A few linguistic thought about the Scandinavian languages. The survival of distinct Swedish and Norwegian language are realistic, but I also think it’s more complex than that. What we think of as Norwegian and Swedish language reforms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here with a closer union it will likely grow more complex. What I write here is just a very broad explanation of the development of Norwergian, and in reality it’s far more complex.
What we think of as standard Norwegian the so called bokmål (book language) written standard was pretty much Danish until after independence. I suspect both Swedish and Norwegian will stay more conservative. Which means standard Norwegian keep a more Danish written standard and likely keep the older name Riksmål.
At the same time western Norwegian dialect adopted a different written standard the so-called Nynorsk (New Norwegian). This will beside Norway likely spread to the Faroe Islands, which will mean that the Faroese language won’t exist in this world, but simply be a Norwegian dialect. So no Faroese national identify.
Icelanders are proud of their language and independent minded, their language will survive unchanged and we will li also see Iceland get autonomy from Norway.
I expect that with a closer union, there will be developed a unified Nordic written standard let’s call it Samnordisk, likely a compromise between Riksmål and Swedish. This written standard will mostly used in publication meant for the entire union and will likely be the one taught to Finnish speaker outside majority Swedish speaking areas and by people learning Scandinavian languages outside the union. Swedish, Riksmål and Nynorsk will instead be used in regional media and publications. Denmark will likely make use of Samnordisk in similar way. This is of course very clumsy, but a similar situation functioned that way in Norway.
The existence of Samnordisk will be the factor keeping the other written standards conservatives, as the linguists will focus on Samnordisk, leaving the traditional standards in peace.
What we think of as standard Norwegian the so called bokmål (book language) written standard was pretty much Danish until after independence. I suspect both Swedish and Norwegian will stay more conservative. Which means standard Norwegian keep a more Danish written standard and likely keep the older name Riksmål.
At the same time western Norwegian dialect adopted a different written standard the so-called Nynorsk (New Norwegian). This will beside Norway likely spread to the Faroe Islands, which will mean that the Faroese language won’t exist in this world, but simply be a Norwegian dialect. So no Faroese national identify.
Icelanders are proud of their language and independent minded, their language will survive unchanged and we will li also see Iceland get autonomy from Norway.
I expect that with a closer union, there will be developed a unified Nordic written standard let’s call it Samnordisk, likely a compromise between Riksmål and Swedish. This written standard will mostly used in publication meant for the entire union and will likely be the one taught to Finnish speaker outside majority Swedish speaking areas and by people learning Scandinavian languages outside the union. Swedish, Riksmål and Nynorsk will instead be used in regional media and publications. Denmark will likely make use of Samnordisk in similar way. This is of course very clumsy, but a similar situation functioned that way in Norway.
The existence of Samnordisk will be the factor keeping the other written standards conservatives, as the linguists will focus on Samnordisk, leaving the traditional standards in peace.