Norwegian
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A language of Norway
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
Norsk
Population
4,640,000 in Norway. Total users in all countries: 4,741,780.
Language Maps
Language Status
1 (National). De facto national language.
Typology
SVO; prepositions; noun head final; gender (masculine/feminine/neuter); definite and indefinite articles; passives (active, middle, passive); comparatives; 24 consonants, 12 vowels, 5 diphthongs; 2 pitch contours; stress on first syllable.
Language Development
Fully developed. Bible: 1904–1985.
Language Resources
Writing
Latin script [Latn].

Norwegian has 2 written standards, both of which are assigned codes in the ISO 639-3 standard: Bokmål Norwegian (nob) and Nynorsk Norwegian (nno). Bokmål differs from Nynorsk in numerous details in the lexicon, morphosyntax and the use of diphthongs versus single vowels. These written norms have neither a precise geographical delineation nor a direct correspondence with spoken dialects, although Nynorsk is closer to the western dialects and is more in use in western Norway. The written norms are grammatically and lexically very similar. Nynorsk, used by a minority of Norwegians, can be classified as West Scandinavian; Bokmål, the written standard of the majority of the population, tends towards East Scandinavian. Thus, Norwegian draws lexicon and syntax from both West Scandinavian and East Scandinavian speech varieties.