> From: Frank da Cruz [mailto:fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu]
> I think there is one case on record where reform pretty much replaced the
> old with the new -- in Norway in the last century.
Well, I'm not Norwegian, but not far from...
Not counting "dialects" (whatever that is), there are two Norwegian
languages:
- Bokmål (norsk): written (nearly?) like Danish, but is pronounced quite
differently from Danish. Bokmål is the most commonly used language
in (southern?) Norway.
- Nynorsk (New Norwegian): this language is an artificial composition
from a number of west Norwegian dialects. It is not as common
as Bokmål, but not uncommon still. It has a different pronunciation
and spelling compared to Bokmål. See http://www.nynorsk.no/
(in Nynorsk, of course), more links under "Peikarar". You can download
a program that converts text in Bokmål to the corresponding
text in Nynorsk (see under "Nynorske dataprogram").
All governmental documents, if I'm correctly informed, are produced
both in Bokmål and Nynorsk. Nynorsk is sometimes used in television
programs (news mostly, I think). Nynorsk is taught in all Norwegian
schools, but it is not replacing Bokmål as the mostly used kind
of Norwegian.
Anyone from Norway, please correct any misunderstandings of mine!
/kent k
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