Norway (pronounced /ˈnɔrweɪ/ ( listen); Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language). The Norwegian language has been jokingly said to be "Danish spoken in Swedish" due to: Norge (Bokmål Bokmål , is the more commonly used of the two Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85-90% of the population in Norway, regardless of dialect, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language), Noreg (Nynorsk Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of the two official written languages in Norway, the other being Bokmål. Just above 10% of the Norwegian population use Nynorsk as their primary written language. In Norwegian, Nynorsk also often covers the modern Norwegian dialects, upon which the standard language is based) or Norga (North Sami Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami, Sámi, Samic, Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions: occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula The Scandinavian Peninsula is a geographic region in northern Europe, consisting of Norway, Sweden and part of northern Finland. The name Scandinavian is derived from Scania, a region at the southernmost extremity of the peninsula. The Scandinavian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in Europe, as well as Jan Mayen Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km2 (144 mi2) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 around the Beerenberg). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide. It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) northeast of and the Arctic The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland archipelago of Svalbard Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The archipelago is the northernmost part of Norway. Three islands are populated: Spitsbergen, Bear Island under the Spitsbergen Treaty The Spitsbergen Treaty of February 9, 1920, recognises the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over the arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen . The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. The treaty only partly demilitarizes Svalbard. All signatories were given equal rights to engage. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden c. ^ Since July 1, 2009 Five other languages are officially recognized as minority languages. They are: ; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland Finland (pronounced /ˈfɪnlənd/ ), officially the Republic of Finland Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info), is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden on the west, Norway on the north and Russia on the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland. The capital to the south and Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal to the east. Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland and Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes (Faroese: Føroyar, Danish: Færøerne) are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and lie to its west across the North Sea The North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of around 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi). A large part, Iceland Iceland ( /ˈaɪslənd/ ) (Icelandic: Ísland (names of Iceland); IPA: [ˈislant]) is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to some two-thirds of the national population. Located, and Greenland Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark) for about a millennium lie to its west across the Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway, located between the North Sea (i.e. north of Scotland) and the Greenland Sea, and Denmark Denmark (pronounced /ˈdɛnmɑrk/ ; Danish: Danmark, pronounced [ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊], archaic: [ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊]) is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders lies south of its southern tip across the Skagerrak Strait The Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea. The capital city A capital is the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status; although there are exceptions, a capital is almost always a city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by law. Alternate terms include capital city and political capital; the latter phrase of Norway is Oslo Oslo is the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania (briefly also spelled Kristiania). In 1925 the city reclaimed its original Norwegian name; Oslo. The diocese of Oslo is one of. Bouvet Island Bouvet Island is an uninhabited Antarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2525 km south-southwest of South Africa. It is a dependent territory (Norwegian: biland) of Norway and is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty. It is the most remote island in the world. The centre of the Island is an ice-filled crater of an inactive volcano, and Peter I Island Peter I Island is a volcanic island located near Antarctica. It was discovered by Fabian von Bellingshausen off West Antarctica on 21 January 1821. It takes its name after the Russian emperor Peter I (the Great). Ola Olstad made the first successful landing on 2 February 1929 and claimed the island for Norway. The other Antarctic territory claimed are dependent territories A dependent territory, dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a State (Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language). The Norwegian language has been jokingly said to be "Danish spoken in Swedish" due to: biland) of Norway, but not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica Antarctica (pronounced /ænˈtɑrktɪkə/ , is Earth's southernmost continent, underlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km2 (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after known as Queen Maud Land Queen Maud Land is an English translation of Dronning Maud Land, the official name in use by Norwegian authorities and British Antarctic Survey on the part of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory, on 14 January 1939. This claim, like all others in the Antarctic, is not universally recognized and is subject to the terms of the, a claim that has been recognised by Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent (the world's smallest), the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.N4 Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north,, France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ or /ˈfrɑːns/; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a member state of the European Union located in its western region, with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents. France, New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also, and the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing.[7] Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of and the Barents Sea Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents. It is a rather deep shelf sea (average depth 760 feet (230 m) and maximum depth 1,480 feet (450 m) ), bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea, is home to its famous fjords Geologically, a fjord (pronounced /fjɔrd/ or /fiːɔrd/) is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.
After World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict between 1939 and 1945, which involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilisation of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in, Norway experienced rapid economic growth in its economy, the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills. It is an important fuel source, a major feedstock for fertilizers, and a potent greenhouse gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea The North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of around 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi). A large part and the Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway, located between the North Sea (i.e. north of Scotland) and the Greenland Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the wealthiest country in the world in monetary value,[8][9][10] with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation. In August 2009 the nation's sovereign wealth fund announced that it owned approximately 1% of all the stocks in the world, presumably referring to publicly traded stocks. Norway is the world’s seventh largest oil exporter[11] and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of its GDP The gross domestic product or gross domestic income (GDI) is a basic measure of a country's overall economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year. It is often positively correlated with the standard of living, though its use as a stand-in for measuring the standard of living.[12] Following the ongoing financial crisis of 2007-2009 The financial crisis of 2007–2010 has been called by leading economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Economist Peter Morici has termed it "The Great Recession." It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars, substantial, bankers have deemed the Norwegian krone The krone (sign: kr; code: NOK) is the currency of Norway. The plural form is kroner (Norwegian: kronor/kroner). It is subdivided into 100 øre (singular and plural are the same). The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown" to be one of the most solid currencies in the world.[13]
Norway also has rich resources of natural gas fields, hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, and has a considerably lower output level, forests A forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth's surface (or 30% of total land area) in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting, and minerals A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. A rock, by comparison, is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids, and need not have a specific chemical composition. Minerals range in composition. This country was the second largest exporter of seafood (in value, after the People’s Republic of China) in 2006, but its offshore fish populaton had been declining rapidly due to over-fishing Ultimately overfishing may lead to resource depletion in cases of subsidised fishing, low biological growth rates and critical low biomass levels . Particularly, overfishing of sharks has led to the upset of entire marine ecosystems, a serious problem.[14] Other major industries include shipping Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship, food processing Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or slaughtered and butchered animal products and uses these to, shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history, the metal industry, chemicals, mining, fishing, and the pulp and paper products from forests. Norway maintains a Scandinavian welfare model with universal health-care, subsidised higher education and a comprehensive social security system. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2007,[15] and then again in 2009[16], and is by the UN ranked as best country to live in[17][18]. It was also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index.[19]
Norway is an early adapter of women's rights, minority rights, and LGBT rights[20]. For example, in 1990 Norway was the first country to recognize the ILO-convention 169 about indigenous people, in 1993 Norway became the second country to legalize civil union partnerships for same-sex couples, and on January 1, 2009, Norway became the sixth country to grant full marriage equality to same-sex couples.[1]
Although having rejected EU membership in two referenda, it maintains close ties with the Union and its member countries, as well as with the United States. It is considered a prominent participant in diplomacy and international development, having been heavily involved with the failed Oslo Accords and negotiated a truce between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers. Norway remains one of the biggest financial contributors to the UN,[21] and participates with UN forces in international missions, notably in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Sudan.
A unitary state with administrative subdivisions on two levels known as counties (fylker) and municipalities (kommuner), Norway is a constitutional, hereditary monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with King Harald V as its Head of State. The Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act.
Norway is a founding member of the UN, NATO, the Council of Europe and the Nordic Council, and is a member of the European Economic Area, the WTO and the OECD.
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3454 The Norway House in London Home of a Thai resturant Copyright Eric Soroos 1999 2006
My Royal blog
Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:58:00 GM
King Harald and Queen Sonja of . Norway. . Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstenstein with family. King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden. Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume ...
Q. I know that Norway is a constitutional Monarchy, but is this like the U.K, where the royal family are effectively figureheads, or do the monarchy of Norway retain power? So, how do the leaders of Norway run their country, how does the style of government influence the people, how do the people influence their rulers, how involved are the Norwegian people in politics, how close is Norway to the U.K model of local government, is industry chiefly nationalized or in private hands, and what are class relations like in Norway? Many questions there, really, but any answers are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Asked by Bill G - Tue Jul 14 05:48:07 2009 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments
A. The Monarch, like the UK is a figurehead and the real power rests with the Prime minister and the government. One major difference is that the make up is more akin to the American system than the British. There is an executive made up of the Prime minister and Government Ministers (regjering). These do not sit in the legislature (storting) which is the equivalent of parliament. There is also a Judicial branch (the courts) and these are again independent, unlike in the UK where they sit as part of the legislature. The government is selected by obtaining a majority in the Storting, or at least the support of the Storting, so unlike the US the government almost always has the support of the legislature, in this way it's more like the UK.… [cont.]
Answered by Cheesesof Nazerath - Wed Jul 15 02:18:03 2009
