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This is the next post in a series on the great Norwegian language struggle between 叠辞办尘氓濒 and Nynorsk. Click here to read the background post and here to read the first part of Bryce's conversion guide… here is part two. Enjoy, share and comment 馃檪

Consonant Alterations

You didn't think it would be as easy as throwing a few 鈥渏鈥�'s around a bit and doubling some letters did you? Sorry peeps, but there's a bit more to it than that. Let's start with three changes which are pretty easy to understand: 鈥渒v鈥� 鈫� 鈥渉v鈥�, 鈥渕n鈥� 鈫� 鈥渧n鈥�, and 鈥渒(n)鈥� 鈫� 鈥済(n)鈥�.

Now comes the tricky(-er) part 鈥� the magical letter g. Yeah, magical. ‘Cause not only does it transform instelf into vowels, it can even make itself disappear. The general transformations are “g” 鈫� “i” after a vowel like “e”; “g” 鈫� “y” after a vowel like “酶”; and “g” 鈫� 鈥淥h my god, it's disappeared!鈥� after the vowel combination 鈥渆i鈥�.

Diphthongs and Common Vowel Alterations

Diphthongs are two vowels that come together beside each other in total harmony to make a new and peaceful tomorrow. English is full of diphthongs (house, coin, liar, liar, pants on fire), but none of these are as awesome as the Modern Norwegian diphthongs which go all the way back to the bloody Vikings! Rock and Roll!

Did you wake up this morning thinking you could excited about diphthongs? Me neither. But here are the three Viking vowel combinations, and their 叠辞办尘氓濒 equivalents: 鈥渆i鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆鈥�, 鈥溍竬鈥� 鈫� 鈥溍糕��, 鈥渁u鈥� 鈫� 鈥溍糕��. Let's confuse ourselves with examples.

Maybe you noticed that most people write stein in 叠辞办尘氓濒, and that sten is an optional, secondary spelling. You're right! 叠辞办尘氓濒 is a bit inconsistent with how it chooses to represent these viking vowels, but you're just going to have to live with it 馃檨

In addition to the diphthongs, the Modern Norwegian 鈥渦鈥� often corresponds to 叠辞办尘氓濒 鈥渙鈥�, and Modern Norwegian 鈥渙鈥� can correspond to one of 鈥渁鈥� , 鈥溍モ��, or 鈥渦鈥�. I don't really know the rules for when you choose one or the other (there probably aren't any), but I think it's enough just to be aware that there are these possibilities.

Inflections

Unfortunately, Modern Norwegian and 叠辞办尘氓濒 don't have the same inflections. Fortunately, they're pretty similar, and it's much much much much much much much easier going from Modern Norwegian to 叠辞办尘氓濒 than it is the other way around. The basic rules are: 鈥渁r鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆r鈥�, 鈥渁ne鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆ne鈥�, 鈥渁re鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆re鈥�, 鈥渁st鈥� 鈫� 鈥渆st鈥�. Pretty easy. Of course, nothing can be completely easy, so I'm going to explain two of the more common irregularities (the others you can just learn as you come across them).

In 叠辞办尘氓濒, if I wanted to write 鈥渢he houses鈥� or 鈥渢he ships鈥� I would write 鈥渉usene鈥� and 鈥渟kipene鈥�. In Modern Norwegian, these words are written 鈥渉usa鈥� and 鈥渟kipa鈥�, so the 鈥渁鈥� here corresponds to 鈥渆ne鈥� in 叠辞办尘氓濒. However, not every 鈥渁鈥� at the end of a word should be changed to 鈥渆ne鈥�, because Modern Norwegian always writes feminine words as feminine, so 鈥渏enta鈥� and 鈥渂oka鈥� would be 鈥渢he girl鈥� and 鈥渢he book鈥� (which you will recognise from 叠辞办尘氓濒鈥�, and so should be left as they are.

Miscellaneous

Well, this is a long post, but we're nearing the end now. Good on you for sticking it out so far. This is the last section, and just covers some sundry items that I didn't cover elsewhere, so be prepared for an eclectic mix of jazz, verbs, and third items.

In Modern Norwegian there are these verbs which don't end in -r in the present tense. Instead, they either have a different form (like how 叠辞办尘氓濒 氓 vite 鈫� vet), or the stem is used by itself. So, 叠辞办尘氓濒 trenger, sitter, kommer (needs, sits, comes) are written treng, sit, kjem in Modern Norwegian.

A very common phrase in Modern Norwegian is 鈥淢e sj氓ast鈥� – see you later. It's made up of 鈥渕e鈥�, which means 鈥渨e鈥�, 鈥溍� sj氓鈥� which is 鈥溍� se鈥� in 叠辞办尘氓濒, and 鈥�-ast鈥� which is the passive. In 叠辞办尘氓濒, this would be 鈥渧i sees鈥�.

In Modern Norwegian, 鈥渉an鈥� (he) and 鈥渉o鈥� (she) are used instead of 鈥渄en鈥� (it) when referring to an object. So if you see 鈥淓g likte filmen. Eg likte han ogs氓.鈥�, then 鈥渉an鈥� here refers to the film (since it's film-en, masculine), and not some dude.

Pronouns in Modern Norwegian all different and confusing, so here's a chart of the more different and confusing ones.

What I've covered so far isn't going to be enough for you to actually write Modern Norwegian (if you want to do that, buy the book Norwegian Nynorsk by Peter Hallar氓ker), and it's not a complete overview of the differences, but it's enough to stop you from being so confused about things. If you ever come across a word in Modern Norwegian that you don't know, then the dictionaries at lexin.no (Nynorsk 鈫� 叠辞办尘氓濒, Nynorsk 鈫� Engelsk) will give you a helping hand.

Okay, I think I'm going to lie down now.