Nynorsk

As many may know, Norway was a part of Denmark for centuries. During this time, the Norwegian language was heavily influenced by the Danish language. In the cities, some would speak Danish with a Norwegian intonation; this is called Dano-Norwegian (dansk-norsk). Danish was also used as the writing system in Norway during this time period.

In 1814, however, Norway gained its independence from Denmark and Danish lost its popularity among Norwegians. Questions arose as to what to do with the written language. There were three options:

A linguist named Ivar Aasen went to work creating a written standard based on dialects. He did extensive research between 1842-1846, travelling throughout parts of Norway, gathering information about the rural dialects in the areas. He believed that the Norwegian spoken in the rural areas, where the majority of the population was located, was closer to original Norwegian than that of those who lived in the cities and who were influenced heavily by Danish. It was Aasen’s belief that the dialects shared a common structure that differentiated it from the Danish and Swedish languages. In 1848, he published a comparative dialect grammar book, followed by a dictionary in 1850. In 1853, he published yet another book in which he described a written standard, based on the common structures he found among the dialects, which he called landsmål. He then continued to publish stories, poems, essays, etc using this standard.

Meanwhile, there was another group of people that wanted to take Danish and alter it to fit spoken Norwegian, instead. One particular linguist named Knud Knudsen did just that, creating what he would call “riksmål.”

So now there were two forms of written Norwegian and there was no agreement on which one to use. In 1885, the parliament declared that “landsmål” and “riksmål” would both be official.

In 1907, a spelling reform took place (there would be many other spelling reforms in following years, which I will not go into detail about in this lesson). During this, the most common spoken aspects of Norwegian were added to riksmål. Also, some of the more archaic aspects in landsmål were abolished and a few small changes were introduced. Eventually, the goal was to decrease the differences between landsmål and riksmål, until there was only one written standard, samnorsk (Common Norwegian). This goal was later abandoned in the 1960s.

Due to the spelling reforms, landsmål eventually became nynorsk and riksmål eventually became bokmål, both of which were meant to be “intermediary stages” to becoming “samnorsk.” This led to landsmål and riksmål losing their status as “official standards” in 1929, as they were replaced with nynorsk and bokmål.

Approximately 85-90% of Norwegians today use bokmål as their written standard. Nynorsk, on the other hand, is used by about 10-15% of the population, mostly in western and central areas of southern Norway. In Norway, each county and municipality can decide to declare either bokmål or nynorsk as their standard or choose to be standard-neutral. As of 2015, only 26% of the municipalities declared nynorsk as their official language, compared to 36% that declared bokmål as their official language and the other 36% that remained neutral.

Technically, in schools, the standard that students are taught as their primary language should be decided by referendum in each school district. However, a student can demand to have nynorsk books even if the overall primary is bokmål (with the exception of Norwegian class). If there are more than 10 students that use nynorsk, they can demand to be put into a separate group where everything is in nynorsk. As of 2016, only 12.2% of elementary school students are taught nynorsk as their primary written language. If a student’s primary written standard is nynorsk, they are required to still learn bokmål and vice versa.

There are laws in place that enforce the use of nynorsk in media and other areas. For example, NRK is required to have at least 25% of their content in nynorsk. Most of the major newspapers also contain articles in nynorsk. Many computer programs and apps that serve Norway have an option to choose between bokmål and nynorsk. Some commercial products, particularly if they are produced in majority-nynorsk areas, will contain text in nynorsk. Universities are required to offer content in nynorsk and to allow students to take exams in nynorsk if that is their primary written language.

This section is not an exhaustive list of the differences between bokmål and nynorsk.

First, let us look at an example sentence in Danish, bokmål, and nynorsk (since Danish heavily influenced bokmål).

Danish: Vi har syv ravne, en krage og flere vipstjerter.

Bokmål: Vi har syv / sju ravner, en / ei kråke og flere linerler.

Nynorsk: Vi / Me har sju ramnar, ei kråke og fleire linerler.

English: We have seven ravens, a crow, and several wagtails.

As you can see, in bokmål, one can use the Danish “syv” or the nynorsk “sju” and either the masculine or feminine articles, “en” or “ei” for kråke, whereas in Danish you can only use “en” and in nynorsk, you can only use “ei.” Nynorsk does not offer these options. In nynorsk, you can either say “Vi” or “Me” for “We”.