Bokmål

• Bokmål
• Nynorsk
• Neutral

Bokmål ( German Book Language ) is one of two official standard varieties of Norwegian. It is caused by government reforms of the Danish in Norway long time used as a language of administration.

Bokmål was called before 1929 Riksmål ( " kingdom language "). Due to the common cultural history of Denmark - Norway, and his strong support, especially in the big cities the Bokmål is based on both the Danish and on certain urban dialects, especially the South East Norwegian from Oslo.

The Bokmål is that of the official varieties of today's Norwegian, by most Norwegians ( estimates range between 85 and 90 percent) is written. The other variety, which is held on the Danish to the rural dialects of Norway, is the Nynorsk (such as " New Norwegian " ), which was developed by the linguist Ivar Aasen middle of the 19th century. He undertook to make out, especially in West and Central Norwegian dialects a new written language. Since Nynorsk and Bokmål actually denote written languages ​​, there are no Norwegians who really speak one of these variants. Nevertheless, many dialects can be better represented by Nynorsk, which often leads to the confusing statement that there are people who Nynorsk used as a spoken language.

Linguistically, both varieties are described in detail in the article Norwegian language. A first distinct feature for determining to which variety it is in an actual Norwegian text, the indefinite article:

Laws and regulations in Norway are not in two varieties before, but either Bokmål or Nynorsk on. About 85 % of the applicable law in Norway were written in Bokmål 1995.