Ivar Andreas Aasen (Norwegian pronunciation:[ˈîːvɑrˈòːsn̩]; 5 August 1813[1] – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegianphilologist,lexicographer, playwright, and poet.[2] He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of theNorwegian language,Nynorsk, from various dialects.[3]
Iver Andreas Aasen was born in 1813 in Åsen, in the parish of Ørsten (nowØrsta Municipality), in the district ofSunnmøre, on the west coast ofNorway. His father Ivar Jonsson, a peasant with a small farm, died in 1826. Young Iver was brought up doing farmwork, but he assiduously cultivated all his leisure in reading.[4] An early interest of his wasbotany.[5] When he was eighteen, he opened an elementary school in his native parish. In 1833, he entered the household ofHans Conrad Thoresen, the husband of the eminent writerMagdalene Thoresen, in the parish of Herø (nowHerøy Municipality), where he picked up the elements ofLatin. Aasen gradually mastered several languages, and began the scientific study of their structure.[4] Ivar single-handedly created a new language for Norway, which later became its "literary" language.[6]
When Aasen travelled toBergen in 1841, he met bishopJacob Neumann, who was very impressed with his work, and had excerpts of it published inBergens Stiftstidende ("Bergen Diocese Newspaper"). His contacts with Bishop Neumann became Aasen's entrance ticket to theRoyal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters inTrondheim, and generous financial support (an annual grant of 120-200speciedaler), which made the extensive travel possible to study the Norwegian vernacular. It is said to have been the rector of Trondheim, Fredrik M. Bugge, who came across Neumann's articles while travelling in Bergen and persuaded the scientific society to grant the funding to Aasen.[7]
Ivar Aasen (1891)
Therefore, quite early in his career, in 1842, Aasen had begun to receive a grant to enable him to give his entire attention to his philological investigations;[8] he had ceased doing any farmwork by 1846.[4] Aasen's first monograph in 1843 was a small collection offolk songs in the dialect of his native district, Sunnmøre, which attracted general attention.[4] HisGrammar of the Norwegian Dialects (Danish:Det Norske Folkesprogs Grammatik, 1848) was the result of long studies, and of journeys taken to every part of the country. Aasen's well-knownDictionary of the Norwegian Dialects (Danish:Ordbog over det Norske Folkesprog) appeared in its original form in 1850, which became the basis of his construction of a popular language or definitefolke-maal (lit.'people's language') for Norway.[4]
By 1853, he had created the norm for utilizing his new language, which he calledLandsmaal, meaning "country language".[6] With certain modifications, the most important of which were introduced later by Aasen himself,[4] but also through a latterpolicy aiming to merge this Norwegian language with Dano-Norwegian, this language has becomeNynorsk (lit.'New Norwegian') (seeLegacy § Nynorsk).
Aasen composed poems and plays in the composite dialect to showhow it should be used. One of these dramas,The Heir (1855), was frequently acted, and may be considered as the pioneer of dialectal literature of the second half of the 19th century, fromVinje toGarborg.[8] In 1856, he publishedNorske Ordsprog, a treatise on Norwegian proverbs. Aasen continuously enlarged and improved his grammars and his dictionary. He lived very quietly in lodgings inOslo (then Christiania), surrounded by his books and shrinking from publicity, but his name grew into wide political favour as his ideas about the language of the peasants became more and more the watch-word of the popular party.[8] In 1864, he published his definitive grammar of Nynorsk and in 1873 he published the definitive dictionary.[9]
TheStorting (the Norwegianparliament), conscious of the national importance of his work, treated Aasen in this respect with more and more financial generosity as he advanced in years.[8] He continued his investigations to the last, but it may be said that, after the 1873 edition of hisDictionary (with a new title:[5]Danish:Norsk Ordbog), he added but little to his stores.[8]
He died in Christiania on 23 September 1896, and was buried with public honours.[8][10]
Ivar Aasen-tunet, an institution devoted to the Nynorsk language, opened in June 2000. The building inØrsta was designed by Norwegian architectSverre Fehn. Their web page includes most of Aasens' texts, numerous other examples of Nynorsk literature (in Nettbiblioteket, the Internet Library), and some articles, including some in English, about language history in Norway.
Språkåret 2013 (The Language Year 2013) celebrated Ivar Aasen's 200 year anniversary,[13] as well as the 100 year anniversary ofDet Norske Teateret. The year's main focus was to celebrate linguistic diversity in Norway.[14] In a poll released in connection with the celebration, 56% of Norwegians said they held positive views of Aasen, while 7% held negative views.[15] On Aasen's 200 anniversary, 5 August 2013,Bergens Tidende, which is normally published mainly in Bokmål, published an edition fully in Nynorsk in memory of Aasen.[16]
Anon (2013)."Om Språkåret 2013" [About Language Year 2013].www.språkåret.no (in Norwegian). Språkåret. Archived fromthe original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved9 May 2014.
Bredsdorff, E. L. (1954). "Aasen, Ivar Andreas". In Steinberg, S. H. (ed.).Cassell's Encyclopædia of World Literature. Vol. 1: Articles & Biographies: A–H. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnall's Company.LCCN54001255.
Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore, eds. (1905). "Aasen, Ivar Andreas".New International Encyclopedia. Vol. I. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
Haugen, Einar (2009) [1987]. Comrie, Bernard (ed.).The World's Major Languages (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-35339-7.
Haugen, Einar (1997). "Aasen, Ivar Andreas". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.).Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I: A to Ameland (1st ed.). New York, NY: P.F. Collier.
