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SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

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210 Saga-Book of the <strong>Viking</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />

NUMERALIER. 1962. pp. [vi] + 302. VOL. V PRONOMINER<br />

(under medvirkning af mag.art. Karl Martin Nielsen og cando<br />

mag. Marie Stoklund). 1965. pp. [vi] + 554. Kobenhavns<br />

Universitets Fond til Tilvejebringelse af Lceremidler,<br />

It is now clear that Professor Brendum-Nielsen will complete<br />

his Gammeldansk grammatik ; indeed, by the time this review<br />

appears, the remaining volumes (the next of which deals with the<br />

verb) will be out, or at least at press. The first volume - the<br />

vowel phonology - came out in 1928, the second - the<br />

consonant phonology - in 1932, and the third - the noun - in<br />

1935. The work takes its place as the greatest of all historical<br />

grammars of Germanic, a worthy rival to the greatest historical<br />

grammars of Indoeuropean, such as Brugmann's Griechische<br />

grammaiik and the Altindische grammatih of Wackernagel and<br />

Debrunner. Professor Brendum-Nielsen, in his old age, is indeed<br />

to be congratulated upon the completion of a truly magnificent<br />

task.<br />

English philologists in particular will feel envious, for there is<br />

no work on Middle English which is remotely comparable.<br />

Admittedly Luick's Historische grammatik der englischen sprache<br />

is comparable in respect of the vowel-phonology of the whole of<br />

English and E. J. Dobson's English pronunciation ISOO-I700 in<br />

respect of the whole phonology of a small period of English. But<br />

there is as yet no serious morphology of Middle English. This<br />

striking difference between the states of Old Danish and Middle<br />

English studies lies perhaps in the nature of the case: there is<br />

after all very much more Middle English than there is Old Danish.<br />

Still, there is a very large amount of this latter, as a glance at the<br />

copious bibliographies of Gammeldansh grammatik will show.<br />

Thereis a further difference between Middle Englishand Old Danish<br />

- one to the advantage of the former. Old Danish has no "great"<br />

dictionary, for Kalkar's Ordbog til det celdre danske sprog cannot<br />

possibly be considered of the same calibre as the Oxford English<br />

Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary. Later Danish<br />

has however a dictionary of this calibre, the Ordbog over det danske<br />

sprog (started by Dahlerup). It has, for two generations now,<br />

been the practice of scholars to use the indexes of the volumes of<br />

the Gammeldansk grammatik (which are, I understand, to be<br />

cumulated in a final volume) as an Old Danish dictionary, as far<br />

as actual forms are concerned.<br />

In the morphology, Professor Brendum-Niclsen treats each<br />

case-form in a standard manner. First the Indoeuropean form<br />

is presented, with one or more non-Germanic descendants; then<br />

the Primitive Germanic form, with one or more non-Scandinavian

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