Some exceptions to simple (cont’d) There are also two offical forms of Norwegian – Bokmål and Nynorsk – and at least 2-3 dozen dialects

Nouns - Singular Indefinite forms (“a”) masculine an automobile en bil neuter a window et vindu feminine a door ei dør

Nouns - Singular Definite forms (“the”) the automobile bilen the window vinduet the door døra

Nouns - Plural Indefinite Definite automobiles biler windows vinduer doors dører Definite the automobiles bilene the windows vinduene the doors dørene

Nouns – Last page To make possessive, add an ‘s’ unless it already ends in ‘s’ There are a few irregular plurals bok  bøker mann  menn Bottom line – nouns have regular forms and, as seen, many are similar to English

Verbs – No Conjugation! Most are regular Great web page is Infinitive Present English komme kommer come ha har have se ser see like liker Great web page is http://www.verbix.com/languages/norwegian.html

Verbs - Irregular Common exceptions Infinitive Present English være er am, are, is vite vet know si sier say gjøre gjør do or make It seems that every language I have studied has an irregular for the verb ‘to be’. Spanish has two forms! (estar and ser; ser is the irregular – soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son)

Verbs – past regular Like English, Norwegian has the past and present perfect Time English Norwegian Present I speak jeg snakker Past I spoke jeg snakket Present Perfect I have spoken jeg har snakket The verb form in the present perfect is known as the past participle. Other weak verbs and te / t endings and dde/dd endings. Strong verbs are irregular and must be memorized For ‘weak’ verbs, the stem stays the same.

Verbs – past irregular There’s no regular form – they just must be memorized. Important in genealogy include: become became blir ble receive received får fikk give gave gir gav write wrote skriv skrev be, am, is was, were er var

Verbs – Modal or Helping English infinitive present past past participle can kunne kan kunnet must måtte må måttet should skulle skal skullet want, will ville vil villet allowed to få får fikk fått ought to burde bør burdet dare to tore/turde tør torde /turde tort /turdet

Verbs – last page Norwegian also uses the passive form a lot. ‘The house was sold’ Past participle with “bli/ble” or infinitive with “s” ending  Example – “Bilen blir vasket” or “Bilen vaskes”

Pronouns – The Subject Singular Plural jeg I vi we du you (informal) dere De you (formal) han he de they hun she den/det it

Pronoun Forms Subject (last slide) Possessive (example: your house Direct object (example: ...was sold to her) Reflexive (example: I brushed my teeth) See web pages or get electronic handout for forms

Adjectives They can have endings, but don’t usually change form Example: rød bok - røde bøker red book – red books Comparatives and superlatives are generally end in –ere and –est Example: kald, kaldere and kaldest Let’s be glad that this isn’t German!!

Adjectives - irregular Like English, Norwegian has a few irregulars in the comparative and superlative: mange, flere, flest (many, more, most) gammel, eldre, eldest (old, older, oldest) ung, yngre, yngst (young, younger, youngest)

Prepositions Probably the hardest to wrap one’s mind around in a new language. They have have multiple meanings and be part of numerous idioms We will see some in the last slide

Time Expressions Tricky, but important in genealogy. Three common forms are modeled: for tre år siden three years ago om tre år in three years (in the future) i tre år for three years BUT! ikke på tre år not for three years

30 Most Common Words i in, at og and det it, the, that som which er is til to en a, one av of på to, at for at that å to med with de they, the har has den it, the ikke not et a, one om about fra from var was han he men but seg him or her self vil will or want vi we ble became ved by means of kan can man one (person) A study of Norwegian newspapers from the 1960s and 1970s found that about 160 different words (with their various forms) comprised about 50% of the vocabulary.