Norwegian

How to spell norwegian

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce norwegian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does norwegian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Norway, its people, or its language.
2. nounA person from Norway, or the language spoken there.

Norwegian in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum displayed a collection of norwegian folk art from the fjords.

• noun

  A friendly norwegian gave us directions to the train station in Oslo.

• adjective

  She ordered a plate of norwegian salmon at the harbour restaurant.

• noun

  He spent two years learning norwegian before moving to Bergen for work.

Where does norwegian come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word is built from Norway plus the suffix -ian, which English uses to form adjectives and nouns of belonging, as in Canadian or Italian. Norway itself descends from the Old Norse Norvegr, a compound of nordr meaning 'north' and vegr meaning 'way' or 'route', so the name literally described the 'north way', the coastal sailing route that ran up the western edge of Scandinavia. The Latinised forms Norvegia and Norvegicus circulated in medieval scholarship, and the modern adjective settled into its current shape in English by the 1600s. The tricky part of the spelling is the middle: writers expect the country's 'way' to survive, but the adjective keeps a single 'w' followed by 'eg', giving 'Norweg-' rather than anything with 'way'. Remembering that the -gian ending is pronounced like the start of 'gin' also helps anchor that soft 'g'.

How the word is built

• Norweg- (from Norway, the country)
• -ian (adjective/noun suffix meaning 'belonging to')