The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-02-05

chung through the four centuries of
Danish domination to the tongue spok-
n by their forbears in the days Of
the Vikings.
"E:aploying these and other materi-
ais, ad. ting them to modern require
ments, Ival Aasen succeeded in evolv-
ing so melodiOus and SO poetic a lam
guage that the vast majority of his
countrymen, commencing with the ru-
raj population, have accepted it for
their songs, their plays. their sermons,
their schools and their vernacular. It
has caught their fancy; it appeals to
their pride in the romantic past when
the sway Of the Morse Vikings EXTEND
ed over Scandinavia, northern Ger
many, Russia and the greater portion
of the British Isles; and it has become
identified in their eyes with Norwe-
gian ~nationaliSm.
THE spurious Danish-in which Ib-
sen wrote and which has been the Off
cia language Of the Norwegians for
more h a 400 years-recalls to them
thos centuries of Danish oppression
and persecution, when, robbed of her
independence, Norway was ruled from
Copenhagen, not even as a province,
but as a colony, fit only for s%poliation,
exaction and tyranny. Everything
that. serves to recall Danish domina-
ton is hateful in Norway. Indeed, his
Danish birth is the only real cause of
the appropriately of King Haakon's
sagaciOuS and conscientious rule"
Early next year Norway will cele-
pirate the centennial anniversary of
her emancipation from Denmark, of
the recovery of her independence as a
separate kingdom with a constitution
OF her own, though united by dynastic
ties Nth Sweden until 1905. And the
writer in The Times asserts that
Sc ~ - 49,
t1onal rejoicings in honor of the oc-
casion by the legislative adoption of
1Var >Aasen's Landsmaal as the official
ann national language of Norway. The
government, an overwhelming
majority of the storthing, the press,
and the bulk of the people have all
determined upon the change, and a
royal commission appointed jointly by
crown, cabinet and parliament, is now
engaged in completing the necessary
arrangements for the execution of the
proclamation decreeing the new vern-
ocular, which is to inaugurate the
centennial.
1t will be a remarkable and UNIQUE
cent. For, while there are plenty of
instances of the government forcing
It's language upon provinces and de-
Tendencies acquired by conquest of
statecraft against the wishes of their
population. there has been no case un-
I'll now. to my knowledge, Of a people
compelling its rulers to abandon the
national language for an entirely new
tongue. War Aasen, it's. creator, al
ready celebrated as a philologist, will
henceforth enjoy new Int more last
ing fame, and will occupy an isolated
place in history as the one man who
invented and constructed a language
winch so pleased and fascinated his
countrymen that they relinquished the
tongue that had been theirs for hum
dreds of years, to adopt his for official
and national use.
War Aasen, who was the son of a
small peasant family. was born Just
100 years ago in the district Of Sond-
more, and was honored on his death,
IN 1896, with a great public funeral
at Christiania, where a national me-
mcrial is about to be erected over his
tomb. -.-. -.
There are but two things more to be
mentioned in connection with this re-
markable linguistic change In Norway.
Inc t1rst Is that L~andsmaal is phonetic
in its spelling. The SECOND is that it's
adoption as the national ~vernacular
will present no difficulty. For, as |
have mentioned above, it has been
taught in schools for twenty and thirty
years past-and in Norway everybody
attends school, popular education be-
ing of an extremely high order. More
over, the people have become as ac-
customed to 1t, and have developed
such a liking for it. that it is they
who forced it's adoption by the state.