Midlandsmål
In August of 2022, I set out to translate a turn-of-the-century Norwegian grammatical treatise, Midlandsnormalen (1906), by Rasmus Flo. It outlines a Nynorsk orthography for Norwegian based on dialects spoken in the centre (midland, hence the name) and east of the country, as opposed to the Hægstadnormalen, which was based more off of western dialects. Midlandsnormalen is essentially an excerpt from Framlegg til skrivereglar for landsmaale i skularne (1899) – “Proposal for orthographical rules for Landsmål in the schools”, which includes both the Midlandsnormalen and Hægstadnormalen orthographies.
This orthography never caught on, and any influence from the original idea of the orthography was removed in the Nynorsk spelling reform of 2012. It is, however, interesting to think about designing an orthography for dialects that weren’t well represented in writing, and might help provide some insight into the characteristics of dialects at the time.
I have included a foreword (see below) with a deeper explanation of historical context surrounding the reform, as well as several appendices with further information, one of which includes a map with several locations discussed by Flo, ones that the reader might not be familiar with. The translation is written side-by-side with the original – itself using the Midlandsnormalen, however the forewords and appendices are my own work, and are written in contemporary Nynorsk. This is done so that, should the reader wish, they may be able to follow along in the other language. The translation was intended to be as faithful as possible to the original, although some alterations were made in syntax to make the translation flow better.
Føreord av omsetjingaren
Midlandsnormalen var ei tidlegare rettskriving på norsk som høyrde til landsmålet sitt skule, det som fyrst vart lagt fram av Ivar Aasen i boka si, Norsk Grammatik, i 1864 (Aasen, 1864). Midlandsnormalen vart deretter lagd fram av Rasmus Flo ved rettskrivingsnemnda i 1898, og kom inn i rettskrivinga i 1901 (Bolstad, 2021). Her vert han greidd ut om i ei oversyn.
Normalen er bygd på målføra særleg på midlandet og austanfjells i Noreg, dei som Flo syntest best kunne vera ei semje mellom dei mange ymse norske målføra (Flo, 1906). Flo byrjar fyrst med å forklara grunnane sine for å skapa denne normalen, og so held fram med å forklara dei nye bøyingsmønstera; til sist gjev han ut fleire lister med ord som høyrer til desse bøyingsmønstera (Flo, 1906).
Midlandsnormalen vart teken ut or rettskrivinga i 1917, då ei ny rettskriving vart lagd ut. Endåtil han var ein del av rettskrivinga på eit tidspunkt, var det aldri som hovudform, berre som sideform. Då han vart teken ut or rettskrivinga, var det berre hovudforma (ei form nærare til Aasen sin landsmål, Hægstad-normalen – ei semje mellom landsmålet og Midlandsnormalen) som skulle overleva (Bolstad, 2021).
Denne omsetjinga har som mål å gjera greiare forståinga av denne teksten for dei som ikkje er so røynd med gamal nynorsk, og å gjera tydelegare tankane på den tida om den norske identiteten og korleis han var vist i skrift.
I 1906 var Noreg eit land som nettopp hadde vunne sjølvstendet sitt, etter om lag 500 år under ei foreining med Danmark, og deretter eit hundreår til under ei foreining med Sverige. Ymse norske forfattarar og styre søkte då å nytta eigne fridomen sin til å skriva på eit mål som var heilt norsk, og urørt av korkje svensk eller dansk (Bolstad, 2021). Men nokre òg ynskte seg å halda på å bruka skrivemåtane som allereie hadde vore i bruk under desse foreiningane med all innverknaden derifrå; so byrja striden mellom dei to rettskrivingane me kjenner i dag.
Foreword from the translator
The Midland-standard was an earlier written standard of Norwegian that belonged to the Landsmål school [today’s Nynorsk], which was first laid out by Ivar Aasen in his book Norsk Grammatik [Norwegian Grammar], in 1864 (Aasen, 1864). The Midland-standard was laid out afterwards in 1898 by Rasmus Flo through the written standards committee, and it became official in 1901 (Bolstad, 2021). This standard is explained here in summary.
The standard is based upon the varieties especially in the midlands and eastern mountains of Norway, those that Flo felt best could compromise between the many diverse Norwegian dialects (Flo, 1906). Flo begins firstly with explaining the reasons for creating this standard, continues with explaining the new declension patterns; finally, he publishes a few lists with words that follow these declension patterns (Flo, 1906).
The Midland-standard was removed from the official orthography in 1917, when a new written standard was created. Even though it was part of the official standard at one point, it was never the main form, only the marginal form. When it was removed from the official standard, it was survived by the main forms (forms closer to Aasen’s Landsmål, Hægstad’s standard, which was a compromise between Landsmål and the Midland-standard) (Bolstad, 2021).
This translation aims to make the understanding of this text easier for those who are not as familiar with older Nynorsk, and to shed light upon the thinking of that era regarding the Norwegian identity, and how it was represented in writing.
Norway was a country that had not won its independence yet, after around 500 years under a personal union with Denmark, and had been at this time under a personal union with Sweden for a century. Various Norwegian authors and authorities then sought to use their own freedom to write in a language that was wholly Norwegian, and untouched by Swedish and Danish (Bolstad, 2021). But still others wished to keep using the writing methods that had already been in use during these unions, with all the influence from them; thus began the debate between the two orthographies we know today [Bokmål and Nynorsk].