Riksmål and the influence of Danish on the Norwegian Written Language

 

Riksmål, and the influence it has on the written Norwegian Language

An Origin:

- From 1537 - 1814, the nations of Denmark and Norway were in a personal union, sharing the same written language of Danish. Following the dissolution of the Union, Norway was left without a written language of it's own, and so Danish continued to be used. Pioneers of the Norwegian language aimed to create a written standard for the new nation, and so in the early 1850s, Knud Knudsen began to write and create a written form of Norwegian heavily influenced by Danish, to the extent of it being seen as a 'Norwegianised interpretation of Danish'. In 1899, a man named Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson made clear his intention of building on Knudsen's ideas, to create a written standard based on the Danish spoken by the upper class in the city of Oslo, and East Norway, which he named 'Riksmaal', literally meaning 'National Language'. This is significant, because whilst other Language Pioneers, such as Ivar Aasen were aiming to create a standard based on the spoken language of the people of rural Norway, Bjørnson wanted to keep as close to Danish as possible. He set up an organisation named 'Riksmålsforbundet', with the goal being to combat the growing influence of Nynorsk, and put pressure on the Government to adopt Riksmål as an official form of Norwegian. 

- Over time, the language went through numerous changes to adapt to spoken Norwegian, including the policy of Samnorsk, which aimed to bring the two standards closer together. It was eventually renamed Bokmål, which is the most used modern written standard. However, Riksmålsforbundet continue to argue for the use of traditional Riksmål throughout the nation, and dislike the Samnorsk changes to modern Bokmål. 

How it Compares to the Others:

- Riksmål is heavily influenced by Danish, and so it is more similar to it than the other written standards of Bokmål, Nynorsk and Høgnorsk. Here is an example:

- I 1877 fant Brandes sitt nye bosted i Berlin (Riksmål)
- I 1877 fandt Brandes sit nye bopæl i Berlin (Danish)
- I 1877 fant Brandes sin nye bosteden i Berlin (Bokmål)
- i 1877 fann Brandes sin nye bustaden i Berlin (Nynorsk)
- I 1877 fann Brandes sin nye bustaden i Berlin (Landsmål)
- In 1877 Brandes found his new residence in Berlin (English)

- As you can see, Riksmål is by far the closest to Danish. There are still a few minor differences though, let's have a look.

- Danish 'fandt' is replaced with Riksmål 'fant'. This is due to the Norwegian government removing silent Ds within every word during the Orthographical Reforms.

- Double consonants are introduced within the orthography of Riksmål, as in Danish 'sit', and Riksmål 'sitt'.

- Danish 'bopæl' is replaced with Riksmål 'bosted', which is Danish and Norwegian for 'residence', respectively.

- In the early stages of Riksmål, most of the changes from Danish were Orthographical ones, designed to reduce letters which were silent, or not pronounced in Norwegian-Danish. The example above displays the closeness between the two at this point.

A Conclusion:

- It is clear that Riksmål is incredibly similar to Danish; and it's successor, Bokmål, is essentially an evolved version of the original. As such, some may draw the conclusion that modern Bokmål is a Danish written standard, and not an originally Norwegian standard. I think it is important to note that modern Bokmål has come a long way from it's origins with Danish, and is now the standard most synonymous with the Norwegian Language. However, it is clear that Riksmål and Bokmål began the destruction of Traditional dialects around Norway, as well as creating a Language conflict with Landsmål/Nynorsk. We will explore the direct effect Bokmål and Nynorsk have had on the dialects in another post.