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Introduction length
It is quite clear that the introduction by far exceeds its tolerable length. It is suggested to shift the details of the dialects into the already existing paragraph "Dialects". HJJHolm (talk) 07:03, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
Islands and the Map
I wonder why the map includes Svalbard but not Bouvet Island. Norwegian Law applies to Bouvet, so if anybody ever wanted to live there (current population zero), surely Norwegian would be the official language of the island? Enno (talk) 04:31, 6 July 2014 (UTC)
- My guess is that it is to keep the map simple. If the map was extended to show Bouvet Island, it wouldn't be visible due to the scale. while an inset would lose the context. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the map shows where Norwegian is spoken, not where it is an offical language. (Although the minorities in North America shown in another map is left out.) It should also be mentioned that the correctness of the map in the infobox was recently questioned. Ters (talk) 12:51, 6 July 2014 (UTC)
The map over "Norwegian-speaking areas"
I am wondering why a map in this article suggests that the Norwegian language is in a minority in the north of Norway, specifically Troms and Finnmark? Is it because of the Sami languages?
While the Sami language is spoken mainly in the north, it is far from a majority language even in the northernmost parts of Norway. Less than 20 000 people in Norway can speak a Sami language, and an even lower number will have it as a native tongue. Furthermore, just seven municipalities in Troms and Finnmark (out of 43) have a Sami language as an official administrational language along with Norwegian. As far as I know, only two municipalities (Karasjok and Kautokeino) have a Sami majority. According to official statistics, there are 237 000 people living in Troms and Finnmark. Given that there are only just 20 000 Sami speakers in Norway, quite a few of whom do not live in Troms and Finnmark, Norwegian cannot be close to a minority language.
By all means, the Sami language is an official language in Norway and should be respected as such. The Sami language are very much present in certain parts of the northern half of Norway. However, Norwegian is not at all a minority language in Northern Norway, and the map should reflect this.
It is also confusing to claim that there are "Norwegian-speaking minorities" in Sweden. It is true that the dialects in the light blue areas are closely (and historicaly) linked to Norwegian dialects - but I don't think any of the people living there today consider themselves to be (or speak) Norwegian.
In my opinion the map should be totaly removed: It is more confusing than informative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.215.163.110 (talk) 21:29, 31 August 2014 (UTC)
- I agree and I removed it. Iselilja (talk) 21:35, 31 August 2014 (UTC)
Map
It's not explained at all why there are two shades of blue in the first map although another map explains the Bokmål and Nynorsk distribution. The latter includes neutral areas as well. These aren't present in the introduction map either. --2.245.120.30 (talk) 15:19, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
- Those two shades of blue are discussed in the discussion above. The map was removed earlier this year for being totally wrong, but someone seems to have put it back. Ters (talk) 15:48, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
- I don't know Norwegian, but as someone who doesn't know the language, the fact that the caption doesn't include an explanation is more confusing than the fact that the map is disputed. --2.245.120.30 (talk) 16:20, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
The map in question is on Commons, here:
It was removed from the article at the end of August this year by user:Iselilja who wrote, as an edit-summary:
- Removing misleading map. Norwegians are not in minority in Northern Norway; nor are there really Norwegian-speaking minorities in Sweden (apart from recent immigrants).
Since August it has been added back in. I believe that the several comments (comment sections) above, and the edit-summary, show consensus that this map is unwanted. I'll remove it again. --Hordaland (talk) 20:39, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
Descriptions of certain vowel phonemes
In the article I read:
u /ʉ/, /u/ close central rounded (close front extra rounded)
From the article on IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) I gather that /ʉ/ indeed indicates a central vowel, but that /u/ indicates a back vowel rather than a front vowel.
Furthermore, in several instances two IPA symbols are given but either only one description or two descriptions that fit only one of the symbols, for example in the case of:
e (short) /ɛ/, /æ/ open mid front unrounded
Since I am not a speaker of Norwegian, I hesitate to edit a change.Redav (talk) 07:42, 8 July 2016 (UTC)
Unreferenced sections
FYI: I have today added the {{unreferenced section}} template to several unreferenced sections in this article. Since several of these sections refer to a "Main article", I wondered if Misplaced Pages policy might consider that "good enough" as a reference, so I asked at Misplaced Pages:Teahouse/Questions (Section: Use of {{unreferenced section}}). There my opinion was validated; all sections should have references. --Hordaland (talk) 08:48, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
How many speakers?
The number of speakers of Norwegian was recently changed from 5 million to 4.7 million in the infobox. Our article Norway says the population of the country is 5,214,900. So what do the other half-a-million speak? The youngest infants don't speak yet and some immigrants don't speak much Norwegian yet, but I think there can't be a half-a-million in those categories. Some Sami people, travelling people and immigrants have Norwegian as a 2nd language, but they should count as "speakers", surely. And some speakers live outside of Norway.
The 4.7 million figure comes from awl which credits ethnologue for the figure. But although the ethnologue site is dated "2016", there is no indication that that page has been updated recently.
Call it OR if you like, but I think 5 million is a more logical figure. I'm very tempted to change it back. Any objection? Or any better source?--Hordaland (talk) 06:22, 26 September 2016 (UTC)
- It was I who changed it to 4.7 based on the source cited. But the CIA World Factbook gives Norway's population as 5,265,158 (July 2016 est.). It's true that it's hard to imagine a half million non-Norwegian speakers. There's a book on Google Books "Composition Linguistique Des Nations Du Monde, Volume 5" By Heinz Kloss that gives the number as 5 million. Thanks for the suggestion, I've gone ahead and implemented it. --Cornellier (talk) 11:32, 26 September 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks, @Cornellier:, and I apologize for not thinking of notifying you! --Hordaland (talk) 13:58, 26 September 2016 (UTC)