17 votes

New gender-neutral pronoun is likely to enter the official Norwegian language within a year, the Language Council of Norway has confirmed

5 comments

  1. [5]
    balooga
    Link
    I'm really curious, as an outsider, what influence the Language Council of Norway actually has on the Norwegian language. Our English dictionaries take a descriptivist approach, welcoming new...

    I'm really curious, as an outsider, what influence the Language Council of Norway actually has on the Norwegian language. Our English dictionaries take a descriptivist approach, welcoming new words as they arise organically in common use. I presume there are no languages for which some governing body can declare a word "official" and it be any more than a symbolic gesture. So a more meaningful declaration would be something like a new edition of a popular style guide, or a change in the rules the government follows when writing official forms and documents. What I'm asking is, how important of a headline is this exactly?

    7 votes
    1. [4]
      PetitPrince
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      L'Académie Française est entrée dans le salon de discussion. But sometime their new words fail to much traction (e.g. Mél as a remplacement for e-mail)

      I presume there are no languages for which some governing body can declare a word "official" and it be any more than a symbolic gesture.

      L'Académie Française est entrée dans le salon de discussion.

      But sometime their new words fail to much traction (e.g. Mél as a remplacement for e-mail)

      8 votes
      1. [3]
        Adys
        Link Parent
        Hahahah. Amen :) Mél was such an idiotic idea anyway. For the non-french-speakers among us, it's like if the Oxford Dictionary decided to claim "Bon Appétit" was no longer something you should say...

        L'Académie Française est entrée dans le salon de discussion.

        Hahahah. Amen :)

        Mél was such an idiotic idea anyway. For the non-french-speakers among us, it's like if the Oxford Dictionary decided to claim "Bon Appétit" was no longer something you should say in English, and replace it with the much-more-correctly-written-and-pronounced "bawnapp it-it".

        5 votes
        1. [2]
          PetitPrince
          Link Parent
          Well, yes and no but ultimately yes. For me looks similar enough to a contraction of message électronique which is close enough to "courrier électronique" (the literal translation of e-mail). And...

          Well, yes and no but ultimately yes.

          For me looks similar enough to a contraction of message électronique which is close enough to "courrier électronique" (the literal translation of e-mail). And having it as an homonyme of "mail" (which is the most used word referring to email where I live) is a nice bonus.

          ... but this still manage to look like both like a cop out ("everybody is saying /meɪl/ anyway") and some sort of righteous jealousy toward Québec (the much more used "courriel" word comes from there; "Comment osez-vous inventer des nouveaux mots !? Nous sommes l'Académie Française !") ).

          4 votes
          1. Adys
            Link Parent
            It didn't even occur to me it could be a contraction of "message électronique". It's that bad. Courriel is a perfect word. France has severe NIH syndrome. God forbid we get some canadian words...

            It didn't even occur to me it could be a contraction of "message électronique". It's that bad.

            Courriel is a perfect word. France has severe NIH syndrome. God forbid we get some canadian words into our language, jeez.

            4 votes