The future is knocking at the door. Let’s run to open.

I would like to thank Jon Olaf Olaussen for his eye-opening guest column about our future in Universitetsavisa last Friday, where he argues for quitting our antiquated practice of sustaining two different versions of Norwegian in our little nation. After reading his piece I realize that Olaussen is partly right. Partly, because he his suggestions only takes us half way into the future.

His sentiments with respect to the situation reflects exactly how I feel with respect to Norwegian today. In my ears Norwegian sounds better than English. All the same, my attitude to Norwegian has changed, from being positive, to not caring, to realizing that Norwegian belongs to the past. Listen to young Norwegians today, and read what they write! They are already using so many English terms, and even their sentence structure and idioms are so influenced by English, that we should now take the plunge and switch to English completely.

I recently discussed this with a colleague, and his reaction to keeping with this linguistic curiosity, was “Rubbish!” When offered the usual arguments about culture, history, identity and diversity, he called this a despicable, mean, and self-centred argumentation. He proceeded with a couple of questions: “Is linguistic diversity really good in itself? Do we, for instance, understand other cultures better because they have a language that we don’t understand, or is the lack of language skills a barrier to understanding other cultures?”

Identity and culture are all well and good, but they're hardly the primary function of a written language, are they? Its foremost purpose must surely be communication? And does communication improve by having as many variations as possible?

In its annual complaint, the Language Council of Norway says that it is very serious that Norwegian academic environments publish too little in Norwegian. The argument is that Norwegian culture and diversity are important. Well, it seems that these state institutions are not completely in agreement. Although they promise to improve, for example, NTNU doesn't hide that they think they have more important things to do, if we read between the lines or the titles from the many media reports on the issue.

Of course, the only purpose of a language is communication. There are, of course, some snobbish academics who claim that language and writing are tools for developing thought. These people also like to think that using their mother tongue matters. Let’s be generous. This marginal group of sentimentalists should of course be allowed to nourish their petty diversions. But let’s realize that the time has come to disconnect the patient from the artificial respiration. One does not have to be a clairvoyant to realize that Norwegian has become a curiosity for the particularly interested.

The future is knocking at the door. Let’s run to open it!