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In the first place it has proved difficult to make the
south-eastern part of the country, which is the economic centre of gravity
of Norway, take a part in the movement. The most recent authors
in this language try, indeed, to interest the south-eastern part
of the country by approximating their language to the speech
of that region; but on the whole it may be said that these
efforts have not led to the desired result. Another difficulty
that the new-made language has to battle against, is the
vocabulary; for, although it is true that the aggregate vocabulary
of the district dialects is very large, it is more an abundance
than a real richness, and is more conducive to differentiation
than to unity, because the same thing has different names in the
different districts. The popular language lacks words for a number
of conceptions belonging to modern civilisation. It cannot, out of
its own inherited treasure, give us everything pertaining to modern
life. The consequence is that whenever the language has been
employed for practical use, the writer or speaker has been
compelled either to form new words (generally by composition), or
to adopt the words and phrases of the Dano-Norwegian. But
as a matter of course, such wholesale adoption of linguistic
material cannot but exert a destructive and disintegrating effect.
A third difficulty is caused by the style. During the union with
Denmark, fairy tales, popular stories and ballads were our national,
unwritten literature. It is in harmony herewith that lyric poetry
and the plain, every-day story are the very kinds of style which
the «Landsmaal» has, without preparation, been able to treat
satisfactorily. For the so-called normal prose, however (the business
or scientific writings), the «Landsmaal», with its extremely simple
syntax, is very far from being a fit medium. And the religious
expression suffers from the lack of that venerableness which is
a result of tradition.
5. Whereas the Norwegian poets of the latter half of the
preceding century resided in Denmark, and their works made
an integral part of the common literature, whose language they
influenced to a certain extent, they came back at the beginning
of this century to their native land, and thereby marked the
discontinuance of the community of the literature. Nevertheless,
at the beginning of our independence, there was as yet no
Norwegian literary language. Those Norwegianisms which were
naturally committed by Norwegian writers, were generally
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