Nynorsk Explained
Jon Fosse is the first ever writer of Nynorsk to become a Nobel Prize Laureate in literature. But what is Nynorsk (New Norwegian)?
The richness of languages in Norway is unique to the Nordic region and represents a national legacy that also encompasses conflict. The two written standards of Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk, are today part of a shared public domain.
Nynorsk was established as a written standard of Norwegian in its own right in the 1850s. The new written language was based on a selection of Norwegian dialects, while also having a foundation in the Old Norse language. The man responsible for collecting words and expressions from dialects and for creating a system for this material in the form of new grammar and a separate dictionary was Ivar Aasen (1813–96). Parallel to the development of Nynorsk, the Bokmål standard was formally established, which had its origins in Danish. Knud Knudsen (1812–95), a school teacher, was instrumental in Norwegianising this Danish starting point and can be seen as the father of Bokmål. In Norway, Nynorsk and Bokmål are co-official variants of Norwegian, as these two written languages have been since 1885.