Ivar Aasen

Ivar Aasen was a Norwegian lexicographer and philologist who created the written Norwegian language standard known as Landsmål. This constructed language was heavily based on rural Norwegian dialects and eventually evolved into what is today known as Nynorsk (New Norwegian).

During the 1800s, Norway was in a union with Sweden, and the official written language was essentially Danish. Aasen sought to create a distinct Norwegian literary language that reflected the country's true cultural and rural heritage, rather than relying on the language of the urban elite.

Aasen spent years traveling across rural Norway meticulously documenting and comparing various regional dialects. He synthesized these rural tongues into a unified standard, publishing his foundational grammar in 1848 and his comprehensive dictionary in 1850.

Yes, Nynorsk is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, alongside Bokmål. However, it is a minority standard, currently used by only about 10 to 15 percent of the Norwegian school population.