The Norwegian language conflict (Norwegian: språkstriden, Danish: sprogstriden) is an ongoing controversy in Norwegian culture and politics about the different varieties of written Norwegian. From 1536/1537 until 1814, Danish was the standard written language of Norway due to the union of crowns with Denmark. As a result, the proximity of modern written Norwegian to Danish underpins controversies in nationalism, rural versus urban cultures, literary history, diglossia (colloquial and formal dialects, standard language), spelling reform, and orthography. In the United Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, the official languages were Danish and German. The urban Norwegian upper class spoke Dano-Norwegian (dansk-norsk) (Danish, with Norwegian pronunciation and other minor local differences), while most people spoke their local and regional dialect. After the Treaty of Kiel transferred Norway from Denmark–Norway to Sweden–Norway in 1814, Dano-Norwegian (or "det almidelige bogmaal") was the sole official language until 1885 when Ivar Aasen's Landsmaal gained recognition. In the early 1840s, young linguist Ivar Aasen traveled the countryside gathering up the words and grammar used there. He assembled a Norwegian language based on dialects little affected by Danish and published his first grammar and dictionary of the Norwegian people's language (Folkemål), in 1848 and 1850 respectively. He and many other authors wrote texts in their own dialects from around this time. Norwegian is a North Germanic language. Dano-Norwegian, which began as a tongue readily accessible to (and essentially written as) Danish, took in increasing amounts of Norwegian. Meanwhile, Aasen's "people's language" became established. Parliament decided in 1885 that the two forms of written Norwegian were to be equally official. Both went through some name changes until 1929, when parliament decided that the one originally based on Danish should be called Bokmål (literally "book language") and the one based on Norwegian dialects should be called Nynorsk ("new Norwegian"). In the early 20th century, a more activist approach to written Norwegian was adopted. The government attempted over several decades to bring the two language forms closer to each other with the goal of merging them but failed due to widespread resistance from both sides. The now-abandoned official policy to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into one written standard called Samnorsk through a series of reforms has created a wide spectrum of varieties of the two. An unofficial form called Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål. Similarly, the unofficial Høgnorsk is much closer to Aasen's mid-1800s language than to today's Nynorsk. Norwegians are educated in whichever form is more widespread where they live (hovedmål/hovudmål) and the resultant secondary language form (sidemål, "side language"). There is no officially sanctioned spoken standard of Norwegian, but according to some linguists, like Kjell Venås, one de facto spoken standard is akin to Bokmål, Urban East Norwegian (Standard øst-/austnorsk).
Sample Danish text[2] I 1877 forlod Brandes København og bosatte sig i Berlin. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde dog, at Preussen blev ubehagelig for ham at opholde sig i, og han vendte i 1883 tilbage til København, hvor han blev mødt af en helt ny gruppe af forfattere og tænkere, der var ivrige efter at modtage ham som deres leder. Det vigtigste af hans senere arbejder har været hans værk om William Shakespeare, der blev oversat til engelsk af William Archer og med det samme blev anerkendt. Norwegian (Bokmål)[3] I 1877 forlot Brandes København og bosatte seg i Berlin. Hans politiske synspunkter gjorde imidlertid at det ble ubehagelig for ham å oppholde seg i Preussen, og i 1883 vendte han tilbake til København, der han ble møtt av en helt ny gruppe forfattere og tenkere, som var ivrige etter å motta ham som sin leder. Det viktigste av hans senere arbeider er hans verk om William Shakespeare, som ble oversatt til engelsk av William Archer, og som straks ble anerkjent. Norwegian (Nynorsk) I 1877 forlét Brandes København og busette seg i Berlin. Då dei politiske synspunkta hans gjorde det utriveleg for han å opphalda seg i Preussen, vende han attende til København i 1883. Der vart han møtt av ei heilt ny gruppe forfattarar og tenkjarar som var ivrige etter å ha han som leiar. Det viktigaste av dei seinare arbeida hans er verket om William Shakespeare, som vart omsett til engelsk av William Archer og som straks vart anerkjend. English translation In 1877 Brandes left Copenhagen and took up residence in Berlin. However, his political views made Prussia an uncomfortable place in which to live and in 1883 he returned to Copenhagen. There he was met by a completely new group of writers and thinkers who were eager to accept him as their leader. The most important of Brandes' later works is his writing on Shakespeare which, translated to English by William Archer, received recognition immediately. ^ Excerpts from the articles about Danish critic Georg Brandes from the Danish Wikipedia, version from 19 May 2006, 09:36 and Norwegian (bokmål) Wikipedia, version from 4 April 2006, 01:38.
History
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