Nordisk og nedertysk: Språkkontakt og språkutvikling i Norden i seinmelomalderen Ed. by Ernst Hâkon Jahr (review)

404 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 74, NUMBER 2 (1998) duction H illuminates and rejects the first argument: that the acquisition of grammar should affect logical thinking. H traces this belief back to the period of enlightenment in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries . At that time it was widely accepted that while physical exercise was needed to trim the body, mental exercise was necessary to keep the mind in shape. Latin grammar was considered one kind of mental exercise required to obtain an optimal mental education . In Chs. 2 and 3, H explains how the distance between the writing system and the many spoken dialects appeared as a problem when in the eighteenth century Danish was introduced into Norwegian schools. In contrast to the many oral dialects the written language appeared to have the characteristics of a foreign language. Before this there had been no problem, since each dialect had been used in informal contexts and Latin had been employed for all formal and academic purposes. The sudden distance between the writing system and the spoken dialects created the need for a mother tongue grammar. In Chs. 4 and 5, H discusses the further development of written Norwegian and the arguments for reading the mother tongue grammar; he concludes by addressing the fact that grammar has always been regarded as controversial in the Norwegian school system. Contemporary discussions about grammar, H says, cannot be considered a repetition ofhistorical discussions since in the 1840s, the only alternative to vernacular grammar was Latin grammar. Later the only alternatives were new educational methods and subjects. One alternative that has been introduced in Norwegian schools is text linguistics. Text linguistics combines language and literature and focusses on linguistic tools such as stylistic analysis. But, asks H, does text linguistics perhaps eliminate the need for traditional grammar? The answer is no. Text linguistics does not introduce a new sentence analysis; rather, it applies elements of traditional grammar to larger units of text. Text linguistics, therefore, is one of the better arguments for the maintenance of traditional mother tongue grammar. This book provides an excellent window into the history of the Norwegian educational system and the historical dispute between different groups of supporters of a mother tongue grammar. Although the primary readers of this book will be researchers in and teachers ofthe Norwegian language, it might also be of interest to researchers in the field of language teaching and learning. [Berit O. BrogaardPedersen , State University of New York, Buffalo.] Nordisk og nedertysk: Sprâkkontakt og sprâkutvikling i Norden i seinmelomalderen . Ed. by Ernst Hâkon Jahr. Oslo: Novus Forlag, 1995. Pp. 198. The late medieval contact between Low German and the Scandinavian languages has long been of scholarly interest. Until recently, however, most activity on this subject was confined to lexical transfer from Low German to Norse; this has changed with the growth of interest in language contact and its influence on structure. This collection of new and previously published essays contributes significantly to our understanding of the nature of this contact. The central essay of the collection, that of Ernst Hákon Jahr (9-28), attempts a synthesis ofprevious surveys of this contact and modem theories of types of language contact. He concludes that a form of semicommunication was produced, similar to, although rather more tenuous than, that possible between the contemporary Scandinavian languages. The essays which follow Jahr's can be taken as underlining his conclusions. Herein lies one of the few major problems with the collection, however. Since the essays are of different dates, a somewhat confusing range of conclusions is occasionally promulgated . This problem is most visible in the tentative findings of Kurt Braunmuller's first contribution to the collection, a discussion ofthe conditions necessary for the transfer of language structures from Low German (29-54). Further, apart from these two essays and that of Erik Simensen (55-80), where the conservativism of the written word in reflecting language change is demonstrated by the influence of Low German on fourteenth century Norwegian Charters, all the essays in the collection derive from the Niederdeutsch und Skandinavien corpus in Hamburg. These differ considerably in scope and concept from the preceding , as well as demonstrate many of...