Words from the north
Here's my take on this:
In Norway we have 3 official languages: Norwegian, New Norwegian (a dialect based construction) and Sami (spoken by the Laplanders).
Up until 1400 AD we had a common language with Iceland. Our Old Norwegian is very similar to Icelandic. Several hundred years of Danish rule wiped out the old Norse language and replaced it with Danish - today this has turn into Norwegian which is related to present day Danish and Swedish. (and yes, the word hyggelig = "cousy" is also found in Norwegian, but not in swedish where they say "mysigt"). Norway and Denmark share the same alphabet.
Sami is completely different and has its origin from eastern/slavic languages, the alphabet looks more like it is from Slovakia. Common words like mother is "Aiti" which is also found in Finnish.
Back to Norwegian: Ski, Slalom and Fjord are words of norwegian origin.
Also Old Norwegian "Styribord" meaning starboard is used worldwide. As it has nothing to do with stars but rather to stear, and the fact the vikings had them on the right side of their ships, Styribord/starboard is the righthand side of a ship.
As a couriosity, due to foreign immigration, a new streetwise language is beginning to get hold among the young generation, especially in Oslo. We call it "kebab-norwegian" and is influenced by arabic, urdu, punjabi, and hindi. For example "schpaa kębe" means nice girl, very far off from its norwegian equivalent "pen jente".
Regards,
ArcticBoy
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