What is the most easily recognizable Norwegian dialect?

According to  Knut Fintoft in ''Acoustical analysis and perception of tonemes in some Norwegian dialects'':

The Bergen dialect, on the other hand, is probably the dialect which is most easily recognizable. Similarly the Trønder dialect and the dialect in the Oslo area are probably easy to recognize.

Should I use occasional feminine in order not to sound old-fashioned?

Well, if you opt for the Bergen dialect/accent, you can avoid the feminine gender altogether. However, even in (West) Oslo, people who use the common gender most of the times, prefer the feminine gender with definite forms of some nouns, in order not to sound too conservative, for example:  katta f. ''the cat'', kua f. ''the cow'', jenta f. ''the girl'', hytta f. ''the hut'', øya f ''the island''.

Which Norwegian dialects use the two gender system?

The two gender system (common gender & neuter) is most frequent in Bergen, Lyngen, and in West Oslo and western parts of Akershus county. The Bergen dialect allows feminine nouns to be given the corresponding masculine inflections or do not use the feminine gender at all. Elverum (a town in the Østerdalen close to Sweden) uses feminine very sparingly.

How do you pronounce ø in Norwegian?

It depends on the accent, and on the speaker. The closest approximation in English would be [ɜ]: the vowel in British English bird, herb, ''lerve''... or American English bud, hub, love... In unstressed positions, it is a schwa [ə], more often than not.


Gjert Kristoffersen, the author of ''The Phonology of Norwegian '', made an acoustic analysis of Norwegian vowels and was surprised when he found (out):

That [œ] and [ə] have identical values is somewhat unexpected...[ ]...
Tromsø ~ homse ‘homosexual (coll.)’. This pair would not normally be considered as rhyming, but this may be due to convention and spelling.

Just make sure you don't pronounce it as a German ö.

In Tromsø, they pronounce ø the same way Swedish people pronounce their ö, ø gets an E-like sound, so the name of the city itself may sound like this: [trumse].