Peter Olsen Groth

“ Still the language spoken and written by the educated classes in Norway was never pure Danish. Norwegian authors have always used some native words, taken from the rural dialects, in their writings, and while the official and professional people during the union with Denmark affected as far as possible a correct Danish pronunciation, the tendency in Norway now, even though it be unconscious, is to nationalize the language more and more. ”

“ But the form in -s is much more common than the other one, especially in the present tense and the infinitive (after the verbs skal, maa, bör etc.) The imperfect of the compound form occurs much more frequently than the present.
The compound form (blive rost to be praised) signifies the complete passivity, where all action on the part of the subject is wholly excluded, hence it is used to denote the single recorded fact, while the form in -s is used to denote a common condition or general rule.
The imperfect in -s is not used of strong verbs with radical vowel a in imperf. ”

“ The accent stress (including in some cases the secondary accent) takes in Danish in a great many (originally) monosyllabic words the peculiar form of a glottal stop or catch (Sweet) , by the Danish grammarians called Stødtone or Tonehold. This glottal stop is produced by a temporary closure of the glottis and a corresponding interruption of the voice, the result being a sound very similar to the one produced by cough or hiccough. Those Danish dialects, therefore, which are especially given to the use of the glottal stop are said to "hiccough the words forth". ”

“ Short e only occurs in words formed by inflection or derivation from words with long e; Ex.: bre (d) t neuter form of bre (d) broad, Bredde breadth, derived from the same word; Ex. long: Te tea, Ve (d) wood, hed (pron. het) hot.
Orthographic sign of this sound is e.
Note. In the dialect of Christiania and the southern part of Norway the long sound of e has been substituted for that of ä, see § 84 note. On the other hand the short sound of e is in the speech of many, even educated, people in the course of being replaced by a half wide short ä. ”

“ An e is sometimes written without being pronounced, either to indicate length of the preceding vowel or to distinguish between different words of the same sound or words that although differing in sound would according to common rules have to be written in the same way. ”

“ But when the noun is connected with an interrogative word or an adjective qualified by the adverb saa so, and for too, then the article is placed after the interrogative word, or adjective; Ex.: hvilken en Mand what a man? hvor stort et Hus what a big house! saa ungt et Menneske such a youth! for tyk en Hals too thick a neck. In connection with mangen the article has its place after that word but before another adjective: mangen en Mand many a man, mangen en tapper Mand many a brave man. ”

“ The sound of o when long is in orthography represented by o, which letter when representing a long vowel generally denotes this sound; Ex.: stor large, Blod blood, god good, Sko shoe, Bro bridge (as for o with sound of long å see § 19) .
22. The short sound of o is represented in orthography by o in the following cases: 1) in words formed by inflection, derivation or composition from a root word or form with long o; Ex.: nordisk Northern (from nor (d) , Gods goods (from god good) , (but godt neuter of god, pron. gåt) ”

“ Some verbs which only occur in passive form and some others, that have both an active and a passive form, but with an entirely different meaning, are called deponent verbs; Ex. lykkes to succeed; blues to be ashamed; længes to long; ældes to grow old; mindes to remember (but minde to remind) , findes to exist (but finde to find) , gives to exist (G. es giebt’ from give to give) . These deponent verbs, and to this class are also counted many of the above mentioned reciprocal verbs, form a deponent participle ”

“ Vowels and open consonants can be long or short; shut consonants (stops) are in the Danish language always short. Long sounds can only occur in accentuated syllables. A consonant written double between two vowels indicates that the preceding vowel is short, but final consonants are not written double to indicate shortness of preceding vowel except in a few cases where it may be done, when it is thought desirable to distinguish between two words that otherwise would look alike ”

“ No generally binding rules can be given for the genders of the nouns in Danish-Norwegian, but the following intimations may be of some help:
1) Most words denoting living beings are of common gender. En Mand a man, en Hest a horse, en Hund a dog, en Ko a cow, en Flue a fly.
Note 1. Some nouns comprising the natural masculine and feminine genders are neuter: Kvæget, the cattle; Folket the people (also the compounds: et Mandfolk, et Kvindfolk a male, female individual) , Mennesket man (generally) , et Dyr an animal, et Svin a hog, et Faar a sheep, et Æsil a donkey. ”

“ The difference between tenues (p, t, k) and mediae (b, d, g) is not so much dependent upon the circumstance of the former being voiceless, the latter voiced, as is the case in English. But the Danish tenses are followed by a voiceless breath, thereby becoming aspirates. Thus the energy of expiration becomes the chief distinguishing feature between Danish tenues and mediae.
In some cases the tenues are written where the sound is really nearer to that of the mediae ”

“ Some verbs the root of which ends in a stressed vowel form their present by adding only -r and use their root unchanged as infinitive; Ex.: staa stand, pres. staar; gaa go, pres. gaar; at bo to reside; at dö to die; at sy to sew; at se to see.
Some verbs have double forms in infinitive, with or without -e: du or due to be fit; di or die to suck; fri or frie, befri or befrie to liberate; vi or vie to wed, to consecrate; forny or fornye to renew; all these verbs in Danish form their present in -er: duer, dier etc. ”

“ In some cases it is written but not pronounced at all; it can never be pronounced immediately after a single vowel with glottal catch (see § 76) nor after a short stressed vowel. In some cases there may be a choice between a long stressed vowel with pronounced ə and a short vowel without ə. The former is then used in more select language, and especially is the retaining of ə common in the passive form; Ex.: slaaes to be beaten, but slaas to fight, slaaet and slaa’t beaten, gaaet and gac’t gone. ”

“ Sometimes also in compound words a k or g may affect a preceding dental n so as to make it guttural: Haan (d) klœ (d) e (ngk) towel; but as a rule both sounds remain the same as in the separate words; Angiver (n-j) informer, angaa (n-g) to concern. In some words of French origin ng is pronounced ngsj (sj representing the sound of Engl. sh, see § 113) ; Ex. : rangere pron. rangsjere, to rank, but tangere (ngg) to touch.
118. r in Norway as a rule is a trilled point consonant. Before a voice consonant or vowel it is voiced, before a voiceless consonant it is generally voiceless. ”

“ The infinitive construction is regularly employed when the infinitive and the predicate verb have the same subject, and often when the subject of the infinitive is the object of the predicate verb; in other cases forat must be used with a sentence. ”

“ When a word is spelt with k after a long vowel it is a sign that the word is originally Norwegian and does not occur in the Danish language. (See § 122) .
122. The sound of k is in many words represented in writing by the letter g; 1) after a short vowel before s or t; 2) after a long vowel at the end of words or before ə; Ex. : 1) Slags (aks) kind (but Slags of a battle) , Krigsflaade (ks) navy, Rigs (ks) -advokat attorney general, bugsere (ks) to tow, Jagt (kt) chase, lagt (kt) laid, Digt (kt) poem, sligt (kt) (neut.) such, styyt (kt) ugly, stegt (kt) ptc. fried, Vœgt (kt) weight ”

“ The verbs in the Danish and Dano-Norwegian language have separate forms for voices, tenses and to a certain extent modes and numbers.
The forms of the verbs are either simple or compound (formed by means of an auxiliary verb) .
The verbs are divided into two classes–the weak (also called regular) and the strong (or irregular) according to the formation of the imperfect and past participle.
207. The present tense of all verbs is formed alike, namely by adding -er (in a few cases -r) to the theme of the verb (or -r to the infinitive form) ; Ex.: jeg elsk–er love; han bring–er he brings ”

“ Some words imply a different meaning according as they are used in common gender or neuter. In other cases originally different words have the same sound, but disagree in gender.
In some words the gender is not quite fixed, so they sometimes appear as neuter, at other times as of common gender. ”

“ Note. The definite form of the adjective may be used as a substantive and may then take the possessive ending -s; Ex.: De fattiges Glæder er (e) af en anden Art end de riges the pleasures of the poor are of another kind than those of the rich.
Note 2. A remnant of an old accusative singular m is found in poetical language: paa Höienloftssal in the high vaulted hall; i dyben Dal in the deep valley.
174. The following adjectives do not add any t in the neuter:
1) Adjectives ending in a distinctly derivative sk: Ex.: krigersk warlike, Norsk Norwegian. ”

“ Note. Where the Danish and the common Norwegian orthography have d in the end or middle of words after a long vowel, the common Norwegian pronunciation as a rule either has t or drops the d. In the former case d corresponds to ON. t (see §§ 4 & 6) , in the latter to ON. ð.
106. Some words written with d are pronounced with d or t according to the meaning. The voiced explosive as a rule occurs in learned words and those chiefly occurring in higher style.
107. d is often written at the end or in the middle of words after a long vowel without being pronounced (see § 105 Note) . ”

“ The prepositions do not in the language as it is to-day govern any case, except that in the pronouns which have separate forms for the subjective and objective case, the latter always follows the preposition: hos mig with me; til ham to him; der er intet ondt i ham there is nothing bad about him; i Huset in the house; paa Gaden in the street. ”

“ Hvor længe er det, siden du saa ham sidst (the last time) ? Jeg saa ham for en Time siden. Vil De heist danse eller synge? Jeg vil gjerne begge Dele (do both) . Hvor reiser De hen? Jeg reiser til Norge og tænker, jeg bliver to Maaneder borte (tænker, jeg bliver borte–expect to be gone) . Har De ikke seet mine Handsker (gloves) ? Jo, jeg har.
How long do you expect to be gone? Four months. I would like to stay (blive der) longer, because (fordi) it is so long since I was there the last time. Why do you like better to dance than to sing? Because there is more fun (Moro) in it. ”

“ Among the younger generation of authors it is getting always more common to spell these words in accordance with the Norwegian pronunciation. It is only in a small part of the coast districts in the southernmost part of Norway that b in these words is pronounced as written, similarly to the pronunciation in Danish (see § 4) .
99. b sounds like English b; this sound occurs in the beginning, middle (chiefly in foreign words) and end of words; Ex.: By town, Bly lead, Hybel garret, Lab (pr. labb) paw. ”

“ Han lod de andre faa et langt Forspring (N. Forsprang) he allowed the others to get a good lead. After other verbs the infinitive with at is used: jeg fandt ham at være en brav Mand I found him to be an honest man (more common: jeg fandt, at han var etc.) . Jeg bad ham komme, at komme or om at komme I asked him to come.
After lade to let, in the meaning of “to have” with a participle, “to cause to be done,” the Dano-Norwegian language uses infinitive with an object of its own, placed before the infinitive: jeg lod Huset bygge I had the house built ”

“ REFLEXIVE AND IMPERSONAL VERBS.
234. Reflexive verbs are those that always have as their object a pronoun denoting the same person as the subject; Ex. at skamme sig to feel ashamed; jeg skammer mig I feel ashamed, han skammer sig, vi skamme (r) os, I skamme (r) eder, de skamme (r) sig.
Transitive verbs may be used reflexively; Ex. at slaa sig to hurt one’s self (at slaa to beat) ; at vise sig to appear (at vise to show) .
Note. At hænde, at hænde sig, at hændes all indicate: to happen ”

“ Different from the stress accent is the musical accent. There are two kinds of musical accent employed in single words, the monosyllabic and the dissyllabic. The former is used in (original) monosyllables and in so far corresponds with the Danish “Stødtone” (Glottal catch) , while the dissyllabic accent belongs to (originally) dissyllabic or polysyllabic words. ”