New Words

In my Norwegian language class one day, we learned what Norwegians call popular food items.  Many of these words are nearly identical to what we call them in English, so it was a day of feeling rather triumphant in the otherwise abysmal world of trying to learn a foreign language.

Potatoes are called “potet”, bread is called “brød,” and milk is called “melk.” These are the staples in every Norwegian home, so learning these words took the fear out of going hungry should I ever need to ask someone for a bite to eat.

Our teacher also taught us that certain foods last longer than others and that’s why so many fresh produce items aren’t available in Norway – because they won’t survive the trip so far north - like I hadn’t figured that one out already.  She also told us about some foods that become poisonous after awhile.

In describing the poisonous food, I heard her say the exact same word that she used a few days earlier when she was teaching us the names of all the family members. The word that caught my attention was “gift” (pronounced “yift.”)  It’s the Norwegian word for “married,” but as we all learned during our food lesson, it’s also the Norwegian word for “poison.” 

I brought up the irony of “gift” being used for both “married” and “poison” and asked our teacher why that would be.   I got her to think a minute, but she was not able to answer my question. 

There were several Spanish-speaking students in our class too, so I also pointed out that the Spanish word “esposa” means “wife,” but it also means “handcuffs.”  I don’t like those “coincidences” one little bit, but I must say, it makes certain words easier to remember – like the English word “but” is “men” in Norwegian.  There are so many things to remember when learning a new language I must do what I can to help the process. 

I never could connect the dots on why a “child” is called “barn” in Norwegian, though.  I know as a kid, my mother used to ask me if I was “born in a barn” when I left the door open, so maybe there’s something there -- she is full blooded Norwegian, after all.

We studied weather words that same week too, and we learned that if it’s cloudy they say in Norwegian it’s “skyet” (pronounced “she-it”).  And here all these years I thought my mom was swearing when she’d say a certain word in a particular kind of way, but as it turns out, it seems, she was just talking about the weather.