- The situation today
- Fairly stable situation
- Historical background
- Norway divorced from Denmark
- From neo-Norwegian to New Norwegian
- From Danish to standard Norwegian
- Pan-Norwegian?
- Speak dialect, write New Norwegian
In many countries in the world the inhabitants speak and write several different languages. Now and then it happens that clashes arise between the speakers of the various tongues, and when these conflicts come to a head, as they often do in our imperfect world, it ends up that the media reports on them.
Very often, both the mass media and the inhabitants of countries without language problems have a difficult time understanding why people would argue about something as trivial as language. It is relatively easy to explain the conflict between Dutch and French in Belgium, or why minorities who speak Basque in Spain, Frisian in the Netherlands or Gaelic in Scotland fight to preserve their special languages. But it is hard for foreigners to comprehend why Norwegians, who 150 years ago did not have a written language of their own and managed quite well with Danish, have, over the past 100 years, developed for good measure two Norwegian tongues. The purpose of this article is to attempt to explain this paradoxical situation.
THE SITUATION TODAY
Of Norway's population of just over four million, 95 percent speak Norwegian as their native language. Everyone who speaks Norwegian, whether a local dialect or one of the two standard languages, can be understood by other Norwegians. In Norway - as in other countries - not everyone understands everyone equally well, and especially people from the capital claim that they have a tough time understanding their countrymen from outlying districts, while those from the rural areas have no problems understanding the language of Osloites. In the areas where Norwegian is spoken, there are no real language obstacles. However, the minority Sami language is not related to Norwegian, and it is incomprehensible to Norwegian speakers who have not learned it. Norway has two official written languages, standard Norwegian and New Norwegian. They have equal status, i.e. they are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, and on radio and television. Books, magazines and newspapers are published in both languages. The inhabitants of local communities decide themselves which language is to be used as the language of instruction in the school attended by their children. Officially, the teaching language is called the primary tongue and the other language the second tongue. Students read material written in the second language and at the upper secondary level they should demonstrate an ability to write in that language. This is a consequence, among others, of a requirement of public employees to answer letters in the language preferred by the sender.
FAIRLY STABLE SITUATION
Over 80 percent of Norwegian schoolchildren have standard Norwegian as their primary language, between 16 and 17 percent are New Norwegian speakers. The primary language of all cities is standard Norwegian; the same applies to the relatively thickly populated areas surrounding the Oslo fjord, and the lowlands of East Norway. New Norwegian dominates in the fjord country along the west coast and the mountain districts of central Norway. The rules regarding the selection or possible change of a school's main language are established by law.
While the percentage-wise distribution of the two languages in the schools has been fairly stable over the last 15-20 years, this does not mean that perfect peace and harmony prevail between the two tongues. From the percentages claimed by the respective languages, it is clear that standard Norwegian predominates, as it always has done. Standard Norwegian is the language of choice of the major newspapers, the weekly magazines, and paperback novels. Because the cities and most industrial areas use standard Norwegian to train new employees, the language prevails in business and advertising. Standard Norwegian was developed from a form of Danish that was freely spoken by government officials and by leading social circles in the cities; it therefore had the prestige of being the preferred speech of people with higher education and aspirations. It has the same function as standard speech in other counties, as well as serving as a status symbol.
New Norwegian has the upper hand in districts where the population is stable and most speak their traditional local dialect. Standardised New Norwegian is therefore usually not spoken in the local communities where it is the teaching language and is mainly used in places where the inhabitants hail from different parts of the country.
All of the Nordic countries now have official bodies concerned with national languages. In Norway the entity is called the Norwegian Language Council. It has 38 members, half from each of the two language camps. The Council's purpose is to foster mutual tolerance and respect between everyone who uses Norwegian in one or another form, and to carry out practical language work - orthography, terminology, advisory functions, etc. The rules for handling cases are set up so that questions that mainly concern one language are resolved by the representatives for this language without interference from the other half.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The pecularities of the language situation in Norway has its explanation in the country's and the Nordic countries' history. The languages of the three main Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, are so similar that the inhabitants basically understand each other and can use their own language when talking to people from the other countries. This is because the languages evolved from a common Nordic tongue whose development mainly has followed the same course throughout central Scandinavia. One thousand years ago, when Nordic pioneers settled in both Russia and Western Europe, and on islands in the Atlantic Ocean from the Orkneys to Shetland and Greenland, the same common Nordic language was spoken throughout the entire area. The differences in dialects that existed then were insignificant, and were far smaller than the dialectical variations found today in each of the Nordic countries.
The languages underwent great change in the late Middle Ages. Most of the changes started in the country located farthest south, Denmark, spreading north, like ocean waves. Norway lay farthest from Denmark, and for this reason Norwegian retained the imprint of the common Nordic language the longest. The Christianisation of the Nordic countries in the period 900-1100 brought with it written language. In Norway the national language was committed to paper before 1100, resembling perhaps England in this respect, while Denmark and Sweden used Latin in public discourse in the first years following the coming of Christianity. Danish and Swedish were not brought into use as written languages until the 1200-1300s, at a time when especially Danish had become removed from the common Nordic foundation. Throughout the Middle Ages, Denmark was the strongest political and economic power in the North. From around 1400 to around 1500 the Danish rulers attempted to assemble the three countries into one large Nordic kingdom, governed from Denmark. Naturally enough, Danish came to play a major role as the administrative language in the kingdom, and from 1500, Danish was the official language in Norway. Around 1520 the Swedes broke away from the Nordic alliance, but Norway continued to be a part of it until 1814. During this entire time Danish was the written language in Norway.
NORWAY DIVORCED FROM DENMARK
The Dano-Norwegian monarchy had been allied with Napoleon since 1807, and in 1814, in the settlement following Napoleon's defeat, Norway was divorced from Denmark and joined forces with Sweden, which had participated in the coalition against Napoleon. The union with Sweden lasted until 1905. The two kingdoms were governed separately and Danish continued to be the language of public administration in Norway. Government officials, whether they were Norwegian or Danish, had received their education in Denmark. In 1811, a new university was founded in Kristiania (Oslo), and those who grew up after 1814 were schooled entirely in Norway.
Nearly all Norwegians in the beginning of the 1800s spoke their own local dialect. Officials and the higher echelons in the cities spoke a Norwegian-accented Danish and wrote basically correct Danish, but all people born in Norway were familiar with a special Norwegian vocabulary, quintessential Norwegian words from work life and nature. Many alternated then as now between dialect and more standardised speech.
Those enrolling in the new university after 1814 were preoccupied with the nationalist ideas that mushroomed all over Europe in the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and with the romantic trends and interest in Nordic history in contemporary Danish literature. The nationalist movements brought with them a powerful need for self- determination. A manifestation of this need was the plan to create an independent Norwegian language. The discussion that ensued was, characteristically enough, more concerned about how to create a Norwegian language than the question of whether it was necessary. Basically, two models were discussed. The one was to Norwegianise written Danish by including Norwegian elements from the spoken language. The other, and more radical approach, was to fashion a new written language based on a good, in other words conservative, Norwegian dialect.
FROM NEO-NORWEGIAN TO NEW NORWEGIAN
The idea of creating a new Norwegian written language was pursued by Ivar Aasen (1813-1896). A farmer's son from West Norway, Aasen knew both the classical languages Greek and Latin and the most important West European languages. From 1842-46 he gathered information on Norwegian dialects, publishing in 1848 "The Norwegian Folk Language Grammer" followed by "The Norwegian Folk Language Dictionary" in 1850. In 1853 he published a collection of speech samples, "Samples of Neo-Norwegian in Norway", in which he included passages written in standardised language. In doing so he had created "Neo-Norwegian", which since 1929 has been officially known as New Norwegian. It was meant as a common denominator of all Norwegian dialects, but Aasen had first and foremost based his works on the oral language that was the most closely related to the old written Norwegian, i.e. the dialects of the inland fjord communities and the mountain districts of East Norway. He spelled words etymologically, partly because this type of orthography provided written forms of speech that more closely matched the root words on which the many different dialects were based, and partly because the words thereby were given a form closer to Icelandic, Danish and Swedish spelling patterns than a more orthoepic rendition would have produced.
Aasen himself used the new language to write poetry, as did many others. Aasen's New Norwegian gradually won a substantial number of supporters, especially among people opposed to the ruling party of government officials who had run the country since 1814. When the opposition won a majority in the Storting (national assembly) in 1884, Neo-Norwegian was given equal status as an official language. Starting in 1892, the individual school boards could decide between New Norwegian or Dano- Norwegian as the language of instruction in the schools. Several schools chose Aasen's New Norwegian, and in 1901 an official orthography was drawn up in which a number of the more archaic forms were replaced by spellings with greater currency in the dialects.
FROM DANISH TO STANDARD NORWEGIAN
The other path in the development of an independent Norwegian language, the Norwegianisation line, aimed at a gradual absorption of Norwegian words and spellings. One of the most important proponents of this line was Knud Knudsen (1812-1895). Knudsen was a teacher at the upper secondary level and an enthusiastic supporter of the Danish language researcher Rasmus Rask's desire to create an orthography in which words are spelled as they sound. In the 1840s Knudsen began to campaign actively for spelling reform based on this principle. He sought to build his new orthography on Norwegian as it was spoken "by educated speakers". In other words, he accepted the Norwegian pronunciation of the joint Dano-Norwegian written language as the norm for standard oral Norwegian. He met considerable resistance and criticism from opponents who did not favour any break with the Danish tradition, and who believed that the absorption of Norwegian words and expressions in a written language that actually was Danish would create a tasteless mixture.
Knudsen came to wield great influence on the generation of authors who began to write in the 1850s - first and foremost Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - in his capacity as language advisor at the theatre where their dramas were staged.
The most important difference between Danish and Dano-Norwegian pronunciation was based on the fact that Norwegian (and Swedish) had retained certain common Nordic characteristics, whereas Danish had evolved away from this base. For example, a number of Norwegian words were spelled with the letters p, t and k where Danish employed b, d, and g; Norwegian bake, rot, krype compared to Danish bage, rod, krybe (bake, root, creep). The written language followed Danish pronunciation, and in these cases Knudsen wanted Norwegian spelling to follow the pronunciations which in his time were customary in refined daily conversation, i.e. that the words should be written with p, t an k. As the memory of Norway's alliance with Denmark grew dimmer and dimmer, the infusion of distinctively Norwegian vocabulary, spellings, and, to a certain extent, syntax, grew stronger and stronger.
The trend towards Norwegianisation was most visible in fiction writing. The language of the bureaucrats changed little. But writers were often inconsistent in their use of Norwegian words and spellings, and the written language of many was a fairly unsystematic blend. Advocates of Norwegianisation therefore went in for a total reform of the official orthography which was carried out in 1907 and 1917. With that, a new Norwegian written language was created, and the connection with Danish was broken.
Since 1917, essentially the same spelling principles have applied to both Norwegian languages: both are spelled etymologically, with elements of exact sound, orthoepic forms. The differences in spelling since 1917 are not a reflection of two different writing traditions, but rather real language differences.
PAN-NORWEGIAN?
Spelling reform advocates like Knudsen believed that the Dano-Norwegian language would continue to change and become more and more "Norwegian" until it meshed with New Norwegian into one language. During the spelling reform of 1917, the possibility of further development in this direction was opened after a number of distinctively Norwegian spellings that did not belong to "refined daily speech" were set up as alternative, elective spellings in the rules book. However, the elective spellings saw little use, and to speed up the process, a new reform was carried out in 1938, during which time a number of unorthodox spellings were made compulsory, at the same time as many traditional spellings were ruled invalid. The protests of conservative speakers were, to begin with, loudest on the New Norwegian side, but after the war criticism among speakers of standard Norwegian developed into a storm; a protest movement was organised and parents began to change the unorthodox's spellings in their children textbooks back to the now forbidden traditional forms.
New Norwegian made major gains the entire period from 1900, reaching a peak in 1944: in that year 34 percent of all Norwegian children listed New Norwegian as their native tongue. But then decline set in, and many of the school districts won over in the latter part of the expansionary period broke away. Since the 1970s the share has dropped to between 16 and 17 percent. Not only was this a blow to New Norwegian, it also meant that the political parties no longer needed to be so concerned with New Norwegian pressure groups. Urbanisation and industrialisation of the country also served to weaken the position of New Norwegian, in that it was strongest in the rural districts dominated by the primary industries.
The pressure from supporters of traditional spelling among speakers of standard Norwegian led to the re-introduction of these forms in 1959 and 1981. As a compromise, the traditionalists agreed to allow the untraditional forms to remain in the spelling glossary. Consequently, the present orthography contains numerous alternative spellings, so- called "radical" and "moderate" forms, from which students can pick and choose. It is often hard to tell if it is the student that is doing the selecting, or if it is wise to let them choose, but with language selection being what it is, it is often necessary to live with compromise.
"SPEAK DIALECT, WRITE NEW NORWEGIAN"
Traditional standard Norwegian has dominated the post-war period. In retaliation, a movement sprang up seeking an immediate merger of the two languages. Its advocates were for the most part well-educated, often politically radical idealists. In the 1960s and 70s they were influenced by the new views on linguistics advanced by American and British sociologists. The attacks of the pan-Norwegian adherents were mainly focused on standard Norwegian, which they view as an upper class dialect, although they also directed barbs at traditionel New Norwegian. Their battle cry "Speak dialect, write New Norwegian" became a sort of motto for modern proponents of New Norwegian. Because the position of standardised oral New Norwegian is so weak, there is reason to doubt the slogan's powerfulness in leading the final charge. The basis of the slogan is the claim that New Norwegian is the common denominator of all Norwegian dialects. The idea is that if the image of the dialects can be upgraded, people will start to write in New Norwegian. It is true that the dialects have in common with New Norwegian a more complicated declension system compared to traditional standard Norwegian, but what the advocates of pan-Norwegian do not consider is the fact that the systems of the dialects where New Norwegian has never taken hold are in many cases very different from the system of the West Norway dialects on which New Norwegian is built.
As the situation stands today, the relationship between the two official written languages has been stable for several years. Standard Norwegian predominates and exerts pressure on New Norwegian, which is the minority language. The strength of standard Norwegian is not only that it is the written language of more than 80 percent of the population, but also that it enjoys strong and expanding oral usage. In addition, it is a fact that it is easier to go to a less complicated system of inflexion from one that is more complicated, than to do the opposite, especially when the less complicated system is omnipresent.This is not to say that New Norwegian will disappear or regress even more. The section of the country where New Norwegian reigns is a large contiguous area, and in this region the pressure from standard Norwegian is not as strong as it is in less stable environments. But New Norwegian requires, as do other active ideologies, a strong engagement. Because it is so easy to switch to standard Norwegian, a person leaving a traditional New Norwegian bastion must make a conscious effort to cling to his native tongue in surroundings where most people speak standard Norwegian.
Produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Nytt fra Norge. Printed in May 1989.
Reproduced with permission from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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