guished from the Danish only by occasional words and expressions
borrowed from the Norwegian speech. Such words and
expressions are found particularly in books which deal'with Norwegian
nature and popular life- being especially the names of
plants and animals. Special Norwegian peculiarities of syntax
are also met with, for instance, in the books of P e t t e r D a s s , some
peculiarities of the dialects used in northern Norway. Even the
first prose writer o f the Dano-Norwegian literature, H o l b e r g , a
native of Norway, often sins, against the Danish language by using
Norwegianisms; but most writers endeavoured to write as. pure a
Danish as possible. This condition o f things lasted until the
separation of Norway from Denmark (1814).
4. While in the writings composed in Norway in the Danish
language, we only see occasional gleams of the popular language,
we meet, about the middle of the 17th century, with a book
that has this language as its exclusive object, namely a brief
vocabulary of one particular dialect, written by a minister of the
Gospel. One hundred years later a bishop of Bergen published
another such vocabulary, and towards the end of the last century
we meet with the first feeble attempt at elucidating a country
dialect by means of the not very well known Old Norse language,
and with occasional poems in dialect. During the first half
of this century, this . interest for the native dialects waned, until
towards the end of the period, the romantic tendency again
turns .public attention to the life and traditions of the people.
The first edition of the Norwegian popular ballads appeared in 1840,
and it was soon followed by others. In the meantime something
had also occurred, which was likely to give to the study of the
popular-language a new background. There had appeared a dictionary
and a grammar of the old Norwegian language, by which
the common basis for all the dialects of the country had been made
known. Thus the necessary basis for the works of the self-taught
genius, I v a r A a s e n , was given. These works made an epoch in
the study of the Norwegian dialects. In 1848 he issued his
«Grammar of the Norwegian Popular Language» and in 1850
«Dictionary of the Norwegian Popular Language». These works
were of a purely scientific nature, without any tendency; but they
soon became of practical importance, through their proving the
essential unity of the country dialects, their organic connection,
mutually, as well as with the Old Norse. In 1853, Aasen wrote an
essay, which was the commencement of a great linguistic movement.
He censured, in this essay, the unpopular manner of writing used
by his contemporaries, and he finally arrived at the conclusion that a
Norwegianising of the existing written language would be of very
little help, and that only a restoration of the old Norwegian language
would give a real national language with which the common
people could be satisfied. In the new, re-written editions of Aasen’s
books, the plan has been entirely determined by the effort towards
creating a standard language for all the dialects, inasmuch as
every word is entered under a certain standard form, and the inflections
arp fixed.
This so-called «Landsmaal» is essentially an artificial language
which nobody speaks. I t is in the first instance based on the
most antique western dialects, with occasional reference to the
forms of the old Norwegian. Thus it is an idealised popular
language, having a more antique character than the dialects
themselves. In sound, vocabulary, and inflections, it is much nearer
to the old language than is the Danish. For this new-made language,
Aasen also produced the classical style, and he proved
to be as prominent a poet and author as he was a linguist. In this
language — in part with personal modifications according to the
dialect of their native district, in part, also, with the removal of what
is artificial and old Norwegian — a series of poets and authors
have written with more or less talent, chiefly about domestic matters,
while those who merely reproduce popular tales, stick, as might
be expected, as a rule, to a certain dialect. The movement which
was started by Aasen, has gradually, favoured by the political factional
strife, gone farther than the old master seems to have foreseen.
While Aasen laid particular stress on having the traditions
of the people taken down in its -own language, the programme of
the «Language Stragglers» has more and more-gone in the
direction of a war of extermination against the common written
language, the so-called Dano-Norwegian. The «Landsmaal» has,
by legal enactment, .been placed on an equal footing with the prevailing
literary language, and thus we have at present two
official written languages in Norway. In the rural communities,
the instruction of the schools, .whenever it is desired, can be
given in the local dialect. On account of the more extensive
use that has gradually been made of theli«Landsmaal», its
defects, as well as its advantages, have become more prominent.