Norwegian belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic language group. Other languages in that branch are e.g. Swedish, Danish and Icelandic.
The Norwegian alphabet has three extra letters, æ, ø and å. Modern Norwegian has many dialects but all of them, as well as Swedish and Danish, are understood throughout the Scandinavian countries.
Until about 1850 there was only one written language, called Riksmål, or "official Norwegian", which was strongly influenced by Danish during the 434-year union of the two nations. Nynorsk or "new Norwegian" was then created out of a mixture of the rural dialects.
After a long feud, mostly urban-rural in makeup, the two different forms received equal status under the terms Bokmål or "book Norwegian" and Nynorsk or "new Norwegian". As a result, you will find all official forms and documents written in both languages. Norwegians easily understand both forms.
People living in the Oslo area speak Bokmål and this is also the language you will learn if you decide to take a Norwegian language course while studying at BI.
