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Re: Fransk Dansk-Norse Dictionary

From:Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...>
Date:Sunday, February 17, 2008, 11:41
Paul Bennett wrote:

> quoting Andreas Johansson: > >> Quoting Scotto Hlad: >> >>> A while back, I picked up a dictionary at a flea market. It is >>> Fransk >>> Dansk-Norse. While I understand that it translates between French >>> and >>> Danish-Norwegian, I'm not sure what Danish-Norwegian is. Could it >>> be another >>> name for Bokmal or Nynorsk? >> >> It would refer to Bokmål (also known in English as Dano-Norwegian). > > Doesn't Dano-Norwegian refer to Riksmål?
I don't know if there's a widespread English term, but Dano-Norwegian could be applied either to Riksmål or Bokmål, though Riksmål has a stronger Danish flavour.
> AIUI, wasn't that the "classical" dialect of Danish used by the > educated urbanites in Norway pre-Bokmål, as opposed to the > "vulgate" Norwegian dialects that were koinized into Nynorsk?
Not exactly. Before the 18th century there weren't any strict standards for writing in the Dano-Norwegian kingdom, and basically everyone wrote the same language with a local flavour, but leaning towards Danish as most of the education took place in Denmark, plus most of the most important official documents came from Denmark. Then the Danish grammarians standardised the language and it was taught in Norway, too. Any norwegianisms were frowned upon. After 1814 however an interest in developing a national writing standard emerged, and Riksmål and Nynorsk were the first attempts. Bokmål is a 20th century invention, used by more than 80%. Today the Bokmål standard gives you a choice between the Norwegian and Danish forms in numerous cases. Many Danish forms are eliminated. But some common Norwegian forms still are left out, for example the vowel-ending perfects. A rough and quick history of Norwegian writing. Bizarre but interesting stuff, in my opinion. LEF