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u/DarrensDodgyDenim May 28 '25
Dear (unintelligble)
It is now some time ago since I wrote to you, and I haven't heard from you either. Here in town things are unbearable. I've gone without work for almost two months, and it doesn't seem like I'll get a job quickly. I haven't wanted to write about it before, but I've tried everywhere, and there is no chance.
If I can join a car after Easter travelling to Portuguese East Africa, I might do it.
I've never gone through so much as I'm doing now. Not (only) that I have my own worries, but also that they are nagging from home about (bringe ut selv - not sure what he is meaning here, maybe that someone from Norway wants to come to him?)
So many days I walk around like half mad.
3
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u/julijuli77 May 28 '25
To me this seems to be Dutch language or the dialect Africaans, they are very close. The letter was written in South Africa 🇿🇦 so it most probably Africaans. Try the section of for South Africa.
5
u/Myla123 May 28 '25
Its Norwegian in 1932. Slightly different from today, but still makes sense for Norwegians.
1
u/julijuli77 May 28 '25
Very interesting I did not know. For me it was very close to Dutch.
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u/Myla123 May 28 '25
Both Norwegian and Dutch are Germanic languages, so they are closely related.
1
u/julijuli77 May 28 '25
You are right. I am from Luxembourg and Luxembourgish is also a Germanic language. I understood some words and as the letter was from South Africa I really thought it was Africaans. Is the « new Norwegian » still that close or really different?
2
u/Myla123 May 28 '25
Norway actually has two official written languages. Nynorsk (directly translates to new Norwegian) is based on the different dialects in Norway and less used than bokmål, which is the one in this letter. Bokmål is similar to written Danish, and has had a few changes since the 1930s, but mostly just a few words. «Nu» is now «nå», «dig» is «deg», just examples of how small the changes are. The Norwegian equivalent of «to» before a verb has changed from «at» to «å». There are also some changes to what word is common to use when there are synonyms. The language sounded more formal back then than it does now. So the changes are small enough for it to be completely understandable by a Norwegian, but we would have written it slightly differently today.
The author of the letter says he has sent money home before, so it is a Norwegian living in Africa.
1
u/StormyOceanWave May 30 '25
You should have posted a picture of the whole letter. Som words are missing and it is incomplete.
1
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