Norwegian has two official languages. They are New Norwegian and Book Language. They are especially common in writing because many Norwegians speak dialects which differ signficantly from these two. New Norwegian is most common in the west, and Book Language dominates in the east and north. Here are ten words which differ in the two languages:
English Book Language New Norwegian
church kirke kyrkje
east øst aust
I jeg eg
not ikke ikkje
they de dei
water vann vatn
way vei veg
week uke veke
what hva kva
where hvor kvar
In the examples we notice a few patterns. New Norwegian has more palatalization than Book Language. Compare the words for church and not. In Book Language we see examples of lenition. The words for what and where have an h in Book Language because the original k of New Norwegian weakened. The word for they has a diphthong in New Norwegian, a word which developed from the monophthong of Book Language. Despite the differences between the two official languages, they are nevertheless very similar.
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