Ivar Aasen

Ivar Andreas Aasen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈîːvɑr ˈòːsn̩]; 5 August 1813 – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet. He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from various dialects. Born into a family of farmers, Aasen showed an interest in reading from a young age. As a young adult, he received tutoring and learned several languages, before moving to Bergen in 1841. Once in Bergen, he was soon able to secure annual stipends for the purpose of travelling and performing research on the Norwegian dialects. In 1848 and 1850, respectively, he published a grammar and a dictionary of spoken Norwegian. After moving to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1847, Aasen continued his research and development of the language which he called Landsmål, publishing new versions of both the grammar and the dictionary. He also wrote poems and plays in the new language. He died in Christiania on 23 September 1896 and was buried with public honours. Landsmål became a co-official language of Norway alongside Riksmål. After Aasen's death, Landsmål was renamed to Nynorsk and Riksmål became Bokmål. Today, Nynorsk is a minority language in Norway, though it enjoys an equal legal status to Bokmål.