NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE

Norwegian Norsk, North Germanic language of the West Scandinavian branch, existing in two distinct and rival normsDano-Norwegian (Bokml, or Riksml) and New Norwegian (Nynorsk). Dano-Norwegian stems from the written Danish introduced during the union of Denmark and Norway (13801814). New Norwegian was created by the language scholar Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, primarily from the dialects of the western rural districts, in order to carry on the tradition of Old Norse. The use of Dano-Norwegian is more widespread than that of New Norwegian; it is used in all national newspapers and in most of the literature. Both of these mutually intelligible languages are used in government and education, and plans have been made to bring them closer together gradually into a common Norwegian language, Samnorsk, though resistance to these plans has been vigorous. Old Norwegian had diverged from the other Scandinavian languages by the end of the 12th century. Spoken language in Scandinavia underwent rapid evolution late in the Middle Ages. This change, the lack of a printing press in Norway until 1643, and the influence of unions with Sweden (1319) and then Denmark (1380) hindered the development of a national written language in Norway. Between the late 14th and the early 16th centuries Middle Norwegian became the tongue of most native speakers, though the urban elite were influenced by Danish.