Guest Blog: The creation of Norway’s official languages
How Norwegians established their own languages after their Independence from the Danish in the 19th century.
By: Siobhan O’Neill, Macquarie University
Norway is known as a Nordic country with ‘movie-esc’ landscapes, delicious cinnamon buns, and a relaxed lifestyle. On top of the aesthetic glory that modern-day Norway has cultivated for itself, its most well-known history is the Viking-age, when Norsemen travelled west to raid monasteries and create settlements. What is rarely known about Norway is its more recent history, spanning between 100 to 200 years ago. After their independence from the Danish on the 17th of May, 1814, the people of Norway wanted to use this milestone as a means of giving themselves an identity not just of their official independence and culture, but of their language. Before Norway gained independence from Denmark, the primary language written and spoken in Norway was Danish. The primary Norwegian language as it is taught today in both Norwegian schools and in Norwegian textbooks is known as Dano-Norwegian (also known as Bokmål [pron. Bok-mawl]), while the secondary form that is used in the west of Norway is known as Nynorsk. Bokmål was created over the course of the 19th century to show distinction between the Danish language and its Norwegian counterpart, as well as to emphasize independence from the Danes after centuries of dependency. Nynorsk (Norwegian for ‘New Norwegian’), which is only used by about half a million locals, was created from an array of Norwegian dialects in the western and central region of Norway. This is considered the more creative and expressive of the two Norwegian languages, in comparison to the more formal language of Bokmål that is spoken and written throughout the majority of the country. This radical change of independence from a long-reigning monarchy that ended only 200 years ago shows the pride and determination the Norwegians had for their identity as an independent people. Although they were independent from Denmark, they were united with Sweden, until 1905, under the argument that Norway needed to be supported by a major European power. Despite this, the independence from Denmark was considered a milestone, and is now celebrated every year on the 17th of May as Norway Constitution Day.
Nynorsk, an official second-language of Norway, is a cultural indicator of the Norwegian dialects that survived the 400 years of Danish rule, with its first written format officially published by a poet in the mid 19th century. For example, if you were familiar with the Danish language, you could probably read and listen to Bokmål and understand almost everything. If you were familiar with Bokmål and you read and listened to Nynorsk you would understand the written and spoken aspects too, although the pronunciation and grammatical system is slightly different across the three languages. The distinction between Bokmål and Nynorsk is the grammatical endings of the subject nouns and vocabulary. An example of this, starting with Bokmål, would be the ending (or suffix) -en to mark definite singular nouns (A noun that specifies a particular object; the ring [of power], the sword [of destiny] etc.). With Nynorsk, a definite singular noun would end with –a; so, in Bokmål the word for ‘the book’ is ‘boken’; in Nynorsk the word would be ‘boka’. If you were to look at the Danish translation, it’s slightly different: ‘bogen’. There are slight differences in vocabulary, which tie back to the dialects of western Norway, that show distinction between the two Norwegian languages. While most vocabulary between the two languages are similar, or the same, the word for ‘difference’, ironically, is ‘forskjell’ in Bokmål, and ‘skilnad’ in Nynorsk. The Danish word for ‘difference’ is, in turn, ‘forskel’.
With the differences/forskjellene/skilnadane aside, the foundation and establishment of these two versions of Norwegian were decided as the two official languages of Norway after several years of debate and trial by the general public. Due to the hundreds of dialects that were already spoken within smaller communities throughout the country there was much discussion on what could be done about the implementation of a language that would identify and unite the country. As we now know, the Norwegian language that was to be taught in schools and used in governmental institutions throughout the country became Bokmål, while in the west and central parts of Norway, Nynorsk was used. Norwegian teacher Knut Knudsen and the Norwegian poet and author Ivar Aasen both had pivotal roles in the two languages’ foundations. Ivar Aasen dedicated most of his life to travelling throughout Norway to study the Norwegian dialects in rural areas in order to establish the separation from the Danish-influenced written language used in rural areas. This laid the groundwork for what would become Nynorsk. Knut Knudsen, dissatisfied with the Danish influence in Norwegian writing, helped to create Bokmål by introducing spelling and grammatical changes to better reflect a Norwegian language spoken by the elite.
Overall, the development of the two Norwegian languages was a pinnacle turning point in Norwegian early modern history. Although political restrictions still applied to Norwegians until the beginning of the 20th century, their determination and pride to uphold their own cultural identity by changing a language separated them from the long-reigning Danes. Today, we have the joy of understanding this culture through media, especially with movies like Frozen, singers like Aurora, and painter Edmund Munch (‘The Scream’). For more information about the way Bokmål and Nynorsk developed linguistically throughout the 19th century, click the link below to see a video by the founder of the language-learning company Skapago, Werner Skalla, explaining the history in further detail, and the etymological development of Danish into Bokmål.https://youtu.be/Q9Cv92ISz8A?si=AjQqeZkSW9_CBJ4o
