ich wrote:I am. Hehe. On Duolingo, I was learning that "hvem sin/sitt/si/sine" is the form for "whose". Would you mind explaining the difference between "hvem sin" and "hvis" in the sense of "whose"?
"Hvem sin/si/sitt/sine" is more common than "hvis", as "hvis"
might be considered by some as somewhat archaic. It is, however, preferred in written Norwegian, and can always be used instead of "hvem sin/si/sitt/sine":
Hvem sin bok er dette? -> Hvis bok er dette?
(Whose book is this?)Hvem sitt slott er det? -> Hvis slott er det?
(Whose castle is it?)It can also be used to simplify certain sentences:
Han er en mann (som) jeg respekterer meningene til. (Bad sentence structure; ends with preposition ["til"].)
Han er en mann hvis meninger jeg respekterer. (Preferred – especially in written language.)
(He's a man whose opinions I respect.)Fun fact: Because "hvis" in this sense isn't used by some people, The Language Council of Norway allowed for the use of "hvems" ("hvem" [who] + the genitive marker/enclitic "s") in 1991. This proved to be so unpopular that they had to remove it in 1997.
ich wrote:Truthfully, I am not really sure if I mean closer to Riksmål. I read the info that your link sent me to, and it said that moderate Riksmål or Bokmål is preferred by 90% of Norwegians. If that is true, then moderate Bokmål/Riksmål would be the form of Norwegian that I would like to strive for. Is "boken" still considered moderate?
The varities of Norwegian are really getting me lost.
Yes, "boken" is considered moderate (as opposed to radical) Bokmål, but "boka" is probably used by far more than 10% of the population – especially in spoken Norwegian. (There is also a sociolinguistic element to consider in Oslo – see the paragraph that begins "A-endings ("gata") (...)"
here.)
Just let me know if there's anything else I can help with!