Language and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century: Nynorsk and Scots in Comparative Context

Abstract

Analyses of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe have demonstrated the importance of language in crystallising group identity. The century witnessed a continent-wide growth in the idea that language – especially regional linguistic differences from a hegemonic or imperial state language – could form the basis of a strong regional, or, latterly, national identity. This article explores the divergent trajectories which the language question took in Norway and Scotland during this period, and argues that differences in national identity, caused partly by the two nations’ different constitutional histories, had a considerable impact on the development of Scots and Nynorsk in their respective national contexts.