Tonemes—or why Norwegians sound like they are singing
14 Feb 2014If you have listened to someone speak Norwegian, you might have thought that it sounds like they are singing. The same is true for the closely related language Swedish, but not for most of the other European languages. Mandarin is well-known for its four tones which alter the meanings of all their words, but did you know that the Norwegian language also has tones? Not four, like in Mandarin; only two, and they only occur in the stressed syllable of words with at least two syllables. Monosyllabic words do not have tonemes.