This means analysing whether, and how, the workings of Icelandic national ideology, the impact of English as a global language, Iceland's sociolinguistic situation, and the internationally growing interest in linguistic minority rights have determined language practices, ideology and management in Iceland. This dissertation explores the motivations of language policy in Iceland by applying and testing the four co-existing forces that Bernard Spolsky sees as determining language policy in any independent nation, within the framework of his definition of language policy. The planning and politics of Icelandic remain intrinsically characteristic of contemporary Iceland, particularly as this small community battles the linguistic pressures inherent to globalisation. Centuries of linguistic homogeneity and relative language stability lead Icelanders today to boast that their language is, by and large, that of their ancient Norwegian ancestors. Iceland is as an extraordinary language environment. ‘Language is a costly and complicating factor’: A diachronic study of language policy in the virtual public sector. One could perhaps even go so far as to see Norway as the harbinger of change: once multilingual provision has reached a notional peak, there is a chance that more and more state institutions will cut down on ‘less than necessary’ languages online, opting instead for ‘commonsense’ English together with the respective official language(s). Furthermore, immigration, rather than leading to an increased visibility of language diversity in the VLL, can also put pressure towards homogenization. The translations into Nynorsk and Sámi are mainly done to comply with official regulations. The virtual linguistic ethnography and follow-up interviews show that the websites of the three institutions in focus exist more or less fully only in two language versions: Bokmål (the more widespread written standard of Norwegian) and English. The analysis also shows an increased linguistic presence of Nynorsk (the less used written standard of Norwegian), of the indigenous Sámi language, and of English, which performs a ‘hypercentral’ function. The article reveals a linguistic homogenization of the VLL of the public sector in Norway, which is mostly due to the removal of immigrant languages from state websites.

The analysis is based on diachronic website data and interviews with state employees concerning the presence or absence of different languages on the websites of three central state institutions. This article examines language policy in the virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) in Norway and its development over time.

Nynorsk oversetter