Norwegian dialects
Norwegian dialects ("dialekter") are commonly divided into four main groups, 'Northern Norwegian' (), 'Central Norwegian' ("trøndersk"), 'Western Norwegian' ("vestlandsk"), and 'Eastern Norwegian' (). Sometimes 'Midland Norwegian' () and/or 'South Norwegian' () are considered fifth or sixth groups. The dialects are generally mutually intelligible, but differ significantly with regard to accent, grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. If not accustomed to a particular dialect, even a native Norwegian speaker may have difficulty understanding it. Dialects can be as local as farm clusters, but many linguists note an ongoing regionalization, diminishing or even elimination of local variations. Normalized speech, following the written languages "Bokmål" and "Nynorsk  or the more conservative Riksmål" and "Høgnorsk", is not in common use, except in parts of Finnmark (where the original Sami population learned Norwegian as a second language), in much of , certain social groups in major urban areas elsewhere (e.g. Trondheim), in national broadcasting, and in courts and official decrees. Evolution. Owing to geography and climate, Norwegian communities were often isolated from each other until the early 20th century. As a result, local dialects had a tendency to be influenced by each other in singular ways while developing their own idiosyncrasies. The community of Oppdal, for example, has characteristics in  common with coastal dialects to the west, the dialects of northern Gudbrandsdalen to the south, and other dialects in Sør-Trøndelag from the north. The linguist Einar Haugen documented the particulars of the Oppdal dialect, and the writer Inge Krokann used it as a literary device. Other transitional dialects include the dialects of Romsdal and Arendal. On the other hand, newly industrialized communities near sources of hydroelectric power have developed dialects consistent with the region but in many ways unique. Studies in such places as Høyanger, Odda, Tyssedal, Rjukan, Notodden, Sauda, and others show that koineization has effected the formation  of new dialects in these areas. Similarly, in the early 20th century a dialect closely approximating standard Bokmål arose in and around railway stations. This was known as ("station language") and may have contributed to changes in dialect around these centers. Social dynamics. Until the 20th century, upward social mobility in a city like Oslo could in some cases require conforming speech to standard Riksmål. Studies show that even today, speakers of rural dialects may tend to change their usage in formal settings to approximate the formal written language. This has led to various countercultural movements ranging from the adoption  of traditional forms of Oslo dialects among political radicals in Oslo, to movements preserving local dialects. There is widespread and growing acceptance that Norwegian linguistic diversity is worth preserving. The trend today is a regionalisation of the dialects causing smaller dialectal traits to disappear and rural dialects to merge with their nearest larger dialectal variety. There is no standard dialect for the Norwegian language as a whole, and all dialects are by now mutually intelligible. Hence, widely different dialects are used frequently and alongside each other, in almost every aspect of society. Criticism of a dialect may be considered criticism  of someone's personal identity and place of upbringing, and is considered impolite. Not using one's proper dialect would be bordering on awkward in many situations, as it may signal a wish to take on an identity or a background which one does not have. Dialects are also an area from which to derive humour both in professional and household situations. Distinctions. There are many ways to distinguish among Norwegian dialects. These criteria are drawn from the work of Egil Børre Johnsen (ed.) (1987) "Vårt Eget Språk/Talemålet", H. Aschehoug & Co. . These criteria generally provide the analytical means for  identifying most dialects, though most Norwegians rely on experience to tell them apart. Grammars and syntax. Infinitive forms. One of the most important differences among dialects is which ending, if any, verbs have in the infinitive form. In Old Norwegian, most verbs had an infinitive ending (-a), and likewise in a modern Norwegian dialect, most of the verbs of the dialect either have or would have had an infinitive ending. There are five varieties of the infinitive ending in Norwegian dialects, constituting two groups: One ending (western dialects) Two different endings (eastern dialects) The split distribution of endings is related  to the syllable length of the verb in Old Norse. "Short-syllable" () verbs in Norse kept their endings. The "long-syllable" () verbs lost their (unstressed) endings or had them converted to -e. Dative case. The original Germanic contextual difference between the dative and accusative cases, standardized in modern German and Icelandic, has degenerated in spoken Danish and Swedish, a tendency which spread to Bokmål too. Ivar Aasen treated the dative case in detail in his work, "Norsk Grammatik" (1848), and use of Norwegian dative as a living grammatical case can be found in a few of the earliest Landsmål texts . However, the dative case has never been part of official Landsmål/Nynorsk. It is, however, present in some spoken dialects north of Oslo, Romsdal, and south and northeast of Trondheim. The grammatical phenomenon is highly threatened in the mentioned areas, while most speakers of conservative varieties have been highly influenced by the national standard languages, using only the traditional accusative word form in both cases. Often, though not always, the difference in meaning between the dative and accusative word forms can thus be lost, requiring the speaker to add more words to specify what was actually meant, to avoid potential  loss of information. Future tense. There are regional variations in the use of future tense, for example, "He is going to travel.": Syntax. Syntax can vary greatly between dialects, and the tense is important for the listener to get the meaning. For instance, a question can be formed without the traditional "asking-words" (how, where, what, who..) For example, the sentence "?" (in Bokmål), "?" (in Nynorsk), literally: "How much is the clock?" i.e. "What time is it?" can be put in, among others, the following forms: Pronunciation of vowels. Diphthongization of monophthongs. Old Norse had the diphthongs , , and , but the Norwegian  spoken in the area around Setesdal has shifted two of the traditional diphthongs and innovated four more from long vowels, and, in some cases, also short vowels. West Norwegian dialects have also innovated new diphthongs. In Midtre you can find the following: Monophthongization of diphthongs. The Old Norse diphthongs , , and have experienced monophthongization in certain dialects of modern Norwegian. This shift originated in Old East Norse, which is reflected in the fact that Swedish and Danish overwhelmingly exhibit this change. Monophthongization in Norway ends on the coast west of Trondheim and extends southeast in a triangle into central Sweden. Some  Norwegian dialects, east of Molde, for example, have lost only and . Leveling. (/ in Norwegian) This is a phenomenon in which the root vowel and end vowel in a word approximate each other. For example, the old Norse has become or in certain dialects. There are two varieties in Norwegian dialects – one in which the two vowels become identical, the other where they are only similar. Leveling exists only in inland areas in Southern Norway, and areas around Trondheim. Vowel shift in strong verbs. In all but Oslo and coastal areas just south of the capital, the present tense of certain  verbs take on a new vowel (umlaut), e.g., becomes (in Oslo, it becomes ). Pronunciation of consonants. Eliminating in the plural indefinite form. In some areas, the is not pronounced in all or some words in their plural indefinite form. There are four categories: Phonetic realization of. Most dialects realize as the alveolar tap or alveolar trill . However, for the last 200 years the uvular approximant has been gaining ground in Western and Southern Norwegian dialects, with Kristiansand, Stavanger, and Bergen as centers. The uvular R has also been adopted in aspiring patricians in and around Oslo, to the point that  it was for some time fashionable to "import" governesses from the Kristiansand area. In certain regions, such as Oslo, the flap has become realized as a retroflex flap (generally called "thick L") , which exists only in Norway, a few regions in Sweden, and in completely unrelated languages. The sound coexists with other retroflexions in Norwegian dialects. In some areas it also applies to words that end with "rd," for example with (farm) being pronounced . The uvular R has gained less acceptance in eastern regions, and linguists speculate that dialects that use retroflexes have a "natural defense" against uvular R and  thus will not adopt it. However, the dialect of Arendal retains the retroflexes, while featuring the uvular R in remaining positions, e.g. . In large parts of Northern Norway, especially in the northern parts of Nordland county and southern parts of the former county of Troms, as well as several parts of the former county of Finnmark, another variant is still common: the voiced post-alveolar sibilant fricative . In front of voiceless consonants, the realisation of this R is unvoiced as well, to . Thus, where one in the southern and Trøndelag dialects will get or or , in areas realising voiced R  as , one will get . Palatalization. In areas north of an isogloss running between Oslo and Bergen, palatalization occurs for the n (IPA ), l (), t () and d () sounds in varying degrees. Areas just south and southwest of Trondheim palatalize both the main and subordinate syllable in words (e.g., ), but other areas only palatalize the main syllable (). Voicing of plosives. Voiceless stops () have become voiced () intervocalically after long vowels (, vs. , ) on the extreme southern coast of Norway, including Kristiansand, Mandal and Stavanger. The same phenomenon appears in Sør-Trøndelag and one area in Nordland. Segmentation. The geminate in southwestern Norway has become  , while just east in southcentral Norwegian the final is lost, leaving . The same sequence has been palatalized in Northern Norway, leaving the palatal lateral . Assimilation. The second consonant in the consonant clusters , , and has assimilated to the first across most of Norway, leaving , , and respectively. Western Norway, though not in Bergen, retains the cluster. In Northern Norway this same cluster is realized as the palatal lateral . Consonant shift in conjugation of masculine nouns. Although used less frequently, a subtle shift takes place in conjugating a masculine noun from indefinitive to definitive, e.g., from to (, [beçːen] or ). This is found in  rural dialects along the coast from Farsund to the border between Troms and Finnmark. The kj - sj merger. Many people, especially in the younger generation, have lost the differentiation between the (written ) and (written ) sounds, realizing both as . This is by many considered to be a normal development in language change (although as most language changes, the older generation and more conservative language users often lament the degradation of the language). The functional load is relatively low, and as often happens, similar sounds with low functional loads merge. Tonemes and intonation. There are great differences between the intonation systems of  different Norwegian dialects. Vocabulary. First person pronoun, nominative plural. Three variations of the first person plural nominative pronoun exist in Norwegian dialects: First person pronoun, nominative singular. There is considerable variety in the way the first person singular nominative pronoun is pronounced in Norwegian dialects. They appear to fall into three groups, within which there are also variations: The word "not". The Norwegian word for the English "not" exists in these main categories: Examples of the sentence "I am not hungry," in Norwegian: Interrogative words. Some common interrogative words take on forms such as: