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Landsmål and Høgnorsk; Destroyed by the Council?

 

Landsmål and Høgnorsk; Destroyed by the Council?


- Landsmål was one of the two original Norwegian written standards, following the end of the use of Danish. It was created by Ivar Aasen, a linguist who used the dialects of Norway, most prominantly in Vest-Noreg (West Norway), to draft a new written language based on actual Norwegian, and not 'Norwegianised Danish', unlike Bjørnson, whose Riksmål was very heavily based on the Danish Language. Aasen was the first widely acknowledged Norwegian linguist, and his work was very representative of the contemporary language, and was a real shift towards a proper national identity.

- As with Riksmål, Språkrådet (The Language Council) began to introduce reforms aiming to improve the language over time. The first of these was passed in 1901, but until 1938, these were mostly orthographical, for example:

- Before 1917 - Orsak, eg gløymde å gjeva bilætet til deg.
  After 1917 - Årsak, eg gløymde å gjeva biletet til deg.
  English - Sorry, I forgot to give the photo to you.

- As you can see, for the most part, the 1917 reforms focused on correct vowel orthography within Landsmål, although in some cases, the changes made were optional, and only ever enforced within the education system and Government writing. When the Arbeidarpartiet (Labour Party) came into Government in 1935, they began to pursue the policy of Samnorsk, attempting to bring the two written standards closer together. In 1938, Språkrådet released a reform, which was monumental in the evolution of the standard. By this time, Landsmål had been renamed Nynorsk, and Riksmål had been named Bokmål. The 1938 Reforms changed both Nynorsk and Bokmål, with vowel changes and removal of silent letters, some of which stemmed from the Danish cognate, or words that had changed since Aasen had observed them. For example:

- Before 1938 - Eg klåra ikkje å lesa bøkene um sumaren, fyre dei vart utselde.
  After 1938 - Eg klara ikkje å lesa bøkene om sommaren, føre dei vart utselde.
  English - I wasn't able to read the books in the summer, before they sold out.


- Before 1938 - eg talar um 1917- og 1938-rettskrivingi i uppgåva mi.
  After 1938 - eg talar om 1917- og 1938-rettskrivinga i oppgåva mi.
  English - i am talking about the 1917 and 1938 writing reforms in my assignment.

- It became a common theme for Språkrådet to attempt to bring Nynorsk closer to Bokmål, and Bokmål closer to Nynorsk, in the coming years, as a result of the Samnorsk policy. Organisations such as Riksmålforbundet successfully managed to prevent radical changes to Bokmål, and as the societal elite, with the most influence on Språkrådet, Bokmål went through much less changes than Nynorsk. It is around this time that the term Høgnorsk was coined, referring to Nynorsk without influence from the post-1938 reforms. At first, Noregs Mållag (the Nynorsk equivalent to Riksmålforbundet) strongly opposed the reforms, but over time, they began to accept the control Språkrådet had over Nynorsk. With much less resources and influence than Riksmålforbundet, Noregs Mållag and the Nynorsk movement struggled to resist the pressure to adopt the Samnorsk reforms. Organisations such as Høgnorskringen (The High Norwegian Ring), remain in opposition to these reforms, and there remains an active community of Norwegians that refuse to conform to them.


- In general, a divided opinion on Språkrådet exists from both sides of the language conflict. Whilst the Bokmål/Riksmål supporters did not wish to adopt similarities with Nynorsk, Høgnorsk supporters often reject modern reforms because:

- They despise the idea of writing a standard based off of Danish.
- Many of the phonetical aspects of the Pre-1938 Reforms remain in many contemporary Norwegian Dialects.
- They feel the actions of Språkrådet and Riksmålforbundet actively sought to destroy their written language.


- In Conclusion, Nynorsk has heavily suffered at the hands of Språkrådet, to the point where Statsnynorsk (State New Norwegian), is very different to Aasen's original concept for a purely Norwegian written standard. Their Samnorsk reforms destroyed many aspects which made Nynorsk unique; their attempt to correct their mistakes and reallow traditional forms was too little, too late for the Nynorsk community. On the other hand, Bokmål flourished as a result, and became the clear dominant written standard, which is reflected within the contemporary position of the language conflict in Norway.




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