DanoNorwegian

DanoNorwegian is a term used by some linguists and historians to describe the historical and sociolinguistic relationship between Danish and Norwegian during the period of the Denmark–Norway union, and to refer to the Danish-influenced written standard that was used in Norway for official and literary purposes. The label signals both the proximity of the two languages and the dominance of Danish norms in written Norwegian during that era.

Historically, Denmark and Norway formed a political unit for several centuries, and Danish served as the language of administration, church, and high culture in Norway. Norwegian speech communities continued to use local dialects in everyday life, while writing in a Danish-influenced norm became common among educated Norwegians. This produced a period in which Norwegian written language closely resembled Danish in orthography and vocabulary. After the dissolution of the union in 1814 and the gradual development of separate national institutions, Norwegian began to establish more distinctly Norwegian standards, culminating in Bokmål (which retains substantial Danish heritage) and Nynorsk (based on rural Norwegian dialects).

Linguistically, DanoNorwegian emphasizes the shared features in orthography, vocabulary, and style that stem from Danish influence, rather than a separate, codified language. In contemporary scholarship, the term is used descriptively rather than as a current linguistic variety; modern descriptions typically refer to Danish influence on Bokmål or to the historic Danish-Norwegian language contact, rather than a living language by itself.

See also: Danish language, Norwegian language, Bokmål, Riksmål, Nynorsk, Denmark–Norway union, language policy in Scandinavia.