English is the
official language of the conference.Norway’s official language is Norwegian, a northern
Germanic language closely related to Danish and
Swedish. For the most part, speakers of Norwegian,
Danish and Swedish are easily able to understand one
another.
Most young people are fluent in English, and
familiarity with French, German or Spanish is not
uncommon.
Norway’s geography and settlement patterns have
given rise to a myriad of local and regional spoken
dialects that continue to enjoy a strong position
within society today. There are two official written
versions of Norwegian, Bokmål (“Book Norwegian”) and
Nynorsk (“New Norwegian”). Bokmål is based on
Dano-Norwegian, and has been developed from written
Danish adapted to the phonology of the general
dialect spoken in eastern Norway. Nynorsk was
devised by linguist Ivar Aasen in the 1850s, and is
based on a compilation of various western Norwegian
dialects.
Bokmål and Nynorsk have been accorded equal
status officially, although Bokmål is somewhat more
widely used in Oslo and the larger towns. Nynorsk is
utilized by some 10-15% of the population, mostly on
the Western coast, as well as in government texts,
literature, dramatic art, public broadcasting and
church services.
At present, some 20 000 individuals in Norway
have the Sámi language as their mother tongue. Sámi
is a member of the Finno-Ugric branch of languages.
Due to the number of immigrants and refugees
whose first language is not Norwegian, there are
currently approximately 110 different mother tongues
represented in the Norwegian primary schools. Today,
English is Norway’s most important foreign language
for international use, followed by German and French.
Moreover, approximately 4 000 hearing impaired
persons utilize Norwegian Sign Language, which
exists in two main versions stemming from Norway’s
oldest schools for the deaf in Oslo and Trondheim.
