{"id":850,"date":"2011-02-17T13:57:09","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T13:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=850"},"modified":"2014-08-22T14:38:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T14:38:40","slug":"samisk-norsk-controversy-over-road-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/samisk-norsk-controversy-over-road-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"Samisk-norsk controversy over road sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The county that Troms\u00f8<\/em> lies in is called Troms <\/em>(p\u00e5 samisk<\/strong>) and Romsa <\/em>(p\u00e5 samisk<\/strong>). \u00a0It was not until July 1, 2006 that the Sami name for the county became officially recognized. \u00a0In the event that you are interested in etymology like myself, I\u00b4ll tell you what the name is believed to have derived from. \u00a0Troms\u00f8<\/em>, the city, is located on Troms\u00f8ya<\/em> (\u00f8ya<\/strong> meaning the island), which in old Norse is Trums<\/em>. \u00a0There are also rivers and islands in Troms<\/em> fylke<\/strong> that are called Tromsa<\/em>, which likely derived from the Old Norse word straumr<\/em>, which means \u00b4strong stream\u00b4.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to see an article in Nordlys<\/em>, the major Troms\u00f8<\/em> avis <\/strong>(newspaper).<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this post is not intended to focus on etymology-I\u00b4ll save that for another time. \u00a0There is a currently a controversy surrounding veiskilt <\/strong>(road signs) in Troms\u00f8 <\/em>due to the fact that the name Troms\u00f8<\/em> comes first on the skilt,<\/strong> with Romssa<\/em> underneath. \u00a0Arbeiderpartiet<\/strong> (Ap-the Labor Party) and many Sami people believe that this hinders Troms\u00f8<\/em> from being incorporated in the Forvaltningsomr\u00e5det for Samisk Spr\u00e5k<\/strong> (Administration for Sami Language). \u00a0It was not until 1989 that the Sami Parliament was recognized by the Norwegian government. \u00a0Because the Sami were oppressed for so long by the Norwegian government, there is still a considerable amount of resentment for this and it seems that whenever there is a chance to point this out (even in very subtle ways), the emboldened parties do so.<\/p>\n

I choose not to take a stand on this issue in this post, but rather would like to present both sides of the argument and educate my readers that this long-standing debate over the equality between samisk<\/strong> and norsk <\/strong>or even Sami and non-Sami Norwegians. \u00a0is still going on and likely will for a very long time.<\/p>\n

Those on the other side of the debate believe that it is not natural for the samisk <\/strong>name to come first on road signs in Troms\u00f8<\/em>, where most of the population is not Sami. \u00a0They say that there are samisk skilt <\/strong>where it is natural and makes sense (such at Sami schools, etc.), and to spend the money to change all of the veiskilt <\/strong>would be both a waste of money (who would pay anyways?) and unnecessary. \u00a0Troms\u00f8 <\/em>is a very inclusive city and in no way is uninviting to Sami people, according to those on the \u00b4keep Troms\u00f8 first\u00b4argument. \u00a0Some actually believe that it isn\u00b4t really the Sami people who are fighting for this, but rather \u00a0Arbeiderpartiet on behalf of the Sami. \u00a0If anyone knows more about what\u00b4s behind this, please do share.<\/p>\n

This debate over the indigenous vs. the modern day majority is everywhere. \u00a0It\u00b4s here in MN with native Americans. \u00a0I don\u00b4t believe this will ever go away even if the Native Americans were to experience complete reconciliation on their terms. \u00a0These are very sensitive issues and will forever hold their place in history, as well as today and in the future. \u00a0Compromise, empathy, and forsure reality must be present.<\/p>\n

Sorry for the deep post, but every once in a while I feel I need to bring this controversy up because it is very present, especially in northern Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The county that Troms\u00f8 lies in is called Troms (p\u00e5 samisk) and Romsa (p\u00e5 samisk). \u00a0It was not until July 1, 2006 that the Sami name for the county became officially recognized. \u00a0In the event that you are interested in etymology like myself, I\u00b4ll tell you what the name is believed to have derived…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}