Marius Nygaard (13 September 1838 – 7 February 1912) was a Norwegian educator and linguist.

Personal life

He was born in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

as a son of shipmaster and merchant Mads Christensen Nygaard (1793–1875) and Maren Behrens (1806–1875). On the maternal side he was a first cousin of Johan Diederich Behrens. Nygaard married Elise Martin (1842–1923) in August 1863 in Bergen. They had the son

William Martin Nygaard William Martin Nygaard (6 February 1865 – 19 December 1952) was a Norwegian publisher and politician. Personal life Nygaard was born in Kristiansand as the son of educator and linguist Marius Nygaard (1838–1912) and his wife Elisabeth "Eli ...

, a notable politician and book publisher. Marius Nygaard was also a grandfather of Mads Wiel Nygaard and judge

Marius Nygaard Marius Nygaard may refer to: * Marius Nygaard (academic) (1838–1912), Norwegian educator and linguist * Marius Nygaard (judge) Marius Nygaard (1 June 1902 – 27 March 1978) was a Norwegian judge. He enrolled as a student in 1920 and graduated ...

, and a great-grandfather of Agnes Nygaard Haug,

Kristen Nygaard Kristen Nygaard (27 August 1926 – 10 August 2002) was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer, and politician. Internationally, Nygaard is acknowledged as the co-inventor of object-oriented programming and the programming ...

and William Nygaard.

Career

He finished his secondary education in 1855 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.philol. degree in 1861. He worked at Bergen Cathedral School from 1862 to 1863 and Christianssand Cathedral School 1864 to 1876, and was headmaster from 1876 to 1877. He was the headmaster of the upper secondary school in Fredrikshald from 1877 to 1894 and

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konner ...

from 1894 to 1910. He was a member of the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

s of both Christianssand, Fredrikshald and Drammen. He conducted linguistic research. Publications include ''Eddasprogets Syntax'', in two volumes in 1865 and 1867, about the syntax in

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the '' Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poem ...

, as well as ''Betydningen og Brugen af Verbet'' in 1878. He was a member of

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...

from 1877 and the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

from 1880. In 1887 he published the Latin-Norwegian dictionary ''Latinsk Ordbog'' together with

Jan Johanssen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

and

Emil Schreiner Emil Theodor Schreiner (26 November 1831 – 15 November 1910) was a Norwegian philologist and educator. Biography Schreiner was born in Christiania (now called Oslo) in 1831. He was the son of merchant Peter Heinrich Schreiner (1794–1880) an ...

, a book which is still in use—it has been updated and reissued, last in 1998.Entry
for ''Latinsk-norsk ordbok'' (4th ed., 1998) at BIBSYS He published ''Kortfattet Fremstilling af det norske Landsmaals Grammatik'' in 1867, a very early grammar of

Landsmål Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

. He was a proponent of this written form of Norwegian, among others as a member of Vestmannalaget. Together with

Jonathan Aars Jonathan may refer to: * Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

he was also a driving force behind the Norwegian orthographic reform of 1907, which marked a split between

Dano-Norwegian Dano-Norwegian ( Danish and no, dansk-norsk) was a koiné/mixed language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway (1536/1537–1814). It is from thi ...

and the new

Riksmål (, also , ) is a written Norwegian language form or spelling standard, meaning the ''National Language'', closely related and now almost identical to the dominant form of Bokmål, known as . Both Bokmål and Riksmål evolved from the Danish wri ...

. He was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1890, and died in February 1912 in Kristiania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nygaard, Marius 1838 births 1912 deaths Schoolteachers from Bergen University of Oslo alumni Linguists from Norway Nynorsk Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Writers from Kristiansand Østfold politicians Politicians from Drammen Language reformers