Fretland - English

“The movement for Norwegianness (including the Nynorsk movement) and Norwegian

nationalism originated from a struggle against Danish cultural hegemony and Swedish

political dominance. The urban upper classes were regarded less national. The Nynorsk

movement defined itself as a national, popular project. At the same time it has been nonhegemonical

and in constant opposition. Norwegianness and Nynorsk was a counter cultural

movement in Norway. It also had a regional basis, opposing the capital. This perspective

constitutes a contrast to the situation in many European countries, like Sweden or France,

where the capital was the core in the national project, created and supported by the urban

upper classes.”

So Nynorsk is the rebel from rural Norway, existing under a constant threat because, among

other things, of the urbanisation (34 % of the pupils had Nynorsk in 1943, 15 % in 2003).

Apart from some central districts of Vestlandet (Western Norway) Bokmål is the dominating,

often the only language, in trade and industry and in all of the big national newspapers. The

entertainment industry also is mainly a Bokmål industry. So in many high status domains

Bokmål is the dominating language. But the majority of Norwegian politicians have agreed to

help Nynorsk to a more secure national status, by regulating the use of the two language

variants in a lot of fields that are important for Norwegian culture:

- The most fundamental decision was made in Stortinget (the Norwegian

Parliament) in 1885, when the Radical party, after having defeated the

conservatives in elections, ruled that the young Nynorsk language was to be of the

same standing as the Norwegio-Danish language. This decision has secured the

right for Norwegians to choose Bokmål or Nynorsk in many of the most important

language domains: In primary and secondary schools, in church, in local

municipalities, in local papers and so on.

- In 1892 the local school boards were given the right to decide which of the

language varieties the pupils were to use. The next 40 years more than half of the

primary schools changed to Nynorsk.

- From 1912 there was to be a written test in both language variants in higher

secondary school (for pupils 16-19 years), and from 1935 in lower secondary

school (for pupils 14-16). This is the most controversial theme in the Norwegian

language discussions to-day. The leader of the conservative city board of Oslo

newly suggested that the pupils in the capital should only have written tests in

Bokmål. The education minister, however, rejected the proposal.

- In 1930 a Language Act was passed, ruling that the government had to use both

Bokmål and Nynorsk in official correspondence and other official documents. A

new and revised law was passed in 1980.

- In the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the Norwegian parallel to

BBC, there is a defined rule that at least 25 % of the programmes are to have

Nynorsk and at least 25 % are to have Bokmål. In practise, this goal has never

been reached: Nynorsk tends to occupy between 15 and 20 %. The other big media

institutions do not have so strict compulsory rules and accordingly have a much

lower percentage of Nynorsk.

There are different figures on the situation for Bokmål and Nynorsk to-day in Norway. A

couple of reports, however, indicate that perhaps 12-14 % (5-600 000 people) use Nynorsk

and 86-88 % Bokmål. In Stortinget there has so far been a great majority in support of the

language legislation. Stortinget also decided that the Norwegian Language Council from 1994

was to see to that the legislation and regulation are followed up by public servants and

institutions. Only the right wing Progress Party and parts of the Conservative party question

this. But in one field, as I mentioned earlier, more people are sceptical to the rules: The

question of whether to have written tests in both language variants in secondary education.

The Norwegian Language Council (NLC) is the “watchdog” supervising the distribution

between Bokmål and Nynorsk in governmental texts. One might say that NLC works with

language questions on at least two levels:

- They work to strengthen Norwegian, both Nynorsk and Bokmål, in competition

with Anglo-American language culture

- They work to strengthen Nynorsk in important language domains, countering

Bokmål dominance

We will now take a close look at one language domain: The choice of language variant in

public services in Norway. We will try to find out how the different kinds of regulation are

followed up. Above we have described a system of legislation from 1930 for public services,

revised in 1980. There are explicit rules, for example one stating that about 25 % of each

language variety in external, written texts, including on the Internet. The NLC is to give

advice and assistance on how public services can manage to follow up the legislation. All

state institutions are bound to write an annual report on the situation for Bokmål and Nynorsk

in their work. The bureaucrats in the ministries are not too fond of this surveillance, and

occasionally one notices examples of conscious neglect of the rules. A report from NLC

expresses the situation like this:

“

There is a significant increase in the number of institutions with a satisfying result in the first

years after 1994. We also include a table of the period 1997-2000 that partially gives the same

indications:

When it came to special initiatives, NLC mentioned two, in addition to the four points above: