In my view, Jahr has succeeded well with his project: to describe how modern Norwegian language history is closely combined with political history, and how language planning was a political project... First and foremost Language Planning as a Sociolinguistic Experiment is a book that makes the special Norwegian language situation accessible for foreign scientists engaged with language policy and language planning. Translated from Norwegian
- Ivar Berg, NTNU, Norsk Lingvistisk tidsskrift
The sociolinguistic situation in Norway today is testimony to the maturity of this tolerant and egalitarian nation: local dialects have very high status, and Standard Norwegian comes in two significantly different varieties. How this situation developed over the last two centuries is a fascinating story – which Ernst Håkon Jahr tells brilliantly, with enormous erudition, insight and verve.
Peter Trudgill, University of East Anglia