Posts tagged English

Well I’m not sure I actually am learning Norwegian. But a few things have come together lately to make me want to:

• I know German, French, Welsh (a bit), and some Latin (rudimentary) and Greek (the New Testament sort, but it’s still informative). But I don’t know any Scandinavian languages.
• I like languages, including English, whose origins include Icelandic and Norse.
• I like the way they fit together. Generally, knowing two related languages helps you to understand things about another language related to the two.
• I think knowing Norwegian would fill in a lot of gaps in my understanding of how English words relate to other languages. For example, many Yorkshire dialect words are Norse words.
• I’m a big fan of the Sami singer Mari Boine. The booklet notes for one of my CDs of her music are written only in Sami and Norwegian. In particular I want to understand the Norwegian translations of her Sami words, to understand the songs. And I want to understand them for myeslf.
• I hate hot weather, and have always fancied going somewhere like Norway or Sweden for a summer holiday. I imagine it to be cooler than Britain.
• Several Norwegians follow me on Twitter. I follow them too. When they tweet in their own language, I would like to be able to understand what they’re saying without having to ask.