Got this Norsk-English dictionary as a gift (I have recently started learning norsk). This is what the author explains about “riksmål” and gender articles… Does anyone else think it seems inaccurate?

3 comments

1. I was a bit concerned when the author (who is American) said that the gender forms don’t really matter, when I have heard from Norwegian language teachers that they are very important. Sure enough in this book, feminine articles are completely ignored. No “ei”.
   And further, the fact he is using ‘riksmål’ instead of ‘bokmål’. I’ve basically heard nobody say riksmål, and it makes me think I can’t really trust this author.. Should I get a different dictionary??

2. Minor mistake higher up in the text; Ivar Aasen did NOT call his “purer Norwegian” for nynorsk, he called it landsmål (rural tounge). It became known as nynorsk in 1929 – incidentally the same time as riksmål became known as bokmål (book language).

   If the dictionary is using Riksmål today, it is using a variation of Norwegian spelling and grammar that is not official – but rather a more conservative, danish influenced variation that to a large extent ignores most of the language reforms from 1907 and onward. It is true that this unofficial variation of Norwegian written language don’t use (much) feminine gender… but it is a variation that was never in widespread use and has been in even more decline since the 80’s. So if you want to learn Norwegian, get yourself a dictionary that uses bokmål (or nynorsk).

   I would recommend the [online dictionaries from Språkrådet](https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=&bokmaal=+&ordbok=bokmaal) as your go-to Norwegian-Norwegian dictionary.

3. I mean, how old is this book? Riksmål isn’t relevant today and hasn’t been it for long. Bokmål and nynorsk are our written languages (when not considering the Sapmi languages), while the spoken language is just Norwegian with different dialects.