[goblin89]

Nynorsk is, according to TFA, predominantly used in speech and less used in writing, while Bokmål is the opposite. (Minus region specifics.) Is that not correct?

My impression, only based on this article, is that Nynorsk and Bokmål are both spoken as well as written, just more or less so depending on context and region. Just as English is both a written and a spoken language, and Cantonese is both a written and a spoken language.

[Tor3]

Nynorsk and Bokmål are both _written_ forms only. Norwegian spoken language is a huge continuum of dialects - there's no official spoken Norwegian (unlike e.g. Swedish, where something called "rikssvensk" was introduced by the authorities - "national spoken Swedish").

What you will find though is that there are a couple of scenarios where people will kind of speak the written form. One is, or at least used to be, newscasters on TV. They used to have rules which limited the kind of speech used, for reasons. And, as the news were essentially read from a script.. you speak it like it's written. Be that Bokmål or Nynorsk. And that's where you will find spoken Bokmål (or Nynorsk).. when reading aloud. And, as I mentioned in another comment.. when teaching people Norwegian. In the beginning you kind of speak the written form, otherwise the student would be totally confused.

[goblin89]

If they were solely written languages then you wouldn’t be able to, for example, read the text aloud, right?

I don’t have any first-hand knowledge, but according to Wikipedia on Bokmål it looks like it can be spoken as well (Wikipedia uses a phrase “spoken Bokmål”), but without a universally agreed-upon and regulated pronunciation. Isn’t it similar to English in this sense?

[CogitoCogito]

> If they were solely written languages then you wouldn’t be able to, for example, read the text aloud, right?

I believe /u/Tor3's point is that Norwegians would read and pronounce nynorsk and bokmål the same regardless of the differences in the writing.

> Isn’t it similar to English in this sense?

It is. I don't pronounce English words differently when they're written with e.g. British or American spellings.

[Tor3]

Bokmål and Nynorsk are both systems designed as a common form of writing. None of them were ever meant to be a spoken language - they are "best effort" of trying to make a unified way of writing. That doesn't mean that it's not possible to "speak" them, as in e.g. reading aloud (though the intonation and pronunciation may still wary wildly depending on the speaker's actual dialect).

[goblin89]

That means I was wrong in my original understanding!

[matsemann]

I think you're misunderstanding a bit. Those are both written languages only, but some may speak closer to one than the other. My speaking would be pretty close to bokmål, as I have "no" dialect.

Nynorsk is a mix of lots of various spoken dialects. No one really "speaks" nynorsk, but for many it's closer to how they speak than bokmål would be, but it's still not 1:1 for them. The only way you really would "speak" nynorsk if you're reading a play or something written in it.

[vintermann]

> as I have "no" dialect.

That almost certainly means "a moderate Oslo dialect, neither Stovner or Frogner", and it's probably not nearly as close to written Bokmål as you think (unless you learned Norwegian as a second language).

[matsemann]

As I wrote in another comment[0]: Foreign parents, and most kids spoke like Oslo among other kids, and their dialect only with adults. So pretty plain Norwegian. Most people would however guess I'm from Østfold, due to a thick "L" I've no idea where I picked up high here in the mountains.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39026276

[toretore]

Thank you for correcting a pet peeve of mine: People thinking they "speak Bokmål". Everyone speaks a dialect.

[matsemann]

Hence my quotes around the "no". I of course speak a dialect, but since it's similar to what the majority speak, it's almost never labeled as such.

[sfn42]

Nynorsk was an attempt at creating a written language closer to the spoken language. The problem is that in Norway out dialects are widely different. For example, the phrase "I am" is written as "Jeg er" in bokmål, "Eg er" in nynorsk. Nobody says "Jeg" - it can be pronounced as "Jei", "Eg", "Æ", or even "Oss" though that's a different word that some dialects use in place of the "correct" one.

[mtlmtlmtlmtl]

Yeah. Secretly it's actually just written Sunnmøre dialect with a bunch arcane and archaic vocabulary words from around the country thrown in, that if they're used, everyone else has to google.

That's why I hate reading it so much. I swear every time i read an article or something in Nynorsk, there's at least one word in there I've never seen in my life, that sounds like something a Sunnmøring spat out during a stroke.

[vintermann]

But that word is the first example that you don't actually pronounce bokmål the way it's written: Yes, some say "Ye" and some say "Eeg", but no one pronounces it "Yeeg" except maybe foreigners reading from a text.

[matsemann]

Some dialects also say "i" for I. (but pronounces like an English "e")