bokmålstavingen

Bokmålstavingen refers to the spelling conventions used for Bokmål, the most widely used written standard of the Norwegian language. It governs how words are spelled, how inflection is marked in writing, how proper names are rendered, and how loanwords are adapted to Norwegian orthography.

The form evolved from Danish spelling used during the centuries of union between Denmark and Norway. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Norwegian scholars and government bodies reformulated the spelling to better reflect Norwegian pronunciation and usage, while maintaining a close connection to Danish roots. This process produced several official reforms and variants that collectively came to be known as Bokmål, as distinct from landsmål (now commonly called Nynorsk).

In 1917 a major orthographic reform replaced many instances of the digraph aa with the letter å, among other changes, bringing Bokmål closer to contemporary Norwegian spelling. During the mid-20th century the state pursued the Samnorsk program to harmonize Bokmål and Nynorsk, though a single unified written standard has not been adopted; Bokmål spelling remains the dominant form and is administered by the language authority in Norway.

Today Bokmålstavingen is codified and published by Språkrådet (The Language Council of Norway) and used in education, government, media, and literature. It encompasses rules for capitalization, punctuation, diacritics, and the treatment of loanwords, with minor variation reflecting register and personal preference. Bokmål contains both Danish-influenced spellings and forms that have been Norwegianized over time.