Behandling av rettskrivingsvariasjon i norske ordbøker og ordlister

Spelling codification is a governmental responsibility in Norway, allocated to theNorwegian Language Council. The policy of rapprochement between the two officialwriting standards of Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk, has led to several spellingreforms and an extensive body of optional forms. Partly these forms are consideredequal, partly they are grouped in two levels, a main form (or more) to be used inschool textbooks and public service, and an optional secondary form (or more)which may be used by pupils in schools and private persons generally. Thisoptionality applies to both the spelling of single words and whole morphologicalcategories, for instance in the choice between two or three genders in Bokmål andthe infinitive suffix in Nynorsk, which may be -a or -e. The most important tool forthe implementation of this official codification is word lists, produced by privatepublishers, but needing governmental approval (given by the Language Council) tobe allowed in the school system. These lists shall in principle contain all optionalforms. But many of these optional forms are rarely used in writing, while forms thatare not allowed in the official spelling, may have been accepted as standard forms bymany users. The article discusses the treatment of this optionality in three maindictionary types: spelling lists, monolingual definition dictionaries, and bilingualdictionaries