Norwegian language
Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. Norwegian is closely related to, and mutually intelligible with Swedish and Danish.
The Norwegian alphabet uses three letters not found in English: Æ, Ø and Å
For an example, see Ja, vi elsker dette landet, the Norwegian national anthem.
Two written forms of the language
A great number of dialects are spoken througout Norway and two written forms of the language exist. Bokmål (literally "Book language", sometimes called Dano-Norwegian) is the most widely used variant, but Nynorsk (literally "New Norwegian") is used by a large minority (15 - 20%).
Norway became a province of Denmark during the middle ages. During this time, written Norwegian did not exist as a separate language and Danish was used as Norway's written language. When Norway became independent of Denmark, nationalistic feelings strove for the development of a new written Norwegian, which was developed by Ivar Aasen in the 19th century.
The Danish language, as used in Norway, evolved into what is now Bokmål.
Both the variants of Norwegian have survived until today. For a long period during the 20th century it was official policy to merge the two variants into a common form called Samnorsk (literally "Common Norwegian"). This resulted in massive protests and has now been given up as official policy.
Bokmål is used mostly in the eastern and northern parts of Norway and Nynorsk is used mainly in the western parts of Norway. It is worth noting that the differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk are limited and smaller than the differences between many of the Norwegian spoken dialects.
(Almost) nobody speaks perfect Bokmål or Nynorsk; everybody speaks some kind of dialect, and most dialects are closest to one of the written variants - but not necessarily the one the person is writing.
In national broadcasting all read (written) material is spoken in either Bokmål or Nynorsk, while interviews, talks etc are spoken/said in the dialect of the person speaking.
Here is a few sentences which gives you an idea of to what extent there are differences between Bokmål and Nynorsk:
B: Jeg kommer fra Norge.
N: Eg kjem frå Noreg.
E: I come from Norway.
B: Hva heter han?
N: Kva heiter han?
E: What is his name?
B: Dette er en hest.
N: Dette er ein hest.
E: This is a horse.
B: Regnbuen har mange farger.
N: Regnbogen har mange fargar.
E: The rainbow has many colours.
Russenorsk is a pidgin language combining Russian and Norwegian.