Ivar Aasen

Norwegian linguist and poet, dubbed the father of Nynorsk (1813 – 1896)

Source-basedStable

Lived 1813–1896, aged 83Norway

Norway WritersWriter / Author

Fame5.6
Momentum2.1
Norway rank#44
Writers rank#236
Wikipedia864

Wikipedia
58 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Norway
#44
Writers
Era
1813–1896
Aged 83

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Ivar Aasen cobbled together Nynorsk, one of Norway's two official written languages, by mining rural dialects in the 1800s. He was also a philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet—basically a one-man linguistic institution.

Biography

About

Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet. He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from various dialects.

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