Preface

Abstract

The work on this issue of Acta Linguistica Hafniensia was undertaken in response to the general editors' demand for thematically coherent issues with contributions from both Danish and international authors (cf. the ‘editorial policy’ note). What the papers collected here have in common is their preoccupation with ‘subjective processes in language variation and change’. This has been a main theme of my own research over the years and I have had the pleasure of getting to know and work with some of the international lodestars in the field as well as with many young and promising scholars in Denmark and other Nordic countries. A number of these colleagues and friends took part in a workshop on the subjectivities theme which I organized at the Second International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 2) in Uppsala June 12–14, 2003, and the bulk of the papers that appear here were originally prepared for that event. However, with the publication of this collection we find ourselves at some distance from the Uppsala workshop - in time of course, but also in other respects. Firstly, with regard to content, it should be mentioned that for various reasons not all of the workshop contributions have materialized as papers here; furthermore that some of the participants have wanted to do something quite different within this journal framework from what they did at the workshop; and finally that the contribution by Plichta and Preston was invited specially for the volume. More importantly, however, I feel confident that our main ‘move’ since Uppsala has been in the direction of greater academic yield and quality. Through our joint efforts, this volume as a whole emerges as something else and much more than what we had achieved at the end of the workshop day. Thus, I also feel privileged to have had the opportunity to carry out this ALH 2005 project together with a group of good colleagues and friends. It has been a rich and rewarding experience. I am very grateful to you all. Finally, it is my joyful duty to recognize the importance of Sibarita in Malaga to the genesis of this collection (confidential communication from el Nico, el Pedro y el Toro), and the no lesser importance of Awel-y-Môr in Aberdyfi, not to mention its Bistro On The Square. My co-editors Nikolas Coupland and Peter Garrett took me to those places, and also brought along their huge expertise and experience in language attitudes research and journal editing. The importance of their many contributions to this volume cannot be overstated.