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01:58 Jul 23, 2011
English to Norwegian translations [Non-PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / Websites
English term or phrase:Norwegian Section
First of all, I just chose Norwegian, but there were 2 other options: Norwegian (Bokmal) and Norwegian (Nynorsk). I have no idea, what those are. I just need the Norwegian most widely spoken in Norway: the official language of the country. So did I choose the right language?
Now this is going to be used as a title. I looked up "section" and "avdeling" came up. But I don't know, whether I should put "norsk" or "norske" in front of it. I know German grammar, so this seems to be the same word, as "Abteilung" in German and that would be fine. However, I want to follow the correct Norwegian capitalization, so if none of it is capitalized, then write it that way! Also forget about the English/American habit of capitalizing titles: I want to know the Norwegian way. So how do the Norwegians write this as a title and within a sentence? I think, it's all small letters in both cases, but I'm not sure.
A few basics are: Capitalisation in Norwegian is pretty much reserved for royalty and proper names. We don't, for example, cap days or months or adjectives. Den Norske Seksjonen would be all wrong; den norske seksjonen (or avdelingen) would be all right. In headings and titles, some people capitalise more frequently. The rules still apply.
Between Norwegian bokmaal and Norwegian nynorsk, please be advised that the latter is spoken and written by some 12 % (my estimate) of the population. It should be merged into bokmaal, spoken in the capitol and the eleventeen largest cities. If you see a translation request from some other language into nynorsk, it's likely to be a mistake. For a general text to be translated from e.g German into nynorsk, the circs would have to be particular indeed. The normal run in 99.9% of all cases would be to translate it into bokmaal, then from bokmaal into nynorsk if applicable.
Thank you very much, Per, for your help! Out of personal preference I'll leave my website as "Norsk avdeling", but I think, you gave me the correct translation and explanations. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
In context, seksjon probably works better than avdeling. Whether your title pick is 'Norsk seksjon', 'Den norske seksjonen', 'Dette er den norske seksjonen' or 'Velkommen til den norske seksjonen' is entirely a matter of personal preference. Please note that the double definite (den ... -en) that is pretty much outlawed in Danish (they would say den danske sektion), is pretty much mandatory in Norwegian. Just avoid 'Norske seksjonen', and you'll be OK.
I guess, you're right. Department = avdeling, section = seksjon. But I had to use section, because in case of a website it's called a section. Department would be something official, like a certain office within a company: for example, the accounting department or payroll department, IT department, legal department and so on. But in case of a website or a document/book there are no people/employees involved, only text and pictures, maybe movies or music. That's why section is a better word at least in English. It's just mean to say that here's this section/part of this website, which is different from the others, because this one is in Norwegian. So it's a section of my website, not a department. So in this sense isn't it better to say in Norwegian "avdeling"?
P.S.: Thanks for the explanation of the -en ending, as in "den avdelingen", but I don't need the word "the" in my title.
Avdeling would be appropriate if you could use department rather than section in English. Avdeling is the same word as Abteilung in German, meaning something that is distinct and logically or physically separated from something else.
Re: capitalization - In this example I was asking about the capitalization of nouns, in particular of avdeling. But since you wrote seksjon with a small S, that already answers my question.
My choices in ProZ KudoZ gave me 3 options: Norwegian, Norwegian (bokmaal) and Norwegian (nynorsk). So I thought, there were 3 versions of Norwegian, the latter two being dialects. But now, as you say, that bokmaal is spoken 99.9% of the time, then that seems to be the official language. (So there are really only 2 versions, not 3.) Anyway, bokmaal is fine, if that's the official Norwegian language used in written form and understood by most Norwegians.
I don't need plural (seksjonen, avdelingen). I put Norwegian Section in English only, but I was hoping that you would choose avdeling. Could I also use avdeling? And in that case would it still be norsk or norske?
Re: context - There's not much more context, I can provide, than I already provided. I mentioned that it's a title, so obviously the first letter would be capitalized, but only in the word "Norsk". Then "seksjon" or "avdeling" would remain small. I also mentioned that it's for any website, which has a Norwegian section.
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Answers
3 hrs confidence:
norwegian section
norsk seksjon
Explanation: You don't provide much context.
A few basics are: Capitalisation in Norwegian is pretty much reserved for royalty and proper names. We don't, for example, cap days or months or adjectives. Den Norske Seksjonen would be all wrong; den norske seksjonen (or avdelingen) would be all right. In headings and titles, some people capitalise more frequently. The rules still apply.
Between Norwegian bokmaal and Norwegian nynorsk, please be advised that the latter is spoken and written by some 12 % (my estimate) of the population. It should be merged into bokmaal, spoken in the capitol and the eleventeen largest cities. If you see a translation request from some other language into nynorsk, it's likely to be a mistake. For a general text to be translated from e.g German into nynorsk, the circs would have to be particular indeed. The normal run in 99.9% of all cases would be to translate it into bokmaal, then from bokmaal into nynorsk if applicable.
Per Bergvall Local time: 00:19 Works in field Native speaker of: Norwegian PRO pts in category: 31
Grading comment
Thank you very much, Per, for your help! Out of personal preference I'll leave my website as "Norsk avdeling", but I think, you gave me the correct translation and explanations.
The translation workplace 
