The Language Council of Norway (, ) is the administrative body of the Norwegian state on language issues. It regulates the two written forms of the Norwegian language:

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...

and

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official 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 (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

. It was established in 2005 and replaced the Norwegian Language Council (, ) which existed from 1974 to 2005. It is a subsidiary agency of the Ministry of Culture and has forty-four employees (as per 2023). It is one of two organisations involved in language standardization in Norway, alongside the Norwegian Academy.

History

Norwegian Language Council

The Norwegian Language Council (1974–2005) had the task of safeguarding the cultural heritage represented by the Norwegian written and

spoken language A spoken language is a form of communication produced through articulate sounds or, in some cases, through manual gestures, as opposed to written language. Oral or vocal languages are those produced using the vocal tract, whereas sign languages ar ...

, promoting measures that can increase knowledge of the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

, promoting tolerance and mutual respect between everyone who uses the Norwegian language in its various variants, and protecting the rights of the individual person when it comes to the use of language. Among the most important tasks of the council were standardization of Bokmål and Nynorsk, linguistic advice and linguistic quality assurance of

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

s. In 2000, the council was tasked with working with the Norwegian language and

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

. The Norwegian Language Council registered new words, put forward proposals for replacement words instead of English import words and promoted measures to ensure linguistic equality between Bokmål and Nynorsk. The council published the publications ''Språknytt'' and ''Statspråk''. It had 38 members, which represented different stakeholders, such as other language organisations including the Norwegian Academy, Riksmålsforbundet and Noregs Mållag, but also the educational sector and the media. The council created lists of acceptable word forms. Some words previously had two forms, the official form which were to be used in government documents and textbooks, and optional forms, which could be used by students in state schools. However, after 2005 this difference no longer exists in the lists published by the Language Council of Norway.

Language Council of Norway

In 2003, the

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

agreed to a proposal to transform the Norwegian Language Council into a national competence center for the Norwegian language. The new body was established on 1 January 2005. In May 2005, it was decided to name the institution the Language Council. It no longer represents the language organizations. In 2005, the Language Service for state bodies was also established following a decision in the Storting. The Language Service has two equal tasks: to promote

plain language Plain language is writing designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly, easily, and completely as possible. Plain language strives to be easy to read, understand, and use. It avoids verbose, convoluted language and jargon. In many countr ...

within the government and ensure more even distribution between Nynorsk and Bokmål in state documents. Sylfest Lomheim served as the first director of the Council until 1 September 2010. Åse Wetås has been leading the Council since 2015.

Controversies

In 2006, the Norwegian newspaper '' Ny Tid'' requested that the council choose an alternative to the term "ethnic Norwegians" because the term might be alienating or exclusionary to immigrants to Norway. In response, the council denied that immigrants were Norwegians or could ever become Norwegians, writing: "We do not believe that there is a need to replace ‘ethnic Norwegian’ by another term. We believe it is incorrect to call people from other countries ‘Norwegians’ because ‘Norwegian’ by definition refers to someone of ethnic Norwegian descent. A

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

who settles in Norway does not become Norwegian, not even if he becomes a Norwegian citizen." The council's narrow definition of Norwegian identity sparked controversy in Norwegian news media and on Norwegian social media.

The board

The Ministry of Culture has appointed the following board for the period 2020–2023: * Board director: Erik Ulfsby (bokmål) * Deputy director: Lodve Solholm (nynorsk) * Terje Lohndal (bokmål) * Eli Bjørhusdal (nynorsk) * Lars Ivar Nordal (nynorsk) * Torunn Reksten (bokmål) * Employee representatives

References

External links

Språkrådet
{{Authority control Norwegian language Languages of Norway Language regulators Government agencies of Norway 1972 establishments in Norway 2004 disestablishments in Norway Language organisations of Norway