I understand that they are used to indicate the meaning of written words that have otherwise have the same spelling. I presume it is always the most common meaning that does not get any mark, which is often also an unstressed word in the sentence, but I was wondering if there was any logic applied in deciding which mark(s) should be used on particular words.
In some cases the mark seems to be chosen to match the one in the foreign language the word comes from. Thus we have allé for example in street names, and I am sure there are others that I cannot think of. Are there examples were the foreign accent is kept, to indicate origin and pronunciation, even if the unaccented word does not exist in Norwegian?
But in other cases it seems completely arbitrary to me. For example there is òg for also, but én for one. And when wondering about fôr, I discovered that fór and fòr also existed, all with identical pronunciations I believe.
I would appreciate any thoughts or discussion.
In some cases the mark seems to be chosen to match the one in the foreign language the word comes from. Thus we have allé for example in street names, and I am sure there are others that I cannot think of. Are there examples were the foreign accent is kept, to indicate origin and pronunciation, even if the unaccented word does not exist in Norwegian?
But in other cases it seems completely arbitrary to me. For example there is òg for also, but én for one. And when wondering about fôr, I discovered that fór and fòr also existed, all with identical pronunciations I believe.
I would appreciate any thoughts or discussion.