Editing Norwegian language (section)

==History==
===Origins===
{{Main|Proto-Norse|Old Norse}}
{{Also|Elder Futhark}}
[[File:Oldest runestone 20.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Close-up of the "''idiberug/n''" inscription on the [[Hole Runestone]] dating beween '''1 and 250 CE'''. Believed to be the oldest writing in Norway and rest of [[the Nordics]] to date.]]
{{Old Norse language map}}

Like most of the languages in Europe, Norwegian derives from [[Proto-Indo-European]]<!-- PIE homeland and dating are subject to debates. It's not good to peremptorily insist on one of the hypotheses. -->. As early Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, they became isolated from each other and new languages developed. In northwest Europe, the [[Germanic languages]] evolved, further branching off into the [[North Germanic languages]], of which Norwegian is one.

[[Proto-Norse]] is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] during the first centuries AD in what is today Southern Sweden. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language [[Attested language|attested]] in the [[Elder Futhark]] inscriptions, the oldest form of the [[runic alphabets]]. A number of inscriptions are memorials to the dead, while others are magical in content. The oldest are carved on loose objects, while later ones are chiseled in [[runestone]]s.<ref name="scan-langs">{{cite journal |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian-languages |title=Scandinavian languages |first1=Jan Terje |last1=Faarlund |first2=Einar |last2=Haugen |journal=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |volume=99 |issue=2495 |pages=505 |access-date=11 September 2016 |bibcode=1917Natur..99..505T |year=1917 |doi=10.1038/099505a0 |s2cid=3988911 |doi-access=free |archive-date=23 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623124221/http://www.britannica.com/topic/Scandinavian-languages |url-status=live }}</ref> They are the oldest written record of any Germanic language.

{{North Germanic clade}}

Around 800 AD, the script was simplified to the [[Younger Futhark]], and inscriptions became more abundant. At the same time, the beginning of the [[Viking Age]] led to the spread of [[Old Norse]] to [[Iceland]], [[Greenland]], and the [[Faroe Islands]]. Viking colonies also existed in parts of the [[British Isles]], France ([[Normandy]]), North America, and [[Kievan Rus]]. In all of these places except Iceland and the Faroes, Old Norse speakers went extinct or were absorbed into the local population.<ref name="scan-langs"/>

===The Roman alphabet===
Around 1030, Christianity came to [[Scandinavia]], bringing with it an influx of [[Latin]] borrowings and the [[Roman alphabet]]. These new words were related to [[Catholic church|church]] practices and ceremonies, although many other loanwords related to general culture also entered the language.

The Scandinavian languages at this time are not considered to be separate languages, although there were minor differences among what are customarily called Old Icelandic, [[Old Norwegian]], [[Old Gutnish]], Old Danish, and [[Old Swedish]].

===11th━15th century===
{{Main|Old West Norse|Old Norwegian|Middle Norwegian}}
{{Also|Younger Futhark|Medieval runes}}
{{Missing information|language evolution between the 11th-15th century|date=February 2025}}

===Low German influence===
The economic and political dominance of the [[Hanseatic League]] between 1250 and 1450 in the main Scandinavian cities brought large [[Middle Low German]]–speaking populations to Norway. The influence of their language on Scandinavian is comparable with that of French on English after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]].<ref name="scan-langs"/>

===Decline of written Norwegian===
In the late Middle Ages, dialects began to develop in Scandinavia because the population was rural and little travel occurred. When the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] came from Germany, [[Martin Luther]]'s [[Upper German|High German]] translation of the Bible was quickly translated into Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. Norway entered a union with Denmark in 1397 and Danish, over time, replaced [[Middle Norwegian]] as the language of the elite, the church, literature, and the law. When the union with Denmark ended in 1814, the [[Dano-Norwegian]] [[koiné language|''koiné'']] had become the mother tongue of around 1% of the population.<ref name="now">{{cite web |url=https://www.ntnu.edu/now/intro/background-norwegian |title=The Norwegian language |first=Olaf |last=Husby |date=October 2010 |website=Norwegian on the Web |access-date=11 September 2016 |archive-date=22 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322153110/https://www.ntnu.edu/now/intro/background-norwegian |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Danish to Norwegian standardisation===
{{Main|Norwegian language conflict}}
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2016}}
From the 1840s, some writers experimented with a Norwegianised form of written Danish. [[Knud Knudsen (linguist)|Knud Knudsen]] proposed to change spelling and inflection in accordance with the Dano-Norwegian ''koiné'', known as "cultivated everyday speech." A small adjustment in this direction was implemented in the first official reform of the Danish language in Norway in 1862 and more extensively after his death in two official reforms in 1907 and 1917.

Meanwhile, a nationalistic movement strove for the development of a new written Norwegian. [[Ivar Aasen]], a botanist and self-taught linguist, began his work to create a new Norwegian language at the age of 22. He traveled around the country collecting words and examples of grammar from the dialects and comparing the dialects among the different regions. He examined the development of [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], which had largely escaped the influences under which Norwegian had come. He called his work, which was published in several books from 1848 to 1873, [[Landsmål]], meaning 'national language'. The name ''Landsmål'' is sometimes interpreted as 'rural language' or 'country language', but this was clearly not Aasen's intended meaning.

The name of the Danish language in Norway was a topic of hot dispute throughout the 19th century. Its proponents claimed that it was a language common to Norway and Denmark, and no more Danish than Norwegian. The proponents of Landsmål thought that the Danish character of the language should not be concealed. In 1899, [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]] proposed the neutral name ''[[Riksmål]]'', meaning 'national language' like ''Landsmål'', and this was officially adopted along with the 1907 spelling reform. The name ''Riksmål'' is sometimes interpreted as 'state language', but this meaning is secondary at best. (Compare to [[Danish language|Danish ''rigsmål'']] from where the name was borrowed.)

After the personal union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, both languages were developed further and reached what is now considered their classic forms after a reform in 1917. Riksmål was, in 1929, officially renamed ''Bokmål'' (literally 'book language'), and Landsmål to ''Nynorsk'' (literally 'new Norwegian'). A proposition to substitute Danish-Norwegian ({{Lang|no|dansk-norsk}}) for ''Bokmål'' lost in parliament by a single vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Norwegian Translation. Danish to Norwegian |url=https://www.translation-services-usa.com/norwegian_danish.php |access-date=28 July 2024 |website=www.translation-services-usa.com}}</ref> The name ''Nynorsk'', the linguistic term for [[modern Norwegian]], was chosen to contrast with Danish and emphasise the historical connection to Old Norwegian. Today, this meaning is often lost, and it is commonly mistaken as a "new" Norwegian in contrast to the "real" Norwegian Bokmål.

Bokmål and Nynorsk were made closer by a reform in 1938. This was a result of a state policy to merge Nynorsk and Bokmål into a single language, to be called ''Samnorsk''. A 1946 poll showed that this policy was supported by 79% of Norwegians at the time. However, opponents of the official policy still managed to create a massive protest movement against ''Samnorsk'' in the 1950s, fighting in particular the use of "radical" forms in Bokmål text books in schools. In the reform in 1959, the 1938 reform was partially reversed in Bokmål, but Nynorsk was changed further towards Bokmål. Since then Bokmål has reverted even further toward traditional Riksmål, while Nynorsk still adheres to the 1959 standard. Therefore, a small minority of Nynorsk enthusiasts use a more conservative standard called [[Høgnorsk]]. The Samnorsk policy had little influence after 1960, and was officially abandoned in 2002.