Re: Spoken Nynorsk & Bokmaal [Was: German reputation]

Stephen Mulraney wrote:

> Joe wrote:
>
>> Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>
>
>>> Joe wrote:
>>
>
>>>> John Cowan wrote:
>>>
>
>>>>> IIRC Norwegian does not have a standard dialect either.
>>>>
>
>
>>>> No, it has two.
>>>
>
>>> Bokmaal & Nynorsk are written standards, not spoken varieties.
>>> IIRC, there are no standard dialects (that is, spoken varieties).
>>
>
>> My stepsiblings speak Bokmål, rather than the local dialect.  This is
>> apparently becoming more and more the case in Norway - Bokmål and
>> Nynorsk are taking over territory previously occupied by the dialect.
>
>
> That's interesting - I hadn't heard of such a thing before. I guess it's
> expected that people end up thinking of Bokmål as "the standard language"
> (since the pattern of metropolitan standard vs. multiple rural dialects
> is so common), but it seems a bit harder to imagine people speaking
> Nynorsk!
>
> Still, how are these spoken forms of the written standards pronounced? I
> suppose according to dialect patterns (?) - unless there previously
> existed
> an expected pronunication of Bokmål & Nynorsk (but to me that would
> seem to
> be contrary the the fact that [at one stage] they were both considered
> only
> written standards).

Well, I can tell you that 'Bokmål' is pronounced [bukmO:l], roughly
speaking.  I guess it's pronounced in the way people traditionally read
these things out, though probably with a Valdres accent. My Dad's wife
is also a native speaker of Bokmål, which I think was a decision of her
parents - they thought it might get her further in life.  I'm not really
knowledgable about the whole thing, but I could ask them - see what they
can tell me about the situation at the moment.