Riksmål

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Riksmål ( German  "Reich language" ) is a form of the Norwegian language . It was developed by the philologist and grammar school teacher Knud Knudsen in the 19th century from the Danish-Norwegian literary tradition. It differs from Danish in some adjustments to the Norwegian pronunciation as well as numerous Norwegianisms in the vocabulary.

development

Initially, Riksmål was the official language of Norway, and from 1885 it was shared with Landsmål , which was developed from Western Norwegian dialects, among other things.

Reforms in 1862 and 1907

The spelling reform of 1862, which was largely influenced by Knud Knudsen and separated the Riksmål from Danish, was followed by the reform of 1907, which continued Knudsen's principle of pronunciation-based orthography and, among other things, the soft Danish consonants b, d, g of the Norwegian pronunciation as p , t, k adjusted.

Since the difference between Riksmål and Danish only gradually began to emerge in the 20th century, Norwegian texts from the 19th century are usually in Danish, or rather in the common Danish-Norwegian written language, but often in a slightly different orthography, written. This applies especially to the text of the Norwegian national anthems from 1819 ( Sønner av Norge ) and 1859 ( Ja, vi elsker dette lands ), but also to the work of Henrik Ibsen and the Norwegian Nobel Prize winner Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson . The two poets used the innovations Knud Knudsen called for at times, but then returned to Danish out of consideration for the Danish readers.

These texts, originally published in Denmark, were carefully adapted to the current Norwegian spelling in many editions of the 20th century. The resulting change in the poetic original has brought some of the publishers severe criticism.

Renaming to Bokmål and further development

In 1929 the Norwegian Parliament ( Storting ) decided to name the two varieties of Norwegian - Riksmål and Landsmål - from now on Bokmål and Nynorsk , while retaining their official status.

After 1929, Bokmål and Nynorsk developed closer together, with the consequence that Bokmål moved further and further away from the origins of the Danish-Norwegian cultural tradition. The association Riksmålsforbundet , founded in 1907, protested against this development and wanted to see these roots more taken into account. Over the decades, Bokmål differentiated itself more and more into a “more radical” variant (with a morphology that partly moved towards the Nynorsk) and a conservative “moderate” variant. The latter language form was again called Riksmål , but has not had an official status since 1929.

Since 1980

After the last two spelling reforms in Norway (since 1980), through which many forms with a Nynorsk morphology that were previously mandatory in Bokmål were downgraded to the status of merely equivalent variants, there are hardly any differences between Bokmål and Riksmål. Examples are the once again only optional feminine gender of nouns (older Bokmål: only ei ku "a cow", ei øy "an island" or ku a "the cow", øy a "the island"; current Bokmål: also en ku , en øy or ku en , øy en as in Riksmål).

Since the spelling reform that took place around 2000, the differences between bokmål and riksmål have continued to decrease.

dictionary

The Riksmål is standardized by the Norwegian Academy of Language and Literature . The Academy also publishes the large dictionary of the Riksmål ( Norsk Riksmålsordbok, 6 volumes). This dictionary has long been considered the largest dictionary of the Norwegian language, but the Norsk Ordbok, which covers Nynorsk and the Norwegian dialects, will be significantly more extensive with twelve volumes.

use

Important authors such as Henrik Ibsen , Knut Hamsun , Sigrid Undset , Sigurd Hoel , Arnulf Øverland , André Bjerke , Jens Bjørneboe , Aksel Sandemose , Claes Gill , Inger Hagerup , Cora Sandel , Johan Borgen , Agnar Mykle , Ebba Haslund , Lars Saabye Christensen , Roy Jacobsen , Ingvar Ambjørnsen and Erik Fosnes Hansen wrote or write their books on Riksmål from now on. Norway's largest newspaper at the moment , Aftenposten , also appears on Riksmål, although a “moderate form of Bokmål” has been allowed since the beginning of the 21st century.

Further definitions

The Danish linguist Otto Jespersen used the term Riksmål in 1890 in the sense of standard pronunciation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Finn-erik Vinje: Riksmål eller bokmål? Retrieved September 17, 2019 (Norwegian Bokmål).