Search

The standardization processes of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian display large differences with Denmark and Norway at the opposite ends of the scale and Sweden in the middle. A closer historical study reveals significant differences between the modernization processes (demographic developments, types of industrialization, and modernization processes within agriculture). These differences led to different class alliances, a fact that has had a bearing on language attitudes and language change. In late modern society the notion of class seems to be problematic, and life style analysis has entered the sociolinguistic scene and seems well suited to keep a balance between determinism and agency in a post-traditional world.

Viewed from abroad, the three mainland Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are rather similar. They are modern welfare states with ethnically and culturally homogeneous populations that have only recently seen substantial immigration from overseas. Their languages are related and to a great extent mutually intelligible, but as far as language standardisation is concerned there are considerable differences. As we shall see, Danish is one of the most standardised languages in Europe. Swedish standardisation comes close to this, whereas that of Norwegian has taken a very different path. This chapter will focus on standardisation of spoken language in mainland Scandinavia. It will be based on an analysis of the standardisation process in Denmark, and will attempt to disentangle the interplay between ideological, political, demographic, social, and educational reasons why the standardisation of spoken Danish is as advanced as it is. Besides standardisation, the notions of convergence and divergence (cf. Auer and Hinskens 1996: 1ff.) will be used to refer to internal developments affecting the structure of both dialect and standard varieties. ‘Standard Language’ and ‘Standardisation’ The modern tradition of language standardisation studies begins with the Prague School. Characterising the nature of a standard language, they drew attention to the special range of functions in which it was employed, as well as the direct connection with urban culture and civilisation (Joseph 1987: 13). According to this view, we may consider the presence of a standard language to be a major linguistic correlate of an essentially urban culture.

A high degree of standardization is peculiar to contemporary Danish, the traditional dialects being on the verge of extinction. This is the result of a dialect-levelling process dating back to the end of the 1800s. Due to an early modernization of agriculture, the dominance of the capital, and a strong standard ideology, the spoken standard gained ground outside towns earlier than in the neighboring countries, and an interdialectal convergence and convergence to the standard gathered momentum. This development was almost complete about 1960. After this time dialects were only very rarely transmitted to the next generation. This does not mean that total linguistic standardization has been accomplished. Much spoken standard Danish still has regional features, and there is a certain polarization between an older standard perceived as more sedate and a younger standard connoting dynamism, characterized by more variants from Low Copenhagen.

The former Duchy of Slesvig constitutes a border area, linguistically intersectedby the Danish-German border andsince 1920 also by the national border. From the Middle Ages belonging to the Danish hing and Danishspeaking, apart from the southernmost pari, Slesvig used German as the language ofthe church, apart from rural North Slesvig, and of the secular administration. The article gives a historical survey of Danish and German dialects in the area, discussing the impact from language contact, and the language shift in Middle Slesvig from Danish dialect to Low German. The case of Slesvig points to the language ofculture f Kultursprache,) as decisive for the choice between national identities, not the mother tongue proper.

Linguistics in this century has been dominated by the contrasting currents of empiricism and rationalism. The empiricist firmly believes in induction, refers to data as uncontroversially falsifying or corroborating preconceived notions of what languages are like and is devoted to working with a wide variety of linguistic data. The rationalist, on the other hand, is an ardent believer in deductive or abductive reasoning, in bold conjectures and meticulous testing which may lead to internal falsification of theories. As for data, they are much overrated, the rationalist holds, since all data are data for theories only. Finally, the rationalist is much more concerned with what language is than with what languages are like.

[Der findes ikke abstract til denne artikel]

[Der findes ikke abstract til denne artikel]

[Der findes ikke abstract til denne artikel]

[Der findes ikke abstract til denne artikel]