Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 January 30

= January 30 =

Norwegian text, may you help me please?
Hello, I just came over something in Norwegian that I would like to have translated.

"Mine Damer, mine Herrer, vi beder Dem vendligst om at ikke røge eller spotte i Vognen. Med Vendligst hilsen Selskabet." It was written in some kind of old tramway car, and I am curious to know what it says. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.112.128.153 (talk) 14:47, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * As far as I can make out, it roughly translates as "Ladies and Gentlemen, we ask you to not smoke or cause a disturbance in the car. Regards, the management" (more literally, "spotte" means "to mock", and "Med Vendligst hilsen Selskabet" translates as "With friendly greetings, the Company"). Either you have made some mistakes in transcribing it, or its an oldish version of Norwegian that is much closer to Danish (not surprising, there are 4 competing versions of the Norwegian language even now, and, according to the Danish, there is only one Nordic language, that the Swedes mis-spell and the Norwegians mis-pronounce (shuffle Nationalities to taste)). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:05, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * "Ladies and Gentlemen, we kindly ask you not to smoke or spit in the Car. Regards, the Company". The translation of "Spotte" above is also correct (sort of), but in the context I think this is either a mis-spelling of "Spytte" or a valid, archaic form. The ortography seems OK, written Norwegian (the type that the majority uses) has evolved gradually from written Danish over the last 100 years (though they were always pronounced differently), and this is quite close to Danish so I guess from some time around 1900. (Capitalizing nouns also went away in both Norwegian and Danish some time ago, the polite you-form Dem (when still used) is still capitalized). Jørgen (talk) 18:32, 30 January 2011 (UTC)