Chapter 9: The Process of Norwegianization and Saami Communities: A Critical Exploration of Language, Education, and Nationalism

Any investigation of minority language loss is simultaneously also an exploration of social change. Transformations in the language practices of a community also entail significant changes in the cultural settings within which people live. My concern in this chapter is with the historical influence of Norwegian nationalism on Saami language loss. More specifically, my focus is on the development of language and educational policies by the Norwegian government as part of a larger process of nation-building and state formation. During the nationalist era in Norway, defined here as being from about 1814 to 1945, policies were developed by the Norwegian state that explicitly targeted the social and linguistic assimilation of the Saami minority population. As Norwegian analyst Trond Thuen (1995) notes about this process: