Skip to main content

Kjartan Lauritzen; keeping music local?

 

Kjartan Lauritzen; keeping music local?

- Kjartan Lauritzen is a Norwegian pop music phenomenon, with hits about youth, partying, and loving yourself. Sound familiar? Whilst following the traditional stereotypes of what pop music can be, Kjartan pushes the boundaries and brings a fresh, nonchalant approach to a rather serious industry. 

- Of Icelandic descent, (his real name is Per Áki Sigurdsson Kvikne), Kjartan's music is linguistically very interesting. Unlike many Norwegian artists, who are pressured into using Standard Eastern Norwegian for their vocals, Kjartan uses the dialect of his home town of Balestrand, in Sogn og Fjordane, which is in the West of Norway. This is clear throughout his lyrics, which can be very dialectal.

Kjartan Lyric: "Eg ska no fortelle om ei vekentlig rutine: meg og mine venner drikker til vi alle e heilt på tryne. Hadde aldri no' kjemi, men dette her e syre"

Nynorsk: "Eg skal no fortelja om ei vekentleg rutine: eg og mine vener drikk til vi alle er heilt på tryne. Hadde aldri noko kjemi, men dette her er syre"

Bokmål: "Jeg skal nå fortelle om en ukentlig rutine: jeg og mine venner drikker til vi alle er helt på tryne. Hadde aldri noe kjemi, men dette her er syre"

English: "I will now tell about a weekly routine: me and my friends drink until we're off our faces. I never took chemistry, but this here is acid"

I will now tell you of weekly routine
Me and my friends drink until we're off our faces
I never took chemistry, but this here is acid
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/fredag-friday.html
I will now tell you of weekly routine
Me and my friends drink until we're off our faces
I never took chemistry, but this here is acid
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/fredag-friday.html

- Balestrand is a Nynorsk area, in which the majority of citizens use Nynorsk. This is reflected in the local dialects, and this is the same with Balestrand. Notice how some of Kjartan's lyrics are very similar to Nynorsk:

"Eg ska no fortelle om ei vekentlig rutine"

- As you can see, this line is very similar to Nynorsk. The only major difference is the contraction of 'skal' to 'ska', and the verb 'å fortelle', which isn't allowed in Nynorsk. Other than that, it is identical to Nynorsk. These are themes with which much of Lauritzen's lyrics follow; contractions, and Bokmål forms of verbs slipping into the song. Occasionally, there are potentially anglicisms too, as below.


Anglicism: A word or phrase borrowed from English into a foreign language.

"meg og mine venner"

- In English, the phrase 'me and my friends' is acceptable, even if the form of 'my friends and I' is preferred. In Norwegian, the phrasing of 'meg og mine venner' seems very odd, and not a common construction of the sentence. Taking into account Lauritzen's Balestrand dialect, you could expect to see 'eg og mine venner' (I and my friends), which would be acceptable, following the Norwegian grammar system. The fact he omits this is very odd, and suggests that this construction in the song is a possible anglicism.

- In Short, Kjartan Lauritzen is proudly representing his home town and his roots in an industry in which such things are often suppressed. His popularity and relatability for teenagers has subconsciously made speaking in local dialect cool again. Although he does not necessarily always follow Norwegian grammar rules, this can be explained by the need for rhyming or maintaining flow in his songs. Overall, Lauritzen is one of the most important musicians in the Norwegian music industry at the moment.

 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Riksmål and the influence of Danish on the Norwegian Written Language

  Riksmål, and the influence it has on the written Norwegian Language An Origin: - From 1537 - 1814, the nations of Denmark and Norway were in a personal union, sharing the same written language of Danish. Following the dissolution of the Union, Norway was left without a written language of it's own, and so Danish continued to be used. Pioneers of the Norwegian language aimed to create a written standard for the new nation, and so in the early 1850s, Knud Knudsen began to write and create a written form of Norwegian heavily influenced by Danish, to the extent of it being seen as a 'Norwegianised interpretation of Danish'. In 1899, a man named Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson made clear his intention of building on Knudsen's ideas, to create a written standard based on the Danish spoken by the upper class in the city of Oslo, and East Norway, which he named 'Riksmaal', literally meaning ' National Language' . This is significant, because whilst other Language Pion...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sources and Bibliography

Sources:  Books: - Saltendialekten : En Grammatikk , by Olga Brekke (2000) - This book was very useful in explaining the grammar of the northern dialect of Salten in Norway. This was the first book I read in Norwegian, and although I tripped up on some vocabulary, it was very understandable and valuable to my research, especially regarding my research post on the dialect of Salten. - Saltamålet : kort oversikt over lydverket, by Einar Skånlund (1933) - Likewise, this book was valuable in expanding my knowledge of phonology and establishing a skill set I could use to help me later in my research. The analytical and comprehensive knowledge from this book was used to help me in my understanding of other dialects. - Norske dialekter. 1-3 : Innføring i almen norsk fonologi og dialektologi ; Fra indoeuropèisk til norske dialekter ; De viktigste målmerker og deres råderom, by Hallfrid Christiansen (1946) - This is a very useful and brief guide of the Norwegian Dialects, and their evolu...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Traditional and Younger Dialect of Salten

Saltenmål EPQ Research Introduction -  Saltenmål is the group of dialects originating from the Salten District of the Norwegian County of Nordland. The biggest municipality in Salten is Bodø, but among the others are Fauske, Saltdal, Steigen, and Hamarøy, to name a few. Salten has an interesting dialect, although certain aspects are fairly typical to other northern Norwegian dialects. Phonology -   The apocope is a phonological element that involves the loss of a final sound of a word, when spoken. Commonly, this is usually a vowel, but can include consonants. This happens commonly in English, mostly as native English speakers do not pronounce the -e- on the end of words, for example, in words like ‘come’ and ‘more’. Saltenmål is one of a number of northern dialects that use apocope, but it is used much more often than in other areas. Words that are usually pronounced with two syllables in Norwegian are often shortened to one in Saltenmål. For example, infinitive verbs never h...
Post a Comment
Read more