# Norwegian:  valnemda



## girecole

I am unable to find any reference to "valnemda" in my Norwegian dictionaries.  Is it a political party or affiliation in Norway?  The writer of the quote below is telling about her joining  the municipal council in a town in Sogn og Fjordane.  Here is the quote I am translating:

"N. var venstremann, B. høyrde til senterpartiet.  Eg kom inn i valnemda."

My translation:  "N. was a leftist; B. belonged to the centrist party.  I came in from ________."

Is there a better way to express these political affiliations?  

I can find many references to "valnemda" when I do a Google search, but the word is never translated.


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## Minamo

You can't find it in a diccionary because it is in _nynorsk_ and not bokmål. As you may know, in Norway we have two "languages". Valnemda in bokmål is valgnemda, and you can easily find a translation then. Valgnemda = Election Appeals Board. 
These two languages are very confusing for people trying to learn norwegian, sometimes it's even confusing for the norwegian people


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## Magb

It should actually be spelled "valnem*n*da". That second N typically won't be pronounced in speech, which would explain why some people spell it without the N.

_Val_ means "choice" or "election" (_val_ being the nynorsk spelling; in bokmål it's _valg_). A _nemnd_ is a sort of committee or council, so a _valnemnd_ is an "election committee" or "election commission" or "electoral commission" or what have you. Despite _nemnd_ being a nynorsk ord, it's used throughout the country. The expected bokmål form would be _nevnd_, but no one spells or says it that way.



girecole said:


> "N. var venstremann, B. høyrde til senterpartiet. Eg kom inn i valnemda."
> 
> My translation: "N. was a leftist; B. belonged to the centrist party. I came in from ________."


_Venstremann_ should be translated to something like "Liberal Party member". _Venstre_ is usually translated as "The Liberals", and in spite of their name they're not really leftists by Norwegian standards. Similarly, _senterpartiet_ should be translated as the "Center Party" or "Centre Party", although calling them centrists is certainly not inaccurate.


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## girecole

Many thanks to you, Minamo and Magb, for your help with this.  Somehow my dictionary sources (ordnet.no, LEXIN for nynorsk, and Einar Haugen's dictionary) could not lead me to the correct translation, no matter how hard I tried!  I am grateful to have an explanation of the nuances of political-party names in Norway.  Here in the U.S., too, it isn't easy to discern political leanings solely from the names of the parties.


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## kirsitn

In case you come across more political parties later in the text - here's a list of the main ones, listed from left to right (more or less):

RV - Rød Valgallianse (as red as it gets without a revolution)
SV - Sosialistisk venstreparti (socialist)
AP - Arbeiderpartiet (labor party)
SP - Senterpartiet (Center, but mainly concerned with farmers and people living in rural areas/small towns)
V - Venstre (Liberal)
H - Høyre (Conservative)
KrF - Kristelig folkeparti (Conservative/center, religious)
FrP - Fremskrittspartiet (dark blue, verging on brown...)


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## girecole

Thank you.  This list is extremely helpful and interesting to me.  A follow-up question:  the writer I am translating describes herself later in the text as representing the Kristelig folkeparti.  I translated that as Christian Democrats.  Is "Conservative" a better translation?  

And, forgive me, but I don't know what it means to be "blue" in Norwegian politics, let alone "brown."  But I'm dying to know.  We have "greens" over here and our red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states, but nothing brown that I know of!


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## Tjahzi

Well, (at least) in Scandinavia. Red is the color representing socialism and blue, conservatism/liberalism. Environmentalist parties are usually referred to as "greens", but, at least in Sweden, yellow in charts and diagrams (due to green already being the color of the Center party). Brown, or black, in this context can only be a reference to the brown skirts of the 1930s, so be happy you don't have any...

As for what is to be considered what, that's a very complicated issue. On a Scandinavian scale, US _Democrats_ would probably be placed somewhere in between our liberals and conservatives (possibly leaning towards the latter) and the _Republicans_ beyond the latter (bordering to I don't know what).

Specifically in regards to your question: Christian parties here are more or less by definition conservative, due to religion being so marginalized and as such "Conservative" could indeed be a suitable translation.


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## oskhen

girecole said:


> Thank you.  This list is extremely helpful and interesting to me.  A follow-up question:  the writer I am translating describes herself later in the text as representing the Kristelig folkeparti.  I translated that as Christian Democrats.  Is "Conservative" a better translation?
> 
> And, forgive me, but I don't know what it means to be "blue" in Norwegian politics, let alone "brown."  But I'm dying to know.  We have "greens" over here and our red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states, but nothing brown that I know of!



No, I'm quite sure Christian Democrats would be the best term for Kristelig Folkeparti. 

As for the colours, it looks like the USA don't have the same thinking as Europe (and most of the rest of the world, I think):

"Red" is socialist/leftist - that is to the left of center. In Norway, the important red parties would be Rødt (it's name is not RV anymore, kirsitn, and they actually want a socialist revolution), SV and AP. At least these see themselves as leftist. The "blue" parties are the ones to the right of the center. That is, they support economic liberalism, smaller state, etc. In Norway, the interesting ones on this side are Høyre and FrP. 
This, at least, is the common distinction. The actual picture in Norwegian politics are quite complicated, I think, but this is not the place to discuss that.

As for "brown" (a description I'm quite sure most members/supporters of FrP would denounce when used about them), this is a common term for parties/groups/persons with tendencies towards xenophobia, racism and/or outright fascism. The term is even more proper if they display more than mere tendencies.


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## oskhen

Tjahzi said:


> Christian parties here are more or less by definition conservative, due to religion being so marginalized and as such "Conservative" could indeed be a suitable translation.



I disagree. In many respects the Christian parties here are conservative, but Kristelig Folkeparti, at least, have a bit in common with the left. But anyway, the terms are fairly fixed: Høyre are the Norwegian Conservatives (akin to the ones in Great Britain, for instance), and KrF are Christian Democrats (roughly - at least not Conservatives). These are analytical terms more than anything else, but to disturb them just cause confusion.


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## Tjahzi

My bad, I just assumed they would be the same as our _Kristdemokraterna. _

On a side note, I find the fact that _Venstre_ is liberal to be quite confusing.


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## oskhen

Tjahzi said:


> My bad, I just assumed they would be the same as our _Kristdemokraterna. _



They probably are. They are Christian Democrats.


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## girecole

Thank you for this discussion.  I can see that our two-party system is relatively uncomplicated compared with the variety of parties in Norway.  Politics is very much in the air here now, with a big election coming up on November 2.  The mud is being slung all over the country!  I hope that things are more civil in Norway when it comes to political campaigns.  Again, thank you.  I find the subject fascinating.


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## oskhen

kirsitn said:


> In case you come across more political parties later in the text - here's a list of the main ones, listed from left to right (more or less):
> 
> RV - Rød Valgallianse (as red as it gets without a revolution)
> SV - Sosialistisk venstreparti (socialist)
> AP - Arbeiderpartiet (labor party)
> SP - Senterpartiet (Center, but mainly concerned with farmers and people living in rural areas/small towns)
> V - Venstre (Liberal)
> H - Høyre (Conservative)
> KrF - Kristelig folkeparti (Conservative/center, religious)
> FrP - Fremskrittspartiet (dark blue, verging on brown...)



I'll try not to turn this into a discussion about politics, but Høyre should be under KrF if this list is meant to go from the left to the right. Despite KrF's many conservative values, they don't belong to the right - they are too much into welfare and stuff, and don't have the economic politics of a rightist party. I think - anyway, they are generally considered a part of the center.


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## kirsitn

oskhen said:


> I'll try not to turn this into a discussion about politics, but Høyre should be under KrF if this list is meant to go from the left to the right. Despite KrF's many conservative values, they don't belong to the right - they are too much into welfare and stuff, and don't have the economic politics of a rightist party. I think - anyway, they are generally considered a part of the center.



That's why I added the more or less. KrF are more conservative than Høyre in some ways (due to the religious focus, I presume), but more socialist in other respects, so I guess it depends on what you focus on. I guess the only part of the list that definitely has the correct order now matter how you look upon it is the first two (or three) and the last one (FrP).


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## oskhen

kirsitn said:


> That's why I added the more or less. KrF are more conservative than Høyre in some ways (due to the religious focus, I presume), but more socialist in other respects, so I guess it depends on what you focus on. I guess the only part of the list that definitely has the correct order now matter how you look upon it is the first two (or three) and the last one (FrP).



Actually, you can probably discuss FrP as well, the way that party has developed. But anyway, by the formal criterias, KrF belongs to the center. Not all conservative values indicates a place on the right.


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