Ivar Andreas Aasen (; 5 August 1813 He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from various dialects. When he was eighteen, he opened an elementary school in his native parish. In 1833, he entered the household of Hans Conrad Thoresen, the husband of the eminent writer Magdalene Thoresen, in the parish of Herø (now Herøy Municipality), where he picked up the elements of Latin. Aasen gradually mastered several languages and began the scientific study of their structure.
Career
When Aasen travelled to Bergen in 1841, he met Bishop Jacob Neumann, who was very impressed with his work and had excerpts of it published in Bergens Stiftstidende ("Bergen Diocese Newspaper"). His contacts with Bishop Neumann became Aasen's entrance ticket to the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in Trondheim, who gave him generous financial support (an annual grant of 120-200 speciedaler) which made it possible for him to travel extensively and study the Norwegian vernacular. It is said to have been the rector of Trondheim, Fredrik M. Bugge, who came across Neumann's articles while travelling in Bergen and persuaded the scientific society to grant the funding to Aasen. In 1842, Aasen began receiving a stipend enabling him to give his entire attention to his philological investigations; With certain modifications, the most important of which were introduced later by Aasen himself, In 1864 Aasen published his definitive grammar of Nynorsk, and in 1873 he published the final version of his Dictionary.
The Storting (the Norwegian parliament), conscious of the national importance of his work, increased its financial support to Aasen as he advanced in years.
Legacy
thumb|Tomb of Ivar Aasen at Vår Frelsers gravlund, Oslo
Nynorsk
The language standardised by Aasen, Landsmål, was later renamed to Nynorsk (), emerging as the second of Norway's two official languages (the other being Bokmål, the Dano-Norwegian descendant of the Danish language used in Norway in Aasen's time). An unofficial variety of Norwegian closer to Aasen's language is still found in Høgnorsk (). As of the early 2000s, some scholars considered Nynorsk on equal footing with Bokmål, as Bokmål tended to be used more in radio and television and most newspapers, whereas Nynorsk was used equally in government work, as well as approximately 17% of schools. Although it was not as common as its brother language, some scholars argued it needed to be looked upon as a viable language, as a large minority of Norwegians used it as their primary language, including many scholars and authors.
The Ivar Aasen Centre
, an institution devoted to the Nynorsk language, opened in June 2000. The building in Ørsta was designed by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn. Their web page includes most of Aasen's texts, numerous other examples of Nynorsk literature (in Nettbiblioteket, the Internet Library), and some articles, including some in English, about language history in Norway.
The Language Year 2013
Språkåret 2013 (The Language Year 2013) celebrated Ivar Aasen's 200-year anniversary, as well as the 100-year anniversary of Det Norske Teateret. The year's main focus was to celebrate linguistic diversity in Norway. In a poll released in connection with the celebration, 56% of Norwegians said they held positive views of Aasen, while 7% held negative views. On 5 August 2013, Bergens Tidende, which is normally published mainly in Bokmål, published an edition fully in Nynorsk in memory of Aasen.
Nynorsk Day and Nynorsk Week
Nynorskdagen (Nynorsk Day) falls on the 12 of May. It commemorates the day of , the law making Landsmål/Nynorsk an official language of Norway alongside Danish (later Bokmål). Noregs Mållag, the main organisation for Nynorsk, encouraged people and organisations that do not usually use the language to write Nynorsk on this day. Several companies, notably Vipps and Ruter, released Nynorsk language support for their mobile apps on the 12th of May. In 2025, Noregs Mållag announced Nynorsk Day has been expanded into a Nynorsk Week from the 6 to the 12 of May.
Bibliography
Aasen published a wide range of material, some of it released posthumously.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:left"
|-
! Title !! Translated title !! Publication date !! Type !! class=unsortable| Notes
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| Det norske Folkesprogs Grammatik || Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects || 1848 || Book ||
|-
| Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog || Dictionary of the Norwegian Dialects || 1850 || Dictionary ||