Ivar Aasen og Universitetet i Oslo

With his grammar of 1848, Det norske Folkesprogs Grammatik,and his dictionary of 1850, Ordbog over det norskeFolkesprog, Ivar Aasen (1813–1896) provided the first systematicaccount of Norwegian dialects and initiated the era ofmodern Norwegian lexicography. These publications constitutedthe scientific basis for a national written language forNorway. Aasen had no formal academic education, but DetKongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab in Trondheim providedAasen with the funding he needed to collect linguisticmaterial from the dialects. In the final stages of the work onthe grammar and the dictionary, Aasen sought advice fromleading academics at the University of Oslo to ensure that hisaccount of the language was scientifically sound and up todate. The article features the collaboration between Aasen andthe university academics in this period, and particular attentionis given to a disagreement that Aasen and the academics hadregarding how the closed and open vowels should be handledin the written code. The article also addresses how the sameenvironment of academics who had been important for Aasen’sbreakthrough as a linguist and lexicographer turned against hisproject when it was no longer just a theoretical linguisticproject, but a practical project to establish a dialect-basedwritten Norwegian language as an alternative to Danish.Finally the focus is on how the University of Oslo in the yearsafter Aasen has taken care of and developed the constitutionallygrounded project to implement a national language