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Originally Posted by haku
Also, as far as i know, Norwegian is devided into many 'varieties' (Bokmal, Riksmal, Nynorsk, Hognorsk, and so on) with sometimes rather important grammatical differences (some have 3 genders while others only 2 if i'm not mistaken) and that doesn't exactly look like something simple from a non-native point of view.
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Heh... Bokmål and Nynorsk are the only types of Norwegian. Bokmål is the new name for Riksmål. The use of Riksmål grammatics have died out really, and Høgnorsk? I don't think it has been mentioned about for quite some decades. Bokmål, or Riksmål if you like, can have 2 genders, yeah. (in the modernizing it has been added a gander, femininum (aye? heh), but you don't really have to use it. I don't use it when I'm writing bokmål, which is my main form of norwegian.) Bokmål is spoken and written by 85-90 percent of the people. You have nynorsk with 10-15 percent, and they are all situated in west-norway. Also, these forms of norwegian are extremely similar. It's actually surprisingly similar compared to the fact they are mentioned as two different forms of norwegian.
But yeah, I guess you're right. The gender-thing could be a bitch
But that wasn't honestly my biggest problem when I was learning German. Cause most noun are linked to different genders according to what letter(s) they end on. So you don't have to memorize every noun, only what type of noun goes for each gender. In german you'll see that most nouns ending on 'e' is feminine. But then again you have german with all it's exceptions. It' was the casuses that messed with my brain, and also the way each words change for "who" you're talking to/about for eeevery siiingle word. That's also the case in english. Example; I am, You are, He she it is, we are, you are, they are. In norwegian it's: Jeg er, du er, han hun det er, vi er, dere er, de er. The same all over. I'd think that makes it so much easier for people. At least german was a bitch for me with all that stuff
And then you have all the strong and weak verbs and what not you have to memorize.
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Originally Posted by marina
though nobody mentioned the tricky parts of English. Take spelling for instance
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A very good point. Since I've been talking about Norwegian I can only say that from the mid 1800s till now the goal has been to make the language you write similar to the one you speak. Words are pronounced as they are written. The only little thing that's still haunting the language is the o (in different situations pronounced either o or å in norwegian). But it's not that important really, so yeah.. Heh.