Questions...

[Tom Houlihan]

Greetings!

Two quick questions. First, according to the front page, there are 219 registered members of this forum. For some reason, when I try to look at a member list, I can only get one page of 45 members. Is this a glitch, or did I miss the secret password?

Second, although it's going to stir up a little ill feeling, I'm going to ask anyway. At the moment, I have a fairly extensive German glossary, as well as Dutch and Finnish. The last two aren't real long, but they have some basic terms. Is there any chance of some folks gathering some basic social/military terms for a Norwegian/English glossary, or something similar?

That is a somewhat rude question, in that this forum is about Norwegians. By rights, if we all want to participate, we ought to learn at least basic Norwegian. Would that I had done so when I was around 3 of your lieutenants for a few weeks in Trondheim. I'll bite the bullet, and ask for the rest of the membership that can't understand.

So far, I believe I've discerned that "Takk" means "thanks." Clever, ain't I!?

[Henrik]

Hello Tom! You're clever!

It is correct that there are 219 registered members on this forum. The reason why all 219 are not shown on the member list is that the member list only includes active members (meaning members that has been activated manually by the forum staff). The not activated members are bots, spammers etc. (in most cases automatically registered) which are not very welcome on this forum (due to their spamming actions) and therefore not activated. But they still are in the system, making the forum count them.
I go through the member list now and then to delete these bots, but it takes a lot of time, which I do not have a lot of!

As this forum is a dual-language forum, we accept posts both in Norwegian and English (even German, Danish and Swedish). We do encourage users to use English though, as this makes it possibly to foreigners to participate in the discussions.
The use of Scandinavian languages is of course a handicap to our non Scandinavian users, so this idea of yours to create a Norwegian/English glossary is not bad at all!

Best regards,
Henrik

[frontkjemper.com]

To Henriks message I should add that this forum was originally linked to his website www.frontkjemper.info, which is mainly in the Norwegian language. We decided to make this into a joint forum also for my website, which is exclusively in English. This is the reason many of the old threads are in Norwegian, but that we now start to see more and more in English.

Erik

webmaster
www.frontkjemper.com

[Tom Houlihan]

Erik, please understand that I'm not trying to cause problems. I guess my post would be considered a complaint, but that wasn't the way I meant it. I definitely don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to force my uneducated American ways on anyone. Really, I'm not. If I can learn at least a few key words, then I can scan through Norwegian posts, and figure out specific questions to ask.



I may be ill-educated, but I'm trying, honest!

[frontkjemper.com]

First of all, I am American as well and I don't think anyone view Americans as uneducated. Further, I certainly don't look at your post as a complaint, but as a legitimate comment.

Norwegian is a difficult language to learn. I made some comments very early on to Henrik that we should try to post more in English so this forum can become a resource not only for those that speak Norwegian. Afterall, the interest in foreign SS volunteers outside of Norway is quite big.

I think the idea of a glossary list is quite good. Especially since a lot of information is out on the net in Norwegian language. I suggest that Henrik and myself make up a list of words, translate them to English and post them on his web site (since that is mainly in Norwegian). The list should contain words relating to military units, ranks, political organizations, names, etc. We could of course expand this as we go along. I like this idea......

What do you say Henrik?

Erik

[Henrik]

I agree.

H.

[Tom Houlihan]

First of all, I am American as well and I don't think anyone view Americans as uneducated.

Actually, that was sort of tongue-in-cheek, based on some comments I've read on Feldgrau and AHF. Face it, most European types are facile in at least two, often more languages. Most Americans aren't. Hell, how many Americans can even find Norway on a map?

[franz repper]

Finnish now thats A difficult language I am trying to learn it! Norwegian is that any easier to learn?

[frontkjemper.com]

ANYTHING is easier to learn than Finnish

Erik

[Tom Houlihan]

I think the idea of a glossary list is quite good. Especially since a lot of information is out on the net in Norwegian language. I suggest that Henrik and myself make up a list of words, translate them to English and post them on his web site (since that is mainly in Norwegian). The list should contain words relating to military units, ranks, political organizations, names, etc. We could of course expand this as we go along. I like this idea......

For what it's worth, I actually published Kriegssprache, a glossary of WWII German military and period words, phrases, and abbreviations. There are about 27,000 line entries. I'm in the middle of about a dozen projects in various stages of disarray, but I'm still interested in a multilingual glossary. Of course, not all 27,000 entries, but some of the key ones.

I'd recommend a table, alphabetized on the German words. I'd like to see German/English/Norwegian/Finnish at a minimum. Maybe Russian? Ukrainian? Any other thoughts? It would take a lot of time, but it's do-able.