Wikijunior:Languages/Norwegian

What writing system(s) does this language use?
Norwegian uses all 26 letters in English, along with the letters Æ, Ø, and Å. However, the letters c, q, w, x, and z are only used in loanwords.

There are two standards of written Norwegian: Bokmål, which is based on a Norwegianised Danish, and Nynorsk, based on the rural western dialects of Norwegian. In 2005, about 86.3% of native Norwegians use Bokmål, 5.5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7.5% only use Nynorsk. This means that about 91.8% of Norwegians use Bokmål, while only 15% use Nynorsk.

How many people speak this language?
About 4.7 million, or 4,700,700, people speak Norwegian, making it the 144th highest language in number of speakers.

Where is this language spoken?
Norwegian is an official language of Norway and the Nordic Council. The Nordic Council is a group of countries from Northern Europe. It is similar to the European Union.

What is the history of this language?
Norwegian comes from an ancient language called Old Norse. In 782, King Harald Fairhair united Norway. Christianity came to Norway around 1030. Christianity brought with it the Latin alphabet, which is the one used today. Before then, a runic alphabet was used. In the 800s, Old Norse began to separate into Eastern and Western dialects. Eventually, Western Norse changed and changed until it became Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian around the year 1300. From 1350 to 1525, Old Norwegian changed more until it turned into Middle and then Modern Norwegian, the kind used today.

For around 300 years from 1524 to 1814, Norway was under Danish rule, and Danish was the official language, used by the upper class. Following the end of Danish rule, there was a debate in the country about how to standardise the Norwegian language, which gave rise to two written standards. Some thought the Norwegian language should be based on a Norwegianised Danish, while others wanted to use the rural western dialects to build a "pure" Norwegian language. The Danish-based standard became Bokmål, whilst the pure standard became Nynorsk.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
Some famous Norwegian writers are Henrik Wergeland, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, and Sigrid Unset. Hamsun and Unset even got Nobel Prizes for their works!

What is a simple song/poem/story that I can learn in this language?
Kongesangen (The Norwegian royal anthem)