American Norwegian formed as a result of Norwegians migrating to the United States.[2] In 1825, the first organized emigration party consisting of several dozen Norwegians left Stavanger on board the Restauration.[2][3] Early migration was largely due to religious persecution, particularly of Quakers and Haugeans,[4] but intensified and diversified in the second half of the 19th century. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Norwegian migration to North America continued, primarily through the White Star Line,[5] and the Cunard Line.[6]
Between 1910 and the First World War, one million Americans had Norwegian as their first language, many of whom subscribed to Norwegian-language newspapers,[7] such as Decorah Posten and Skandinaven.
In Norwegian, grammatical gender is opaque, meaning a word's gender is not immediately obvious based on meaning or phonetics. Children, thus, often overgeneralise masculine gender. This same effect can be observed in heritage speakers. This overgeneralisation is far less common when words are used in their definite form. Similarly, overgeneralisation is seen more in prenominal possession compared to postnominal possession.[8]
Token distributions of the three indefinite articles in American and Eastern Norwegian dialects[8]
Gender
CANS (N = 50)
NorDiaCorp (old, N = 127)
NorDiaCorp (young, N = 66)
M
76.3% (753)
64.8% (1833)
74.9% (909)
F
16.9% (164)
18.2% (514)
5.4% (66)
N
6.9% (67)
17.0% (481)
19.7% (239)
Percentage of nouns appearing with a non-target-consistent indefinite article[8]
Direction
Tokens
Types
F→M
39.0% (92/236)
43.1% (31/72)
N→M
48.8% (80/164)
69.4% (34/49)
N→F
10.4% (17/164)
26.5% (13/49)
In some European Norwegian dialects, feminine and masculine gender have combined into common gender,[8] while in other dialects, words considered feminine elsewhere are masculine.
Examples
Below are examples of non-target consistent indefinite articles:[8]
Masculine article used with feminine word
Har
du
en
ku
enda?
Har du en ku enda?
Have you a.M cow.F still?
Masculine article used with neuter word
Hun
var
på
en
fjell
Hun var på en fjell
She was on a.M mountain.N
Feminine article used with neuter word
Det
var
ei
menneske
Det var ei menneske
It was a.F human.N
Lexicon
Pronouns in Norwegian and American dialects are relatively similar.[1]
Due to less input in Norwegian, Norwegian-Americans acquire fewer native words. This has led to more loaning and calquing from English into American Norwegian (e.g. lage leving, a literal translation of "make [a] living", rather than the native expression tjene til livets opphold) as well as the preservation of words now obsolete in European Norwegian.[9] Many such words are absorbed and adopt Norwegian pronunciation and grammar. Some of these include: farm, kæunti (county) and seidvåk (sidewalk).[2] New words have also been developed, such as American hå ti, replacing European når, meaning "when".[10]
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