Published June 21, 2019
This video was recorded by Rhyan Allison in the U.S. state of Indiana, where he lives. Norwegian is spoken by as many as 60,000 people in the United States, primarily in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, where there are large communities of Norwegian-Americans, who emigrated to the United States over the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Norwegian language—in particular, the unique American Norwegian variety that emerged—remained the predominant mother tongue of Norwegian-Americans until World War II, when a rise in English-centric nationalism created pressure for cultural minorities to assimilate. However, the language remains the mother tongue for some Norwegian-Americans, including Rhyan.