About Norwegian language?

Question

My husband is Norwegian, which entails that his native language is Norwegian but he's also very fluent in English. I am half Greek half American and I am a native speaker of both Greek and English. So far so long we speak English to communicate but we are moving to Norway soon and I don't speak any Norwegian at all. How will it take for me to become a native speaker of Norwegian? Keep in mind that I also speak basic German, which might be some sort of help, and that I tend to pick up languages and accents easily.

Answer 1

Hmm, of course it would take as long as it takes, but for an English speaker you should have a decent fluency in one to two years. With good classes maybe slightly less than a year. Norwegian is closely related to English (before the Great Vowel Shift they were actually mutually intelligible), to the degree that the English speaker can recognize many words (although often with different spelling) or even understand some basic sentences without knowing the language. With a bit of German, you will have an advantage as well, both with pronunciation and with words that do not exist or do not sound similar in the Latin-Germanic language mix that is English. Like "emperor", a Latin word in English (from "imperator"), which is "kaiser" in German and "keiser" in Norwegian.



Let's say you can achieve decent fluency in 11-18 months and an acceptable pronunciation in about two-three years. Perfect pronunciation without a a slight foreign accent (if you should want to not have an accent, of course) can take years, even a lifetime. Basically the younger you are, the less "hardwired" you brain is for the language(s) you already know, and the less time before you get rid of your accent. Knowing multiple languages already may help reduce that. Someone who have spoken a language all their lives may still notice it if listening closely, though. As an example, I am half Norwegian, so I have known the language since I was a kid. I now study in Norway, and 8 months ago I was on the Bergen-Oslo train with two friends.An old woman was also sitting next to us, and we came into talk. She seemed very Norwegian, spoke the language perfectly and had a Norwegian name. My friends (native Norwegians) didn't notice anything, but I noticed that her consonants were just a little too strong, and her "e"s and "a"s were a millisecond too long. My friends got off the train two stops early to grab something to eat, while I remained aboard with the old woman. I then said I wondered were she were from. After looking as if in pain for a second, she told me that she was actually a Jew from Dresden. She had been in a concentration camp with her family. Her mother, grandparents and little brother were gassed. Her father and uncle worked themselves to death. She was the only survivor, and after the war she emigrated to Norway and changed her name, to forget about her past. Her children and grandchildren didn't even know it, only her husband and a relative in Munich. For the last sixty of the sixty-six years she had lived her, noone had ever suspected her of being anything but a native. Kind of makes you think about the secrets sound knowledge of a language can unlock.



Anyway, good luck with learning the language, the grammar is pretty straightforward, although the word order can be confusing at times and the pronunciation can be a royal pain at times. By the way, I have read a blog about another American woman married to a Norwegian living as an expat in Norway. It might help you as a "beginner's guide", if you do not want to spend money on one of the serious "etiquette and culture" books designed for businesspeople:

http://tressainnorway.blogspot.com/

Answer 2

to become a native speaker, you pretty much have to start at birth (native and all that entails). To gain near-native fluency is another story.



First, let me point out that you can very fluent in a language without passing for native, and why should you if you are not a native.



Long? If you are highly motivated and learn quickly (as you say), you should be quite fluent (if not native-like) in a year or so... if you can manage to use Norwegian consistently and not fall back to English / Greek or any other language every time you run into a barrier.



German isn't likely to help much, unless you can use your knowledge of consonantal sound shifts to figure out Norwegian. But it's likely equally easy to start using Norwegian as its own basis.



Don't expect that your husband will be a competent Norwegian teacher. Often natives do not understand the issues learners have, and often people with significant emotional attachment (children, spouses, parents) do not make the most effective teachers,



My website below can give some suggestions of resources that might help you.

Answer 3

You will eventually learn the language, no matter how long, as long as it takes, since you will be living in Norway, it's very easy for you to catch up and speak like a native. You might want to work in a school, or university, etc... or someplace where a lot of Norwegian or Norwegian plus English is frequently spoken or translated, etc...



Knowing German helps but only a little in terms of learning Norwegian.

Knowing English helps only a little, like words of English origin, like quick and lunch, spelled as kvikk and lunsj, in Norwegian but "kvikk lunsj" is something invented by Norwegians, despite the fact that those words were from English.

Learning some French would help too because some Norwegian words are borrowed from French but spelled as a Norwegian would pronounce it.

If you had learned other Scandinavian languages such as Swedish or Danish, it would really help in learning Norwegian because some of the grammar and spellings are similar, even though the pronunciation will differ.

Answer 4

Norwegian is a fairly easy language if you already know English and German. The most difficult bit is the tones, but the grammar is quite simple. English and Scots are the most Scandinavian-like of the West Germanic languages.

Answer 5

Primarily the North Germanic language--so you should be just fine.



Of course, some speak Danish,Spanish but a lot are from the UK, Canada and the USA.



I wish I could go again --I loved Norway! I could read the language immediately. Our first trip a mutual friend sent a car and a driver, he laughed when I said, "I can read that sign!"



To which he replied, "Our language is so simple, even our children can read it..."



I had to think for a minute and began laughing...