Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Map of Norway
- 1 Land and people, language and language planning
- PART I THE NATIONALIST PERIOD, 1814–1917
- 2 Before the start of language planning: 1814–45
- 3 A language based on upper-middle-class speech or peasant dialects? The programmes proposed by Knud Knudsen and Ivar Aasen
- 4 The language question becomes a major political issue: 1860–1907
- 5 Two Norwegian written standards: is linguistic reconciliation possible? Early twentieth century up to the 1917 language reforms
- PART II THE SOCIOPOLITICAL PERIOD, 1917–66
- PART III FROM A SINGLE-STANDARD TO A TWO-STANDARD STRATEGY
- References
- List of terms of language varieties
- Timeline for the different written varieties of Norwegian
- Timeline of important events for language planning and conflict in modern Norway
- Index
2 - Before the start of language planning: 1814–45
from PART I - THE NATIONALIST PERIOD, 1814–1917
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Map of Norway
- 1 Land and people, language and language planning
- PART I THE NATIONALIST PERIOD, 1814–1917
- 2 Before the start of language planning: 1814–45
- 3 A language based on upper-middle-class speech or peasant dialects? The programmes proposed by Knud Knudsen and Ivar Aasen
- 4 The language question becomes a major political issue: 1860–1907
- 5 Two Norwegian written standards: is linguistic reconciliation possible? Early twentieth century up to the 1917 language reforms
- PART II THE SOCIOPOLITICAL PERIOD, 1917–66
- PART III FROM A SINGLE-STANDARD TO A TWO-STANDARD STRATEGY
- References
- List of terms of language varieties
- Timeline for the different written varieties of Norwegian
- Timeline of important events for language planning and conflict in modern Norway
- Index
Summary
Political developments 1814–45
At the negotiations about a bilateral union with Sweden in the autumn of 1814, following the short war that August between the two countries, the Norwegians insisted on inserting a clause in their new Constitution stating that the business of the state should be conducted ‘in Norwegian’. The phrase ‘the Norwegian language’ (det norske Sprog) is employed several times in the document (§§ 33, 47, 81).
Since nobody at the time had any clear view about what ‘the Norwegian language’ meant, other than denoting the Danish language which they shared with the Danes, it is obvious that this wording was in fact intended to convey the meaning ‘not Swedish’. The laws and everything else pertaining to Norway were not to be written in Swedish, but rather in the written standard used in Norway. At the time this standard was Danish, as it had been for most of the time throughout the long union with Denmark.
However, while Denmark was no longer part of the political picture, Sweden definitely was, and it was obvious to everybody that the Crown Prince of Sweden, Carl Johan, intended to expand and strengthen the union as time went by. It became an important political goal for Norwegians to defend their Constitution, and Parliament refused to make any changes whatsoever to the text agreed upon by Norway and Sweden in November 1814.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language Planning as a Sociolinguistic ExperimentThe Case of Modern Norwegian, pp. 17 - 34Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014