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Ivar Aasen

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Ivar Aasen
Ivar Aasen (1881)
Ivar Aasen (1881)
Born
Iver Andreas Aasen[1]

(1813-08-05)5 August 1813
Ørsta, Norway
Died23 September 1896(1896-09-23) (aged 83)
Christiania, Norway
OccupationPhilologist, lexicographer, playwright, poet
LanguageNorse dialects
Signature

Ivar Andreas Aasen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈîːvɑr ˈòːsn̩]; 5 August 1813[1] – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet.[2] He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from various dialects.[3]

Background

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Iver Andreas Aasen was born in 1813 in Åsen (at the time also spelled Aasen), in the parish of Ørsten (now Ørsta Municipality), in the district of Sunnmøre, on the west coast of Norway. His father, Ivar Jonsson, a small-scale farm, died in 1826. Iver was brought up doing farmwork, but spent all his leisure time reading.[4] An early interest of his was botany.[5] When he was eighteen, he opened an elementary school in his native parish. In 1833, he entered the household of Hans Conrad Thoresen, the husband of the eminent writer Magdalene Thoresen, in the parish of Herø (now Herøy Municipality), where he picked up the elements of Latin. Aasen gradually mastered several languages and began the scientific study of their structure.[4]

Career

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When Aasen travelled to Bergen in 1841, he met bishop Jacob Neumann, who was very impressed with his work and had excerpts of it published in Bergens Stiftstidende ("Bergen Diocese Newspaper"). His contacts with Bishop Neumann became Aasen's entrance ticket to the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in Trondheim, who gave him generous financial support[clarification needed] (an annual grant of 120-200 speciedaler) which made the extensive travel possible to study the Norwegian vernacular. It is said[by whom?] to have been the rector of Trondheim, Fredrik M. Bugge, who came across Neumann's articles while travelling in Bergen and persuaded the scientific society to grant the funding to Aasen.[6] In 1842, Aasen had begun to receive a stipend enabling him to give his entire attention to his philological investigations;[7] he had ceased doing any farmwork by 1846.[4][failed verification]

Ivar Aasen (1891)

Aasen's first monograph in 1843 was a small collection of folk songs in the dialect of his native district, Sunnmøre, which attracted general attention.[4][vague] After travelling across every part of the country, Aasen published His Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects (Danish: Det Norske Folkesprogs Grammatik) in 1848. Aasen's well-known Dictionary of the Norwegian Dialects (Danish: Ordbog over det Norske Folkesprog) appeared in its original form in 1850, which became the basis of his construction of a popular language or definite folke-maal (lit. 'people's language') for Norway.[4]

By 1853, he had created the norm for utilizing his new language, which he called Landsmål, meaning "country language".[8] With certain modifications, the most important of which were introduced later by Aasen,[4] but also through a policy aiming to merge this Norwegian language with Dano-Norwegian, this language has become Nynorsk (lit. 'New/Modern Norwegian').[citation needed]

Aasen composed poems and plays in the composite dialect to show how it should be used. One of these dramas, The Heir (1855), was frequently performed, and may be considered[weasel words] as the pioneer of dialectal literature of the second half of the 19th century, inspiring writers from Aasmund Vinje to Arne Garborg.[7] In 1856, he published Norske Ordsprog, a treatise on Norwegian proverbs. Aasen continuously enlarged and improved his grammars and dictionary. He lived quietly in lodgings in Oslo (then Christiania), surrounded by his books and avoiding publicity, but his name came into political favour as his ideas about the language of the peasants became more and more the watch-word of the popular party.[7][clarification needed] In 1864 Aasen published his definitive grammar of Nynorsk, and in 1873 he published the final version[verification needed] of his Dictionary.[9]

The Storting (the Norwegian parliament), conscious of the national importance of his work, increased their financial generosity to Aasen as he advanced in years.[7][clarification needed] He continued his investigations until his death, but wrote little after the 1873 edition of his Dictionary (with a new title:[5][verification needed] Danish: Norsk Ordbog, lit. 'Norwegian Dictionary').[7]

He died in Christiania on 23 September 1896, and was buried with public honours.[7][10]

Legacy

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Tomb of Ivar Aasen at Vår Frelsers gravlund, Oslo

Nynorsk

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See also: Norwegian language conflict

The language standardised by Aasen, Landsmål, was later renamed to Nynorsk (lit. 'New/Modern Norwegian'), emerging as the second of Norway's two official languages (the other being Bokmål, the Dano-Norwegian descendant of the Danish language used in Norway in Aasen's time). An unofficial variety of Norwegian closer to Aasen's language is still found in Høgnorsk (lit. 'High Norwegian'). As of the early 2000s, some scholars[who?] considered Nynorsk on equal footing with Bokmål, as Bokmål tended to be used more in radio and television and most newspapers, whereas Nynorsk was used equally in government work,[3] as well as approximately 17% of schools.[11] Although it was not as common as its brother language, some scholars[who?] argued it needed to be looked upon as a viable language, as a large minority of Norwegians used it as their primary language, including many scholars and authors.[11][clarification needed] Nynorsk is both a written and spoken language.[12]

The Ivar Aasen Centre

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Ivar Aasen-tunet [no], an institution devoted to the Nynorsk language, opened in June 2000. The building in Ørsta was designed by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn. Their web page includes most of Aasens' texts, numerous[vague] other examples of Nynorsk literature (in Nettbiblioteket, the Internet Library), and some articles, including some in English, about language history in Norway.[citation needed]

The Language Year 2013

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Main article: Språkåret 2013

Språkåret 2013 (The Language Year 2013) celebrated Ivar Aasen's 200 year anniversary,[13] as well as the 100 year anniversary of Det Norske Teateret. The year's main focus was to celebrate linguistic diversity in Norway.[14] In a poll released in connection with the celebration, 56% of Norwegians said they held positive views of Aasen, while 7% held negative views.[15] On 5 August 2013, Bergens Tidende, which is normally published mainly in Bokmål, published an edition fully in Nynorsk in memory of Aasen.[16]

Nynorsk Day and Nynorsk Week

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Nynorskdagen (Nynorsk Day) is set to the 12th of May. It commemorates the day of Jamstillingsvedtaket [nn], the law making Landsmål/Nynorsk an official language of Norway alongside Danish (later Bokmål). Noregs Mållag, the main organisation for Nynorsk, encouraged people and organisations that do not usually use the language to write Nynorsk on this day. Several companies, notably Vipps and Ruter, released Nynorsk language support for their mobile apps on the 12th of May. In 2025, Noregs Mållag announced Nynorsk Day has been expanded into a Nynorsk Week from the 6th to the 12th of May.[17][18]

Bibliography

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Aasen published a wide range of material, some of it released posthumously.

Title Translated title Publication date Type Notes
Det norske Folkesprogs Grammatik Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects 1848 Book [19]
Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog Dictionary of the Norwegian Dialects 1850 Dictionary [19] On Google Books
Symra Symra 1863 Poetry [19] Includes the poem Nordmannen.
I Marknaden In the Market 1854 Play [19]
Ervingen The Heir 1855 Play [19]
Reise-Erindringer og Reise-Indberetninger Traveling Memories and Travel Reports 1842–1847 Prose Edited by H. Koht (1917)[19]
Skrifter i Samling Writings in the Collection 1912 Prose 3 volumes[19]
Dikting Poetry 1946 Prose [19]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b Grepstad, Ottar. "Ivar Aasen / Biografi" (in Norwegian). Nynorsk kultursentrum. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  2. ^ McGovern 2002, p. 1
  3. ^ a b Katzner 2002, p. 78
  4. ^ a b c d e f Gosse 1911, p. 4
  5. ^ a b Gilman, Peck & Colby 1905, p. 4
  6. ^ Elster, Kristian (1924). Illustreret norsk litteraturhistorie. 2 : Fra Wergelandstiden til vore dage. Kristiania: Gyldendal.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Gosse 1911, p. 5
  8. ^ Haugen 1997, p. 4
  9. ^ Hoiberg 2010, pp. 5–6
  10. ^ Grepstad 2013
  11. ^ a b Haugen 2009, p. 126
  12. ^ Haugen 2009, p. 125
  13. ^ Berglund 2013
  14. ^ Anon 2013
  15. ^ Anon 2013a
  16. ^ Steiro 2013
  17. ^ "Nynorskdagen". Noregs Mållag (in Norwegian Nynorsk). Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  18. ^ "Noregs Mållag har markert Nynorskdagen i ei veke". Framtidajunior.no (in Norwegian Nynorsk). 12 May 2025. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Bredsdorff 1954, p. 575

References

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