The Norwegian language belongs to the Indo-European language family and in particular to the North Germanic languages. It has a lot in common with Swedish, Danish and the Faroese language. It is spoken by five million people, almost all of whom live in Norway, where it is also an official language.
Norwegian has two official written forms: Bokmål (literally “language of books”) and Neo-Norwegian (nynorsk, “New Norwegian”) There is also the unofficial written form, “riksmol”, Nor. riksmål (literally national language), which is a more conservative form of Bokmål, and informal High Norwegian (høgnorsk), which is more conservative than Neo-Norwegian.
There have always been a large number of dialects in Norway. Due to the difficult topography of the country, with many mountains and steep valleys, and difficult travel, the dialects were able to develop very differently from each other. For this reason, but also due to the fact that Denmark dominated Norway for many centuries with Danish as the official language, a single language with a single pronunciation could not be established, as for example in Sweden or Germany.
However, the long union of Norway and Denmark led to the creation of a Dano-Norwegian common language, which was spoken by a small part of the population. Even in the written language today there are two different scripts.
1. Bergenstesten
- Levels:
- A1, A2, B1, B2, C1
- Description: Bergenstesten is recognized by the University of Oslo and covers all levels of language proficiency.
2. Trinn
- Levels:
- Trinn 1 (A2-B1), Trinn 2 (B1-B2), Trinn 3 (B2-C1)
- Description: Trinn is a certification system for the Norwegian language, covering levels from beginner to advanced.
- Note: Both Trinn and Bergenstesten exams are held in Norway.
The Norwegian language is essential for those who wish to work or study in Norway. At our institute, we offer courses tailored to meet your needs.
