Multilingual encounters in Northern Norway

Abstract

Norway has always been a multilingual society; Sámi languages have been spoken in vast geographical areas since prehistoric times, the Kven and other historical minority groups settled in the country, the Norwegian language has a great variety of dialects and the long coastline has eased mobility and enabled multiple multilingual encounters lasting short or long periods of time. In recent years, migrants from all over the world have become part of Norwegian society (Bull and Lindgren 2009). The practice and evaluation of multilingualism in its broadest sense have changed over the years, and new arenas in which multilingual encounters take place have emerged. The articles in this issue of Acta Borealia highlight a handful of aspects of these developments, as seen from the point of view of contemporary Northern Norway. The articles are written by members of the Multilingual North: Diversity, Education and Revitalization (MultiNor) research group at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Although the articles in this special issue primarily concern multilingualism in contemporary settings, they are all rooted in the historical contexts of the northernmost region of Norway. Here, colonization and Norwegianization politics (from approximately 1860– 1950) have immensely influenced people’s multilingual lives, and the consequences are still highly present. Norwegianization promoted the use of the Norwegian language and stigmatized the use of the Sámi and Kven languages. This delegitimization had severe consequences. In many communities, there were language shifts from Sámi and Kven to Norwegian, and these languages are today considered endangered or severely endangered. However, since the Sámi and Kven languages were used privately and hidden from public arenas, they were not completely erased, and there is still a basis for their (re)vitalization and reclamation. These processes are now supported in the very same arenas where these languages were sanctioned, namely educational institutions, workplaces and public arenas (e.g. Huss 2008; Huss and Lindgren 2010; Pietikäinen et al. 2010). Historically, transnational migration to Northern Norway (e.g. Brochmann and Kjeldstadli 2014; Hiss 2017) contributed to linguistic diversity though not to the extent that can be seen in the twenty-first century. The Norwegian minority policy and the development of linguistic diversity in Northern Norway have been described in three main historical phases (e.g. Niemi 1995; Huss and Lindgren 2010). In the first phase, which lasted until the 1860s, the policy was described