Søndagsspørsmål #383 - Sunday Question Thread

[u/dwchandler]

This is a weekly post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

Previous søndagsspørsmål

[u/[deleted]]

This isn't a question and I didn't wanna make a separate thread.

I had a bit of a surprising moment the other day. Ive been at this for like 7 or 8 weeks now, learning Norwegian self directed, and it's coming along. I decided to watch the Norwegian movie I watched awhile back that instigated this which is Thelma from 2017.

I hadn't watched it since I started lessons so I was interested in seeing how much I could pick up. And I could catch a lot more than I expected and it didn't feel like people were talking too fast. I could follow what the second main character, Anja, said most. She spoke very clearly and I figured she must be from Oslo cos she pronounces everything the way I've been learning. .

However I could not understand nearly anything the main-main character was saying. It was like she was speaking a different language. I figured her and her parents speak in a quite different dialect and I quickly sort of gave up trying to understand anything they said.

Is there a dialect in norway where they pronounce 'jeg' like a german saying "ich'"?

[u/Royranibanaw → u/[deleted]]

Not that I'm aware of. The closest I can think of are "ej" and "i".

I watched the trailer, and I'm pretty sure the protagonist speaks stavangersk (not too many lines to base it on though). Jeg is "eg" with a hard g in stavangersk.

Sure you aren't talking about the way they say "ikke" in Stavanger? "Ikkje", some people even spell it "iche".

[u/[deleted] → u/Royranibanaw]

Here's a short excerpt for some dialogue, probably the most normal conversation she has in the movie.

Sure you aren't talking about the way they say "ikke" in Stavanger? "Ikkje", some people even spell it "iche".

Well I knew what she was saying cos I had subtitles to lean on. "Eg" makes sense, she's under enunciating a bit at that moment so not surprised it sounded like /iç/ to me.

Kinda a shame you watched the trailer. It's a really good movie to go into blind, let me tell you.

Edit: forgot link.

[u/Royranibanaw → u/[deleted]]

The two first lines she says are

-Men eg har jo merka det at når någen snakke om det, så blir du litt sånn..

-Skjønner ikke helt hva du mener

-Jo, eg huske jo han faren te Sofia og Gunnar

So you're probably right that it's "eg" and not "ikkje", but I also don't quite hear the similarities between "ich" and "eg".

[u/[deleted] → u/Royranibanaw]

The point that I realise she's not saying "Jeg" wasn't till much later in a moment she's nearly whispering.

TIL: "Jo".

She's talking quickly, right? It's not just my impression? Cos I had much less trouble hearing the words with most of the other characters.

[u/Royranibanaw → u/[deleted]]

I'd say it's average, maybe slighly faster than average? I'm assuming now, but it's probably just (or mostly) the dialect that's the problem. Which is completely normal. If you traveled to Stavanger today and spent some time there you would definitely get used to it, but if you've had little to no exposure it's probably going to be quite hard to understand when the main character decides to pronounce every other word in a weird way:)

Jo and the other modal particles can be difficult to use properly. But as seen in the clip, it's a rather commonly used word. It's worth noting that the first jo in the third sentence is an interjection and not a modal particle.

[u/[deleted] → u/Royranibanaw]

Thanks for the input.

Man English sorely needs something like Jo. There are paces where "Yeah no" and "No yeah" does this but other places, like where I'm from, where those mean something way different.

That and a proper second person plural pronoun. Not having one of those is annoying.