Letter to the Ministry of Culture and Equality, and the Language Council

Løvemammaene have sent a request to the Ministry of Culture and Equality and The Language Council about making Bokmål available on all public websites.

It is very problematic that public information is only available in Nynorsk and that residents do not have the option of reading in Bokmål. Far from all the country's inhabitants have received Nynorsk training and therefore do not have the prerequisites to be able to understand the content of the text. We are a multicultural society where many settle in Norway as adults. Children with functional variations can be exempted from Nynorsk training if it is not considered appropriate to be assessed in two written languages. Children with a different mother tongue can also fall under the exemption.

We believe that it is an important measure for those children who need to be exempted from Nynorsk training, but then it must also be made possible to be able to use Bokmål in the digital arena.

Read the letter to the Language Council below here.

Request for a more inclusive digital arena.

We ask the Language Council to introduce measures to make Bokmål available on all public websites.
We would like to make it clear that we do not believe that the use of Nynorsk should decrease, but that there must be an option to get the content in Bokmål.

It is very problematic for residents with an immigrant background that e.g. lovdata.no, discrimineringsnemnda.no, bufdir.no, regjeringen.no (including consultation letters, legislative amendments and NOUs) publish content exclusively in Nynorsk, without the option of choosing Bokmål.

It is a lot to ask that all those who become Norwegian citizens manage to learn two written Norwegian languages in order to be able to take part in society, acquire information, get the help they need or be able to get involved voluntarily or politically. We choose to believe that this has not been thought through on the part of the Language Council, but that it is relatively easy to correct.

In the same way that the Language Council recommends that there be an alternation between the target forms, Løvemammaene asks the Language Council to at the same time recommend that all writing designed in Nynorsk must also be available in Bokmål to give people without Nynorsk training the same access to information and rights. We also ask the Language Council to acquire knowledge about how Nynorsk actually becomes a safety gap for some and thus also an exclusion factor, as well as to enter into a dialogue with the ministry about possible solutions for this.

A similar inquiry has also been sent to the Ministry of Culture and Equality.

With best regards
Elin Gunnarsson
deputy head of the Løvemammaene

Below you can read the letter sent to the Ministry of Culture and Equality.

Request for changes to the Language Act

Løvemammaen asks the Ministry of Culture and Equality to introduce measures to make Bokmål available on all public websites.
We would like to make it clear that we do not believe that the use of Nynorsk should decrease, but that there must be an option to get the content in Bokmål.

In the same way that the Language Council recommends that there be an alternation between the target forms, Løvemammaene has now asked the Language Council to also recommend that all writing designed in Nynorsk must also be available in Bokmål in order to give people without Nynorsk training the same access to information and rights. We have also asked the Language Council to acquire knowledge about how Nynorsk actually becomes a safety gap for some and thus also an exclusion factor, as well as to enter into a dialogue with the ministry about possible solutions for this.

We ask that the above-mentioned measures be included in Språklova. This is particularly important in cases that deal with laws and regulations around health and care services, culture and equality, social and work.

With best regards
Elin Gunnarsson
deputy head of the Løvemammaene