Do Norwegian children understand fewer words than before?

Or are we losing out to English?

By popular demand, this article is in English.

Since most of my readers are Norwegian, I will try to use a vocabulary that can be understood by anyone who received an average grade in English in junior high school (ungdomsskole).

It seems to me that a language change is taking place in Norwegian that has not yet reached the media, but probably should. Don’t blame me, the article I submitted to, in sequence, Aftenposten, Morgenbladet, Klassekampen and Bergens Tidende (Norwegian newspapers that are particularly popular among intellectuals) was rejected by all of them.

In short, I believe two things are happening:

• Norwegian children’s vocabulary is becoming smaller.

• Norwegian children’s vocabulary is increasingly being replaced by English.

I have been testing children’s intelligence since 2011.

Over the years, I have gradually formed the impression that children today struggle more with explaining the meaning of words than children did before. This is not only about recognising words, but about defining them clearly.

Why I looked at the data

I therefore wanted to check whether this impression is supported by data. Am I just getting grumpy, or have children actually lost vocabulary over time? To investigate this, I looked at children I have tested with WISC-V, that is, from 2017 onwards.

The children I test are usually referred because they struggle at school, and there is a suspicion that they struggle because they are bored — because they are smart. That suspicion is supported by the data.

Most of the children have a Full Scale IQ between 106 and 132, with an average of 119.
Most are between 8 and 12 years old, with an average age of 10.

This means that, on average, they score higher than about 90 % of children their age. One would therefore expect them to have a good vocabulary.

What I find, however, is a consistent pattern.

Children can explain simple, everyday words well. But with each passing year, they struggle more to explain what words mean. They can often give concrete examples, but they increasingly struggle to explain words in abstract, general terms.

A concrete example vs. a conceptual definition

To illustrate this, imagine that I ask a child to explain what the word respect means.

A concrete explanation might be:

If you disagree with somebody, you show respect when you say that it’s OK, we can have different opinions.

A general, abstract explanation would be:

Respect means recognising that another person has value and rights that are independent of what you want or feel.

The first answer shows understanding of a situation.
The second shows understanding of the concept.

I cannot tell you which specific words children struggle with, because the words used in the test are confidential. But the overall pattern is clear.

Children still understand basic, concrete words, such as “What is a tractor?”
They struggle more with abstract words, such as “What does respect mean?”

A consistent pattern over time

One item in particular — item 25 — interests me, because it lies close to my heart and because it was removed from the Norwegian school curriculum in 1997.

For this item, the proportion of full-credit definitions declines sharply over time and approaches zero in the most recent years, despite stable test administration and a high-ability sample.

More generally, the words that show the clearest decline are abstract concepts that require general definitions rather than situational examples. They are typically value-laden or system-related terms that are frequently used in public and social debate, but are no longer clearly articulated at the conceptual level.

What does this mean in practice?

The words that are disappearing are not rare or outdated, but conceptual: they describe principles rather than situations, and systems rather than individuals. When these words are not understood, or are mainly understood through situations rather than definitions, public debate becomes more emotional, more personal, and harder to resolve.

Some of this could, in theory, be explained by changes in the group of children who are referred to me. However, I do not see strong evidence that the referral pattern itself has changed in a way that would explain this trend. I also do not believe this can be explained by COVID alone. These are words that are used everywhere, also on TV and in the media that children consume, and that children should encounter regularly.

A possible role of English

Another possible explanation is that English increasingly replaces Norwegian in parts of children’s language use. Children do use English words, often fluently. I have not systematically recorded when children respond in English, but I have noticed a clear pattern: when a Norwegian word closely resembles a common English word, children often respond with the English meaning.

For example, if the Norwegian word eventuelt were included in WISC, I would expect many children to interpret it as meaning “at the end” or “after a while”, confusing it with eventually.

I recently overheard my daughter (11) explaining something to her grandmother. In the middle of an otherwise Norwegian sentence, she used because instead of fordi. Why? Possibly because because appears frequently in the explanations she hears — in games, on YouTube, and in English-language media.

What this does not mean

This does not mean that children today are less intelligent. The average IQ in this sample is high, and there is no indication of a general cognitive decline.

It also does not mean that children are less thoughtful, less kind, or less capable of empathy. Many of the children I test show strong social understanding and moral awareness.

Nor does it mean that English is “ruining” Norwegian. English is a useful language, and bilingual exposure is not a problem in itself.

What seems to be changing is something more specific: Children increasingly learn how words are used in situations, but less often what those words mean as general concepts.

This is a subtle shift, but it matters. Abstract language is what allows us to discuss principles, systems, and values without turning every disagreement into a personal conflict

Do Norwegian children understand fewer words than before?

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