Presentation - ECV2024-548

Children’s speech development: Norwegian

Kristian Emil KRISTOFFERSEN, Nord University and Frambu Resource Centre for Rare Disorders, Norway (kristian.e.kristoffersen@nord.no)
Nina Gram GARMANN, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway (nigrag@oslomet.no)
Hanne Gram SIMONSEN, University of Oslo, Norway (h.g.simonsen@iln.uio.no)

Norwegian is spoken in Norway and in a few areas in the United States. Norwegian dialects can be grouped in four broad regional varieties: East Norwegian, West Norwegian, Central Norwegian, and North Norwegian. The dialect spoken by the majority of Norwegians, Urban East Norwegian, is characterized by 23 consonants, consonant clusters with up to three elements word initially and four elements word finally, 19 vowels, three diphthongs and two lexical tones. Studies of children’s acquisition of Norwegian show that vowels are acquired before consonants; among them the high front rounded vowels are acquired last. Fricatives and liquids are the latest consonants acquired. Children speaking Norwegian start producing consonant clusters around the age of two, some children still have problems with consonant clusters at four. In atypical speech, researchers have focused on children with cleft lip and palate, speech sound disorders, cri du chat syndrome and children with hearing loss. Common speech assessments include Norsk fonemtest and Svante-N, and interventions include Metaphon, POPT (Psycholinguistich Orientierte Phonologische Therapie), and Praxis.

Key words:
Norwegian, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Kristoffersen, K. E., Garmann, N. G., & Simonsen, H. G. (2025). Norwegian speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

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