Knud Knudsen (linguist)

Knud Knudsen (1812 to 1895) was a Norwegian educator, author, linguist and philologist, known as the Father of Bokmål. Born at Tvedestrand in Nedenes, he was first an adjunct professor in Drammen and in 1846 was appointed headmaster of the Christiania Cathedral School, a post he held until 1880. As a teacher he observed that pupils who spoke Norwegian found it hard to write Danish, and he came to believe that the written language should be changed to match common speech. He became a leading voice in the national debate that produced Riksmål, later Bokmål, and Landsmål, later Nynorsk, and was among the first to propose Norwegianisation, rewriting loanwords in Norwegian spelling, as when chauffeur became sjåfør. His fullest treatment is Unorsk og norsk, eller Fremmedords avlösning, published from 1879 to 1881, and his ideas influenced contemporaries such as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.