Norwegian

Indo-European family · Germanic branch · Eurasia

Norwegian is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Front Rounded Vowels, WALS codes Norwegian as “High and mid”, a value held by 23 of the 562 languages coded, French and German among them.

On Polar Questions, WALS codes Norwegian as “Interrogative word order”, a value held by 13 of the 955 languages coded, English and Spanish among them.

The order Norwegian uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Norwegian with English or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Norwegian, rarest first.

Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLong vowel + Coda: long vowels or closed syllables35 of 500
Order of Genitive and NounBoth orders occur with neither order dominant96 of 1,249

Inside the Indo-European family

Norwegian matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 34 of the 52 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (65%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 28th from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Norwegian; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

English Indo-European40 of 52
German Indo-European39 of 52
French Indo-European37 of 52
Romanian Indo-European30 of 46
Latvian Indo-European30 of 49

Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Ndyuka (Creoles and Pidgins), with 27 of 45 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Norwegian for 52 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 46 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Norwegian shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Rhythm Types	Undetermined: no clear foot type	37 of 323
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567

Word structure 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Definite Articles	Definite affix on noun	92 of 620
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
The Associative Plural	Special non-bound associative plural marker	47 of 236
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157

Vocabulary 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593