Norwegian Genealogical Word List

This Norwegian Word List contains Norwegian words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Norwegian-English dictionary. (See the "Additional Resources" section below.)

Norwegian is a Germanic language like Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. There are two official dialects in Norway. Prior to 1915 most Norwegian records are in a language closer to written Danish than to modern Norwegian. You may also want to refer to the Danish Genealogical Word List.

Records published after 1915, such as family and local histories, are in modern Norwegian. Most differences between modern and old Norwegian are simply a matter of spelling. Carefully study the section below on spelling. This will help you find the words in this list.

LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS
Variant Forms of Words

In Norwegian, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries— married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. For example:

Alphabetical Order
Written Norwegian has three letters not found in the English alphabet: Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å). In most record sources prior to 1915, Å (å) is written as Aa (aa) and filed at the beginning of the alphabet. Modern Norwegian dictionaries, indexes, the Locality section of the Family History Library Catalog, and this word list use the following alphabetical order:

a b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  p  q  r  s  t  u  v  w  x  y  z  æ  ø  å

A

absolvere                         to give absolution adel                                   nobility adelig                                noble adelsmann                         nobleman adoptert                             adopted adresse                              address aften                                  evening alder                                  age alderdomssvakhet             weakness of old age aldri                                   never alle                                    all alltid                                  always almisse                              charity almisselem                        indigent, poor altergang                           communion amt                                    county amtmann                           chief county administrator andre                                 others, other, next anetavle                             pedigree chart anfall                                  seizure, attack anførte                                entered, mentioned ankomst                              arrival anmerkning                        remark, notice, note annen, annet                      second, another annen gang                        second time anno (Latin)                        year annonsere                          publish, announce antall                                  number, count april                                   April arbeider                             laborer arkiv                                   archive arv                                      inheritance arvelodd                             share of inheritance arving                                 heir astma                                 asthma at                                       that atten                                  eighteen attende                              eighteenth attest                                 certificate august                               August av                                     of, at, by, from avdeling                           part, division avdød                               deceased avgangen                         departed avgift                                duty (monetary), fee avkom                              offspring, issue avtale                               agreement 

Spelling
Spelling was not standardized when most early records were made. The following spelling variations are common:

Examples:

"gjørtler" spelled as "giørtler" "mann" spelled as "mand" "kvinne" spelled as "quinde"

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Norwegian-English dictionary. Several Norwegian-English dictionaries are available at the Family History Library. These are in the Scandinavian collection. Their call numbers begin with 439.82321. Family History Centers can obtain the following dictionaries on microfilm:

Scavenius, H. Glydendals Ordbøker; Norsk-Engelsk [Gyldendal’s Dictionaries; Norwegian-English]. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1945. (FHL film 1,224,705, item 4).

cavenius, H. Glydendals Ordbøker; Engelsk-Norsk [Glydendal’s Dictionaries; English-Norwegian]. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1945. (FHL film 1,224,705, item 3). Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the Family History Library Catalog under NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE - DICTIONARIES and in the Locality section under NORWAY - LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES.

KEY WORDS
In order to find and use specific types of Norwegian records, you will need to know some key words in Norwegian. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Norwegian words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Norwegian words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Norwegian records to indicate marriage.