Abstract:

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and others have dramatically influenced the modern society. It has changed our way of interacting, it has changed the way we obtain news, it has created new arenas for democratic involvement and it has contributed with new arenas for being noticed and heard. But has it also changed the way we use language?

Norway is among the countries with the highest percentage of social media use in the world. According to Ipsos’ numbers, in january 2018 85,5 % of the Norwegian population had a Facebook account, and 85% of these used Facebook on a daily basis [1]. Norway is also one of the countries with the most use of dialects and the strongest feeling of pride in their dialects. Norway does not have any standardized vocal language, regulated by government or law, and this allows people to speak their dialect in any occasion. Even though Norway has a standardized written language (“Bokmål” and “Nynorsk), the dialects also influence the way Norwegians write, especially in social media.

During the first semester of 2018, five students attending a preparatory course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology investigated the way inhabitants of the Trøndelag region of Norway were influenced by their dialect when writing in social media. The research especially focused on two parameters: diversity between rural and urban areas, and the educational level of the informants. The team collected both quantitative and qualitative data and found significant differences in both parameters.

This article will briefly provide some insight to Norwegian dialects, present the methodology of the research and show that people with a low level of education living in rural areas of the region tend to write in dialect more often than others. The article will also interpret and give some suggestions to why this may be.

The results are in line with consisting theory of the field. They indicate that we have different rules and ways of expressing ourselves in writing in social media than in more formal situations, and that this applies also to the use of dialects in Norway. They also suggest that the educational level and place of living influence the extent of this colloquial, dialectal written language in social media.

References:
[1] Ipsos (2018): “Ipsos SoMe-tracker Q4’17”. Ipsos.com. Internet: https://www.ipsos.com/nb-no/ipsos-some-tracker-q417

Keywords:

Languages, dialect, social media.