Bokmål, Nynorsk and Dialect

Linguistic

Norwegian has TWO written standards with equal official status — BOKMÅL, descended from Danish written practice, and NYNORSK, constructed by Ivar Aasen in the 19th century from rural western dialects. There is no spoken standard and dialect is used in all settings. Food words vary accordingly: the same object may be lefse, leiv or flatbrød depending on where you are, and this system keeps regional names rather than normalising them.