Norweigan Bokmål

## Overview

**Bokmål** (literally "book tongue") is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike for instance the Italian language, there is no nationwide standard or agreement on the pronunciation of Bokmål.

Bokmål is regulated by the governmental Norwegian Language Council. A more conservative orthographic standard, commonly known as *Riksmål*, is regulated by the non-governmental Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature. The written standard is a Norwegianised variety of the Danish language.

The first Bokmål orthography was officially adopted in 1907 under the name *Riksmål* after being under development since 1879. The architects behind the reform were Marius Nygaard and Jacob Jonathan Aars. It was an adaptation of written Danish, which was commonly used since the past union with Denmark, to the Dano-Norwegian koiné spoken by the Norwegian urban elite, especially in the capital. When the large conservative newspaper *Aftenposten* adopted the 1907 orthography in 1923, Danish writing was practically out of use in Norway. The name *Bokmål* was officially adopted in 1929 after a proposition to call the written language *Dano-Norwegian* lost by a single vote in the Lagting (a chamber in the Norwegian parliament).

The government does not regulate *spoken* Bokmål and recommends that normalised pronunciation should follow the phonology of the speaker's local dialect. Nevertheless, there is a spoken variety of Norwegian that, in the region of South-Eastern Norway, is commonly seen as the *de facto* standard for spoken Bokmål. Standard Østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian) is the pronunciation most commonly given in dictionaries and taught to foreigners in Norwegian language classes. Standard Østnorsk as a spoken language is not used and does not have any particular prestige outside South-Eastern Norway. All spoken variations of the Norwegian language are used e.g. in the Storting and in Norwegian national broadcasters such as NRK and TV 2, even in cases where the conventions of Bokmål are used. The spoken variation typically reflects the region the person grew up in.

## History

Up until about 1300, the written language of Norway, Old Norwegian, was essentially the same as the other Old Norse dialects. The speech, however, was gradually differentiated into local and regional dialects. As long as Norway remained an independent kingdom, the written language remained essentially constant.

In 1380, Norway entered into a personal union with Denmark. By the early 16th century, Norway had lost its separate political institutions, and together with Denmark formed the political unit known as Denmark–Norway until 1814, progressively becoming the weaker member of the union. During this period, the modern Danish and Norwegian languages emerged. Norwegian went through a Middle Norwegian transition, and a Danish written language more heavily influenced by Low German was gradually standardised. This process was aided by the Reformation, which prompted Christiern Pedersen's translation of the Bible into Danish. Remnants of written Old Norse and Norwegian were thus displaced by the Danish standard, which became used for virtually all administrative documents.

Norwegians used Danish primarily in writing, but it gradually came to be spoken by urban elites on formal or official occasions. Although Danish never became the spoken language of the vast majority of the population, by the time Norway's ties with Denmark were severed in 1814, a Dano-Norwegian vernacular often called the "educated daily speech" had become the mother tongue of elites in most Norwegian cities, such as Bergen, Kristiania and Trondheim. This Dano-Norwegian *koiné* could be described as Danish with regional Norwegian pronunciation (see Norwegian dialects), some Norwegian vocabulary, and simplified grammar.

Knud Knudsen, often called the "father of Bokmål".

With the gradual subsequent process of Norwegianisation of the written language used in the cities of Norway, from Danish to Bokmål and Riksmål, the upper-class sociolects in the cities changed accordingly. In 1814, when Norway was ceded from Denmark to Sweden, Norway defied Sweden and her allies, declared independence and adopted a democratic constitution. Although compelled to submit to a dynastic union with Sweden, this spark of independence continued to burn, influencing the evolution of language in Norway. Old language traditions were revived by the patriotic poet Henrik Wergeland (1808–1845), who championed an independent non-Danish written language.

## Controversy

The term *Riksmål*, meaning *National Language*, was first proposed by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in 1899 as a name for the Norwegian variety of written Danish as well as spoken Dano-Norwegian. It was borrowed from Denmark where it denoted standard written and spoken Danish. The same year the Riksmål movement became organised under his leadership in order to fight against the growing influence of Nynorsk, eventually leading to the foundation of the non-governmental organisation Riksmålsforbundet in 1907. Bjørnson became Riksmålsforbundet's first leader until his death in 1910.

The 1917 reform introduced some elements from Norwegian dialects and Nynorsk as optional alternatives to traditional Dano-Norwegian forms. This was part of an official policy to bring the two Norwegian languages more closely together, intending eventually to merge them into one. These changes met resistance from the Riksmål movement, and *Riksmålsvernet* (The Society for the Protection of Riksmål) was founded in 1919.

The 1938 reform in Bokmål introduced more elements from dialects and Nynorsk, and more importantly, many traditional Dano-Norwegian forms were excluded. This so-called *radical* Bokmål or *Samnorsk (no)* (Common Norwegian) met even stiffer resistance from the Riksmål movement, culminating in the 1950s under the leadership of Arnulf Øverland. Riksmålsforbundet organised a parents' campaign against Samnorsk in 1951, and the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature was founded in 1953. Because of this resistance, the 1959 reform was relatively modest, and the radical reforms were partially reverted in 1981 and 2005.

Currently, Riksmål denotes the moderate, chiefly[*citation needed*] pre-1938, unofficial variant of Bokmål, which is still in use and is regulated by the Norwegian Academy and promoted by Riksmålsforbundet. Riksmål has gone through some spelling reforms, but none as profound as the ones that shaped Bokmål. A Riksmål dictionary was published in four volumes in the period 1937 to 1957 by Riksmålsvernet, and two supplementary volumes were published in 1995 by the Norwegian Academy. After the latest Bokmål reforms, the difference between Bokmål and Riksmål have diminished and they are now comparable to American and British English differences, but the Norwegian Academy still upholds its own standard.

Norway's most popular daily newspaper, *Aftenposten*, is notable for its use of Riksmål as its standard language. Use of Riksmål is rigorously pursued, even with regard to readers' letters, which are "translated" into the standard.

## Norweigan Bokmål excerpt from Wikipedia article "Norge"

Plantelivet er relativt fattig på grunn av nordlig beliggenhet, det finnes for eksempel omtrent 2000 arter av blomsterplanter. Det er store forskjeller i planteveksten mellom lavlandet og høyfjellet, og fra Sørlandet til Finnmark. Forskjeller i klima (temperatur og nedbør) fra kysten til innlandet, samt det geoglogiske underlaget, spiller en stor rolle for planteveksten. Skifer og kalkholdig berg gir frodigere vekst enn harde bergarter. Ved kysten finnes mange arter som er helt fraværende inne i landet, for eksempel barlind, kristtorn, bergflette, revebjelle og purpurlyng, mens klåved, mogop og tysbast bare trives i innlandet. I Øst-Finnmark finnes arktiske planter som polarflokk. Tregrensen varierer med klima og terreng, den er vanligvis lavere på nordsiden av fjell enn på sørsiden, og er lavere ved kysten og jo lenger nord man kommer. Langs kysten fra Lindesnes og nordover er det en skogfri stripe ytterst mot havet, mens det ved Skagerak vokser barskog helt til havet. Varmekjær løvskog som ask, eik og alm er lite utbredt og finnes i hovedsak sør for Mjøsa til Skiensfjorden og langs kysten til Trøndelag. Furu er utbredt over hele landet og vokser nord til Kistrand. Gran vokser naturlig hovedsakelig på Østlandet, i Trøndelag og sør i Nordland; på Vestlandet er gran hovedsakelig innført. Gran dekker omtrent dobbelt så stort areal som furu og kan på Østlandet vokse helt opp til 1000 meter over havet. Norges barskoger er den vestligste delen av den eurasiske taiga. Skoggrensen dannes i Norge hovedsakelig av bjørk som vokser høyere enn barskogen og vokser på det høyeste som kratt, på Østlandet til omkring 1100 meter, i Rana til 650 meter og i Finnmark 300 meter. De norske setrene har stort sett ligget i fjellbjørkeskogen, skoggrensen har noen steder havnet nedenfor setrene på grunn av stort uttak av brensel til seterdriften. Over den egentlige skoggrensen vokser det til dels kratt av vier. På snaufjellet vokser det stort sett bare mose og lav. Andre nåletrær enn furu og gran, blant annet einer og barlind, finnes men danner ikke skog av betydning. Kystområdene er svært varierte med alt fra blankskurte, golde klipper til frodige kroker der varmekrevende planter lever.