Section 1.Purpose

The purpose of this Act is to strengthen the Norwegian language in order to safeguard it as a complete language, serving and uniting our society, that can be used in all areas of society and in all parts of civil society in Norway. The Act shall promote equality between Bokmål and Nynorsk and ensure the protection and status of the languages for which the state is responsible.

Other purposes of the Act are to ensure that

The responsibility pursuant to the second paragraph (a) includes a special responsibility for promoting Nynorsk, as the least used written Norwegian language.

Section 2.Definitions

For the purpose of this Act, the following definitions apply:

Section 3.Scope

Unless otherwise stipulated, the Act applies to

The first sentence (c) and (d) does not apply to legal persons which mainly carry on business in direct competition with and on the same conditions as private legal persons.

The rules in sections 12 to 18 do not apply to

The rules in sections 12 to 18 apply only to the administrative part of the activities at the universities, the state university colleges and other state schools, upper secondary schools, the courts, conciliation boards and prosecuting authorities.

The Ministry may issue regulations stating that sections 12 to 18 shall also not apply fully or in part to bodies and independent legal persons to which the Act otherwise applies, and concerning the choice of written language in connection with examinations at universities, state university colleges and other state schools.

Section 4.Norwegian language

Norwegian is the primary national language in Norway.

Bokmål and Nynorsk are Norwegian languages with equal value that can be used in all parts of society. Bokmål and Nynorsk have equal standing as written languages in public bodies.

Section 5.Sami languages

Sami languages are indigenous languages in Norway.

Sami languages and Norwegian are languages of equal value. They have equal standing under Chapter 3 of the Sami Act.

Section 6.National minority languages

Kven, Romani and Romanes are national minority languages in Norway.

As expressions of language and culture, Kven, Romani and Romanes are equal in value to Norwegian.

Section 7.Norwegian sign language

Norwegian sign language is the national sign language in Norway.

As an expression of language and culture, Norwegian sign language is equal in value to Norwegian.

Section 8.Scandinavian languages

Everyone has the right to use Swedish or Danish in contact with public bodies. Public bodies may respond in Norwegian.

Section 9.Plain language

Public bodies shall communicate in plain and correct language adapted to the target group.

Section 10.Official orthography for Bokmål and Nynorsk

Public bodies shall comply with the official orthographic rules for Bokmål and Nynorsk.

State bodies shall have names in Norwegian, both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The names shall comply with the official orthographic rules.

Section 11.Municipal and county authority language decisions

A municipality or a county authority may itself decide to require that state bodies shall use only Bokmål or Nynorsk in all written communication with the municipality or county authority, or that the municipality or county authority shall be linguistically neutral. A municipality or a county authority shall be considered linguistically neutral as long as no such decision has been made.

Municipalities and county authorities shall notify the Language Council of Norway about language decisions pursuant to the first paragraph.

Section 12.Majority language

The majority language in a service area is the written Norwegian language, either Bokmål or Nynorsk, for which more than half of the municipalities in a service area make a language decision pursuant to section 11. A regional state body shall use the majority language in the area of service. If there is no majority language in a service area, a regional state body shall be considered linguistically neutral.

Section 13.Alternating between Bokmål and Nynorsk in publicly available documents

Over time, central state bodies shall use at least 25 per cent of both Bokmål and Nynorsk in publicly available documents. Regional state bodies that have either Bokmål or Nynorsk as the majority language in their area of service shall use the majority language in publicly available documents.

A linguistically neutral regional state body whose area of service encompasses municipalities that have made language decisions concerning Bokmål or Nynorsk pursuant to section 11, shall alternate between the written languages so that there is a reasonable proportion between them in publicly available documents. If at least a quarter of the municipalities in a service area have made a decision to require the same written language, a linguistically neutral regional state body shall alternate between the written languages so that over time there is at least 25 per cent of this written language in publicly available documents. If at least one municipality, but less than a quarter of the municipalities in a service area have made a decision to require Nynorsk, the regional state body shall alternate between the written languages so that over time there will be at least 10 per cent Nynorsk in publicly available documents.

If municipalities in a geographically delimited area have a majority language, state bodies shall use this language in documents aimed at these municipalities. The same applies when a document has a special connection to such a geographically delimited area. If a document has a special connection to only one municipality, state bodies shall comply with the language decision made by this municipality.

Central state bodies shall, in documents aimed at a regional state body, use the majority language in the area of service of that regional state body.

County authorities that are language neutral pursuant to section 11 of this Act, shall alternate between the written languages so that there is a reasonable proportion between them in publicly available documents.

Section 14.Parallel use of Bokmål and Nynorsk by state bodies

State bodies shall make forms and other self-service services simultaneously available in Bokmål and Nynorsk.

If a private legal person requires that permits and standardised forms that directly apply to the legal person shall be in either Bokmål or Nynorsk, state bodies shall comply with the requirement.

State bodies shall simultaneously publish documents intended for use in schools in both Bokmål and Nynorsk.

Section 15.Use of Bokmål and Nynorsk for private legal persons and individual municipalities

In documents addressed to a private legal person, state bodies and county authorities shall use the written Norwegian language which the private legal person itself has used in communication with the body, or which the private legal person has otherwise stated that it wishes to use.

In documents addressed to a municipality or a county authority that has made a language decision pursuant to section 11, state bodies and county authorities shall use the stipulated written language.

Section 16.Requirements for writing competence

State bodies and county authorities shall ensure that they have the necessary writing competence to be able to use Bokmål and Nynorsk in accordance with this Act.

State bodies shall require that employees write both Bokmål and Nynorsk in their work. County authorities may require the same. However, this does not apply to employees who have not completed secondary language training in primary and lower secondary school.

The Ministry may issue regulations on other special exceptions from the first sentence of the second paragraph.

Section 17.Right of appeal

If the wrong written language is used in a document as described in section 14, second paragraph, the recipient, or organisations acting on behalf of the recipient, may appeal and demand that the document be reissued. Sections 28 to 35 of the Public Administration Act apply to cases pursuant to the first sentence.

Section 18.Pointing out incorrect use of written language by state bodies

Language organisations may point out to a state body that they believe the body violates the provisions described in sections 14 and 15, even if the matter does not concern the organisations themselves.

Section 19.The Language Council of Norway

The Language Council of Norway is the state's administrative body for language issues and administers the official written standards for Bokmål and Nynorsk.

The Language Council of Norway shall advise state bodies on spelling and naming customs before a decision is made on the names of state bodies.

The Language Council of Norway supervises how state bodies comply with the rules in section 10, second paragraph and sections 12 to 17.

The Language Council of Norway shall provide guidance to public bodies concerning the rules in this Act.

Section 20.Duty to provide information to the Language Council of Norway

State bodies shall provide the Language Council with the reports and information that the Language Council of Norway requests as part of its supervision of the rules in section 10, second paragraph, and sections 12 to 17.

Section 21.Entry into force and transitional provisions

The Act applies from such date^​1 as the King decides. From the same date, Act no. 5 of 11 April 1980 relating to Language Usage in the Civil Service will be repealed.

Regulations issued pursuant to Act no. 5 of 11 April 1980 relating to Language Usage in the Civil Service will continue to apply as long as they are not in conflict with this Act.

Section 22.Amendments to other acts

From the date the Act comes into force, the following amendments shall be made to other acts: – – –