On Tuesday, the entire chairmanship, except the SV representative, voted for the municipality of Ålesund to once again become language neutral starting January 1, 2024. Although the official decision of the new municipal council is still pending, it seems safe to declare that the title “the largest Nynorsk city in the world” will be taken over by someone else starting the new year.
The deputy mayor and leader of the right-wing group on the city council, Monica Molvær, was pleased with the decision:
– The fact that the municipality of Ålesund became language neutral means that employees themselves can decide which target form they will use to write. This allows them to concentrate on the work they need to do, rather than spending time and energy writing down targets they feel they haven’t mastered well enough, he says.
When the cooperation agreement between the three parties was presented, Harald Tom Nesvik expressed a warm welcome at a press conference in the now linguistically neutral municipality of Ålesund.
Photo: Kåre Stig Nøstdal
Freedom of choice
Molvær believes that freedom of choice is also important for municipalities to get the best qualified people when positions are advertised:
– If a position requires you to write on a different target form than the one you feel most comfortable with, you may choose to apply for another job. Optional target forms are important when we try to recruit the best people, not only from all over Norway, but also from abroad, he believes.
What’s in Nynorsk stays in Nynorsk
The leadership’s decision does not mean that all current regulations, documents, websites, computer programs and other things in Nynorsk must be rewritten into Bokmål:
– It is important for us that the decision on language neutrality does not require additional work. What is written in Nynorsk today will remain in Nynorsk, he explained.
The decision also means that the municipality of Ålesund is opting out of the National Association of Nynorsk municipalities, which the municipality will save NOK 60,000 a year after.
– Aasen is against coercion
Lastly, he stated that he doesn’t think coercion is a good way to preserve Nynorsk, which he believes is important for us to do. In that context, he likes to quote the “father of New Norway”, Ivar Aasen himself:
– “This new language form one should still not order or pressure anyone”, wrote Ivar Aasen. I completely agree with that, said Monica Molvær.
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