Posted on 02/23/2012 2:27:50 AM PST by bjorn14
I was there. I really thought I was turning Japanese.
I had that once. Doctor told me to just air it out.
Wouldn't name a hotel after it, though.
Hmmm, apparently Sveti Toma refers to a saint. How do I take back my quip?
When my Norwegian FIL visited Westby, he was disappointed because they spoke an archaic version of his language. He had been hoping to find folks with whom he could converse in Norwegian. We heard the same complaint from the Norwegian ski-jumpers at the Snowflake Festival.
OTOH, the food can be authentic.
What can be said of the mental competence of people who go to Bulgaria to find Norwegians?
Just cancelled my trip to France because there are no more Mademoiselles there.
Apparently ‘oiselle’ means ‘virgin’ or ‘simpleton’
It’s worth the click.
and “Allo Allo” is the best sitcom ever.
[they spoke an archaic version of his language]
It’s called Danish...most who emigrated were still under Danish rule at the time and spoke it.
Norway: The only European country to have diplomatic relations with Hamas.
I think you mean Sweden? The Danes were replaced by the Swedes around 1814. The settlers here date from the 1880s.
No, they actually speak an 18th-19th century dialect of Norwegian. Most of the Westby Norwegians came from Sognafjord. Some emigrated from Trondheim. From what the modern Norwegian speakers say, it is analogous to listening to Chaucerian English while being a 21st century Brit. I gather that even back then, there was already a linguistic divergence between the rural farmers/fishermen/peddlers and the city folk from Oslo.
Denmark ruled Norway from 1319-1814. So a lot of Danish influence remained. The height of Norwegian immigration occured between 1850 and 1880. Danish was still considered the academic language at the time even though the Norwegians flipped the vowels.
Even today the Sognefjord dialect sounds archaic. I was there last summer (my wife was born in Sjolden) and they were difficult to understand even for my wife.
Back then it was even worse as dialects varied from valley to valley as people didn’t travel around much. Still today there are very strong dialects. By watching the news you can tell where people are from almost immediately.
Fortunately, my wife has lived in west Oslo since she was a teenager so she speaks the closest thing to spoken bokmål.
Even today, many of the old line Norwegian families send their kids back to Norway for several summers in their teen years to visit relatives and keep in touch with their heritage. There are Norwegian classes at the tech school. I never thought about it, but I suppose they teach the “book language”. The cousins also visit here, in exchange. So, perhaps in a generation the locals will be speaking a more modern Norwegian. Although, again, I find it fascinating that the Sognefjord dialect is still so separate. Our Norwegian locals still put on national costumes for Syttende Mai and it is a local holiday.
Since you are Norwegian, I must ask: have you seen the Netflix series “Lilyhammer”? If so, I wonder what a Norwegian thinks of the portrayal of their country and if it is accurate, in your opinion?
‘Lilyhammer’ is the most watched drama series in the history of Norwegian TV. We watch it every Wed. night. For the most part it’s pretty accurate...some of the Norwegian characters are a little cartoonish.
It’s just not the Sognefjord dialect its a lot of dialects in the west, the north and even ‘up in some valley’. My sister-in-law (from Tromsø) and her son (raised in Oslo area) still argue over how to pronounce words.
A little trivia, no one actually speaks bokmål the closest someone gets is the west Oslo dialect, where I live.
Ha det!
lutefisk and lefse hmmmmm yum yum. Well....maybe the lefse with butter on it.
Well, you know how it is with anyone’s *soul food*. I am Jewish and my husband will not eat gefilte fish or chopped chicken liver. Too bad. More for me.
You know the following, but I include it for the non-locals:
Not any publicly served lutefisk. Some churches do hold lutefisk dinners, but they always offer meatballs, too.
Lefse is good if it is homemade and fresh with butter and sugar.
Meatballs with ginger and nutmeg. Very good.
Rommegrot. Sort of a Norsk sweet cream gravy. Not to my taste, but some folks like it. Better with salt and no sugar or cinnamon, IMO.
Bakery. Lots of wonderful, sugary, buttery cookies and fried cakes. Excellent.
My non-Norwegian MIL used to prepare my FIL’s Sytennde Mai lutefisk dinner on a separate stove in the basement, with all doors to the upstairs closed. We would be served beef roast, while he would have his lutefisk, complete w/a little paper Norwegian flag stuck in it. It just became a family tradition and sort of a joke. We all tasted it. Dunked in enough butter, it tastes better than it smells.
Grandma’s sandbaakles (almond cookies; better if made w/butter)could be used to pack bearings. They literally dripped lard. The kids used to have sandbaakle fights until they were stopped because the grease marks were difficult to remove.
Now you mentioned your Jewish lineage, and I finally ate at a Jewish deli near Milwaukee about twenty years ago. Overall the food was excellent, and I'd have to say Jewish rye bread is the most delicious bread I've ever eaten. So I'll take Jewish food over Norskie food on the basis on the one meal in a kosher deli. I don't know, can chopped liver be worse than lutefisk? (smirk)
If you like pate, you will be able to eat chopped chicken liver. It is milder than the pork version and not as smooth.
Basically, for my family, Jewish food is Northern European food w/chicken fat or butter instead of lard or bacon grease.
I’d give anything for a real Jewish deli in LaX.
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