Then you can read on the paper bag where you are. It might be even simpler to make contact with the first random person you meet and try to tune into the local dialect in this country overflowing with dialects. If only it were not for the 500,000 Norwegians who move each year and for the old dialect markers that keep changing…

The dialects are valued more highly in Norway than in many other countries. This is not without cause. When the Danish civil service took over the administration of Norway in what Henrik Ibsen called the 400 year-long night from the 15th to the 19th century, the written Old Norse language had to give way to Danish. Nevertheless, the dialects survived in the popular tongue and it was on the basis of these that Ivar Aasen was able between 1840 and 1870 to build up the language that we now call Nynorsk (New Norwegian). He also paid great attention to creating links with the Old Norse language. But for many people the dialects kept their second-class status. In particular, those that moved to the big towns usually dropped their own dialects. As recent as the 1960's the use of dialect was not acceptable in many situations, neither at work nor elsewhere.       

In the 1970's the country districts rose up against the capital, a majority said no to membership of what was then known as the European Economic Community, and the Nynorsk movement began a campaign to give the dialects higher status. "Speak your dialect - write Nynorsk!" was the new slogan of Noregs Mållag (the language society that promotes the use of Nynorsk). At least it became much more common to speak in dialect. Within a few years, Norwegians had loosened their linguistic collars. When both airline stewardesses and bank employees did the same, Norway was indeed a land of dialects. Nevertheless, there are still some people who feel that their dialects are inferior. 

Language is always changing. The Bokmål (standard Norwegian) used in Norway today is much more Norwegian than that which ruled a hundred years ago. Nynorsk has probably changed even more. At the same time, Nynorsk has been an important smithy for forging and renewing the Bokmål vocabulary. No Bokmål speaker will today use the term "ansøking" (job application) as was usual in 1904. The Nynorsk word "søknad" is now universal.

Nynorsk vocabulary for its part belongs linguistically alongside the Nordic majority language, Swedish, and thus represents a linguistic route from Norwegian to Swedish for those who come from the east of this country. In fact, Nynorsk opens the way both to Sweden in the east and westward to the coastal islands and their modern versions of the ancient Old Norse language.

And the dialects too are changing. Many of the boundaries between dialects coincide with the 16th century administrative boundaries. In the east of the country many of these boundaries between dialects are now dissolving as the speech of the Oslo Fjord region spreads. New regional accents replace the traditional dialects. On the west coast the local dialects still remain much more firmly entrenched. Those who come from places with special character and who are proud of the places they come from, take better care of their dialect than those who come from places with less distinctive character.

Find more information about the Norwegian languages and dialects at www.aasentunet.no.