Between hills and mountains: an introduction to Norwegian Nynorsk language activism

Coined by Ernst Håkon Jahr as a sociolinguistic ’experiment’, Norwegian Nynorsk - the constructed written language based on Norway’s dialectal variation, created by Ivar Aasen in the 1800s - is one of two official written languages in the country. In this talk, I will present and introduce the linguistic activism which is strongly tied to the use and promotion of Nynorsk, particularly that of the Norsk Målungdom (the Norwegian Language Youth) – by going over their activities over the last year, we will look into how the organisation operates as well as how it tries to put linguistic and political questions on the agenda in today’s Norway. As a matter of macrosociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological interest, I will touch on the following questions: - Has the linguistic activism of the Målungdom changed over time? If so, how and why? - Which issues relating to the use of Nynorsk in Norway have been prioritised? - Between 2015-2016, what did the Målungdom focus on and why? - Discussion: How could the linguistic activism behind Norwegian Nynorsk be of interest to linguists with a more structural and non-applied stance? This presentation will be a reflection of the my interaction with the Målungdom as a member since September 2015. There will be reference to modern works and ideas in language planning and policy, sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography.