North Germanic language of the West Scandinavian branch, spoken by some five million people in Norway and the U.S. Old Norwegian became a separate language by the end of the 12th century.
Middle Norwegian became the tongue of most native speakers about the 15th century. Modern Norwegian has two rival forms. Dano-Norwegian (Bokmål, or Riksmål), the more popular, stems from written Danish used during the union of Denmark and Norway (13801814; see Kalmar Union ). It is used in national newspapers and most literary works. New Norwegian (Nynorsk), based on western rural dialects, was created by Ivar Aasen (181396) in the mid-19th century to carry on the tradition of Old Norse . Both languages are used in government and education. Plans to unite them gradually in a common language, Samnorsk, were officially abandoned in 2002.