Halvdan Koht - Language Views

Language Views

Hailing from Tromsø, Koht spoke a Northern Norwegian dialect in his early life. In Skien his dialect provoked negative reactions from his peers. He was inspired by the dialects of Skien's surroundings (Telemark); from 1891 he wrote the "rural" language form Landsmål with strong tinges of Bø dialect. Before this he had attempted to write both "Knudsen Riksmål" and "Aasen Landsmål", but neither stuck. Early publications on the Norwegian language controversy were Det norske målstrævs historie (1898) and Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve (1900). He became a board member of the Landsmål-based publishing house Det Norske Samlaget, and edited the Landsmål periodical Syn og Segn from 1901 to 1908, until 1905 together with Rasmus Flo. He chaired Noregs Mållag, an association the propagation of Landsmål, from 1921 to 1925. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk.

Koht spoke of language in a social context in general and of the class struggle in particular. He eventually used the Labor Party as a vehicle for his language activism, especially after being asked by the party to write Arbeidarreising og målspørsmål in 1921. In it, he synthesized the class struggle and language struggle in Norway, and because he was an integrationist he wanted a popular gathering around one written language. Koht became a member of Rettskrivingsnemnda in 1934, and in 1936 the Labor Party agreed that a language reform should be carried out, moving the two language forms Bokmål and Nynorsk closer to one another. The language reforms took place in 1938 and promoted the Samnorsk ideal. The reforms were reversed in 1941 under Nazi rule; the original changes were reinstated after the end of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. According to historian Kåre Lunden, Koht was much hated by many because of his language reforms, which were routinely perceived as attacks and degradations on their preferred language. His ideals were dubbed "det kohtske knot", i.e. "the Kohtian mishmash". For his own part, Koht often used spellings that contrasted with both Nynorsk and Bokmål. The definite article, which is formally the suffix "-et", was substituted with the suffix "-e", such as in the titles of his publications Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve and Sosialdemokratie.