Publication details
Purism and nationalism in language norms : A comparative analysis of the Norwegian and Slovak spelling reform adopted during World War II
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Peer-reviewed scientific article |
| Magazine / Source | JAZYKOVEDNÝ ČASOPIS |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jazcas-2025-0040?tab=preview |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2025-0040 |
| Keywords | orthography; spelling reform; purism; nationalism; language policy; Slovak; Norwegian |
| Description | The linguistic situation in interwar Norway and Czechoslovakia had several parallels. The official languages in both countries were represented by two written standards: Norwegian in the form of Bokmal and Nynorsk, and, in Czechoslovakia, Czech and Slovak – separate but closely related languages that were officially referred to as the Czechoslovak language. At the same time, both countries adopted spelling norms during this period to gradually unify the language variants into one. In Norway, this process took the form of a mutual approximation of Bokmal and Nynorsk, while in Czechoslovakia, it primarily involved bringing Slovak closer to Czech. Both the Norwegian spelling reform of 1938 and the Rules of Slovak Orthography of 1931 caused controversy. Moreover, in both cases, the new rules were adopted during the Second World War, at a time when both Norway and the newly established Slovak Republic were Nazi Germany’s allies. This article focuses on the impact of political changes on spelling reforms and, through comparative analysis, seeks to identify the elements, approaches, or ideas that may connect the new rules despite the different linguistic natures of the analysed languages. |
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