American Norwegian

American Norwegian (Norwegian: amerikansk norsk) is a koiné dialect of Norwegian spoken by Norwegian-Americans.

This article is about the dialect of Norwegian. For the newspaper, see The Norwegian American. For the ethnic group, see Norwegian-Americans.
American Norwegian
amerikansk norsk
Native toUnited States
RegionMidwest, West
Early forms
Latin (Norwegian alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone
IETFno-US

While American Norwegian is not archaic in its use of grammar, its lexicon can be described as slightly archaic.[1][2]

History

Immigration
Further information: Norwegian Americans § History, and Scandinavian immigration to the Americas § Norwegian immigration

American Norwegian formed as a result of Norwegians migrating to the United States.[2]

In 1825, dozens of Norwegians left Stavanger on board the Restauration.[2][3] Migration was largely due to religious persecution, particuarlly of Quakers and the Haugianerne.[4] Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Norwegian migration to the North America continued, primarily through the White Star Line[5] and the Cunard Line.[6]

Speakers
See also: Norwegian-Americans § Language usage

Between 1910 and the First World War, one million Americans had Norwegian as their first language, many of whom subscribed to Norwegian-language newspapers,[7] such as Decorah Posten and Skandinaven.

Grammar

Variations in grammar indicate koineization.[1]

Gender

In Norwegian, grammatical gender is opaque, meaning a word's gender is not immediately obvious based on meaning or phonetics. Children, thus, often overgeneralise masculine gender. This same effect can be observed in heritage speakers. This overgeneralisation is far less common when words are used in their definite form. Similarly, overgeneralisation is seen more in prenominal possession compared to postnominal possession.[8]

Token distributions of the three indefinite articles in American and Eastern Norwegian dialects[8]
Gender CANS
(N = 50)		 NorDiaCorp
(old, N = 127)		 NorDiaCorp
(young, N = 66)
M 76.3% (753) 64.8% (1833) 74.9% (909)
F 16.9% (164) 18.2% (514) 5.4% (66)
N 6.9% (67) 17.0% (481) 19.7% (239)
Percentage of nouns appearing with a non-target-consistent indefinite article[8]
Direction Tokens Types
F→M 39.0% (92/236) 43.1% (31/72)
N→M 48.8% (80/164) 69.4% (34/49)
N→F 10.4% (17/164) 26.5% (13/49)

In some European Norwegian dialects, feminine and masculine gender have combined into common gender,[8] while in other dialects, words considered feminine elsewhere are masculine.

Examples

Below are examples of non-target consistent indefinite articles:[8]

Masculine article used with feminine word

Har

du

en

ku

enda?

Har du en ku enda?

Have you a.M cow.F still?

Masculine article used with neuter word

Hun

var

på

en

fjell

Hun var på en fjell

She was on a.M mountain.N

Feminine article used with neuter word

Det

var

ei

menneske

Det var ei menneske

It was a.F human.N

Lexicon

Pronouns in Norwegian and American dialects are relatively similar.[1]

Due to less input in Norwegian, Norwegian-Americans acquire fewer native words. This has led to more loaning and calquing from English into American Norwegian (e.g. lage leving, a literal translation of "make [a] living", rather than the native expression tjene til livets opphold) as well as the preservation of words now obsolete in European Norwegian.[9] Many such words are absorbed and adopt Norwegian pronunciation and grammar. Some of these include: farm, kæunti (county) and seidvåk (sidewalk).[2] New words have also been developed, such as American hå ti, replacing European når, meaning "when".[10]

See also

References
  1. Bondi Johannessen, Janne; Laake, Signe (2012). "To myter om det norske språket i Amerika: Er det gammeldags? Nærmer det seg en bokmålsstandard?" [Two Myths About the Norwegian Language in America: Is it old-fashioned? Is it Approaching a Bokmål Standard?]. Norsk Lingvistisk Tidsskrift (in Norwegian Bokmål). 30 (2): 204–228. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  2. Natvig, David. "Continuity and Change in American Norwegian". Wisconsin Languages. University of Wisconsin–Madison. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  3. "Descendants of Norse 'Mayflower' Pioneers at Centennial Celebration". The Capital Times. June 9, 1925. p. 4. Retrieved September 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  4. Ingrid Semmingsen, C. A. Clausen (transl.). Haugeans, Rappites, and the Emigration of 1825 Archived September 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume 29: Page 3.
  5. "The White Star Line". Norway-Heritage. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  6. "The Cunard Line". Norway-Heritage. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  7. "Den norske Amerika-drømmen" [The Norwegian American Dream]. National Library of Norway (in Norwegian Bokmål). November 7, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  8. Lohndal, Terje; Westergaard, Marit (March 16, 2016). "Grammatical Gender in American Norwegian Heritage Language: Stability or Attrition?". Frontiers in Psychology. 7 (7): 344. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00344. PMC 4793186. PMID 27014151.
  9. Sonstad, Klaus (April 21, 2023). "Vaps, luta lei og 577 milliarder". Språksnakk (in Norwegian). 24 minutes in. NRK. NRK P2. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  10. Reed, Sada (October 16, 2017). "Norwegian America's hidden dialects". The Norwegian American. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
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