Introduction
Norsk Ordbok (‘The Norwegian Dictionary’) will be published in twelve volumes and provides a scholarly and exhaustive account of the vocabulary of Norwegian dialects and the written language Nynorsk. In Europe it is most unusual to find written and spoken language integrated in this way. The project began in 1930 and has now reached volume seven, covering letters L and M. It will be coming out in 2008.
A project to intensify the work was started in 2002 with the aim of completing Norsk Ordbok by 2014, in time for the bicentennial celebrations of the Norwegian Constitution. The project is called Norsk Ordbok 2014 (Norwegian Dictionary 2014), with the abbreviation NO 2014.
Norway has two official written languages, Bokmål (literally ’book language’) and Nynorsk (literally ’new Norwegian’). Bokmål is a Norwegianised form of Danish – a result of the fact that Norway was ruled by Denmark from 1380 to 1814, and during which time Danish was the standard language. Nynorsk is based on Norwegian dialects, standardising their common features. Officially the languages are equal, but bokmål is more often used. Nynorsk is used particularly in the western part of Norway and has a high literary status.
Ivar Aasen (1813-1896) laid the foundation for the written language Nynorsk. He was a pioneer of dialectology and lexicography and showed that the spoken language in Norway stemmed from Old Norse and as such was quite independent of Danish. Aasen travelled around investigating the grammar and vocabulary of dialects in different parts of the country. Amongst other things the material from these journeys formed the basis for both Nynorsk as an umbrella written language for the dialects, and for the first extensive dictionary of Norwegian, Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring (Norwegian Dictionary with Explanations in Danish, 1873).
Hans Ross (1833-1914) continued Aasen’s work collecting words, and in 1895 published Norsk Ordbog, Tillæg til ‘Norsk Ordbog’ af Ivar Aasen, (Norwegian Dictionary: Appendix to the Norwegian Dictionary’ by Ivar Aasen). Ross’ dictionary contained many words which Aasen had not registered and supplementary information for words which had already been described by Aasen.
The dictionaries of both Aasen and Ross and some later dictionaries combine to form the basis of Norsk Ordbok and were the starting point when work began on the dictionary in 1930.
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