Languages in Norway

(1)

The current situation for Nynorsk:

Nynorsk in the 21

^st

Century

SAS1, March 4^th, 2015

Languages in Norway

• Nynorsk currently used by 10-15 % of the population (approx. 500,000 people)

• 85-90 % use Bokmål (approx. 4,5 million people)

• 15,000 use Sami languages

• 2000 use Finnish

• a few hundred use Romani (our local

variety of Gypsy language)

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Daily users of Nynorsk

8.4 (use Nn. most of the time) + 5.7 (use Bm. and Nn. equally often) = 14,1% of the Norwegian population use Nynorsk in private communication according to Riksmålsforbundet (2014):

http://riksmalsforbundet.no/statistikk

https://www.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/selectvarval/saveselections.asp

2015

Pupils

Bokmål 542 234 (86.93%)

Nynorsk 76 389 (12.25%)

Samisk 833 (0.13%)

Unknown 4 299 (0,69 %)

Footnote(s):

Pupils at the international schools in Norway do not report official form of Norwegian.

Pupils in primary and lower

secondary school, by language

(3)

County Pupils Official form of Norwegian "bokmål"

Official form of Norwegian "nynorsk"

Official form of Norwegian "samisk"

Total 623 755 542 234 76 389 833

Østfold 34 925 34 463 2 0

Akershus 79 940 79 291 3 0

Oslo 64 319 63 565 0 0

Hedmark 21 905 21 899 2 0

Oppland 21 405 17 686 3 687 0

Buskerud 33 428 32 455 774 0

Vestfold 29 132 28 927 1 0

Telemark 19 984 17 942 1 885 0

Aust-Agder 14 491 13 600 716 0

Vest-Agder 23 543 22 703 728 0

Rogaland 61 305 46 266 14 212 0

Hordaland 62 871 38 611 24 118 0

Sogn og Fjordane 13 976 337 13 639 0

Møre og Romsdal 32 778 16 092 16 607 0

Sør-Trøndelag 36 358 35 932 5 2

Nord-Trøndelag 17 089 17 049 0 14

Nordland 28 097 28 067 1 29

Troms Romsa 19 101 18 967 9 62

Finnmark Finnmárku 8 883 8 157 0 726

Svalbard 225 225 0 0

Pupils, by official form of Norwegian and county. 1 October 2015

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Causality? NB! Do not take this seriously!

(5)

Are Bokmål and Nynorsk two languages or two standard written varieties of the same language?

Is Nynorsk a minority language?

• 500,000 people is a big minority.

• Lacks some of the features associated with a minority language:

– it is not connected to a cultural group – it is not connected to an ethnic group

– there are no real social differences between the Nynorsk user and the Bokmål user

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The expansion of nynorsk

• Political breakthrough of Landsmål in 1885

• Practical breakthrough of Landsmål in the 1920’s

• Landsmål obligatory in teacher’s colleges in 1902

• 1907 Landsmål in college (“Gymnaset”)

• 1906 Noregs Mållag

• Change of names in 1929

– Riksmål to Bokmål – Landsmål to Nynorsk

Conditions for post-war Nynorsk

• 1944 the highest percentage of Nynorsk ever: 34.4 (in schools)

• decrease in Nynorsk usage:

– 31.9 % in 1946 – 20 % in 1965 – 16.4 % in 1977 – 17 % in 1990 – 12.7 % in 2012 – 12.3 % in 2015

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Nynorskandel i grunnskolen i prosent 1930−2010

Percentage of Nynorsk users in compulsory primary and secondary school 1930–2010

Graphics: Torodd Kinn

Source: «Nynorsk i Grunnskulen 1885-2011» av Eivindgh - Eige arbeid. Lisensiert under CC BY-SA 3.0 gjennom Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nynorsk_i_Grunnskulen_1885-2011.png#mediaviewer/File:Nynorsk_i_Grunnskulen_1885-2011.png

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New situation

Bokmål is challenging parts of the

traditionally Nynorsk areas, particularly in the mountain valleys and around the major cities on the west coast.

But:

Nynorsk has strengthened it’s position in Sogn og Fjordane.

• 1950: 95.8 %

• 2012: 97.4 % of school children in the county use Nynorsk

2012:

http://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nynorsk_i_grunnskulen

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Even in the towns in Sogn og Fj.:

– Florø skule

• 92 % of the pupils use Nynorsk in 2015

• 50 % used Nynorsk 20 years ago

– in Måløy

• 39 % use Nynorsk in the only Bokmål school in the county, but the numbers are increasing. 75 % of the pupils in the municipality (Vågsøy) use Nynorsk

http://www.framtida.no/articles/her-vinn-nynorsken-fram#.VtgjE_nhCUk

Nynorsk is decreasing because of

• urbanization

– the loss of smaller, traditionally nynorsk schools

• city expansion

– people moving to the vincinity of the city

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0 10 20 30 40 50 60

1930 1950 1970 1990 2010

Nynorskandel Bygdeandel

Percentage of Nynorsk users and

percentage of people living in rural areas

Population

• 1905: population: 2.3 mill. 75% in rural areas

• 2007: population: 4.7 mill. 75% in urban

areas

(11)

Political and ideological issues of Nynorsk

• No nationalist reason for sticking to Nynorsk

– during wartime (1940-45) there was not very

much use of Nynorsk.

– the nation is a historical fact

• popular culture is mostly written in Bokmål

– in 2014 9700 books were published in Norway

(7200 in Bm, 650 in Nn, 60 in Sami Languages and 1600 in English)

Geographical limitations of Nynorsk

• Møre og Romsdal

• Sogn og Fjordane

• Hordaland, Rogaland

• stronghold in rural Western Norway

• industrial societies for instance Odda

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Municipalities

• 430 municipalities in 2011

– 114 have Nynorsk as administrative language – 157 neutral

– 159 Bokmål

A map of the official language forms of Norwegian municipalities as of 2007

http://alnakka.net/w/index.

php?title=Fil:Kart_over_n orske_maalformer.png

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Linguistic limitations of Nynorsk

• local dialects have a high social status

• official persons quite often use dialect, which would probably be an audacity in for instance Denmark or England. Still, they often write in Bokmål

• Nynorsk seldom used as business

language

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Nynorsk mostly used by local, small-scale producers in commercial advertising

Nynorsk in education

• Pupils are taught English from the fourth grade

• Nynorsk used by under 15 % of Norwegian school children.

• The right to be educated in Nynorsk (10 parents is enough).

• From the 8

^th

school year the child herself

gets to decide what is to be her “main

variety”.

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Nynorsk and media

• Few daily newspapers in Nynorsk – the national Dag og tid once a week

• Some Nynorsk in local (and some regional) papers

• Public television and radio are to have 25 % Nynorsk (Reality < 20 %)

• The publishing house Samlaget prints most of its texts in Nynorsk

• From 1913: Det norske teateret – a theater staging all its plays in Nynorsk.

• 1994 – the debut of the playwright Jon Fosse who writes all his plays, prose and poems in Nynorsk.

Jon Fosse 1959-

• widely considered to be Norway’s most successful playwright and literary figure since Henrik Ibsen

• has written more than 60 books that have been translated into more than 30 languages. His plays have been staged around the world.

• Won the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize for 2015 for his trilogy that includes Andvake, Olavs draumar and Kveldsvævd

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Kjartan Fløgstad 1944-

• more novelists than ever writes in Nynorsk

«Dei fleste av oss som hadde tatt examen artium, hadde lært på skulen at nynorsk passa til å skildra daglegliv og praktiske gjeremål, men ikkje abstrakt tenking, og hadde derfor skifta hovudmål på gymnaset. Om du ikkje gjorde det, men heldt på folkemålet, blei du stempla som ufolkeleg og elitistisk. Språkskifte på gymnaset er ikkje noko nytt.»

«Ved årtusenskiftet var den nynorske diktinga med andre ord sprek og sterk som aldri før. […] Kva skjer så litterært etter år 2000? Då skjer det som nærmast må kallast eit mirakel. Det sommåkallast eit mirakel. Eit sant mirakel. Frå einsvært sterk posisjon blir den nynorske skjønnlitteraturen endå sterkare. På det feltet der det herskar språkleg demokrati og valfridom, er bruken av nynorsk i sterk framgang. I dag kan vi trygt slå fast at nynorsk skjønnlitteratur lever og blømer frodigare enn nokon gong. Aldri har nynorsk dikting stått sterkare.»

http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/

Eit-sant-mirakel-6932282.html

Men medan rundt 10 prosent av den samla skjønnlitteraturen er på nynorsk, har eksempelvis 20 prosent av Brageprisvinnarane etter 1992 vore nynorskforfattarar.

Political promoters of Nynorsk

• Vestmannalaget - 1868

• Noregs Mållag – 1906

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Nynorsk vs. Bokmål – typical conflicts

• Urban – Rural

• Central – Region

• The cultural elite – the commoners

– from Nynorsk ordliste

to ”Spynorsk mordliste”

– ”the new Latin”

Harald brenner «spynorsken»

Harald Victor Hove (H) brenner nynorskbøker for å vinne unge velgere

Nå er det laget tre reklamefilmer som skal bidra at 22-åringen får en plass på Stortinget.

Ungdomskandidaten på femteplass går til angrep på bilavgifter, spritforbudet til alle under 18 og nynorsk sidemål. I en av filmene kaster han Alf Helleviks gamle Nynorsk ordliste i et brennende oljefat.

– Det er den gule, ja. Spynorsk mordliste, som vi kalte den, hehe. Jeg brenner den for å vise at vi vil ha bort tvungent sidemål. Nynorsk er et problem for mange som prøver å lære seg å skrive godt norsk, sier den unge Høyre-politikeren.

Filmene er ment å gjøre inntrykk på unge velgere.

– De skal kanskje vises på Bergen kino. I alle fall skal de legges ut på min hjemmeside, stemharald.no, som er oppe og går på

mandag, sier Hove.

http://www.ba.no/nyheter/politikk/article1695152.ece

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Ongoing petition to the Minister of Education

«Jeg vil gjerne fjerne nynorsk fra alle norske skoler. Det er ingen som bruker nynorsk i daglig bruk, så det er ingen vits i å lære det når man kan lære seg viktigere ting. F. Eks.

Matte eller engelsk»

• Nynorsk Suger!!!

• Jeg vil ikke ha nynorsk fordi det er ikke alle som er like flinke i det, og mange av de som ikke er så flinke blir mobbet av andre

• Fordi jeg greier ikke nynorsk, IT WILL DESTROY US!!!!!!

• Fuck nynorsk

• Jeg signerer fordi jeg er dritt lei av språket

• Not every one is a genious so... Cant Learn any more

• Jeg hater nynorsk! Verste faget på skolen, vi har ikke bruk for det senere i livet! Så hva er poenget egt?

https://www.change.org/p/torbj%C3%B8rn-r%C3%B8e-isaksen-fjerne-nynorsk-fra-norsk-skole/c

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So why on earth are there Nynorsk users at all?

• Nynorsk is closer to many dialects than Bokmål

• counterculture

• identity

• habit

???

Countermeasures

• support for Nynorsk

– financial support for Nynorsk culture – the encouragement to use Nynorsk – the initiation of a digital Nynorsk lexicon

• legislation

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Nynorsk in the future

• students changing from Nynorsk to Bokmål when they go to college (33% do this –

“leakage”, perhaps the biggest problem in maintaining Nynorsk!)

• the politics of merging the two languages into one in the future does not favor Nynorsk

because it is weaker impact (merely due to its size – amount of users).

• the two languages are becoming increasingly more alike

• the social and economic reality has changed, making the original raison d’etre for Nynorsk more difficult

• urbanization

• lack of practical value (why should students and foreigners learn two languages?)

• information technology

• power elite want’s to abolish Nynorsk for financial, practical and ideological reasons

• The status of English among youngsters

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But

• strong position in the core areas

• strong literary position

• strong institutions (in Oslo)

• new use in social media

• it has been claimed that Nynorsk has been on it's deathbed even from the beginning

New arguments: Nynorsk might give

it’s users cognitive benefits:

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