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Is the East Oslo accent "posh"?

  Tags: Norwegian | Accent
 Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk Post Reply
10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Ukulele Lady
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 Message 1 of 10
05 November 2010 at 4:21pm | IP Logged 
Hei alle sammen

I have decided to learn Norwegian - I always like a challenge. I would like some clarification about the use of common and neuter versus masculine, feminine and neuter.

In which areas of Norway do Norwegians use mainly common gender and neuter?

In which areas is feminine gender used more liberally?

As far I as can tell, in Bergen they never use the feminine. Figuratively speaking, they shoot anyone who uses the feminine forms of words. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of the books I have looked at don't use the feminine gender. They mention it briefly, then proceed to use common gender throughout. The dialect taught in these books is the one from Eastern Oslo.

Is that really the best Norwegian dialect to learn? Is it not the Norwegian version of Queen's English and anyone who speaks with that accent sounds like a stuck up toffee-nosed pompous twit? The voice on the Linguaphone course is unbelievably posh.



Edited by Ukulele Lady on 05 November 2010 at 6:18pm

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tractor
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 Message 2 of 10
05 November 2010 at 4:58pm | IP Logged 
Ukulele Lady wrote:

In which areas of Norway do Norwegians use mainly common gender and neuter?

The two gender system (common gender + neuter) is most common in Bergen and Western Oslo.

Ukulele Lady wrote:
In which areas is feminine gender used more liberally?

In most of Norway.

Ukulele Lady wrote:
Most of the books I have looked at don't use the feminine gender. They mention it briefly,
then proceed to use common gender throughout. The dialect taught in these books is the one from Eastern
Oslo.

It's more likely from Western Oslo. Western Oslo is posh, Eastern Oslo more working class.
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kthorg
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 Message 3 of 10
06 November 2010 at 5:05pm | IP Logged 
The oslo dialect is the clearest, the most "round" pronunciation, very clean sounding. Also, the Oslo dialect is called Østlending (Eastlander) and there are MANY forms of it,
Elverum (a town in the Eastland) uses feminine very sparingly, but still ocassionally uses it, and it is a very Østlending town.
There are also some particularly "vulgar" dialects in Oslo that have an abnormal stress (PO tet er intsead of po TET er) and tended to be the poor dialect in the "old days"
There's not any specifically "snobby" Norwegian though, not that I know of anyway.
I think it's kind of funny the "labels" people have put on all the dialects. For example mine (Trøndersk) is known for being the "party" dialect, but its also hilarious when it's exaggerated, the butt of many jokes. The north tends to have the more earthy "country" dialect with many nice folksongs.

The dialects are all cool, in my opinion.

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 4 of 10
15 November 2010 at 2:13pm | IP Logged 
Ukulele Lady wrote:


Is that really the best Norwegian dialect to learn? Is it not the Norwegian version of Queen's English and anyone who speaks with that accent sounds like a stuck up toffee-nosed pompous twit? The voice on the Linguaphone course is unbelievably posh.



Do not worry about sounding too posh. It is more of an educated accent, than a pompous accent and it is definitely the one I would reccomend to foreigners, since it is most widely understood. Since class does not carry much importance in Norway, we do not tend to look down on any dialect or variant of our language.

I would perhaps use the occasional feminine in order not to sound too conservative. Cat, girl and the plural of leg (Katt/katten, jente/jenten, ben/benene sound particularly old fashioned, so I would most definitely go for katta, jenta and bena in the definite form.

And I am happy to see that you are interested in learning our language! Do not hesitate to ask for help or corrections!
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j0nas
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 Message 5 of 10
17 November 2010 at 11:49am | IP Logged 
As long as you have a foreign accent, you will never be written off as a pompous twit.
There are however several people from Western Oslo who do sound like that. So it
is perfectly possible (and of course very undesirable ;) )
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Ukulele Lady
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 Message 6 of 10
17 November 2010 at 11:29pm | IP Logged 
j0nas wrote:
As long as you have a foreign accent, you will never be written off as a pompous twit.
There are however several people from Western Oslo who do sound like that. So it
is perfectly possible (and of course very undesirable ;) )


Luckily I have a foreign accent to Norwegian ears; although one that sounds like a peasant from the 1500s, and speaking Norwegian in that is going to sound really weird or, more likely, awful.

Edited by Ukulele Lady on 17 November 2010 at 11:31pm

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 7 of 10
19 November 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged 
Don't worry. We are not spoiled with people wanting to learn Norwegian, so we are just happy when they do!!
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densou
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 Message 8 of 10
21 November 2010 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Since class does not carry much importance in Norway, we do not tend to look down on any dialect or variant of our language.


I always forget that stavangersk isn't even considered a part of the language :D


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