Origin of Norwegian: Norwegian is a descendant of the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. With the introduction of Christianity in the 11th century, the Roman alphabet was introduced together with religious loan words from Latin. At that time, the Scandinavian and the Icelandic languages were considered the same language, though slight differences could be found even then. These differences have increased over time and become four separate, although closely related, languages; Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish.

Regional differences: There are two main branches of the Norwegian language; Nynorsk and Bokmål. The two are vastly different, and there are dialects within each branch that can be almost unintelligible to speakers from other regions. However, most Norwegians also speak the more standardized version of Bokmål.