This is a comprehensive investigation of linguistic processes in industrial towns in Norway – and indeed one of few sociolinguistic studies of Norwegian dialects written in English. Neteland provides a very detailed account of migration and language in three industrial towns using historical and contemporary data, and she offers new insight into the processes behind new dialect formation. I strongly recommend this book to researchers working on dialect contact.​

- Eivind Torgersen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

Randi Neteland’s highly original book is the first to tackle the theory of new-dialect formation by examining three new communities from a comparative perspective. Neteland has had access to linguistic materials dating back almost 100 years, and has even been able to re-record some people 30 years after they were originally interviewed. Neteland demonstrates that predicting what a new dialect will look like is much more than noting which dialects, and which dialect features, are in the `melting pot’. We must also pay careful attention to the prior migration patterns of the people who eventually settled in these communities.

- Paul Kerswill, University of York,