Norwegian history is not continuous, complaisant historians to the contrary. A long break occurs from the Union of Kalmar in 1397, when the country ceased to exist as a political entity, to 1814. During this period of extinction, Norway was a mere geographical shuttlecock tossed between Sweden and Denmark. The latter country as a rule obtained the upper hand in its dealings with Norway. This relation accounts for the analogies in the languages of the two nations. But although Norway had seceded from Denmark in 1814, the Danish language, representing the speech of the more energetic and better educated Danes, remained official. Four and a half centuries of union between the two countries had made Danish the medium of intellectual development throughout Norway. But this linguistic invasion was accompanied by a notable modification of Danish. Norwegian intonations and sound articulations became adapted to it and the Norwego-Danish language, which is spoken today, gradually came into use.
This hybrid language, however, does not prevail exclusively. About 95 per cent of the Norwegians speak, according to districts, different dialects derived from the Old Norse. The Norwego-Danish, or Riksmaal, is the language of polite society and the one which a foreigner naturally learns when in Norway. The language of the land, or Norsk as it is called by the Norwegians, has the merit of being more homogeneous than either Danish or Swedish.
Nationality and language have grown apace in Norway. Prior to the nineteenth century the use of words taken from the Norwegian dialects was considered bad form. The granting of a constitution to the Norwegians, in 1814, created a strong feeling of nationality throughout the land. This spirit was reflected in active research for every form of Old Norse culture. Hitherto despised patois words were forced into prose or poetry by the foremost Norwegian writers, a movement to Norsefy the Riksmaal thus being originated.
As a result of these endeavors a new language, the “Landsmaal,” or fatherland speech, came into being about the middle of the nineteenth century. The name of Ivar Aasen will always be linked with it. This highly gifted peasant devoted his life to the idea of a renaissance of the Old Norse language through the unification of the current peasant dialects. Scientific societies, urged by patriotism no less than by genuine scholarly interest, granted him subsidies which enabled him to carry on his studies. Two of his works--“The Grammar of the Norwegian Popular Language,” published in 1848, and a “Dictionary of the Norwegian Popular Language,” in 1850--virtually established a new medium of speech in Norway.