Local experiences in Norway: the Nynorsk LIP!

Ah yes, it has happened again. As we all knew, it could not end with اردو, Inuktitut, മലയാളം, Qhichwa Simi, فارسی, isiZulu, ಕನ್ನಡ, नेपाली, Afrikaans, कोंकणी, Setswana, বাংলা, తెలుగు, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ, Lëtzebuergisch, and татарча, now could it?

Norwegian's Nynorsk now has it's own XP Language Interface Pack, and you can get it it right here!

Some info about Nynorsk (via Soren!):

Nynorsk is not a language but one of the two official standard variants of Norwegian, Bokmål being the other one.

Due to the complicated topography of Norway (Think fjords!) there has always been a multitude of diverse dialects for Norwegian. This and the fact that for centuries Danish, language of the long-time rulers, was the official language have contributed to Norwegian not having one official variant as it exists for other languages.

When Norway gained independence from Denmark in 1814 a nationalist-romantic movement hoped to create a literary standard. In the 1850s the poet and linguist Ivar Aasen developed an orthography (mostly based on the west Norwegian dialects) which was called Landsmål and which became the official written language in 1885. Landsmål was renamed to Nynorsk in 1929.

Still, Danish had become so established (especially in the urban centers such as Oslo) that people kept using their Norwegian variant of Danish, called Riksmål and renamed to Bokmål in 1929. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Bokmål - under the influence of Nynorsk - has become more "Norwegianized".

Today Nynorsk is used by 10-15% of Norwegians, i.e. by around half a million people, while the majority uses Bokmål. 92% of all publications are in Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk is seen more in rural areas, especially in Western Norway.

A state policy to merge Nynorsk and Bokmål into one language, called "Samnorsk" (Common Norwegian), by gradual spelling reforms was started in the 1930s but finally abandoned in 2002.

On a slightly more personal note, the Nynorsk LIP release gives me a bit of hope that there is enough interest in providing 'local experiences' (which I have talked about many times before) that there may finally be some interest in addressing the issue. :-)

This post brought to you by Ｎ (U+ff2e, a.k.a. FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N)