More on languages around Narvik & more on the Narvik dialect & other topics, published 25/11/2025

Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost and officially published on the 25th of November 2025, as the first article on this website (I have tonnes more published on other websites, different types of book and magazines). This article is only published on this website: www.languages-of-linnunrata.co.uk and this article was published from the UK, like the website itself. This article is completely unrelated and separate from any of my other publications that discuss the languages in the Narvik part of the World. This article contains 3311 words. No AI was used in this publication nor in any of my publications. For reference purposes the URL of this webpage and article is: https://www.languages-of-linnunrata.co.uk/more-on-languages-around-narvik-more-on-the-narvik-dialect-other-topics-published-25-11-2025 

This article also includes two photos, taken by the author of around Narvik. Below the second picture is some detailed footnote text which has important information not in the main text. Below the first photo is a tiny bit of text. All the text and photos are important in this article. This article or page contains no sub-sections, but I will summarise some of it in brief: it contains information about historic languages around Narvik, including information regarding Kven and Lannankieli in that region, information about, discussing features of the Narvik dialect and examples, with example sentences in the main text and then in a separate list of sentences 12 other sample sentences in Narvik dialect, with translations, and there is also a table of the Narvik, Bokmål and English pronouns, followed by a quirky paragraph regarding Narvik dialect pronunciation. Many other things are also discussed in this article, including more mystical and spiritual perceptions of the Narvik area. At the end of the article is a reference, a note and dedications.

Photo above: en liten utsikt åver Narvik, og fjell i avstand - a little view over Narvik, and mountains in the distance. 

Narvik is a city in Northern Norway, in what was called until recently the county of Nordland. Narvik is located in the very north of Nordland, and lies on the side of the mountain of Fagernesfjell, that rises above the inner Ofotfjorden. 

Northern Norway has been occupied by people for a long time. Even though the landscape is wild, and very cold for many months of the year, it has been glimpsed by, and has been the home to people for many thousands of years. Some of these cultures are mysterious, and likely spoke unknown languages, which, in my opinion, can be glimpsed in the languages and dialects spoken there today. But certainly, the Sámi peoples there today are indigenous people, with roots that connect in some way to those most ancient cultures. I personally think that the same can be said, albeit to a lesser degree, with regard to the Norse and Kvens or Finns, who also have a historic presence in this area. 

Narvik has its own dialect of Norwegian, which is a curious combination of the traditional dialects of Norwegian spoken around the inner Ofotfjord, and more recent Urban Norwegian influences and Swedish influences (and Bondska influences?), which became a part of the dialect through the process of industrialisation and the spread of standard language. 

The prosody, i.e. rhythm of the Narvik dialect, and its general sound, do however reflect the Norwegian and Ofotfjord, and arguably also the Sámi, and perhaps Kven and other influences that might be present in the prosody of these dialects. 

There are two Sámi languages spoken around Narvik: The Northern Sámi and Lule Sámi languages. Lule Sámi isn't spoken in Narvik itself however, and the border with Lule Sámi lies some way to the south, approximately around Tysfjord - one of Norway's deepest fjords. The Northern Sámi dialect spoken around Narvik is not the exact same as the Northern Sámi spoken in most of Finnmark for example, but is instead a western part of the Torne Sámi dialect of Northern Sámi. This also means that it is closer to Lule Sámi in some respects. 

The Kven language is another language indigenous to the area, but in a smaller way, and its presence is not specifically attested to the same extent - but it is to some degree. The term "Kven" is used to refer to speakers of a Finnic language and its various dialects, known in their language as Kvääninkieli or as Kainunkieli. The language is typically spoken to the north of Narvik, and its present linguistic zone begins just east of Tromso, and spreads along the more coastal regions of Northern Troms and Finnmark. 

A similar language, known as Lannankieli, itself considered by many as a dialect of the Meänkieli language, was historically spoken right up to the shores of Lake Torneträsk, which lies just across the Swedish border from Narvik. So it is somewhat unclear to me whether or not the Finnic language once spoken by Finns or Kvens around Narvik, was closer to the Kven dialects in the north or perhaps closer to Lannankieli in Sweden. But this is speculative. An example of the Kven connections to the Narvik area is that the town of Ballangen to the south of Narvik does also have the Kven name of Palanki, which indicates Kven connections to the area. 

It is also noteworthy that the Kvens were historically quite a mobile people, although not hunter gatherers in the exact sense, as they did also settle. But it is perhaps likely that the Kvens in this area were more often visiting, or travelling through the area, with perhaps only a few groups of Kvens living around Narvik permanently. 

For me, Narvik is one of the most beautiful places on planet earth. It's a - in a sense, a sleepy city, beside a deep fjord. The city has an industrial presence, but that itself is interesting to me - and it rises up the side of the Fagernesfjell mountain, and, pretty much, all of the surrounding landscape is mountain, fjord and forest. Waterfalls, mountains, impressive and steep - like fossilised stone giants. The forests in the summer are so green and peaceful, that the colours and the light can take one to an appreciation of nature that is beyond time and space. 

So to me, Narvik is beautiful. The landscape that surrounds it, is harsh, but awe-inspiring. It possesses a romance, which is as wild and ancient and the forces of the cosmos. Yet it also reminds me a great deal of what I might call "home". Not just home in the physical sense of my own home, and my people in England - but "home" in the sense of what my spirit recognises as home. A place that feels like it belongs, and that it existed in my heart before I even knew it existed. 

When I was around 18 I had very little knowledge of Norwegian dialects. I had books, from where I studied "Standard Eastern Norwegian", as in, the standard varieties used by the media in Oslo for example - and which are used in most coursebooks, with the Bokmål spelling system. But when I first visited Narvik that year, I recognised that the "lilt" was different. That the Northern dialects of Norwegian expressed a different place to those of the south, and I fell in love with it - with the place, and with how the people in Narvik speak their language. 

When it comes to the Northern dialects of Norway, the pitch in someone's rhythm of speaking will tend to start higher, and then decrease in pitch rather than increase towards the end of the sentence. This is common in Western Norway and Northern Norway in general. It is a lot more complex than this, especially when, in terms of Northern Norway, we get onto the subjects of apocope and of the "circumflex tone", but I will not go into these in this article. I am unsure whether or not the Narvik dialect possesses the circumflex tone in a pure sense, but the Narvik dialect does have some apocope, and the pitch and prosody of Narvik Norwegian is generally quite special and unique - and beautiful, in my opinion.

Secondly, the vowels in Northern Norwegian, and in Narvik Norwegian, are slightly different. For one it is common to turn i into e, for example folk from Narvik would often say fesk instead of fisk meaning "fish", and vænn instead of venn meaning "friend". The Narvik dialect does some apocope, although not to the same degree that the rural Ofotfjord dialects do. Examples in Narvik include definite plural forms, for example in Narvik one would say trollan, husan, tågan and hæstan instead of Standard Eastern Norwegian: trollene, husene, togene and hestene,meaning "the trolls, the houses", "the trains", and "the horses" respectively. Apocope is also found sporadically in verbs, for example one could say vi ska'ke vær alene - "we shall not be alone", in Bokmål: vi skal ikke være alene. The use of apocope in verbs is however limited in the Narvik dialect, and its use can be somewhat contextual and even sporadic. 

The -r on the end of verbs in their present tense form is usually, but not always, dropped. It is dropped in for example Bokmål er - "am, is, are", example Narvik dialect: vi e på stien instead of vi er på stien - "we are on the path", and Jesus e så stærk instead of Jesus er så sterk - "Jesus is so strong". And for example in the verb kjenne in the example vi kjenne trollan - "we know the trolls", which in Bokmål would be: vi kjenner trollene. Sometimes, there is apocope on the present tense form of verbs too. 

 Note that in the Narvik dialect, ei is pronounced closer to the English "ay" in "say" and is not pronounced like the "igh" in "might". The letter æ is pronounced similarly to the American English pronunciation of the "a" in "hat". The letter å is pronounced similarly to the English "aw" in "saw".  The r is softly rolled or rolled once, and is not uvular like the standard German r. 

The "soft k" sound in Norwegian is traditionally pronounced more like the "ch" in English "cheese" around Narvik. Variations of this are found throughout northern and western Norway, although Trøndersk, eastern and Southern Norwegian for the most part, have a sound more like the "H" in the English name "Hugh".  This "ch" sound can be found in the Narvik dialect, in words such as: kjøre - "drive", kyss - "kiss", kjøp - "buy", kjenne - "know. The negative particle however is ikke or ke and does not contain this "ch" sound. 

A peculiar feature of the Narvik dialect was the addition of a "sh" sound, usually when at the start of a word and usually before another consonant. In the speech of older generations its usage is more widespread, although its use seems sporadic. For example Standard Eastern Norwegian vi snakkes - "see you later" (literally: "we speak"), becomes vi schnakkes in Narvik. This does not happen in all words, and I am unsure whether or not for example ska ever became schka, but in this article I use ska.  Another example of ska in an example sentence is: æ ska reise tell Sværije igjænn - "I will travel to Sweden again", in Bokmål this would be: jeg skal reise til Sverige igjen. This sch sound is also found however in the word schnee or schne meaning "snow", although the form sne is probably more common nowadays. In Bokmål, this word is snø, in Nynorsk it is sny. The use of this sch- sound is however quite sporadic and does not occur in all words beginning with s- followed by another consonant, e.g. ska. Another example is that, to my knowledge, it does not occur in the word Sværije "Sweden". It does however occur in some of the Bondska equivalents of this word, an example of which is Schwärje in the Skellefteå Bondska language. 

Where this sch- originates I am not sure. The Narvik dialect word schnee is pretty much identical to the German word schnee, and there was a German presence in Narvik during WW2. But I am doubtful that this temporary German presence would have been the origin of this sch- sound, and a similar sound change occurs in some of the Bondska languages in Northern Sweden. Considering that influences from Sweden and from Swedish do exist in the Narvik dialect, it is possible that this also included speakers of Bondska, who could theoretically have contributed these sch- sounds to the dialect of Narvik. 

Some words in the Narvik dialect are more or less unchanged from Swedish. For example Narvik dialect farsan and morsan for "father" and "mother", the Bokmål equivalents of these words are: farfar and mormor. Another example of a word adopted from Swedish, and similarly spelled in the Swedish way according to (1), is børjan - "the start", equivalent to Bokmål starten. The word børjan is from Swedish början. 

The Narvik dialect, having formed from indigenous Ofoten Norse/Norwegian dialects, Swedish (and Bondska?), Urban Norwegian (standard Eastern Norwegian) and other Norwegian dialectal influences, is curious and unique. As I also mentioned, Torne Sámi and Kven prosodic patterns may have also played an influence in the dialect's prosody. 

The reason why the influences from Sweden are so prominent, is that Narvik essentially formed, as a city, to a large degree because of the construction of the Ofotbanan railway from Kiruna in Sweden, which was built to take iron ore from the mines at Kiruna and Gällivare to an ice-free port on the Norwegian coast. This has naturally meant a continuous close connection with Sweden into the present day, with the railway in Narvik connecting onto the Swedish rail network via the Ofotbanan and more generally the Malmbanan. The railway in Narvik does not connect to other railway lines in Norway. There are two ports in Narvik which connect to the railway, one of which is dedicated to the sorting and loading of the magnetite iron ore onto ships; the other port, close to the entrance of Beisfjorden, is used for more general cargo. 

Below are some more thorough phrases in the Narvik dialect:

1. ka hete du? - "what are you called?
2. æ hete... - "I am called..."
3. kor kåmmer du fra? - "where do you come from?"
4. æ kåmmer fra... - I come from...
5. kor bor du? - "where do you live?"
6. æ bor i... - "I live in..."
7. schnakke du Narvikdialektn? - "do you speak the Narvik dialect?"
8. ja, næi - "yes, no"
9. kor længe ha du vært i Nord-Nårge? - "how long have you been in Northern Norway"
10. e Fagernesfjelle de største fjelle i Nord-Nårge? - "is Fagernesfjell the biggest fell in Northern Norway?"
11. næi - "no"
12. koffer finns de så mange tåg i Narvik? - "why are there so many trains in Narvik?"

Photo above: fjellheisn på Fagernesfjellet i juli 2011. En liten del a Narvik kan ses tell venstre - the cable car on Fagernesfjell in 2011, a bit of Narvik can be seen to the left. This night on the mountain was so inspiring and beautiful. It felt as though another world, a northern world of light, Asgard, Hyperborea, or some such similar thing, was leaking into our world upon that mountain. I cannot explain this feeling, but I know I felt it, and I still feel it strongly. I felt that I was greeting, facing, an ancestral magic that my ancestors held eternally, a magic that also existed within myself, that had always been there, but which until that moment, I had never dreamed of really existing in my-self. And I do not even have any ancestors from Norway, as far as I am aware. But from my experience anyway, our spirit does not make itself known through our DNA or ancestry, but rather through the things that our heart is drawn to - over, and over again. 

My native American friend once explained to me, that whilst ancestry and blood are a part of their connections - to be one of his people, is first and foremost a matter of living one's life according to the way of his people. Which also translates into the way a person relates to the land and to the cosmos. So even though I am not Norwegian, or Finnish, or Sámi - and nor would I claim to be as such, I do perceive their land, and their ways of life, with an enormity of love. And when I go there - I try to be that in how I live, how I move through and honour the land, in how I relate to the people and traditions. And I have felt many times that this relationship is not just one way. I have been loved by people of the north, in my own small way. And when I have walked certain places there, I have felt embraced and protected. 

After I went to Narvik in 2011, I did not return again until 2014. I then returned many times after. But on that second trip in 2014, I remember ascending the side of a mountain. I was miles from anywhere, I had been in my own world of thoughts for most of the long walk. But suddenly I reached a certain place on the mountain, and surrounding me was space, peace, spirit - mountains, glaciars, bright green birch forests, waterfalls. And a presence seemed to embrace me lovingly, as though to say "welcome back". Of course those lands can also be harsh and unforgiving, When I was last in Narvik, a relationship I was in ended. The magic became harsher,  and my peace, inaccessible, yet I still felt its magic, whispers of hope and ancestral embrace. 

The Narvik dialect has many features which can be described as "Nordnorsk", Northern Norwegian, but it does lack some of the common Northern Norwegian features found in surrounding dialects. For example, the Narvik dialect only has sporadic and rare examples of palatalisation, or adding a [j] sound. For example, in Narvik one would say han, mann, lann, "here, man, land", whereas in surroundint Ofoten dialects, the forms would generally be: hannj, mannj and lannj with palatal n-sounds. 

Whilst the first person singular pronoun is usually æ in Narvik, it was historically common in surrounding Ofoten dialects to say æg. There are also a great many other things to discuss on Ofoten dialects, some of which I have discussed elsewhere. Below is a table showing the pronouns in the Narvik dialect, with their Bokmål and English equivalents. 

Another feature of the Narvik dialect, somewhat related to prosody, is that according to (1), certain sounds are often lengthened, in a way that I at least find quite unusual. For example in source (1), Abisko in Sweden, just over the border from Narvik, is apparently pronounced as though Abissssko (1) in the Narvik dialect, although I think the number of s's might be slightly exaggerated.