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Languages Of Norway
Home » Norway » Norway The People and Culture » Languages Of NorwayOver 99% of the 4.3 million population of Norway speak the official language, Norwegian. The language belongs to the Germanic group of the Indo-European language family and is similar to Danish and Swedish. There are many dialects, and no form of the language is acceptable to all Norwegians. There are two official forms of the Norwegian language and they both share the same legal recognition. Bokmal is the book language and Nynorsk is the New Norwegian. Bokmal is used in business and communications and is the main language taught in most schools and is spoken mostly around urban centers. Nynorsk is spoken mainly in rural areas and along the west coast. Minority languages include Finnish, spoken by .2% of the population, mainly in the northern region of Finnmark, as well as Sami, a language closely related to Finnish, spoken by .9% of the Norwegian population.
English is widely studied in school as a second language, and its usage, particularly in business, has become common. Many of the Sami people speak North Sami, though some groups living in central Norway speak South Sami. Both variations of Sami belong to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family.
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