Our friend Dave Lull sent me the following article from Granta, “The Other Norwegian,” by Damion Searls. It’s about Norway’s two official languages, a subject of compelling interest to almost everyone.
Nynorsk and Bokmål are both ‘Norwegian’. They are used by roughly 10–15 and 80–85 percent of Norwegian speakers, respectively. They are spelled slightly differently but are mutually intelligible, with almost identical grammar and vocabulary. The case of Norway is unlike that of multilingual countries with actually different languages: Belgium’s French and Dutch, Canada’s English and French, India’s twenty-two officially recognized languages. A good analogy to Bokmål and Nynorsk might be Northern and Southern US English, if Southlish had an official spelling system, dictionary, academy, and language activists. But it doesn’t, which is why Americans speak with Northern or Southern ‘accents’. So what is a minority language that is nearly the same as the majority language? What is Nynorsk?
Damion Searles is, of course, a person I hate, as he’s making a living as a Norwegian translator while I fade into the sunset. Still, if you’re curious about Norway’s peculiar language situation, the article’s pretty good.
From David Dodds — Belated thanks after finally following the link – this was very interesting, lucid and thought-provoking, as well as still rather bewildering.
Back in the day, I worked through both the skinny older Teach Yourself Welsh and the fat new (1977) Teach Yourself Living Welsh. Wikipedia tells me “In the 1970s, there was an attempt to standardise the Welsh language by teaching Cymraeg Byw (‘Living Welsh’) – a colloquially based generic form of Welsh, but the attempt largely failed because it did not encompass the regional differences used by Welsh speakers.” I wonder if that’s true, and if ‘Living Welsh’ is what my younger Welsh fellow Oxford college students told me they had had to learn in school in Wales, if so, I cannot recall the details!
I further wonder what Google Translate means by its simple designation “Norwegian”.
Someone just passed on a blog post about Erling and Alf-Inge Haaland donating a copy of a 1594 Heimskringla edition, with the blogger describing it as “published in Copenhagen in Danish, or what was called Norwegian-Danish at the time.” Erling is quoted as saying he wants “the book always to lie open so that people can read about those who came from where I come from, from Bryne and Jaeren.” I wonder if he might consider displaying the pages with the previously most famous Erling. (Apparently there are lots of Peruvian babies being named Erling nowadays)
Judging from his own YouTube channel, his English is very good – I wonder if anyone has had the sense to give him a copy of any of your Erling novels, yet?
Well, I’ve been touting my books on X with the name Erling emphasized. Maybe it’s drawn some attention.
Hurrah – let’s hope so! Just the thing to read with your stuffed raccoon in the shade of your Stetson!