Norwegian Languages

Norwegian Languages (Bokmål and Nynorsk), members of the North group of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. The two official languages of Norway.

Like the other Scandinavian languages, Norwegian is derived from an ancient common Scandinavian language, which can be traced through runic inscriptions to the 3rd century ad. Because of the significant dialectal changes that occurred during the Viking age (c. 800-1050), Old Norse (or Old Norwegian), a language from which the modern tongues are derived, came into being and was spread by Norwegian migration to Iceland and other areas in the North Atlantic. The Latin alphabet, replacing runic signs, was introduced with Christianity, and a distinct Norwegian written language evolved in the 11th century. During the subsequent centuries, the Norwegian language was influenced by Danish, Low German, and Swedish. The Danish influence was dominant between 1380 and 1814, when Norway was united with Denmark under the Danish Crown.

Danish, the official language of Norway since 1397, became also, in the 16th century, the written language of Norway. Danish was generally spoken by the educated classes, especially in the cities, while Norwegian dialects continued in use in the country districts and among the working and middle classes of the towns. During the 19th century, the spoken Danish developed into a language called Dano-Norwegian, which was heavily Danish in structure and vocabulary, but with native Norwegian pronunciation and some native grammatical influences. Later termed Riksmål, it became the official language of Norway. Dano-Norwegian is the language of such literary figures as the poet and dramatist Henrik Ibsen.

Subsequently, however, a strong nationalistic and Romantic movement awakened a desire for a language people felt was their own. In response to this desire, the linguist Ivar Aasen began, in the middle of the 19th century, the construction of a new national literary language, Landsmål (“country speech”), based on western Norwegian dialects (as they were the least influenced by Danish). This endeavour won public support, and Landsmål, further developed, became an important secondary language.

Under pressure of the Landsmål movement, Riksmål went through a series of significant reforms (1907, 1917, and 1938) emphasizing strictly Norwegian speech and spelling. The names of the two languages were officially changed: Riksmål became Bokmål (“book language”) and Landsmål, Nynorsk (“New Norse”). Bokmål and Nynorsk are very similar languages, especially when spoken (the main differences are in the spelling), and some do not class them as separate languages but varieties of Norwegian. However, for political reasons at least, they are classed as languages in their own right and have equal validity in law in Norway, and both must be taught in the schools. Bokmål, still the leading language (spoken by 99.5 per cent of the population and the main written language), belongs to the East Scandinavian sub-group of North Germanic languages and is predominant in urban areas. Nynorsk, from the West Scandinavian sub-group, is strongest in rural areas in western Norway but is a mainly written language with few, if any, native speakers.

Selected statistical data from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, SIL International.