Talk:Riksmål

"Although Riksmål have been the most widely written language in Norway, it is not an official language of the country."

How is a reader supposed to interpret this sentence? Two statements about Riksmål is made: 1) has been the most widely written 2) not an official language

If the original author had written

"Riksmål has been the most widely written language in Norway." "It is not an official language of the country."

the first sentence would beg the question: which is the most widely written language at present in Norway? "most widely" can at least refer to quantity or geographical, temporal or social settings, but it is not clear which parameter the author had in mind. There are no statistics provided for any of them to back up the claim of "most".

The second sentence is a separate fact.

However, I interpreted the quote as "It ought to have been an official written language, because it has been the most widely written language in Norway." To me, the quoted sentence is not presenting two facts about Riksmål, but it is presenting an argument.

I suggest someone more knowledgable about the quantity of material written in Riksmål in comparison to Danish, Bokmål, Nynorsk and Samí, someone more knowledgable about the geographical scope, someone more knowledgable about when Riksmål appeared and when it was (or if it was) superceded as "most widely written", someone more knowledgable about it's penetration into different social layers/classes/groups - please edit this entry.


 * Riksmål was an intermediate form between Danisk and Bokmål. While bokmål is a Norwegian lanuguage, bokmål was something in between Danish and Norwegian, although more Danish than Norwegian. Some newspaper has been using riksmål, although hsas lately moved closer to moderate bokmål. Example is Aftenposten.