Learning the Oslo dialect

[desitrader]

Hi all,
Can anyone recommend some good comprehensive materials to learn the Oslo dialect? I started learning Bokmål, but I am now thinking I am probably better off going straight to the most widely spoken dialect rather than a written language.

I need materials from the ground-up and I'd prefer resources either in English or German - rather than monolingual ones.

Thank you.

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

Hiya.

The dialect they speak around Oslo and that part of the country is the one that is closest to Bokmål (more or less spoken version of Bokmål). I doubt that there are any material specifically for that area, there just isn't any need for it.

[desitrader]

Hiya.

The dialect they speak around Oslo and that part of the country is the one that is closest to Bokmål (more or less spoken version of Bokmål). I doubt that there are any material specifically for that area, there just isn't any need for it.

Thanks. That's good news.

Slightly off topic question: If I walked into a shop around Oslo and started speaking in Bokmål, how weird would I sound? Is the situation as bad as speaking in Modern Standard Arabic to a native Arabic speaker, or better?

[jeff_lindqvist]

If your accent sounds like Oslo Norwegian (or thereabouts), no problem (and if you don't, there's probably no problem either - depending on how thick your accent is). As Tillumadoguenirurm said, the Norwegian spoken in Oslo is basically spoken Bokmål, i.e. how people in Oslo choose to pronounce Bokmål vocabulary.

The Norwegian varieties are not like MSA Arabic vs. the others.

[tarvos]

Hiya.

The dialect they speak around Oslo and that part of the country is the one that is closest to Bokmål (more or less spoken version of Bokmål). I doubt that there are any material specifically for that area, there just isn't any need for it.

Thanks. That's good news.

Slightly off topic question: If I walked into a shop around Oslo and started speaking in Bokmål, how weird would I sound? Is the situation as bad as speaking in Modern Standard Arabic to a native Arabic speaker, or better?

Like a foreigner speaking Norwegian. The various dialects of Norwegian are more like all the different varieties of English that exist. How weird do you sound when you speak Norwegian? I don't know. I personally sound Swedish. I have no idea how you pronounce Norwegian.

[FyrsteSumarenINoreg]

Which Oslo dialect, Western or Eastern, they differ quite a bit when it comes to pronunciation (thick L, s), morphology (moren kastet vrs mora kasta) and word choice (gulv/golv, syk/sjuk, syv/sju, hverken/verken)

[desitrader]

Which Oslo dialect, Western or Eastern, they differ quite a bit when it comes to pronunciation (thick L, s), morphology (moren kastet vrs mora kasta) and word choice (gulv/golv, syk/sjuk, syv/sju, hverken/verken)

Damn! There I was - almost feeling good about learning Norwegian...

[FyrsteSumarenINoreg]

You can read it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End_ ... nd_of_Oslo

[botanikk2003]

I just saw a video with speakers from various parts of Norway saying "Det regner hele tiden", and even in Oslo, it becomes "Heile tida" without the "d" pronounced. However, "radikalt bokmål", you could write " heile tida". I get the impression that most dialects are similar to "radikalt bokmål" or Nynorsk.

[Mista]

As a comment from a Norwegian living in Oslo (but originally from Trondheim), I would like to say that the "Oslo dialect" is extremely variable, as could surely be said for most capitals/big cities around the world. The closest dialect to bokmål would be the one they speak in Bærum, which is basically a west end suburb of Oslo. I work with people in that area, and they speak so close to bokmål that I feel the urge to correct their speech when they don't use accusative pronouns correctly (like de/dem, han/ham and hun/henne, pronouns that are only distinguished in written language, not in any dialect).

Speaking bokmål wil make you sound like any foreigner who learned Norwegian in school, but if you really speak it perfectly, it could make you sound a little posh.