Norwenglish

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Norwenglish is a pidgin language formed by mixing Norwegian with English. Obviously, Norwenglish is not a well-defined language, but many of the words that arise from it are also common errors Norwegians sometimes make when speaking or writing English, or when desperately lacking an English word when speaking. Other than being the result of incorrect translation or the actual use of a Norwegian word in an English sentence, Norwenglish can also be linguistic constructs that are blindly and incorrectly based on Norwegian syntax.

[edit] Popular culture

Norwenglish was a central component in the highly popular Christmas TV series The Julekalender, the title itself being a Norwenglish construct.

[edit] Examples

  • "Let's kikke in Wikipedia." Here, the sentence is completely English, apart from the Norwegian verb "å kikke" replacing the English "to look".
  • "I laid it on the table." The Norwegian verb "å legge" has similarities to the English "to lay", but the meaning of the Norwegian word is "to put".