The Norwegian language conflict (målstriden, språkstriden or sprogstriden) is an ongoing controversy within Norwegian culture and politics related to spoken and written versions of the Norwegian language. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway due to Danish rule. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban, Norway's literary history, dialect versus standard language, spelling reform, and orthography.