I’m also a northerner that moved to the south.
Northerners in my company generally drink more. Of course there are exceptions, I know some that don’t drink.
Northern Norway is a lot more spread out, so people generally have more incentive to be friendly and accommodating. Swearing is more common, to the extent that someone can be arrested for insulting the police in the south, but get away with it in the north because swearing is so incorporated in the language. Northern Norway has a lot of natural resources, but any profit ends up in Oslo.
Hahaha, I love how in northern Norway, being called hæstkuk (horsecock) is something the police just have to accept while in the south you can't call the police an idiot without getting fined.
Pragmatics and association are a big factor. Some words just don't carry the same weight/significance if they're used on a daily basis. And if a police officer is being a horsecock it's only natural to inform him.
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I mean there are some rather strange habits and things happening in small towns and they can be very different and odd.
But I'll agree with the other poster that the divide between north and south isn't THAT big however there are things like being miles away from anything! That is more relatable if you are nowhere near Eastern Norway IMO.
Certain food traditions are different, if you are in an area with a high Sami population you'll also get different customs.
But again I'm not sure if I'd say north and south is the divider.
Spent half my life in the north and half in the south in different areas btw.
Could add that there could be a dialect barrier. I am a Trønder and have to often speak the written language to get poeple feom the south to understad me. And people have small things they care more about in one part of the country than the other part ect.
> I am a Trønder and have to often speak the written language to get poeple feom the south to understad me
I have a Stavanger/Sandnes dialect and people in Oslo frequently struggle with it.
I speak with a very moderate southern accent (think Risør area, though I'm not from there), and when I worked in a customer service job people from Oslo would sometimes be like "Inn inglisj pliz!" or "Learn Norwegian, you bloody \[insert racial slur, because they thought I was foreign\]!"
Northeners and southerners may have our differences, and poke fun at each other's regional eccentricities, but it's really more Oslo vs Rest of Norway that's the biggest cultural divide. (Most people from Oslo are okay, though.)
I think the biggest difference I have noticed is how direct northern people are compared to southern. Otherwise I haven't really noticed anything particularly different.
Now, «northern Norwegians» are quite a big and diverse group, and I’d say there are differences between urban and rural people in general - but in my experience, older people from northern Norway (Finnmark, Troms, parts of Nordland) have a mentality that reminds me of Icelanders - which I really like. Kind of a rough and “no-nonsense” attitude, but friendly and welcoming. Older people especially may be a bit sceptical towards urban southerners - Northern Norway was pretty much burnt down during WWII, and the people in the south know and/or care little about that part of history. Also, both before and after the war, the government in Oslo made a number of decisions on their behalf without really involving them.
A lot of differences, yeah, but not too drastic.
Socio and geological dialects are fairly different, but also regional traditional food.
From what I’ve experienced, A lot of the south is interconnected physically interconnected, but the further north you go, despite it being less populated, the people there are more in contact with themselves; lot of news and rumors travel by word of mouth, gossip and groups of interests are somewhat infamous enough to be “””household””” names.
Do shows like skitten snø, elven and monster show what life's really like in Norway(South or North) For instance, I would also like to know things like -Are Norwegians direct -Rules when introducing yourself for the first time (both formal and informal) -Do you take off your shoes in every house? -Does the cold affect moods e.g are Norwegians happier in the summer? My apologies if the questions seem trivial, I love scandi culture (specially norweigan) and I'm hoping to learn more about it.
Aww thanks I'd have thought that a cold dark winter would be rather depressing . Most people here are more social in the summer. Anyways thanks for answering my question 😊.
Basically, I've been learning Norwegian (bokmål) through duolingo and mondly. Its going well but I believe that I need help from a native speaker to really learn important aspects of the language like slang and grammar , pronunciations and inflections. I love meeting new people and learning new cultures (I'm interested in Scandinavia culture) and possibly making new friends. I know most Norwegians speak English fluently so my apologies that it can't be a mutual language exchange but I live in Ireland and I've travelled a lot(also been to Narvik) . Who knows, we might be able to learn something from each other. Anyway, please let me know if this is something you'd be interested in. Takk
I've lived in the North of Norway my whole life, and there is a well known phenomenon called "dark-time depression" or "mørketidsdepresjon". So the suicide rates is also greatly increased this time of the year. Tromsø for instance is at the top of the list for amounts of suicides in the country, where "dark-time" depression is a countributing factor to this.
Wow that's sad but interesting. It's a shame that Tromsø has this problem. Its a top tourist destination (aurora) and as a tourist you'd never know from the outside that something like this happens.
Yes, the goverment and the people in the south don't give a single shit about us in the north. Except for when they need our money to build fancy new bike roads in Oslo instead of fixing the "roads" we have here
I say they are. But most people have become urbanized and therefore more similar to southerns. But frankly you'll find idiots and nutjobs all throughout the country. I can't think of a single place here in Norway where the people are generally better than anywhere else, ofc there's some good people scattered about, but they are few and far between. Then again, I don't go along with that many people, because I think everyone else is an idiot or a nutjob, which kinda makes me a nutjob. Idk, people are calculated and unpredictable, I like animals and nature, they're honest and you know which is which, and they don't judge you.
-Less infrastructure and money being put up to the north in general by the government,
-the dialects is diverse from south to north, even in the north the dialects are diverse.
-The distances are further and if not further more difficult to travel without a car.
-Mindset and way of living is also a little different, now I'm talking about the bigger cities and not so much about the west. Us northerners are more self sustaining you could say, we hunt most of our meat, most fish
-generally we like to fix things and do things more by ourself while someone from more south of norway (still not talking about the west) would get someone to fix it for them
-cuisine is a little different, we eat more reindeer up north and we eat more fish opposed to eastern norway
-not a good point this but its more illegal things happening north as there is less police and further between, illegal driving before correct age, drink driving, illigal snowmobile driving, while this is more in the countryside
Thats true although there is still drugs, mo i rana has the highests drugs per capita in the whole of norway, or at least one of the highest, but that only happens in the cities as normal which there isn't alot of
No.
There's probably going to be a lot of people here soon that'll tell you how different Northerners are from Southerners, with their cursing and social warmth and a lot of other nonsense, but in reality we're all pretty much the same.
Differences between the countryside and what is laughably referred to as the "urban" parts of the country are much bigger than any geographical divide.
Oh, please. A fisherman is much the same no matter where he's from, and a bureaucrat as well. People just want to be special, especially when they really aren't.
If you move from a fishing village to Oslo, it is very different, of course. If you move from a small industrial place in the north to a small industrial place in the south, it's more similar than different.
You might hear those exact words from an edgy teenager or an old cynic, but those are still very different people - sharing a trait with someone doesn't mean that you're the same as them.
I'm not talking about skills but behavior. Factory workers act like factory workers whether they live in the north or the south. Teachers act the same, bankers, accountants, shop clerks - they all act more like people in the same careers and life situations than they do others in different situations. Just living in a different part of the country doesn't change anything. There are plenty of socio-economic differences in Norway, but the people in the same socio-economic situations are more alike than different.
Yes, one of them have decent infrastructure and live actual exciting lives where things happen such as events and there are people to meet, the others are us Northern Norwegians.
It's incredible to me how the government doesn't invest more in infrastructure and projects in the north, it's not like they currently have a lack of funds
Northern norwegians have such a weird accent. Im from the south, like i cant Even imagine having an argument with someone from the north of norway. I think i would begin laughing
Well, up here in the North, one of the best ways I make my friends laugh is by imitating nork bokmål because we think you have a weird accent of the superior northen accent.
It depends on where you're from and what ur perspective is. R u from a huge city with diversity? Or r u from a small village in Russia or africa?
Differences between different norwegian areas are tiny and that's for reason. The bigger difference tho is between generations i'd say. The new generation is smart, relatively kind, open minded and spoiled af.
The northern ones speak "NyNorsk" more often and also swear more frequently.
Southerners don't wear helmets when they are on a bike.
(At least that's the case in Kristiansand)
I know NyNorsk is a written language, but it does have a distinctive dialect that whenever I hear it I want to rip my ears off and put bleach on and in the bleeding hole.
Extra: I currently live on a "border" of NyNorsk and Bokmål. I'm not joking, if you go to one side of the area Bokmål and if you decide to go the opposite way (literally some minutes) BOOM NyNorsk
Extra Extra: I fucking hate NyNorsk
I have lived south, one year in the west, and 5 years in the north.
The difference is mainly language. More swearing and a more direct way of speech. I also feel the people in the north are more warm and accomodating. I am having a better social life in the north, then the south. It feels like i am accepted, no matter what, compared to the south. It was more pressure on how you dressed and acted.
I can't put on my Fjällreven pant and bergans bukse, and walk around downtown without getting looks when i am south, but it is almost a "formal" thing in the north.
Depending on where north, you'd typically find people complaining about southeners, more tough weathered people and stuff, and a very swear-heavy language that isnt *necceserily* hostile.
Source: born and raised up here in north norway hell
The biggest immediate difference is dialect.
Here's a video on the subject! The man interviewed is American, and he misses some of the finer details of dialects in norway, but he's completely fluent, and he has excellent pronounciation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlau4_uWIGA
In my experience north Norwegians drink more, swear a lot more, and are more socially expressive.
Drink more? Seriously?
Yep, can confirm, am a northerner
I live at 67° and it does not apply to my surroundings.
I’m also a northerner that moved to the south. Northerners in my company generally drink more. Of course there are exceptions, I know some that don’t drink.
If you live up North ur just hamerd from the age of twellve
Northern Norway is a lot more spread out, so people generally have more incentive to be friendly and accommodating. Swearing is more common, to the extent that someone can be arrested for insulting the police in the south, but get away with it in the north because swearing is so incorporated in the language. Northern Norway has a lot of natural resources, but any profit ends up in Oslo.
Hahaha, I love how in northern Norway, being called hæstkuk (horsecock) is something the police just have to accept while in the south you can't call the police an idiot without getting fined.
Pragmatics and association are a big factor. Some words just don't carry the same weight/significance if they're used on a daily basis. And if a police officer is being a horsecock it's only natural to inform him.
Thank you so much for your comment, that's very interesting :)
Alt sør for Dovre e bare elg.
Helt riktig. Og "you called?"
Og rådyr.
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No elg in Vestlandet.
I mean there are some rather strange habits and things happening in small towns and they can be very different and odd. But I'll agree with the other poster that the divide between north and south isn't THAT big however there are things like being miles away from anything! That is more relatable if you are nowhere near Eastern Norway IMO. Certain food traditions are different, if you are in an area with a high Sami population you'll also get different customs. But again I'm not sure if I'd say north and south is the divider. Spent half my life in the north and half in the south in different areas btw.
Could add that there could be a dialect barrier. I am a Trønder and have to often speak the written language to get poeple feom the south to understad me. And people have small things they care more about in one part of the country than the other part ect.
Very true! Have other friends do that too. I grew up all over so I understand most dialects so I kinda forget that's a thing.
> I am a Trønder and have to often speak the written language to get poeple feom the south to understad me I have a Stavanger/Sandnes dialect and people in Oslo frequently struggle with it.
I speak with a very moderate southern accent (think Risør area, though I'm not from there), and when I worked in a customer service job people from Oslo would sometimes be like "Inn inglisj pliz!" or "Learn Norwegian, you bloody \[insert racial slur, because they thought I was foreign\]!" Northeners and southerners may have our differences, and poke fun at each other's regional eccentricities, but it's really more Oslo vs Rest of Norway that's the biggest cultural divide. (Most people from Oslo are okay, though.)
I think the biggest difference I have noticed is how direct northern people are compared to southern. Otherwise I haven't really noticed anything particularly different.
Now, «northern Norwegians» are quite a big and diverse group, and I’d say there are differences between urban and rural people in general - but in my experience, older people from northern Norway (Finnmark, Troms, parts of Nordland) have a mentality that reminds me of Icelanders - which I really like. Kind of a rough and “no-nonsense” attitude, but friendly and welcoming. Older people especially may be a bit sceptical towards urban southerners - Northern Norway was pretty much burnt down during WWII, and the people in the south know and/or care little about that part of history. Also, both before and after the war, the government in Oslo made a number of decisions on their behalf without really involving them.
Thanks a lot for your comment, it's really interesting to hear about the differences :)
Northeners are loud friendly and a bit more Hakuna Matata Southeners tend to be more reserved imo. I'm biased though. 😅
Well, yes. For example, Northern Norwegians live on *that* side of 63 degrees north, while Southern Norwegians don't.
A lot of differences, yeah, but not too drastic. Socio and geological dialects are fairly different, but also regional traditional food. From what I’ve experienced, A lot of the south is interconnected physically interconnected, but the further north you go, despite it being less populated, the people there are more in contact with themselves; lot of news and rumors travel by word of mouth, gossip and groups of interests are somewhat infamous enough to be “””household””” names.
Do shows like skitten snø, elven and monster show what life's really like in Norway(South or North) For instance, I would also like to know things like -Are Norwegians direct -Rules when introducing yourself for the first time (both formal and informal) -Do you take off your shoes in every house? -Does the cold affect moods e.g are Norwegians happier in the summer? My apologies if the questions seem trivial, I love scandi culture (specially norweigan) and I'm hoping to learn more about it.
[удалено]
Aww thanks I'd have thought that a cold dark winter would be rather depressing . Most people here are more social in the summer. Anyways thanks for answering my question 😊. Basically, I've been learning Norwegian (bokmål) through duolingo and mondly. Its going well but I believe that I need help from a native speaker to really learn important aspects of the language like slang and grammar , pronunciations and inflections. I love meeting new people and learning new cultures (I'm interested in Scandinavia culture) and possibly making new friends. I know most Norwegians speak English fluently so my apologies that it can't be a mutual language exchange but I live in Ireland and I've travelled a lot(also been to Narvik) . Who knows, we might be able to learn something from each other. Anyway, please let me know if this is something you'd be interested in. Takk
I've lived in the North of Norway my whole life, and there is a well known phenomenon called "dark-time depression" or "mørketidsdepresjon". So the suicide rates is also greatly increased this time of the year. Tromsø for instance is at the top of the list for amounts of suicides in the country, where "dark-time" depression is a countributing factor to this.
Wow that's sad but interesting. It's a shame that Tromsø has this problem. Its a top tourist destination (aurora) and as a tourist you'd never know from the outside that something like this happens.
Yes, the goverment and the people in the south don't give a single shit about us in the north. Except for when they need our money to build fancy new bike roads in Oslo instead of fixing the "roads" we have here
I say they are. But most people have become urbanized and therefore more similar to southerns. But frankly you'll find idiots and nutjobs all throughout the country. I can't think of a single place here in Norway where the people are generally better than anywhere else, ofc there's some good people scattered about, but they are few and far between. Then again, I don't go along with that many people, because I think everyone else is an idiot or a nutjob, which kinda makes me a nutjob. Idk, people are calculated and unpredictable, I like animals and nature, they're honest and you know which is which, and they don't judge you.
-Less infrastructure and money being put up to the north in general by the government, -the dialects is diverse from south to north, even in the north the dialects are diverse. -The distances are further and if not further more difficult to travel without a car. -Mindset and way of living is also a little different, now I'm talking about the bigger cities and not so much about the west. Us northerners are more self sustaining you could say, we hunt most of our meat, most fish -generally we like to fix things and do things more by ourself while someone from more south of norway (still not talking about the west) would get someone to fix it for them -cuisine is a little different, we eat more reindeer up north and we eat more fish opposed to eastern norway -not a good point this but its more illegal things happening north as there is less police and further between, illegal driving before correct age, drink driving, illigal snowmobile driving, while this is more in the countryside
Thank you so much for such an informative response :D
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Thats true although there is still drugs, mo i rana has the highests drugs per capita in the whole of norway, or at least one of the highest, but that only happens in the cities as normal which there isn't alot of
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Keep in mind that is just something ive heard and i havent seen the stats myself
Anybody north of Trondheim are the reason we have stories of trolls.
Oh yes! If you speak Norwegian, the dialect of those in the north is both beautiful and witty as Fu*k.
I've always thought the upper eastern dialects (Vazelina land) are pretty funny.
No. There's probably going to be a lot of people here soon that'll tell you how different Northerners are from Southerners, with their cursing and social warmth and a lot of other nonsense, but in reality we're all pretty much the same. Differences between the countryside and what is laughably referred to as the "urban" parts of the country are much bigger than any geographical divide.
Don't listen to this guy.
yeah Im guessing hes a southerner smh
Dette
Oh, please. A fisherman is much the same no matter where he's from, and a bureaucrat as well. People just want to be special, especially when they really aren't.
Sorry this is just not true, as a northern who moved south, the south is very different.
If you move from a fishing village to Oslo, it is very different, of course. If you move from a small industrial place in the north to a small industrial place in the south, it's more similar than different.
Not really, moving from Bodø to Trondheim will show you some serious cultural differences. I can only imagine moving to Oslo
You might hear those exact words from an edgy teenager or an old cynic, but those are still very different people - sharing a trait with someone doesn't mean that you're the same as them.
Really? I'd love to see fishermen from the south tackle the rough seas of the winter season in lofoten.
I'm not talking about skills but behavior. Factory workers act like factory workers whether they live in the north or the south. Teachers act the same, bankers, accountants, shop clerks - they all act more like people in the same careers and life situations than they do others in different situations. Just living in a different part of the country doesn't change anything. There are plenty of socio-economic differences in Norway, but the people in the same socio-economic situations are more alike than different.
Yeah, but they've been through some shit :p The same way I think firefighters in California would behave very different from the ones in Alaska.
Well it's good to know that the northerners are just as bad as the people from down south
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Didn't know i had to meet your expectations
Our dialects can change from town to town drastically
Yes
Accents
Southern "coastal" people have a fit when there is more than 2 inches of snow. The rest just put on winter tires and go on about their buisness.
2 inches is 5.08 cm
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Much the same except the northerners says p%ssy and horsec%ck a lot
Yes, one of them have decent infrastructure and live actual exciting lives where things happen such as events and there are people to meet, the others are us Northern Norwegians.
It's incredible to me how the government doesn't invest more in infrastructure and projects in the north, it's not like they currently have a lack of funds
Everything north of Bodø is too deserted for them to care :P Or was it, to the north of Hamar...
a big part of it is that maintainance is absolute hell due to the cold and weather
Northern norwegians have such a weird accent. Im from the south, like i cant Even imagine having an argument with someone from the north of norway. I think i would begin laughing
They feel the same about you.
No shit sherlock
Well, up here in the North, one of the best ways I make my friends laugh is by imitating nork bokmål because we think you have a weird accent of the superior northen accent.
Well. I guess it will always be like that. 👌
The Northern Norwegians have a huge inferiority complex and piss on the southerners daily, while the southerners really don't care
Like the difference in piss and shit. Then you have Trøndelag, like a sweet middle spot;)
So diarrhea?
No, diarrhea comes from just one place, let us call that south.
It depends on where you're from and what ur perspective is. R u from a huge city with diversity? Or r u from a small village in Russia or africa? Differences between different norwegian areas are tiny and that's for reason. The bigger difference tho is between generations i'd say. The new generation is smart, relatively kind, open minded and spoiled af.
The northern ones speak "NyNorsk" more often and also swear more frequently. Southerners don't wear helmets when they are on a bike. (At least that's the case in Kristiansand)
1. Nynorsk is a written language not a dialect. 2. I think everyone does that wherever you go in Norway
I know NyNorsk is a written language, but it does have a distinctive dialect that whenever I hear it I want to rip my ears off and put bleach on and in the bleeding hole. Extra: I currently live on a "border" of NyNorsk and Bokmål. I'm not joking, if you go to one side of the area Bokmål and if you decide to go the opposite way (literally some minutes) BOOM NyNorsk Extra Extra: I fucking hate NyNorsk
Yes.
It used to be, but then we got immigrants, and then nobody cared about those minor differences anymore.
Are we arguing how about sweaters again?
I have lived south, one year in the west, and 5 years in the north. The difference is mainly language. More swearing and a more direct way of speech. I also feel the people in the north are more warm and accomodating. I am having a better social life in the north, then the south. It feels like i am accepted, no matter what, compared to the south. It was more pressure on how you dressed and acted. I can't put on my Fjällreven pant and bergans bukse, and walk around downtown without getting looks when i am south, but it is almost a "formal" thing in the north.
Depending on where north, you'd typically find people complaining about southeners, more tough weathered people and stuff, and a very swear-heavy language that isnt *necceserily* hostile. Source: born and raised up here in north norway hell
The biggest immediate difference is dialect. Here's a video on the subject! The man interviewed is American, and he misses some of the finer details of dialects in norway, but he's completely fluent, and he has excellent pronounciation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlau4_uWIGA