Urban East Norwegian, also known as Standard East Norwegian (, ), is a hypothesized Norwegian

standard language A standard language (or standard variety, standard dialect, standardized dialect or simply standard) is any language variety that has undergone substantial codification in its grammar, lexicon, writing system, or other features and that stands ...

traditionally spoken in the cities and among the elites of

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway (, ) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Oslo, Akershus, Vestfold, Østfold, Buskerud, Telemark, and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region of Norw ...

, which is today the main spoken language of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, its surrounding metropolitan area and throughout much of Eastern Norway. In

, Urban East Norwegian is generally accepted as the ''de facto'' spoken standard of

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 ...

Riksmål (, also , ) is an unofficial 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 t ...

. Urban East Norwegian has linguistic roots in Danish—specifically the Eastern Norwegian elites' pronunciation of Danish (

Dano-Norwegian Dano-Norwegian (Danish language, Danish and ) was a Koine language, koiné/mixed language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Denmark–Norway, Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway (1 ...

), traditionally known as Educated Norwegian (). The traditional linguistic divide between East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian runs right through Eastern Norway, which was partially ruled by Danish kings in the Middle Ages. Additionally, while influenced to a degree by the traditional spoken dialects of Eastern Norway, Urban East Norwegian is strongly influenced by the written Danish language. It is markedly different from the traditional Norwegian dialects in Eastern Norway, including Oslo, with which it has co-existed for centuries. Until the 20th century, Urban East Norwegian was spoken by the educated middle and upper class, while the working class and the farmer population spoke traditional dialects, that came to be seen as working-class

sociolects In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...

in Oslo. In Oslo and other parts of central Eastern Norway, Urban East Norwegian has largely displaced traditional dialects since the 20th century.

History

The language emerged among foreign city dwellers as a reaction against the Norwegian language. The language is generally a dialect of Danish, which was the language of prestige during the 400 year Danish occupation of Norway. During this period Norway did not have a university, and the Danish rulers inserted staff educated at, e.g., the university at Copenhagen into positions of some significance, particularly in cities, as well as trade privileges to Danish-speaking individuals. The intonation of the South-Eastern variation of this language closely resembles Swedish, which for some, but not all, was a language of prestige during the Swedish occupation in 1814-1905. During this time, the Norwegian language conflict emerged, with the former prestige dialects losing ground to the Norwegian language, i.e., Landsmål. As of 2000, Urban East Norwegian was the most commonly taught variety of Bokmål to foreign students.

Phonology

References

Bibliography

* {{Norwegian language Norwegian dialects Norwegian language