The Languages of Scandinavia: Seven Sisters of the North. By Ruth H. Sanders. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2017. 211 pp. £23.40. ISBN 978-0-226-49389-3

Abstract

 Reviews e Languages of Scandinavia: Seven Sisters of the North. By R H. S. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. .  pp. £.. ISBN ––––. Ruth H. Sanders is Professor Emerita of German Studies at Miami University, Ohio, where her recent outputs have focused on the popularization of language-learning, and language history. Her latest book takes a similarly didactic approach to the family history of German’s northern neighbours, the languages of Scandinavia. e history and structure of the Scandinavian languages have not wanted for academic coverage over the years. Weighty tomes such as Einar Haugen’s seminal  text e Scandinavian Languages (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press) and Oskar Bandle et al.’s edited volumes, e Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages,  vols (Berlin: de Gruyter, , ), provide detailed coverage of diachronic and genetic developments in the fields of morphology, syntax, and phonology. Yet these are highly specialized works, which for all their academic rigour have limited general appeal. ere is also a wealth of reference material covering almost every eventuality of grammar and usage, from the everyday to the obscure, such as the , third edition of Philip Holmes and Ian Hinchliffe’s Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar (London: Routledge; st edn ). But this too is lacking, for obvious reasons, in the kind of historical and cultural context that might help the wider public to understand how the given languages have developed their current shapes and interrelationships. For readers with a working knowledge of the Scandinavian languages, there are numerous volumes which, collectively at least, provide answers to these questions. For those limited to English, however, there is a glaring gap in the market for an easily accessible overview. At the time of writing, Lars Vikør’s e Nordic Languages: eir Status and Interrelations (Oslo: Novus, ) comes closest, but with almost twenty years having passed since the release of its third and most recent edition, the time is right for an update. At first glance, the volume under review looks like a promising candidate. Sanders’s stated aim is to narrate, ‘primarily for the non-specialist reader, highlights of the shared history from the earliest times’ of the languages of Scandinavia (p. ). Her narrative is openly pitched at the preconceptions and perceptions of a North American audience, but with an appeal broadened by the liberal use of emotive and engaging metaphors and Romantic imagery. Continuing in this cautiously populist furrow, she further limits the focus to ‘crucial intersections, sometimes amounting rather to collisions’ (p. ) between the seven languages of her study. is is a wise move, which frees her from any implied obligation to replicate the structures of more technical, field-specific works. Indeed, Sanders is careful to explain that there is to be no ‘comprehensive, or even chronological account, or typology of each language’ (p. ). It is also reasonable enough, in such a short volume, to avoid treatment of national literatures, which would realistically demand dozens of additional pages. Somewhat less encouragingly, the paring back does not stop there. By MLR, .,   limiting coverage of relevant historical events to ‘brief sketches’ and by deferring responsibility for ‘informative, up-to-date, and expert discussion of [. . .] further aspects of language [to] other specialized books’ (p. ), she may leave the reader wondering what, exactly, she does intend to address. e answer is a surprisingly broad sweep of contextualizing episodes for linguistic development in ‘Scandinavia’, from the prehistoric environment of the North in Chapter , via the Black Death in Chapter , through the Sámi people and language in Chapter , to the obligatory consideration of the continued existence of the languages of Scandinavia in the Epilogue. With only  pages devoted to the main body of text, not all of these issues have been explored in the same detail. e present reviewer would like to have read more about the transformative impact of Old Norse on Old English, for example, to have more than three short sentences on the linguistic consequences of the extended period of Danish influence on Norwegian referred to disparagingly by Norwegian historians as the ‘-Year Night’, or the single page devoted to the long-term challenges facing the languages of Scandinavia today...