# Norwegian: Lofoten  vs. Lofoden



## jilar

In our days_ Lofo*t*en_ is the most common name for this popular archipelago in Norway. I suppose it's the official name, in Norwegian language, of course.

But, I was reading one tale by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), in Spanish, and here in English.

I noticed he wrote _Lofo*d*en_, with D.

I was googling about this and found that in that time (s. XIX) it's quite common this spelling, with D.
Ex. 1, ex. 2

There are some more examples.

So, I question:
When was this change made?
And over all, who made it?

Maybe, Lofoden was, during a time, its _international_ name, but in Norwegian was always Lofoten.

Wikipedia doesn't help much.


----------



## cocuyo

If only guessing about the reason, Norway through the history has been governed by Danes, and we see several traces in the language - bokmål - of Danish, while Vestlandsk or Nynorsk differs more from Danish. In Danish, many words that are spelled with t in Norwegian and Swedish, have d spelling in the same position.


----------



## jilar

That is an interesting explanation. Thanks.


----------



## Svenke

Cocuyo is right. The spelling with a _d_ is Danish.

Svenke


----------



## raumar

I'll just add some more information: When Norway was under Danish rule, the written language was Danish. A separate Norwegian written language did not really exist. After independence from Denmark in 1814, and following the rise in Norwegian nationalism, the Norwegian written language was gradually developed. (Actually, there were two different strategies for building a Norwegian language -- resulting in the two different standards for written Norwegian that we have today.) This was a long and slow process, and the written language in Norway was still almost pure Danish when Poe wrote this story. Of course, this also influenced the spelling of place names. 

Even though this is the explanation for "Lofoden", there are other unusual spellings in Poe's text. I noticed that an island was called "Vurrgh". That is neither Norwegian nor Danish; it is just odd. The geographical location of this island is described in the text, and I suppose it could be Værøy. At least the first letter is the same! I suppose that Poe did not speak any Danish or Norwegian, so it is understandable that some names could be misspelt.


----------



## jilar

You are right, raumar 
Værøy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## Ben Jamin

The Danish spelling in Norwegian with "d", "g" "b"  (pronounced "t", "k", "p") was only abolished in in 1907.


----------



## jilar

Ben Jamin said:


> The Danish spelling in Norwegian with "d", "g" "b"  (pronounced "t", "k", "g") was only abolished in in 1907.


Thank you.
My two questions are solved.
When? It seems in that year.
Who? I guess the new Norwegian authority in those dates.

So, Norwegian written language is quite young. I didn't know this datum.


----------



## Ben Jamin

jilar said:


> Thank you.
> My two questions are solved.
> When? It seems in that year.
> Who? I guess the new Norwegian authority in those dates.
> 
> So, Norwegian written language is quite young. I didn't know this datum.


I made an typo in my post, (g instead of p), now corrected.


----------

