Nordnorsk

One of the Norwegian dialects is called Nordnorsk or Northern Norwegian. Nordnorsk as well as the other main Norwegian dialects, has its own set of sub-groups or sub-dialects. A characteristic of the Nordnorsk dialect is that “hv” is commonly changed to “k”. For example, the Norwegian word “Hva” will be pronounced “Ka” in Nordnorsk. Another characteristic is that when saying the word “she”, instead of using the Norwegian word “hun” they use the Norwegian word “ho”. In addition, the first word in a sentence is usually pronounced with a higher pitch that decreases in the rest of the sentence. These are some of the differentiating characteristics of Nordnorsk and its Northern Norwegian sub-dialects.

Trøndersk

Another of the Norwegian dialects is called Trøndersk because it originated in the Trøndelag county of Norway. It is also called Central Norwegian. Many words in this dialect differ from the other dialects. For instance the pronoun “I” which in Norwegian is “Jeg”, in Trøndersk it is “Æ”. Another difference is that while those who speak Nordnorsk say the word “dokker” to say “you”, Trøndersk speakers only say “dokk”. A similarity that Trøndersk shares with Nordnorsk is that in words that begin with “Hv”, they are usually changed to begin with “K” or “Kv”.  Another characteristic of this dialect is that they pronounce a very thick “L”. Additionally, they always stress the first syllable in a word.

Innlandsmål

Innlandsmål refers to “Midland Norwegian”.  It is called this way because it is mainly spoken in the midland districts of Norway. One of these Midland dialects is called Hallingmål-Valdris. This dialect also has its own sub-dialects. A characteristic of these dialects is that “fn” at the end of a word is usually pronounced “bdn” or “bn”.

Vestnorsk

Vestnorsk refers to “Western Norwegian”. This dialect also has many sub-dialects. One of these sub-dialects is Bergensk. One characteristic of this sub-dialect is the way the “r” is pronounced. It is pronounced like the French “r”. The way this letter is pronounced makes this dialect notably different from the Østnorsk dialect. Another sub-dialect of Vestnorsk is called Stavanger. A characteristic of Stavanger is that is commonly changes the letter “k” in the middle of a word to the letter “g”. Also, because this dialect is spoken in Stavanger which is a big city, the dialect has been influenced by many foreign languages such as English.  Another sub-dialect is called Alesund and it is characterized by its great use of the letter “k”.

Østnorsk

Østnorsk refers to Eastern Norwegian. It is sometimes also called “Standard Norwegian”. One of its characteristics is that it has open vowels. Another well-known characteristic is their use of the word “ente” to say “not”. This word is pronounced very differently in this dialect than how it is said normally in other Norwegian dialects. There are many verbs in this dialect as well that are completely different from the ones used in the other Norwegian dialects. Another difference between Østnorsk and the other dialects is that while many others change “hv” to “k”, Østnorsk does not. Something that also characterizes Østnorsk speakers is the fact that they speak very fast.

Sørlandske

Sørlandske refers to Southern Norwegian. One of its sub-dialects is Arendal. A characteristic of Arendal is that the letter “R” is usually dropped. Another characteristic is that the letter “p” is pronounced as “b”, the letter “t” is pronounced as a “d” and the letter “k” is pronounced as a “g”.