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Norway Norway
Norway
Norway is a European country that covers about as much land as the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is 125,004 square miles of mostly mountainous land. This country has a very rugged coastline, and includes many fjords lined with roughly 50,000 offshore islands. Norway occupies the western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Though Norway shares the same latitude with Alaska, it enjoys a warmer climate because of the Norwegian current, an extension of the Gulf Stream. This current moves tropical water into the area, which as a result raises Norway's average air temperature.

Country Background
The people of Norway speak two main forms of Norwegian. One is called "Bokmal," or "Danoo-Norwegian." The other is called "Nynorsk," or "New Norwegian." Because these dialects are very similar to one another, the Norwegian government tried to combine them into one official language called "Samnorsk." Despite the government's efforts, the project was unsuccessful and now both languages are considered official. The main language children speak at school is Bokmal.

Related Links
There is a lot more to learn about Norway!
More Countries (past hosts of Olympic Games)
Not every participating country has had the honor of hosting the Olympic Games. To learn more about countries represented at the Olympics, browse the following sites.

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