Discuss the Factors contributing to the Spread of Norwegian (Bokmål) Loanwords

Yung Tsz To

11378830

Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong

LIN4001: Language and the Human Footprint

Dr. CHIN, Chi On, Andy

Mar 12, 2024

 Discuss the Factors contributing to the Spread of Norwegian (Bokmål) Loanwords

Introduction

Norwegian is spoken by approximately 5 million people worldwide. Bokmål (Book Language)

and Nynorsk (New Norwegian) are currently two written standards of the Norwegian language.

Tracing back to the Napoleonic wars where Norway had been a colony of Denmark for around

400 years, Norwegian people declared dependence in 1814 (Frydenlund, 2016). Norwegian

people had an increased sense of nationalism and thus developed their own written

system. Bokmål was reformed in 1907, which is an official shift from Danish to Norwegian

(Bull, 2019). Many supporters of Bokmål prefer keeping the language similar to how it

currently is used rather than making major changes. They take a more cautious approach to

changes in the language. Therefore, many administrative, legal, and scientific words entered

the Norwegian lexicon from Danish, due to Denmark's historical influence when Bokmål was

developing. Nynorsk is a written standard that is more closely related to traditional Norwegian

dialects, which will not be discussed in this essay. English people started to build railways

across Norway in the 1800s, which led to Norwegian borrowings from English due to

globalization (Haugen, 1950). Norway and Sweden share a geographical border, making

cultural exchanges between the two countries facile. Popular culture like arts can be easily

exchanged (Burke, 1977). Their proximity has enabled ideas, customs and linguistic aspects

like words to readily move between the two societies through interactions over time.
Historical Influences – The Takeover of Denmark

Before the Napoleonic wars in 1814, Norway was a province of Denmark for around 400 years,

Danish was the written language of Norway and Norwegian survived in a multitude of dialects

(Bull, 2019). All higher educational institutions were in Denmark, so all academic terms were

explained in Danish (Dahl, 2011). The Danish language was spread and expanded across the

Norwegian community (Widmark, Lennart, & Oskar, 2002). As the Norwegian language was

only seen as dialects and the official language was Danish, the two languages came into contact

for around 400 years. Norwegian dialects had undergone massive linguistic changes, as written

Danish replaced written Norwegian completely (Torp & Vikør, 2003).

As many administrative and academic terms entered Norwegian from Danish, many of the

modern Bokmål-Norwegian loanwords remain the same due to Danish influence, direct

borrowing includes the word politikk, meaning ‘policy’, which is borrowed directly from the

Danish politik. The spellings are very similar, and the pronunciation /pʊlɪˈtɪk/ is the same.

There are words that underwent a phonetic adaptation from Danish to Norwegian, by changing

the syllable stress when pronouncing the word, even though the spelling remained the same. In

Danish, the letter ‘e’ at the end of a word is pronounced as the schwa vowel sound /ə/ in Danish,

whereas in Norwegian, the ‘e’ at the end of a word is usually pronounced as a clear /e/ sound.

For example, the word ‘university’ is universitet in Danish, which is pronounced as

/ʊnɪvɛɳsɪˈteɪd/ with the schwa vowel sound /ə/ at the end. Universitet is borrowed from Danish

to Bokmål-Norwegian. In Norwegian, universitet is pronounced as /ʉːnɪvɛrˈsɪtɛt/, with the

stress of a clear /e/ sound at the end. The same applies to bibliotek and eksamen, meaning

‘library’ and ‘exam’ respectively. They have the exact same spelling but adapted in the

Norwegian pronunciation of the ‘e’ sound in the end. These examples vividly show how the
administrative and academic terms of the Bokmål-Norwegian language were influenced and

adapted from the Danish language. Haugen (1987) claimed that the Bokmål-Norwegian is a

Norwegian version of Danish, it turned from a pidgin to a creole for centuries of Danish writing

and teaching in schools. Norwegians had to learn writing in Danish since primary education,

although their speech was seriously affected by different Norwegian dialects. Many Bokmål-

Norwegian and Danish words nowadays have similar spellings, but are phonetically different

from each other.

Geographical Influences – Cultural exchanges between Norway and Sweden

Bokmål-Norwegian has similarities to written Danish because Norway was controlled by

Denmark for many years. However, Norway and Sweden share a long border, which means

their spoken languages interact frequently through communities living near each other. Since

they are neighbours, Norwegian and Swedish dialects exchanged words and sounds easily

compared to Bokmål-Norwegian’s connection with written Danish. Haugen (1967) held a

group disucssion with respondents from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The study asked

people to rate how well they understood each other's languages. The findings showed

Norwegians and Swedes could understand each other's sentences. Danes, on the other hand,

had trouble following entire sentences in Norwegian and Swedish. This suggested a greater

comprehension between the neighbouring languages of Norwegian and Swedish compared to

Danish.

Common Bokmål-Norwegian words borrowed from Swedish and still used daily are a result

of their close geographical locations and historic cultural exchanges. Terms that describe

features of everyday life were easily adopted from Swedish into neighbouring areas of Norway
due to the frequent interactions and shared experiences of people living near the countries’

borders throughout many centuries. Basic food items in Bokmål-Norwegian

like kake (meaning ‘cake’ in English), ris (meaning ‘rice’ in English), kjøtt (meaning ‘meat’ in

English), melk (meaning ‘milk’ in English), and smør (meaning ‘butter’ in English) are

called kaka, ris, kött, mjölk, and smör in Swedish respectively. Basic body part terms in

Bokmål-Norwegian like øre (meaning ‘ear’ in English), bein (meaning ‘leg’ in English),

and hjerte (meaning ‘heart’ in English) are called öra, ben, and hjärta in Swedish respectively.

Although both languages have distinct special characters, their pronunciations are nearly

identical, showing a strong influence between the languages.

Social influences – The input of English due to Globalisation

As the English language is widely spread across the world due to the dominance of British and

American culture in the postwar period, English has become a major source of loanwords due

to cross-cultural communication in Bokmål-Norwegian (Sunde, 2018). Norwegians are

exposed to English language media, popular culture and technology more often after

participating more actively in international trades and commerce (Kerswill & Williams, 2005).

Dewey (2017) stated that English is a hybridized language, where it has continually borrowed

from other languages. The modern Bokmål-Norwegian has a lot of loanwords from English in

terms of business terminology, modern medical terms, or even internet slangs and expressions

of music and fashion.

A lot of English terms that have been created in recent days have been borrowed from English

to Bokmål-Norwegian. However, Norwegian phonology has its constraints, leading to some

modifications of the pronunciation of the original English words. For example, the
word strategi is borrowed directly from the original English word strategy. The

word strategi in Bokmål-Norwegian is pronounced as /stɾɑtəˈʃiː/. Compared to the original

English pronunciation /ˈstræt.ə.dʒi/, the way syllables are stressed in words is different between

Norwegian and English. In Norwegian, stress usually falls on the last syllable. But in English,

there is no set rule for which syllable gets stressed. Words can have stress on different syllables

in English. So, when English words become Norwegian, sometimes the syllable stress needs

to change to fit how stress usually works in Norwegian. Also, the English word strategy has

the letter ‘a’ representing both the /a/ and /æ/ vowel sounds in different syllables. However, in

Norwegian, the letter ‘a’ strictly represents only one vowel sound, /a/. Norwegian has a separate

letter ‘æ’ used for the /æ/ sound that the English ‘a’ can represent. Therefore, for the spelling

of strategy to remain nearly unchanged when borrowed into Bokmål-Norwegian as strategi,

the pronunciation of the first ‘a’ had to adapt to fit Norwegian phonotactic rules. The ‘r’ sound

is pronounced as a rhotic consonant. Also, the stress is on the third syllable to fit in the

Norwegian phonotactic rules. The word virus is another example of an English word that has

been adapted when borrowed into Bokmål-Norwegian. Virus refers to a medical concept that

comes from modern times. Virus is pronounced as /ˈvaɪə.rəs/ in English. However, the

Norwegian vowel system does not include the long ‘i’ sound /aɪ/ that English has. So, there are

three pronunciation changes when virus is borrowed into Norwegian. First, as mentioned above,

the stress shifted to the second syllable, fitting into Norwegian phonotactic rules. Second, the

‘i’ sound changed to a short /ɪ/ sound, which is the closest to the English long /aɪ/ sound. Third,

the ‘r’ sound is pronounced as a rhotic consonant. The same pattern applies to words

like internett, trendy, and parti in Bokmål-Norwegian, meaning ‘internet’, ‘trendy’,

and ‘party’ respectively from the original English word. English loanwords are integrated into

the Norwegian language through systematic phonological adaptations during the borrowing

process.
Conclusion

In conclusion, there have been several significant factors that have contributed to the spread of

loanwords into Bokmål-Norwegian over time. Historically, the political domination of Norway

by Denmark left a significant influence, as Danish became the official written language and

administration was conducted in Danish, leading to many loanwords entering Bokmål-

Norwegian. Geographically, the close contact and cultural exchanges between Norway and

Sweden resulted in the borrowing of words related to border life, natural environment and daily

activities.

More recently in the modern era, the globalising forces of popular culture, media and

technology have facilitated the growing introduction of English loanwords into Bokmål-

Norwegian. Younger generations have embraced loanwords from English as a prominent global

language. The spread of loanwords reflects Norway’s interconnected history with neighbouring

countries and its increasing global orientation in the present day, and Bokmål-Norwegian

continues to evolve as a living language.

References

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and ideological implications of national bilingualism and biliteracy. 18.

Burke, P. (1977). Popular Culture in Norway and Sweden. (3), 143-147.

Dahl, G. (2011). Books in Early Modern Norway. Bergen, Norway: Brill.

Dewey, M. (2017). English as a lingua franca and globalization: an interconnected perspective.

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Frydenlund, B. (2016). The Case of Norway: Domestic Developments and External Influences

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Appendix

List of Norwegian (Bokmål) Loanwords

Bokmål-Norwegian Danish Swedish English

politikk politik policy

universitet universitet university

bibliotek bibliotek library

eksamen eksamen exam

kake kaka cake

ris ris rice

kjøtt kött meat

melk mjölk milk

smør smör butter

øre öra ear

bein ben leg

hjerte hjärta heart

strategi strategy

virus virus

internett internet

trendy trendy

parti party