Dave Hinz <dhinz@earth.execpc.com> a écrit dans le message : 3a958274$0$70812$272ea4a1@news.execpc.com... > Kelly Petit (kelly.petit@wanadoo.fr) wrote: > > : Dave Hinz <dhinz@earth.execpc.com> a écrit dans le message : > > : > Could this be a Bokmal/Nynorsk difference, perhaps, or is > : > my memory just that faulty? > > : 'Hvid' is the 'old' Danish way or Riksmål if you like. In modern Bokmål it is either 'hvit' or > : 'kvit' and Nynorsk is 'kvit'. > > OK, now I *really* am confused. Can someone provide this ignorant soul > with a map to the languages? I had thought, apparently erroneously, that > Bokmal was/is the language which was more-or-less the same between > Danish and Norwegian, in for instance, the mid 1800's, and that Nynorsk > is the present language of Norway. How does Riksmal fit in to this? Riksmål is the forerunner of Bokmål. That's to say, it's really more or less Danish. It used to be the spelling until the middle of the 20th century. Today Bokmål and Nynorsk are both official languages, but about 80 % og the population write Bokmål (I don't say speak since there are hundreds of dialects in Norway). As far as I am concerned, I think Nynorsk is the true Norwegian language since it's built on the language the people spoke (see Ivar Aasen). Today the two languages tend to get closer and closer, and many talk about getting a Samnorsk. This will probably happen one day. The purest Bokmål is spoken in Finnmark - that's my opinion. > > It is only just recently that I can read "Norwegian" (whatever that > is...) well enough to notice differences like this; I can read "Danish" > (again, whatever that is) about as well, but Swedish I find to be much > more difficult. Swedish is rather different although we learn to read both Swedish and Danish in High School, more people understand written Danish than Swedish. > > How does all of this work? Also, when I'm reading documents from > Norway, in the 1800's, are these in bokmal? How about webpages today, > in Norway & Denmark? I should say that written documents from the 1800.s would be in Riksmål (Danish). That's the reason why the ship's name was spelled with a 'd'. Most webpages are, no doubt, written in Bokmål. As I said you'll find only about 20 % of the population using Nynorsk. We tend to study Nynorsk more than Bokmål in Western Norway. I hope this answered some of your questions. > Another question - does anyone out there read Old Norse (ca. 1300's)? > I've got some documents in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum that I can't > quite make sense of. I used to study this, but I'm afraid my knowledge has shrunk a lot over the years. The old Norse is as you may know the forerunner of Icelandic and it's also the forerunner of Nynorsk since Nynorsk was built on the dialects the people spoke in the 19th century. Sure they had been influenced by Danish too. Don't forget we were under Denmark for 400 years and all official papers were written in Danish. But I'm sure someone out there can help you, if not try no.slektsforsking.diverse, there's at least one there who's a specialist. > > Funny how one question creates so many more... >From a teacher's viewpoint, I think this is a good reaction-:) Greetings Kjellaug Robberstad Petit aka Kelly Petit > > Thanks, > Dave Hinz > > >