This book is about the history and development of linguistics in the Nordic countries.

By treating the Nordic countries separately one loses the
comparative perspective that is essential for understanding some basic aspects of the history of linguistics in each country and in general. The Nordic countries constitute an ideal area for comparative studies. They are not only geographically connected, they also have a relatively similar population size, many similarities in their historical development, and similar social and political systems, including the structure of academic life and academic institutions.

Not many studies exist with a profile like ours. The few surveys of linguistics within a geographically and politically defined and delimited part of the world are different from the one we present here in that they consist of articles, usually conference papers on various themes, for example Noordegraaf et al. (1992), Quilis and Niederehe (1986), and Ramat et al. (1986).

This book is therefore more similar in style and content to Andresen (1990), though the present work is written by four authors and covers a wider range of topics.