A Minority within a Minority: The Promotion of Nynorsk in the United States, 1900-1920

Abstract

6 A Minority within a Minority: The Promotion of Nynorsk in the United States, 1900-1920 by Arne Sunde Norwegian immigrants brought with them to America two written forms of the Norwegian language. All who immigrated prior to the 1890s had been taught Dano-Norwegian at school. This language norm was a result of centuries of Danish political domination and cultural influence. During the second half of the nineteenth century, however, an intense language debate took place, inspired by the linguist Ivar Aasen, who on the basis of Norwegian rural dialects created a new Norwegian language, Nynorsk, which became known as landsmal (the language of the land).1 Dano-Norwegian became known as Riksmâl and from 1929 was officially called Bokmâl. The linguistic revolt that was started by Aasen and that subsequently led to a rather heated language debate in Norway had cultural, social, geographical, and political components. The language debate was for many years, and to some extent still is, very emotional. Nynorsk proved itself viable in schools, literature, and cultural and political life. Owing to its close connection with the rural dialects, Nynorsk has always been associated with the countryside. It has always been a minority language in Norway and in its written form is today used by approximately seventeen percent of the population. The language debate also reached the Norwegian communities in America but had nothing of the intensity that it 171 172 Arne Sunde had in the homeland. In America the Nynorsk language was supported by only a small group of people. First of all, the Nynorsk adherents had no prominent personalities to fight for their cause; secondly, the pressure on Norwegian immigrants to learn English created far more urgent problems than debating linguistic variations within two forms of the same language . But still the Nynorsk language and its advocates did in fact have some impact on Norwegian- American culture. The general interest in Nynorsk and writing in this language form dates back more than a century in America. Discussion of Nynorsk first gained attention in 1874 with Rasmus Bjorn Andersons Den norské maalsag (The Norwegian Language Cause).2 For some years there was sporadic Nynorsk activity. A number of poems were published in newspapers and magazines, and there were also some novels, dramas, and collections of poetry as well as two magazines and one newspaper entirely in the Nynorsk language. There was also for many years a heated debate on the Nynorsk language in the Norwegian- American press. In addition, Nynorsk adherents established two language associations intended to promote the use of Nynorsk in America. Like the rest of Norwegian- American culture, interest in Nynorsk in America was at a peak in the two first decades of this century. For writers of Nynorsk in America it was important to define the language and its culture as a more genuinely Norwegian alternative to the Dano-Norwegian standard. In doing so they had to make it more visible and demonstrate its qualities. In promoting Nynorsk they gave many reasons for its use in America. Hoping that the national and historical aspects of the language conflict in Norway would appeal to Norwegian Americans, they focused primarily on such factors . They claimed that immigrants from rural districts of Norway would be better off with dialect-based Nynorsk than with Dano-Norwegian. Furthermore they maintained that Norwegian immigrants should keep up with language development in Norway, which would be of special importance if the Nynorsk language should prevail in the Old Country. Scholars of Norwegian- American culture have paid far A Minority within a Minority 173 too little attention to this subject. However, the topic has been analyzed in two major studies. In his impressive work, The Norwegian Language in America I (1953), Einar Haugen devotes a chapter to the history of the Nynorsk language in America from the 1870s to the 1940s.3 A Norwegian scholar, Peter Hallarâker, focuses on much of the same material in his recently published study, The Nynorsk Language in the United States (1991). 4 In addition some studies of NorwegianAmerican Nynorsk writers have been published in Norway. NYNORSK INSTITUTIONS AND PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES According to Einar Haugen, the debate on the Nynorsk...