Norwegian language

Since the Norwegian language was brought to Iceland and Faroese Island in the 9th century it may have been so, that the mutual relationship inbetween kept the Old Norse intact a little longer than in Denmark and Sweden. It might be so, that the Old "West" Norse is closer to Old Norse compared to how Old East Norse is alike the Old Norse.

However, while Old west Norse was fully or close to identical to Icelandic until ca 1300, the languages in Denmark and Sweden started to change considerably in the 14th century, prior to changes in Old west Norse, at least in amount. Considered to the relationship to Norway, the change in Sweden and Denmark withdrew a parallell change/course for the Norwegian language.

In 1380, Norway was in union with Denmark where Norway nolonger had a king. In time Norway lost its own administration. In 1536, Danish became the official language as Norway became subordinated under the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, lasting to 1814.

During this time, there had been a danish influence on the norwegian language. In the 19th century, a Norwegian nationalism slowly emerged, which would lead to a Norwegian language struggle. In 1906, a controversy erupts. Some Norwegian writers claimed the right to their language, even by implying a Norwegian nationalism into it, striving to reachieve a more original "pure" norwegian.
Already in the end of the 19th century, names of places started to change. In 1929 a parliamentary resolution declared Nynorsk (Ny norsk ~ new norwegian). Though the Bokmål/Nynorsk debate has been going on since then, some major Norwegian language reforms took place in 1938 as well as in the 1959 reform.

The are a number of Norwegian dialects though they may not be clustered in the same way as in Swedish. However, they are divided into at least 4 groups and 5 if Midland Norwegian is included. They are not respectively bound to any of the written languages bokmål and Nynorsk.

- North Norwegian
- Midland Norwegian
- Trøndelag Norwegian
- West Norwegian
- East Norwegian

External links

Norwegian language
Bokmål
Nynorsk
Norwegian Dialects
Norwegian dialect samples
Norwegian language struggle
Old Norwegian