Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; these Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Today there are two official forms of written Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk, each with its own variants. Bokmål developed from the Dano-Norwegian koiné language that evolved under the union of Denmark-Norway in the 16th and 17th centuries, while Nynorsk was developed based upon a collective of spoken Norwegian dialects.

Norwegian is one of the two official languages in Norway. The other is Sami, spoken by some members of the Sami people in the Northern part of Norway. Norwegian and Sami are not mutually intelligible, as Sami belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages. Sami is spoken by less than one percent of people in Norway. Norwegian is one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. Under the Nordic Language Convention, citizens of the Nordic countries who speak Norwegian have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. Like most of the languages in Europe, the Norwegian language descends from the Proto-Indo-European language; as early Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, they became new languages evolved. In the northwest of Europe, the West Germanic languages evolved, which would become English, Dutch and the North Germanic languages, of which Norwegian is one. Proto-Norse is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic during the first centuries AD.

It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, the language attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions, the oldest form of the runic alphabets. A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead; the oldest are carved on loose objects, while ones are chiseled in runestones. They are the oldest written record of any Germanic language. Around 800 AD, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, inscriptions became more abundant. At the same time, the beginning of the Viking Age led to the spread of Old Norse to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Viking colonies existed in parts of the British Isles, North America, Kievan Rus. In all of these places except Iceland and the Faroes, Old Norse speakers went extinct or were absorbed into the local population. Around 1030, Christianity came to Scandinavia, bringing with it an influx of Latin borrowings and the Roman alphabet; these new words were related to church practices and ceremonies, although many other loanwords related to general culture entered the language.

The Scandinavian languages at this time are not considered to be separate languages, although there were minor differences among what are customarily called Old Icelandic, Old Norwegian, Old Gutnish, Old Danish, Old Swedish. The economic and political dominance of the Hanseatic League between 1250 and 1450 in the main Scandinavian cities brought large Middle Low German-speaking populations to Norway; the influence of their language on Scandinavian is similar to that of French on English after the Norman conquest. In the late Middle Ages, dialects began to develop in Scandinavia because the population was rural and little travel occurred; when the Reformation came from Germany, Martin Luther's High German translation of the Bible was translated into Swedish and Icelandic. Norway entered a union with Denmark in 1397 and Danish became the language of the elite, the church and the law; when the union with Denmark ended in 1814, the Dano-Norwegian koiné had become the mother tongue of many Norwegians.

From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianised Danish by incorporating words that were descriptive of Norwegian scenery and folk life, adopting a more Norwegian syntax. Knud Knudsen proposed to change spelling and inflection in accordance with the Dano-Norwegian koiné, known as "cultivated everyday speech." A small adjustment in this direction was implemented in the first official reform of the Danish language in Norway in 1862 and more extensively after his death in two official reforms in 1907 and 1917. Meanwhile, a nationalistic movement strove for the development of a new written Norwegian. Ivar Aasen, a botanist and self-taught linguist, began his work to create a new Norwegian language at the age of 22, he traveled around the country collecting words and examples of grammar from the dialects and comparing the dialects among the different regions. He examined the development of Icelandic, which had escaped the influences under which Norwegian had come, he called his work, published in several books from 1848 to 1873, Landsmål, meaning "national language".

The name "Landsmål" is sometimes interpreted as "rural language" or "country language", but this was not Aasen's intended meaning. The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of hot dispute through the 19th century, its proponents claimed that it was a l

Arthur Owen Jones, was an English cricketer, noted as an all-rounder, former Captain of England. He was a rugby union player for Leicester at full back or three quarter. Jones was born in 1872 in Shelton and educated at Bedford Modern School and Jesus College, Cambridge. Jones played for Cambridge University, London County and England, he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1900. Jones was the first substitute to keep wicket in a Test match, when he did so against Australia at The Oval in 1905, he was a leg-break and googly bowler. In 1903 he made what was the highest-ever score by a Nottinghamshire batsman, scoring an unbeaten 296 against Gloucestershire at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Jones played 12 Test matches for England, but lost the two games he captained, he led Nottinghamshire to the County Championship in 1907 and was captain of the 1907/08 England tour to Australia. But he only appeared in two matches because of illness, he remained captain of Nottinghamshire until a few months before his death from tuberculosis, in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

Jones made 15 appearances for Bedford between 1889 and 1895 before moving to Leicester Tigers in 1895. He was appointed captain between 1896–99 and again between 1902–04, he was club captain when Tigers secured their first piece silverware, the Midlands Counties Cup, though missed the final through injury. He was captain in the victorious finals of 1899, 1903 and 1904 and played in the victorious final of 1900 and 1901, he became the first player to pass 500 points for the club against Moseley in 1903. Between 1906-12 he refereed 5 rugby internationals, including France's first test victory against Scotland in 1911. Media related to Arthur Jones at Wikimedia Commons Cricinfo page on Arthur Jones

Judge Bruce C. Lubeck is a district court judge in the U. S. state of Utah. Lubeck was born in 1945, he has lived in the state of Utah his entire life. He attended Highland High School in Salt Lake City, he played basketball and ran track. After he graduated high school, he attended the University of Utah, he earned his J. D. degree in 1971 from the University Of Utah College Of Law. Judge Lubeck was sworn into the bar in 1971, he started as a Legal Defender with the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association and worked in his own private law firm as a solo practitioner. In 1981, he was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Utah District, he served law in this position for 20 years heading the Narcotics Section and leading the office's organized Crime Druge Enforcement Task Force. While he was keeping busy with his legal duties, he was still able to teach law courses at Westminister College, the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College. In 2001, he was appointed to the Utah trial bench.

Before joining the bench, Lubeck served on several Utah State Bar committees, including the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee and the Utah Supreme Court Criminal Rules Advisory Committee. Judge Lubeck was appointed by former Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt as a Utah Third Judicial District judge in May 2001, he serves the Salt Lake and Summit counties. The Litigation section of the Utah State Bar has created a "Bench Book" about Judge Lubeck, which sets forth his court practices and views. Judge Lubeck was retained in office when he stood for retention election in 2010. Judge Lubeck was certified as qualified for retention after being evaluated by the Utah Judicial Council. Judge Lubeck's performance evaluation found in the 2010 Utah Voters Information Pamphlet. Judge Lubeck has had around 40-50 cases. About 90% of the time his cases are affirmed in civil cases. Judge Lubeck was involved in a significant land use dispute over a roadway in Summit County, Utah in the case of Haynes Land & Livestock v. Jacob Family Chalk Creek, et al, 2010 Ut.

App 112, which case was appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals and established significant Utah law. In 2017 Lubeck refused an application from Lex Rigby, a transgender man, to have his gender identification changed on legal documents. Thomson, Linda. "Judge rules UHP did not violate rights in drug stop". Deseret News