http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/02/tias-birthday.html,
http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/01/pals-birthday.html)
http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/07/jeg-prver-lre-meg-norsk.html
There are three additional letters in the Norwegian alphabet and they appear right at the end after Z and are all vowels. They are also the exact same in Danish and pronouced the same in Swedish too although written differently, anyone can feel free to fill me in on why this is. All the pronounciation suggestions I give will of course be in my own southern English dialect, but it should be pretty universally applicable.
Now there are many exceptions of course but I would say generally Norwegian is a much more phonetic language than English. There are lots of stupid rules and things to learn but compared to English I think if you were to learn the correct pronounciation of each letter and a few basic rules then you could read and pronounce things in Norwegian (even if you dont understand them) much more than someone could in English so learning these things is really really helpful. Often when I cant quite understand a word I ask for someone to spell it and that makes it much much easier to work out the correct pronounciation. This is especially helpful with names of people and places. I think pronouncing someones name as correctly as you can manage is the least you can do when you are a visitor to someones country.
The first is Æ/æ, which yes is just an "a" and "e" attached together. No idea why they couldnt be a little more imaginative but who am I to judge. The letter is pronounced like the short "a" in words like "cat, bat and hat". If its just an "a" sound why bother? I hear you cry, well the reason is an "a" in Norwegian is pronounced like the "ar" in "start and dart". An example of this letter in a Norwegian word is "Lære" pronounced kind of like the girls name Lara only with the first "a" pronounced like the short "a" in cat. Lære means to learn. Just like we are all doing now, isnt this fun :)
Moving on, Ø/ø is the next letter and yes is just an "o" with a line through it. It is pronounced like the er in the boys names Ernie and Ernest. An exaple of the letter in a word is "prøver"(pronounced prerver), which means to try. Appropreate as this post is becoming a little trying, but stick with me. I may record and upload myself pronouncing the alphabet sometime soon but I will have to see just how ridiculus I sound.
Finally Å/å, yes just an "a" with a circle over the top, arnt these Norweigans original. Its important to note this is a little circle and not a dot like with an "i or j". The "å" sound is not really quite like anything in English and really requires to be heard to understand but the best examples I've heard so far are the "o" in lord or the "au" in taunt. A double "a" in Norwegian also makes the same sound by the way.
Putting it all together a great phrase to practice all three letters is "Jeg prøver å lære meg norsk" which translates as "I'm trying to learn Norwegian" (direct translation is I try to learn me Norwegian, for those who are interested in those kind of things). To write it in English phonetically for pronounciation in Bergen dialect is difficult because the å on its own is impossible to represent so again read the previous paragraph for that but the rest would be "egg prerver å lara meg norsk". Easy as that!
Now for those who have stuck with me this long here is a treat, a stupid music video about Æ, Ø and Å. Well worth a listen for a giggle and hopefully you can pick up the pronounciations from it too. Enjoy!!
No comments:
Post a Comment