Bokmål
Encyclopedia
Bokmål (ˈbuːkmɔːl, lit. "book language") is one of two official Norwegian
written standard language
s, the other being Nynorsk
. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway
, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language.
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 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 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 is commonly seen as the de facto standard for spoken Bokmål. In The Phonology of Norwegian, Gjert Kristoffersen writes that
Standard Østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian) is the pronunciation most commonly given in dictionaries and taught to foreigners in Norwegian language classes.
, 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 written Norwegian was displaced by Danish, which was used for virtually all administrative documents.
Norwegians used Danish primarily in writing, but it gradually came to be spoken by the urban elite 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 parts of the urban elite. This new Dano-Norwegian koiné
could be described as Danish with East Norwegian pronunciation, some Norwegian vocabulary, and a simplified grammar. Or as Kristoffersen puts it:
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. Haugen indicates that:
The more conservative of the two language transitions was advanced by the work of writers like Peter Asbjørnsen
and Jørgen Moe
, schoolmaster and agitator for language reform Knud Knudsen, and Knudsen's famous disciple, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
, as well as a more cautious Norwegianisation by Henrik Ibsen
. In particular, Knudsen's work on language reform in the mid-19th century was important for the 1907 orthography and a subsequent reform in 1917, so much so that he is now often called the "father of Bokmål".
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 the Riksmålsvernet (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 (Common Norwegian) met even stiffer resistance from the Riksmål movement, culminating in the 1950s under the leadership of Arnulf Øverland
. The 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 pre-1938, unofficial variant of Bokmål, which is still in use and is regulated by the Norwegian Academy and promoted by the 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.
in the 19th century, a written language based on Modern Norwegian
dialects (particularly from western Norway) and puristic
opposition to Danish and Dano-Norwegian. Historically, many Nynorsk supporters have held that Nynorsk is the only genuinely Norwegian language, since Bokmål is a relic of the dual monarchy; therefore, the term Dano-Norwegian or simply Danish applied to Bokmål can be used to stigmatise or delegitimise the language. Many Bokmål users consider this use to be offensive and childish, and it is therefore mainly confined to the Nynorsk-supporting side of heated discussions.
The following table shows some important cases where traditional Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk followed Danish rather than the traditional Oslo dialect as it is commonly portrayed in literature about Norwegian dialects. In many of these cases, radical Bokmål follows the traditional Oslo dialect and Nynorsk, and these forms are also given. Radical forms that are allowed but not much used, are parenthesised.
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
written standard language
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
s, the other being Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language.
Bokmål is regulated by the governmental Norwegian Language Council
Norwegian Language Council
The Norwegian Language Council was the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. It has been superseded by The Language Council of Norway .The council had 38 members, and created lists of acceptable word forms...
. A more conservative orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
standard, commonly known as Riksmål, is regulated by the non-governmental Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature
Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature
The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the Dano-Norwegian language. Its primary role is regulating the written standard known as Riksmål ....
.
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
Marius Nygaard (academic)
Marius Nygaard was a Norwegian educator and linguist.-Personal life:He was born in Bergen as a son of shipmaster and merchant Mads Christensen Nygaard and Maren Behrens . On the maternal side he was a first cousin of Johan Diederich Behrens.Nygaard married Elise Martin in August 1863 in Bergen...
and Jonathan Aars. It was an adaptation of written Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, which was commonly used since the past union with Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, to the Dano-Norwegian koiné
Koine language
In linguistics, a koiné language is a standard language or dialect that has arisen as a result of contact between two mutually intelligible varieties of the same language. Since the speakers have understood one another from before the advent of the koiné, the koineization process is not as rapid...
spoken by the Norwegian urban elite, especially in the capital. When the large conservative newspaper Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
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
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of the speaker's local dialect. Nevertheless, there is a spoken variety of Norwegian that is commonly seen as the de facto standard for spoken Bokmål. In The Phonology of Norwegian, Gjert Kristoffersen writes that
"Bokmål [...] is in its most common variety looked upon as reflecting formal middle-class urban speech, especially that found in the eastern part of Southern Norway, with the capital Oslo as the obvious centre. One can therefore say that Bokmål has a spoken realisation that one might call an unofficial standard spoken Norwegian. It is in fact often referred to as Standard Østnorsk ('Standard East Norwegian')."
Standard Østnorsk (Standard East Norwegian) is the pronunciation most commonly given in dictionaries and taught to foreigners in Norwegian language classes.
History
Up until about 1300, the written language of NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Old Norwegian
Old Norwegian
Old Norwegian refers to a group of Old Norse dialects spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. They bridged the dialect continuum from Old East Norse to Old West Norse.-Old Norwegian vs Common Norse:...
, 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
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
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
Denmark–Norway
Denmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the originally Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
until 1814, progressively becoming the weaker member of the union. During this period written Norwegian was displaced by Danish, which was used for virtually all administrative documents.
Norwegians used Danish primarily in writing, but it gradually came to be spoken by the urban elite 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 parts of the urban elite. This new Dano-Norwegian koiné
Koine language
In linguistics, a koiné language is a standard language or dialect that has arisen as a result of contact between two mutually intelligible varieties of the same language. Since the speakers have understood one another from before the advent of the koiné, the koineization process is not as rapid...
could be described as Danish with East Norwegian pronunciation, some Norwegian vocabulary, and a simplified grammar. Or as Kristoffersen puts it:
"Standard Østnorsk can be considered a sociolectSociolectIn sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
that has developed as a result of tension between Danish as the official written, and in some contexts spoken, language used by the upper class before 1814, and the variety of Norwegian used by the lower social classes in the towns of Eastern Norway."
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
Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist...
(1808–1845), who championed an independent non-Danish written language. Haugen indicates that:
"Within the first generation of liberty, two solutions emerged and won adherents, one based on the speech of the upper class and one on that of the common people. The former called for Norwegianisation of the Danish writing, the latter for a brand new start."
The more conservative of the two language transitions was advanced by the work of writers like Peter Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...
and Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Moe
right|thumb|Norske Folkeeventyr Asbjørnsen and Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author...
, schoolmaster and agitator for language reform Knud Knudsen, and Knudsen's famous disciple, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...
, as well as a more cautious Norwegianisation by Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
. In particular, Knudsen's work on language reform in the mid-19th century was important for the 1907 orthography and a subsequent reform in 1917, so much so that he is now often called the "father of Bokmål".
Riksmål vs. Bokmål
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 RiksmålsforbundetRiksmålsforbundet
Riksmålsforbundet is the main organisation for Riksmål, one of the written standard of the Norwegian language ....
in 1907. Bjørnson became Riksmålsforbundet's first leader until his death in 1910.
The 1917 reform introduced some elements from Norwegian dialects
Norwegian dialects
The Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 4 main groups, North Norwegian , Trøndelag Norwegian , West Norwegian , and East Norwegian...
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 the Riksmålsvernet (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 (Common Norwegian) met even stiffer resistance from the Riksmål movement, culminating in the 1950s under the leadership of Arnulf Øverland
Arnulf Øverland
Ole Peter Arnulf Øverland was a Norwegian author born in Kristiansund and raised in Bergen. His works include Berget det blå and Hustavler .-Life:...
. The 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 pre-1938, unofficial variant of Bokmål, which is still in use and is regulated by the Norwegian Academy and promoted by the 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
American and British English differences
This is one of a series of articles about the differences between British English and American English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows:...
, but the Norwegian Academy still upholds its own standard.
Terminology
In the Norwegian discourse, the term Dano-Norwegian is seldom used with reference to contemporary Bokmål and its spoken varieties. The nationality of the language has been a hotly debated topic, and its users and proponents have generally not been fond of the implied association with Danish (hence the neutral names Riksmål and Bokmål, meaning national language and book language respectively). The debate intensified with the advent of NynorskNynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
in the 19th century, a written language based on Modern Norwegian
Modern Norwegian
Modern Norwegian is the Norwegian language that emerged after the Middle Norwegian transition period . The transition to Modern Norwegian is usually dated to 1525, or 1536, the year of the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway .The Norwegian linguistic term for...
dialects (particularly from western Norway) and puristic
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
opposition to Danish and Dano-Norwegian. Historically, many Nynorsk supporters have held that Nynorsk is the only genuinely Norwegian language, since Bokmål is a relic of the dual monarchy; therefore, the term Dano-Norwegian or simply Danish applied to Bokmål can be used to stigmatise or delegitimise the language. Many Bokmål users consider this use to be offensive and childish, and it is therefore mainly confined to the Nynorsk-supporting side of heated discussions.
Differences from Danish
The following table shows a few central differences between Bokmål and Danish.| Danish | Bokmål/Standard Østnorsk | Oslo dialect | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definite plural suffix either -ene or -erne the women the wagons |
yes kvinderne vognene |
no kvinnene vognene |
no kvinnene vognene |
| West Scandinavian diphthongs heath hay |
no hede hø |
yes hei (also hede) høy |
yes hei høy |
| Softening of p, t and k loss (noun) food (noun) roof (noun) |
yes tab mad tag |
no tap mat tak |
no tap mat tak |
| Danish vocabulary afraid (adjective) angry (adjective) boy (noun) frog (noun) |
yes bange (also ræd) vred dreng (also gut) frø |
no redd sint gutt frosk |
no redd sint gutt frosk |
Differences from the traditional Oslo dialect
Colloquially, Standard Østnorsk is often called the Oslo dialect. This is misleading since Standard Østnorsk is not confined to Oslo, and since the traditional Oslo dialect is different from Standard Østnorsk. In reality, most natives of Oslo will speak a sociolect ranging from traditional Dano-Norwegian to the traditional Oslo dialect.The following table shows some important cases where traditional Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk followed Danish rather than the traditional Oslo dialect as it is commonly portrayed in literature about Norwegian dialects. In many of these cases, radical Bokmål follows the traditional Oslo dialect and Nynorsk, and these forms are also given. Radical forms that are allowed but not much used, are parenthesised.
| Danish | Bokmål/Standard Østnorsk | Oslo dialect | Nynorsk | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| traditional | radical | ||||
| Differentiation between masculine and feminine a small man a small woman |
no en lille mand en lille kvinde |
no en liten mann en liten kvinne |
yes en liten mann ei lita kvinne |
yes en liten mann ei lita kvinne |
yes ein liten mann ei lita kvinne |
| Differentiation between masc. and fem. definite plural the boats the wagons |
no bådene vognene |
no båtene vognene |
yes båta vognene |
yes båtane vognene |
|
| Definite plural neuter suffix the houses |
-ene/erne husene |
-ene husene |
-a husa |
-a husa |
-a/-o husa / augo |
| Weak Germanic weak verb In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.-General description:... past participle suffix cycled |
-et cyklet |
-et syklet |
-a sykla |
-a sykla |
-a sykla |
| Weak Germanic weak verb In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.-General description:... preterite suffix cycled |
-ede cyklede |
-et syklet |
-a sykla |
-a sykla |
-a sykla |
| Strong Germanic strong verb In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung... past participle suffix written |
-et skrevet |
-et skrevet |
-i skrivi |
-e/-i skrive / skrivi |
|
| Split infinitive come lie (in bed) |
no komme ligge |
no komme ligge |
yes komma ligge |
optional koma / komma liggje |
|
| Splitting of masculines ending on unstressed vowel ladder round |
no stige runde |
no stige runde |
yes stega runde |
no stige runde |
|
| West Scandinavian diphthongs leg (noun) smoke (noun) soft/wet (adjective) |
no ben røg blød |
no ben røk bløt |
yes bein røyk blaut |
yes bein røyk blaut |
yes bein røyk blaut |
| West Scandinavian u for o bridge (noun) |
no bro |
no bro |
yes bru |
yes bru |
yes bru |
| West Scandinavian a-umlaut floor (noun) |
no gulv |
no gulv |
(yes) (golv) |
yes gølv |
yes golv |
| East Scandinavian u-umlaut (i-mutation) week (noun) evil (adjective) I (pronoun) |
yes uge ond jeg |
yes uke ond jeg |
no veke vond eg |
||
| Stress on first syllable in loan words banana (noun) |
no /ba'naːn/ |
no /ba'naːn/ |
yes /'banan/ |
no /ba'naːn/ |
|
| Retroflex flap /ɽ/ from old Norse /rð/ table, board (noun) |
no /boːr/ |
no /buːr/ |
yes /buːɽ/ |
||
| Retroflex flap /ɽ/ from old Norse /l/ sun (noun) |
no /soːl/ |
no /suːl/ |
yes /suːɽ/ |
yes /suːɽ/ |
|
| Danish vocabulary eat (verb) why (adverb) |
yes spise hvorfor |
yes spise hvorfor |
no eta åffer |
no eta kvifor |
|
| Danish vocabulary girl (noun) how (adverb) |
yes pige hvordan |
yes pike hvordan |
no jente åssen |
no jente åssen |
no jente korleis |
See also
- Differences between Norwegian Bokmål and Standard DanishDifferences between Norwegian Bokmål and Standard DanishDanish and Norwegian Bokmål are very similar languages, but differences between them do exist...
- Norwegian languageNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
- Norwegian language struggleNorwegian language struggleThe Norwegian language struggle is an ongoing controversy within Norwegian culture and politics related to spoken and written Norwegian. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway due to Danish rule...