October 8, 1940: The road to a Høgnorsk Goal

«Fritt Folks, October 8, 1940.

Article by Dr. Gulbrand Lunde.

The new legal writing of 1938 caused widespread outrage both on the New Norwegian side and among native speakers. You probably don’t do justice to anyone when you assign Koht a significant part of the blame for the peculiar form this writing took. Everyone agrees that we must try to reach a common Norwegian goal in this country. It is also in accordance with the Nasjonal Samling’s program, where it is stated in point 26: ‘The natural fusion of the two goals leading to one Norwegian written language is promoted, but without coercion.’

The latest spelling reform should have been a step in this direction, but was completely falsified because personal opinions and interests were put before factual, professional, and national considerations.

It is known that there was great disagreement in the committee about the different forms and spellings, which were decided by voting in good old parliamentary fashion. The result was the Kohtske knot, which was neither a bird nor a fish, but only a knot. It is characteristic to the extent that it did not, except for a small circle, arouse enthusiasm in any camp.

We believe that the spelling reform in its current form was a mistake and that the question should be taken up for renewed consideration.

The goal must be as much Norwegian written language as possible, which will naturally come to take up the good Norwegian words and phrases from the vernacular.