Language Planning as a Sociolinguistic Experiment: The Case of Modern Norwegian

This is a study of language planning using Norwegian as a case study. 2014 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian nation following centuries of Danish rule. This book gives a comprehensive account of that entire 200-year period, and analyses how Norwegians defined, fought over, and developed their own independent Scandinavian language, differentiating it from Danish and Swedish, through language planning. The almost two centuries of Norwegian language planning and conflict encompassed an extraordinary sociolinguistic experiment which led to decades of intense linguistic struggle and which has had no parallel anywhere else in the world. This fascinating book-length case study provides students and scholars in sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, language planning and language policy with a richly detailed insight into the uniqueness of the Norwegian language development.

Reviews of Language Planning as a Sociolinguistic Experiment: The Case of Modern Norwegian

The sociolinguistic situation in Norway today is testimony to the maturity of this tolerant and egalitarian nation: local dialects have very high status, and Standard Norwegian comes in two significantly different varieties. How this situation developed over the last two centuries is a fascinating story – which Ernst Hakon Jahr tells brilliantly, with enormous erudition, insight and verve.' — Peter Trudgill, University of East Anglia"