Eit samrøystes stortingsvedtak for 100 år sidan (1924) om talemålet i skolen er viktig for å forstå den utbreidde dialektbruken i Noreg

Abstract

This year (2024) marks the 100th anniversary of a remarkable, unanimous resolution passed on March 12th by the Norwegian Parliament for the protection of the first- language varieties spoken by the young school students: their accents and dialects, the varieties they grew up with in their homes, and local communities. According to this resolution, neither teachers nor the School Authorities had the legal right to question the right of students to use their own language variety – and to have instruction given, as far as possible – in that same variety.

This resolution is important for an understanding of how the widespread use of popular dialects in Norway today came about: starting with a parliamentary decree of 1878 requir- ing the use of popular dialects in oral instruction in rural schools. In 1917 Parliament also decided to give this same protection to the use of urban working-class dialects in schools. Nationwide sociolinguistic legislation of this type has no known parallel elsewhere.

The principle of not trying to eradicate, or even “correcting” the dialects of school children, either in the countryside or in towns and cities, provides to a considerable extent an explanation for why Norway today stands out as probably the most dialect-using country in Europe.