Landsmål
Encyclopedia
Landsmål, meaning "language of the land/country", was the name Ivar Aasen
gave the Norwegian
orthography
he created in the 19th century. In 1885 it was adopted as an official language
in Norway alongside Danish
. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk
. The name Landsmål is sometimes erroneously interpreted as meaning rural language or country language, due to the Norwegian use of the word "land" in the meaning "countryside, rural area".
Before the advent of Landsmål, there was no written standard for Norwegian language, though written Danish, which was the commonly written language in Norway and generally intelligible by Norwegians, was sometimes referred to as Norwegian. Currently, the most widely written language in Norway is Bokmål
(Dano-Norwegian), a Norwegianised descendant of the Danish language
.
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...
gave the Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
he created in the 19th century. In 1885 it was adopted as an official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
in Norway alongside Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
. The name Landsmål is sometimes erroneously interpreted as meaning rural language or country language, due to the Norwegian use of the word "land" in the meaning "countryside, rural area".
Before the advent of Landsmål, there was no written standard for Norwegian language, though written Danish, which was the commonly written language in Norway and generally intelligible by Norwegians, was sometimes referred to as Norwegian. Currently, the most widely written language in Norway is Bokmål
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
(Dano-Norwegian), a Norwegianised descendant of the Danish language
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
.