Introduction to Nynorsk/Nynorsk and the other Nordic languages

The differences between Nynorsk and the other Scandinavian languages are fairly systematic. This page will go through several of these differences. Before we start, remember (or learn now) that Nynorsk is both a) a West Scandinavian language b) a Continental Scandinavian language The relationship between the Nordic (Scandinavian) languages may be summarised as follows: + The North Germanic languages western eastern mainland insular Nynorsk x x Faroese x x Icelandic x x Bokmål ? ? x Danish x x Swedish x x Diphthongs Part of what defines the West Scandinavian languages, is that they keep the diphthongs from Old Norse. Nynorsk has fewer diphthongs than both Icelandic and Faroese, however. Below are a few examples. + diphthongs Old Norse Nynorsk Faroese Icelandic Bokmål Danish Swedish translation draumr draum dreymur draumur drøm drøm dröm dream rauðr raud reyður rauður rød rød röd red brauð brød breyð brauð brød brød bröd bread heyra høyra hoyra heyra høre høre höra hear einn ein ein einn en en en a (indefinite article), one (numeral) In traditional Nynorsk, brød was spelled braud. brød is one of few instances were an Old Norse -au has not been kept in Nynorsk, like the vast majority of them are. The infinitive ending In the Nordic standard languages, there are two different infinitive endings: -a and -e (but in dialects, additional endings exist). Nynorsk has, as written in earlier chapters, both of these infinitive endings (plus a system that switches between the two). Thus Nynorsk can be written with the same infinitive ending as any of the other Nordic languages. The differences can be summarised with the verb kasta, which means 'to throw' and still has the same root in all the Nordic languages: + infinitive ending Old Norse Nynorsk Faroese Icelandic Bokmål Danish Swedish translation kasta kasta or kaste kasta kasta kaste kaste kasta throw