# Norwegian: forms of the word family



## CharlysGardenSchool

Hello, I'm 4th generation Norwegian-American, my great grandfather being the first of our family born in the USA.
Sadly, he felt it was disrespectful to his "new" home country to speak the native language of his parents, and not one word was passed on down through the generations.
Please, I need explanation:
I wanted to find the Norwegian counterpart for the word "family" but I see through much browsing today that there are other considerations.
Thankfully, that will help me ask better questions.
Please, I am not looking for a "dictionary" lookup of a single word, but how it would be used in context of the following situations:
family - ancestors (living or deceased)
family - descendants (living or not yet born)
family - immediate family (living or deceased) - father, mother, siblings
family - extended family (living or deceased), including Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Cousins
family - any other usages that the Norsk speaker knows, but we Americans do not use in English.
God Bless, and thank you.
CharlysGardenSchool


----------



## GraaEminense

Since the Norwegian word is 'familie', it shouldn't be surprising that we mostly use that word for pretty much every situation where you would use 'family' in English -it's the same word, after all. 

*family - ancestors (living or deceased)*
*family - descendants (living or not yet born)*
'Familie' would be most common in these cases, but possibly 'slekt' or (rather archaic) 'ætt'. Of course, 'forfedre' (ancestors) and 'etterkommere' (descendants) would be possible but rather formal. 

*family - immediate family (living or deceased) - father, mother, siblings*
Can't think of any other word than 'familie', except tongue-in-cheek or very professional/academic uses. 
*
family - extended family (living or deceased), including Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Cousins*
Most commonly 'familie', though 'slekt' also fits here. 

*family - any other usages that the Norsk speaker knows, but we Americans do not use in English.*
Most idioms and figures of speech using 'family' in English would use 'familie' in Norwegian (we're all one big family here = vi er som en familie her). Can't think of any more common usages though. 

To sum up the above, 'familie' is most commonly used but 'slekt' can be used instead in any context of the family as a 'clan' or 'family tree', if you understand what I mean. I believe it's usage is rather close to the English 'kin', but less archaic and therefore more common. 

*God Bless, and thank you.*
You too, and good luck.


----------



## CharlysGardenSchool

---------
*'familie' is most commonly used but 'slekt' can be used instead in any context of the family as a 'clan' or 'family tree'*
------------
Thank you for your quick reply!
So, to clarify usage:
--to talk about my everyday cousins, siblings, parents, familie would be most common...
---and when I'm doing my genealogy, slekt would convey a broader meaning than familie would give... if so, that's exactly what I was needing.
Does that sound right?
Thanks again!


----------



## Magb

CharlysGardenSchool said:


> --to talk about my everyday cousins, siblings, parents, familie would be most common...
> ---and when I'm doing my genealogy, slekt would convey a broader meaning than familie would give... if so, that's exactly what I was needing.
> Does that sound right?



That's about right, yeah. I'll just add a few points:

The term "nuclear family" (i.e. parents and children) can be translated to _kjernefamilie_, literally "core family". In my view, people in your kjernefamilie are your only relatives that you would never call _slekt_. Grandparents are rarely referred to as _slekt_, but it's slightly more plausible than with parents/children/siblings. For aunts/uncles and cousins both _familie_ and _slekt_ can be used, depending on the context. Anyone further out is usually _slekt_, although using _familie_ is always possible, unless it's a very distant relative.

In addition, as you gathered, _slekt_ is usually used when talking more generally about kinship. Some Norwegian words for genealogy are _slektsforsk(n)ing_ and _slektsgransk(n)ing_ (those n's may or may not be present), both meaning roughly "kinship research".

Another couple of rather obscure words in addition to _ætt_ are _herkomst_ and _byrd_, which both could be translated as "kin". They aren't used much (especially not _byrd_), but you'll see them used every now and then. Another relevant word is _avstamning_, meaning "descent" in the blood relationship sense. It can also be used to mean "kin".


----------



## GraaEminense

Magb said:


> The term "nuclear family" (i.e. parents and children) can be translated to _kjernefamilie_, literally "core family". In my view, people in your kjernefamilie are your only relatives that you would never call _slekt_.


To avoid confusion, I'd just like to point out that the term 'kjernefamilie' is never used in everyday language -it's an academic or 'official' term to differentiate the common family unit from the other meanings of 'familie', but one would never talk about one's parents/siblings/kids etc as one's 'kjernefamilie'.


----------



## CharlysGardenSchool

Thank you so much for the insight... so much to learn!
I can't learn it all at once, but thank you both!!!
I will pass these "teachings" on to my family as we research our Nordland Norwegians.
-----
One question, regarding the statement:
"Another relevant word is _avstamning_, meaning "descent" in the blood relationship sense."
Would I convert the base of "avstamning" to indicate myself as a descendant?
-----
How would I do the reverse for "Ascent" and Ancestor?
Ascent/descent general terms, but specific to our family...
Descendant/Ancestor specific to the persons and their relationship to the family...
-----
I'm sorry, I can't even give English parts of speech to ask with more clarity... sadly, it was a U.S. fad in the 1970's to teach Creative Writing, and not English Grammar... A child of that era, I am not even good at my own language
--------------------
I look forward to your responses...


----------



## GraaEminense

CharlysGardenSchool said:


> One question, regarding the statement:
> "Another relevant word is _avstamning_, meaning "descent" in the blood relationship sense."
> Would I convert the base of "avstamning" to indicate myself as a descendant?


'Avstamning' comes from the verb 'å stamme (fra)' (to come (from), to be descendant (from), but not used exclusively about people). To indicate yourself as a descendant, you would normally use the verb:
'Jeg stammer fra norske immigranter' = 'I'm descended from Norwegian immigrants'. 
It can also be used to indicate place of origin (of your ancestors):
'Min familie stammer fra Norge' = 'My familiy originally comes from Norway'




CharlysGardenSchool said:


> How would I do the reverse for "Ascent" and Ancestor?
> Ascent/descent general terms, but specific to our family...
> Descendant/Ancestor specific to the persons and their relationship to the family...


The Norwegian word for 'ancestor' is 'forfader' (plural 'forfedre') or 'stamfar' (plural 'stamfedre'). Note that 'fader'/'far' are the same word -father- in archaic and modern form (I'd only use 'fader' here because it's closer to the plural form which is the same for both, and this word is mostly used in plural), and can be exchanged for 'moder'/'mor' -mother- if you need to be gender-specific (Norwegian is still a slightly male-centrist language, despite the best efforts of the women's movements). 

The prefixes are the important bit here: 'For' in this case means 'before', and 'stam' obviously comes from 'å stamme', so the Norwegian words for 'ancestor' actually mean 'father before (this time)' or 'father I'm descendant from'. 
Interestingly, I'd say 'forfedre' is the most common plural form while 'stamfar' is the most common singular form. 

Note that the Norwegian word for 'descendant' is 'etterkommer' ('one who comes after'). 




CharlysGardenSchool said:


> I'm sorry, I can't even give English parts of speech to ask with more clarity... sadly, it was a U.S. fad in the 1970's to teach Creative Writing, and not English Grammar... A child of that era, I am not even good at my own language


Ah, creativity, the bane of school systems everywhere. 


Anyway, I hope this helps.


----------



## CharlysGardenSchool

Many thanks for your effort and helpfulness!


----------



## GraaEminense

You're very welcome. As a (very) amateur language-nerd, I always appreciate a bit of not-too-challenging mental exercise.


----------



## Grefsen

GraaEminense said:


> The Norwegian word for 'ancestor' is 'forfader' (plural 'forfedre') or 'stamfar' (plural 'stamfedre'). Note that 'fader'/'far' are the same word -father- in archaic and modern form (I'd only use 'fader' here because it's closer to the plural form which is the same for both, and this word is mostly used in plural), and can be exchanged for 'moder'/'mor' -mother- if you need to be gender-specific (Norwegian is still a slightly male-centrist language, despite the best efforts of the women's movements).


A Norwegian friend of mine was writing on Facebook about *"en hyttetur med mor og far"* and I got a bit confused when she used *"far"* and *"fader"* in two consecutive sentences.  

I just looked up*"fader"* in *lexin.no* and learned that it is also a Norwegian word for father.  Here is an excerpt of what my friend wrote:

*Hyttetur med mor og far.  Fader det var mye å gjøre på hytta. 

*Would it be better to use either *"far" *or *"fader"* in both sentences or is it okay to alternate like this in consecutive sentences?


----------



## vestfoldlilja

Fader here does not mean father. It’s a word meant to express something negative. You are right that the word directly translates as father (as in God and not ones parent), and it is a mild curse word. 

I would translate the sentence something like this: Damn, it was a lot of work to be done at the cabin or, it sure was a lot to be done at the cabin. 
Example: Fader, hvorfor gjorde hun det – damn, why did she do that. 

In daily speak the words used for father, dad, is pappa, far.


----------



## Pteppic

"Fader" can also be used with "fy" as in "Fy fader det var mye å gjøre på hytta" (as with all the other f-words).

And, of course, in a religious context it always refers to God, without any cursing involved (for instance, "the father the son and the holy ghost" translates as "faderen og sønnen og den hellige ånd").

As vestfoldlilja says, though, it's never used about anyone's real father.


----------



## Grefsen

*Tusen takk Pteppic og vestfoldlilja* for your very informative posts about the word *'fader.' Lexin.no* is the only *ordbok på nett* I regularly use that that even includes *'fader'* and there is no mention about being used as a "curse word."  

I take it then that one should be very careful about using *'fader'* in a group unless you are just making a reference to the *"Himmelske fader"* (Heavenly Father).


----------



## Cerb

Grefsen said:


> *Tusen takk Pteppic og vestfoldlilja* for your very informative posts about the word *'fader.' Lexin.no* is the only *ordbok på nett* I regularly use that that even includes *'fader'* and there is no mention about being used as a "curse word."
> 
> I take it then that one should be very careful about using *'fader'* in a group unless you are just making a reference to the *"Himmelske fader"* (Heavenly Father).


While using "fader" is taking the Lords name in vain as per the 10 commandments, most people would take it as not wanting to go the full mile and use the more common and stronger curse word referring to the guy downstairs. It's really rather mild. No worse than "For Pete's sake" I'd say, but people that don't take lightly to such things might get offended of course.


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

Pteppic said:


> As vestfoldlilja says, though, it's never used about anyone's real father.


Is it not used in formal contexts, in writing, though? For example, in legal texts, when referring to someone's father, wouldn't you use fader rather than far/pappa?

/Wilma


----------



## Pteppic

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Is it not used in formal contexts, in writing, though? For example, in legal texts, when referring to someone's father, wouldn't you use fader rather than far/pappa?
> 
> /Wilma



I would say not unless the legal text is from the 19th century. A search at lovdata.no yielded no results for fader and 41 laws containing the word far. Pappa would be a bit too informal, though (and also gets no results).


----------



## GraaEminense

Pteppic said:


> I would say not unless the legal text is from the 19th century. A search at lovdata.no yielded no results for fader and 41 laws containing the word far. Pappa would be a bit too informal, though (and also gets no results).


 'Fader' is still used outside swearing or religious contexts though, but not necessarily like you would use 'far' or 'pappa'. 
I've heard others use it, and do so myself, as a "stand-in" name. When referring to my father I will commonly refer to him as "fader'n" (abbreviation of "faderen") because "min far" would be too formal, "pappa" too informal or childish, and using his actual name would be plain weird because I am referring to him in his role as my father. 

"Fatter"/"Fatter'n" is of course developed from this and is used much the same, though in different sociolects. 

When used as a swearword, I'm unsure whether "fader!" has developed from "Gud fader!" (my God!) or from it's similarity to the ever-popular "faen!" (the Devil!). Most likely both.


----------

