Norwegian Dialects

[di_glossia]

I'm learning Norwegian, both nynorsk and bokmål, and would really like some suggestions for reference books on the history of the dialects as well as online dictionaries. I have three Norwegian friends, one of whom speaks nynorsk, but they mostly use Google Translate and TriTrans. Does anyone have a more comprehensive online dictionary for

Comments

[pne]

I also have the feeling that there's some amount of resentment on the part of people (who are more used to bokmål / whose dialect is closer to bokmål) being forced to learn nynorsk at school. (Leading to things like writing "Spynorsk Ordbok" on their textbooks.) Does that sound right?

I wonder whether there is also the opposite: speakers of [dialects that are similar to] nynorsk resenting having to learn bokmål at school, in areas where nynorsk is the main written form in education?

[pne]

Ah, that was what it was.

Thanks!

[di_glossia]

Thank you! The resentment, then, is a lot like that between British and American English speakers or Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese speakers, where one language is older and the newer has different spelling? Obviously, the history behind the two languages is very different and nynorsk, rather than the older language, is being imposed on the masses, but there are similarities, aren't there?

[einprosess]

Don't listen too much to Snorre. While he's right that many of those who learn nynorsk second revile it - it's hard to learn a way of spelling that you're not regularly exposed to - the opposite is not that common (it's hard to hate something that's relatively easy to master).

[lectrix_lecti]

Much of the resentment originally stems from the samnorsk idea. Nobody liked that, back in the day, and since it was an idea rooted in the small nynorsk movement the resentment among rigsmaal users grew strong.