How a political union transformed Danish writing into the Norwegian language Bokmål

Cultures · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For centuries, Norway used Danish for its official business. But as political ties shifted, a unique linguistic evolution began. Discover how a gradual reform of written Danish transformed into Bokmål, the dominant literary standard used by 90 percent of Norway's population today.

The roots of Bokmål lie in the long union between Norway and Denmark, which began in 1380. During this era, Norwegian political institutions faded, and the written language of the country was effectively replaced by Danish. This shift was accelerated by the Reformation and the work of figures like Christiern Pedersen, whose Danish Bible translation helped standardize Danish as the administrative norm. By the time the union ended in 1814, the Norwegian urban elite had developed a 'Dano-Norwegian' vernacular—a hybrid spoken language that used Danish writing but incorporated Norwegian vocabulary and pronunciation.

Following independence, a linguistic tug-of-war emerged. In 1853, the linguist Ivar Aasen sought to create a national standard, Nynorsk, by reconstructing a language from rural dialects. However, a different path was taken by Knud Knudsen in the 1840s. He proposed a policy of gradual reform to bring the existing written Danish closer to the spoken Dano-Norwegian of the cities. This approach, which avoided radical disruption, gained support from the influential literary movements of the late 19th century.

The transition was finalized through official reforms in 1907, 1917, and 1938. Initially known as Riksmål, the language was officially renamed Bokmål in 1929 after a narrow loss in the Lagting for the name 'Dano-Norwegian.' While an official attempt to merge the two standards into a single language, Samnorsk, was abandoned in 2002, Bokmål remains the predominant written form. It is used in national newspapers and most literature, serving a population of over 4.6 million, though it exists alongside the Nynorsk standard.

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