Ideologies and issues in Nordic and especially West Nordic language planning; purism vs. liberalism.
SAS1. April 28th 2016 Linguistic climate
The ideological climate with regard to
- language use - language correctness - language planning Linguistic consciousness (Jørn Lund)
Danish ― Swedish ― Finns ― Finland-Swedes ― Norwegians ― Faroese ― Icelanders degrees of organized societal preoccupation with the language or with the sociolinguistic situation a) The language is not as it should be → it needs to be changed or improved b) The language is threatened → efforts are needed to combat this threat ”… Trouble there is now with our Faroese mother tongue / every other word / that now flows from the mouth of man and women / is foreign / Listen let us therefore strike out against this foreignness / slap it in the face / a northwester shall take it [i.e. the Danish words] away form our country [i.e. back to Denmark] / like a soap bubble…”
From Jóannes Patursson’s poem ”Nú er tann stundin…”, recited at the Faroese Boxing Day meeting in 1888. Translation by Jógvan í Lon Jakobsen Purism on linguistic levels Examples from Faroese Lexicon Revolution → kollvelting Biologi → lívfrøði Morphology Tórshavnar froskmannafelag (Revival of the genitive) Syntax Næsta morgun var kvirt við borðið → Morgunin eftir var kvirt við borðið Eitt ár gamalt barn → ársgamalt barn Sjóvinnubankin segði, at hann ikki fer at gjalda skatt í ár → Sjóvinnubankin segði, at hann fer ikki at gjalda skatt í ár Orthography Zimbabwe → Simbabve Some common arguments in Nordic language planning
• The cultural-political argument • The democratic argument • The international argument • The Nordic argument • The pedagogic argument • The structural argument • The argument of cultural continuity • The historical argument Linguistic variation vs. standardization
Denmark Sweden Norway Faroes Iceland High tolerance of Greenland linguistic variation Sámi Low tolerance of in speech and writing linguistic variation in speech and writing Spelling reformism vs. conservatism
Denmark Greenland Finland Norway Sámi Sweden Iceland Extensive spelling reforms Major spelling reforms, Faroes but with orthographic stability as obective Orthographic conservatism Minor reforms (lexical) liberalism vs. purism
Swedish Danish Norwegian Sámi Icelandic Norwegian Faroese (Nynorsk) Greenland Liberalism (Bokmål) Purism Assimilation of foreign words
Danish Swedish Norwegian Finnish Faroese Icelandic English budget budget budsjett budjetti fíggjar- fjárhags- budget ætlan áætlun
bureau byrå byrå byroo skrivstova skrifstofa bureau
wire wire/vajer wire/vaier vaijeri veirur vír wire Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Swedish Danish Finnish North Green- (Bokmål) Sámi landic bíll bilur bil bil bil auto biila biili djús djús jus, juice jos, juice juice mehu, máihli juice, tuoremehu paarn[gap] issera tékki kekkur sjekk check check sekki šeahkka checki blöffa bluffa bløffe bluffa bluffe bluffa, jorbbodahttit, nakutitsivoq bluffata mohkastit hjól súkkla sykkel cykel cykel polkupyörä sihkkel sikkili, cykeli bæklingur bóklingur brosjyre broschyr brochure brosyyri brošyra atuagaaraq laug hylur basseng bassäng bassin allas basea ŋŋ a tatsiaq?, naluttarfiq afstaða hugburður holdning attityd attitude asenne guoddu 0, ≈ timip tölva telda datamaskin dator computer tietokone datamašiidna computeri, , dihtor qarasaasiaq
http://www.norden.org/en/fakta-om-norden-1/nordic-dictionaries Sylistic norms
• The democratization of and battle against bureaucratese
An international problem: Recent survey showing that unclear official language costs the Norwegian government 130 mill kroner each year! • What is the recipe for a democratic language? Critics in the Faroe Islands arguing that also purism can have an anti- democratic effect. Denmark
• national language fought through in opposition to German, French and Latin in the 16 th century • Purist attitude towards different languages at different times: – 18th C. purists against Greco-Romance loanwords – 1930’s and -40’s Sven Clausen and The Danish Association for Nordic Language Cultivation (1941) opposing ”Germanization” • A stand against German after WW2
• Danish the most influential language on both Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic Denmark • little tradition and belief in a policy with an aim of protecting the language from foreign influence • great scepticism towards neologisms • users most positive towards English in the Nordic area • many loanwords (number 2 in the Nordic region), but they adjust them less than in the other countries Reform of 1948
• These changes implied a systematic simplification of the Danish orthography • Huge controversy in Denmark • Danish is still the least orthophonic of the Scandinavian languages Arguments in favour of orthographic conservatism
• Facilitates inter-Nordic communication (Danish, Faroese, Icelandic) • Facilitates international communication • Linguistic continuity and unity between generations (Danish, Icelandic)
• Access to literary heritage (Danish, Icelandic, Faroese (?) ) Only minor spelling changes in Danish loanwords • c replaced by k when this is evident i speech: vacuum to vakuum • c not replaced when it is pronounced s: centrum , cykel .
• qu replaced with k or kv: consequent to konsekvent
• x replaced by ks : luxus to luksus • many French loanwords were kept unaltered: Da: camouflage , No: kamuflasje ) The majonæse war - 1985 • small reform in Danish (0.5 % of the words) • The Language Council introduced limited variation in the spelling of some loanwords: – ”mayonnaise” (tr.) or ”majonæse” (”new”) – ”yoghurt ” or ”jogurt ” – ”ressource” or ”resurse” Spelling dictionary from 2012: – ”mayonnaise” or ”majonæse” – ”yoghurt ” or ”jogurt” – ”ressource” or ”resurse”
«Men danskerne har ikke ønsket at bruge den ny stavemåde, fordi de synes, at den er grim. Så vi har taget konsekvensen og fjernet majonæse fra Retskrivningsordbogen,» siger Sabine Kirchmeier-Andersen, direktør i Dansk Sprognævn. http://www.b.dk/nationalt/det-er-slut-med-majonaese-og-jogurt
10000 “new” words in Den Danske Ordbog (April 19 th 2016): Loan words : cortado, crepe, douchebag, shitstorm, tracke, twerke Compounds : aldersfascisme, fallossymbol, gedebukkeskæg Derivations : ateistisk, newyorksk, nominering, vedhæftning Foreign word/terms : allergologi, cyanotypi, erytrocyt, misantropisk Set phrases : brunt værtshus, hænge i gardinerne, knibe sig i armen New rules in Retskrivningsordbogen 2012 • optional hypen in ”group compounds”: – væg til væg-tæppe or væg-til-væg-tæppe • change in the use of apostrofes: – succes’en → succesen • optional to use -ie or -ium i words like akvarium, gymnasium and territorium: – gymnasie or gymnasium • optional to use lower-case or upper-case in certain abbreviations: – IT or it, BNP or bnp, DVD or dvd Danish language policy: laissez-faire liberalism and strict normative conservatism
• receptive to new loanwords – often without altering spelling • few and minor orthographic spelling reforms • stylistic reforms: the battle against bureaucratese BUT: «The comma war» • nyt komma ‘new comma’: grammatically based in 1997 • new system amalgamated with old in 2014 • April 23th 2015: leader of Danish language council: introduces a «new, Nordic comma». Should function as a pause comma that people can put where they want to • http://politiken.dk/kultur/ECE2638841/sprogf ormand-foreslaar-et-frit-komma/ Sweden • 19th century issues: – spelling (phonetic vs. traditional) – vocabulary (purism vs. laissez-faire) • purism towards Danish in early 20th century turned out to be purism towards dialectal features in Swedish • no major language conflicts in the 20th c., and social conflicts not linguistically marked Sweden
Today: • most positive to the claim: It would be best if everybody in the whole world had English as their mother tongue
• interest in institutionalized language and qualitative aspects of it Reform of 1906
– phonems /v/ and /t/ to be spelt v and t • rödt to rött (red) • godt to gott (good)
• haf to hav (ocean) • hafva to hava (to have) • hvit to vit (white) Carl Gustav af Leopold 1756-1829
Leopold’s principles still used today: When introducing new words a careful and moderate phoneticiziation is preferred – even when inconsistent. runeberg.org Swedish dialects
• Dahlstedt (1979) 1. traditional dialects 2. levelled dialects 3. regional standard language 4. ”neutral” standard language
Thelander omits number 3. Spelling pronunciation
Spelling → pronunciation
• ”ultra correct pronunciation”: Old phenomenon in Swedish
• ex. älskat, drottning. Casual forms
pronunciation → spelling
• have – ha • take – ta • blive – bli
• mej for mig (correct) • dom for de / dem (correct) Finland
• independent republic in 1919 • different language family: less contact and loan-words from the other Nordic countries • import from Germanic languages, but also Slavic, Russian and Baltic languages Finland
• foreign policy pressure → important to make Finnish the preferred language in all domains from mid 19th century • policy against Swedish loan-words → own words to replace them • Lexical purism to fill gaps in Finnish terminology Finland Until 1870s: great effort into the construction of neologisms – often as loan translations
– the creation of new and to some extent modern words • ”tasavalta” – ”republic” – (i.e. equal power). • ”ylioppilas” – ”student” – (i.e. over pupil)
This line of purism has not been continued. Finnish language planning today is less based on a puristic ideology. Neologisms created for structural reasons. • Swedish influence on vocabulary • Anglo-American influence (as everywhere else) • A strong barrier between the dialects and the written language • Today: a leveling of dialects through urbanization, education and media • the development of casual speech forms among young people Finland-Swedish • follows Swedish language policy → the most important issue is to find replacement of Finnish loan-words • is more sceptical towards foreign influence then Swedish in Sweden • increasingly it looks more like a minority language, the users feel like their language is threatened • great interest and involvement in the language Norway
• independent monarchy in 1905 Imported Number % • Number 1 in actual use of from of words modern import words, but more Latin 4089 31 puristic than Swedes and Greek 2120 16 Low 2021 15 Danes in pronunciation and German orthography French 1931 15 • the use of import words English 1564 12 increased most here after 1975 Italian 358 3 • 44 % of the word roots in Danish 179 1 Nynorskordboka (1993) are Dutch 167 1 imported. Probably the results Arabic 148 1 would be quite similar in a Swedish 116 1 Swedish and Danish dictionary Spanish 108 1 Portuguese 80 1 Norwegianizing
• 1862: First Norwegian spelling reform, incl. import words – qualificere → kvalificere – Philosophie → Filosofi • Knud Knudsen a pioneer in the 19 th Century • Norwegianizing important in all spelling reforms in the 20 th C.: – majones in 1907; lunsj 1924; passasjer 1938; bøffel 1970; kasjunøtt 1985 • 1996: 49 new word forms + 62 more in the 1999 decision: – guide → gaid or guide – champagne → sjampanje or champagne – service → sørvis or service • 2004: The “beiken debatt”: 25 originally English words got Norwegian spelling: – bacon → beiken : one of 20 spelling changes that was voted down – racket → rekkert el. racket – snacks → snaks el. snacks • 2015: quiss → kviss or quiss ; nikab exclusively written with k Ridiculed, but • different attitudes towards loan-words in Bokmål and Nynorsk • generally great interest in language questions • concern expressed e.g. by Sylfest Lomheim, former director of the Norwegian Language Council, about the future survival of the Norwegian language Fear of domain loss
• "In business, all the top international Norwegian firms already use written English day in day out," explains Sylfest Lomheim, director of the Norwegian Language Council. "Norwegian colleagues will talk in Norwegian to one another, but when it comes to writing reports or sending emails, they will do it in English. • "In academia, 30% of social sciences theses were written in English in the early 1990s. Now it's 70%. It is possible that in 30 to 40 years' time Norwegian will no longer be used in higher education. Do we want that to happen?” • English is not the enemy here […], the "enemy" is Norwegians' relaxed attitude towards the written form of their language. It is essential to preserve it, Lomheim says, because "we need to keep up the ability to discuss central issues of public debate in Norwegian. If we don't have the vocabulary for it, we can't discuss them.“ http://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/may/23/tefl.gwladysfouche This concern is widespread throughout Scandinavia, and both Norway, Sweden and Denmark have initiatives to promote their national languages. • "How do we learn about new developments in biology or physics if we don't have Swedish words for them? This would be a blow to public debate and democracy. • "We should have a parallel use of language, with both Danish and English being promoted," says Davidsen-Nielsen. • "It's essential that Swedes are very strong in English in order for the country to compete internationally. It would be impossible otherwise," Josephson agrees. • "It's OK to borrow words from other languages or use anglicisms. If not languages would die. After all, English comes from Norwegian," Lomheim says. "The challenge is to develop English and Norwegian at the same time so that people are as good as possible at both." The Sámi community
A united community against outer threat:
• main focus on withstanding linguistic influence from Norway, Sweden and Finland • Less effort given to purification: the cost of internal conflict is too high Faroese
A young Nordic orthographic standard
Nationalist and democratic arguments in Faroese language planning:
• the battle against Danish influence • efforts to create terminology to make Faroese language usable in all areas of society • Iceland as a (disputed) ideal Jens Christan Svabo (1746 – 1824)
Two alternatives to fix ”corrupted” Faroese:
• Purify Faroese (replace it with Icelandic / ON) • Get rid of Faroese (learn proper Danish) Jakob Jakobsen (1864-1918) Dr. Jakobsen and the myth of the tragic faith of Shetland and Orkney Norn Orthography
• V.U.Hammershaimb’s etymologically based orthography • Jakob Jakobsen’s (failed) reform: closer to pronunciation, mainly pedagogic reasons Conquering new fields
A small language community: the creation of new terminology is dominated by the efforts of individuals
• Founder: Jakob Jakobsen (1864-1918), with Diplomatarium Færoense (1907) and Poul Nolsøe, Lívssøga og irkingar (1912). • Journalism terminology: Føringatíðindi (established 1890). Lead by Rasmus Effersøe and Jóannes Patursson. Radio norm+++: Christian Matras (first prof in Faroese Language). • Jákup Dahl: Bible and psalm style • Rasmus Rasmussen (1871-1962): Botanics • Mikkjal Dánjalsson á Ryggi (1879-1956): Zoologi and Geography • H.D.Joensen (1913-1995): Anatomy and physics • Bjarni Niclasen (1918-1980): Chemistry • Jóannes Rasmussen (1912-1992): Geology • Hanus við Høgdalsá (1913-) postal terminology
The three most important front figures in Faroese (lexical) purism: • (Dr. phil) Jakob Jakobsen (1864-1918) • (Prof.) Christian Matras (1900-1988) • (Prof.) Jóhan H. W. Poulsen (1934-) The single word poem
Two types of neologisms: • new terms to fill gaps in the vocabulary: fartelefon (mobile phone), hvirla (food processor) • new terms to replace established loan words: lívfrøði (biology), flogskipari (pilot), flogfar (aeroplane)
Two ways to make new words: • sematic change of existing words: horn, hvirla, kurla • new compounds or affixiation using existing morphemes: málverji, lívfrøði, telda So we’ve made a fine new word – what’s our next move?
Cultivation and implementation bodies Resources Public support and positive attitudes towards the underlying language planning ideology The purism debate
Faroese purism has resulted in a great divide between written (purified) Faroese and oral (foreign influenced) Faroese.
• Purism as part of elite culture? • Replacing Danish influence with Icelandic influence? Iceland • independent republic in 1944 • in a class of it's own regarding import words: less contact and early an active policy of purism → neologisms • fight for independence and Cod Wars with UK has strengthened the interest in national issues and had linguistic consequences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars Literary tradition
• Icelanders have always written in Icelandic • “Golden age” in 13th century: Icelanders regarded expert poets, writers and historians • Guðbrandsbiblían: 1584
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_Sturluson Revival
• from 19th century: “cleaning” the language of Danish and German influence • purifying • modernizing (by creating new terms) • standardizing the spelling • putting it to use in new fields Low German and Danish loanwords
Low German loanwords in Icelandic – through trade connections and Danish through governmental language
– blífa (bleiben, blive) → verða – þenkja (denken, tænke) → hugsa – bífala (befehlen, befale) → skipa – makt (Macht, magt) → vald Iceland
Iceland – the Purist’s Paradise?
Íslensk málnefnd (1964) Íslensk málstöð Icelandic Few dialects, traditionally little linguistic variation Linguistic influence from • Celtic* • Greek, Latin, German • Danish • English (part. AE since WWII) • A general public agreement on purist language planning policy – at least compared to the other Nordic countries
* DeCode Genetics: Between 21 and 57 percent of Icelandic women originate from Scandinavia, the rest (most likely over 50 percent) from the British Isles. 80 percent of Icelandic men originate from Scandinavia (mostly Norway). Do small nations need their own academic terminology – within all fields?
The extreme example : Why does Iceland’s only (macro)paleobotanist publish his work in Icelandic, and why does he devote time to creating an Icelandic terminology for the academic field of paleobotany? - The international argument: This makes the research inaccessible to the international research community, and prevents progress
- The national argument: Such efforts (and principles) may help prevent the loss of linguistic domenes, one of the great dangers to small languages today?
- The democratic argument (1): This makes the research accessible to people in Iceland, not only to the international academic community
- The democratic argument (2): Disadvantages of Anglo- American linguistic and cultural dominance in academia? The case of Duncan and Harriet
• http://www.urskurdir.is/DomsOgKirkjumala /Mannanafnanefnd/nr/3471
http://www.visir.is/10-ara-stulku-neitad-um-vegabref-af-thjodskra/article/2014706259967 http://www.islandsbloggen.com/2014/06/saknar-godkant-namn-far-inget-islandskt.html Decreasing positivity towards English: • Danish • Swedish Almost identical with • Finnish degree of governmental language planning: close • Finland-Swedish relation between language policy and • Norwegian attitude towards English. • Faroe • Icelandic Some useful links
Nordic council: http://www.norden.no/
Nordisk sprogkoordination: http://sprogkoordinationen.org/
Norway: Språkrådet: www.sprakradet.no
Denmark: Dansk Sprognævn: www.dsn.dk/
Sweden: Språkrådet (Sverige): http://www.sprakradet.se/ and Sverigefinsk språkvård: http://www.sprakradet.se/suomi
Finland: Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken (Focis): www.kotus.fi/ www.kotus.fi/svenska/ The Faroe Islands: Føroyska málnevndin: www.fmn.fo/
Iceland: Íslensk málnefnd: www.arnastofnun.is
Greenland: Oqaasiliortut/Grønlands Sprognævn: www.oqaasileriffik.gl/
Sápmi: Sámi giellalávdegoddi / Samisk språknemnd: www.giella.org/ EXAM
Part 1 is obligatory for all candidates. Choose ONE of the three questions in part 2. You need to answer both part 1 and part 2 to pass the exam. Part 1: Counts 60% (All candidates must answer this question)
Question: XXX
Part 2: Counts 40% (Choose ONE of the three questions below)
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