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Book Reviews
showing that semantic considerations must be taken into account
in the formal generation of such clauses. Bengt Sigurd analyses
the position of 'lj, f and J in a generative phonology of Swedish,
while Sture Ureland describes the breakdown of Swedish among
Texas-Swedes. J orgen Rischel describes the relationship between
stops and fricatives in Danish in terms of generative phonology,
and John Weinstock sketches a generative phonology of
Norwegian. Bjorn Hagstrom, Trygve Skomedal and Otmar
Werner give papers on Faroese: Hagstrom discusses tid variation
in initial position in pronouns; Skomedal discusses parallel but
unrelated developments in Faroese and other West Norse
languages or dialects, while Werner describes the vocalisation of v.
There are two papers specifically on Icelandic, other than those
already mentioned: Helgi Gu6mundsson describes the development
of the jdfju contrast in modern Icelandic, while Sigriour
Valfells gives a not entirely convincing analysis of the function of
the Icelandic middle voice as marking the absence or deletion of
an underlying noun phrase. The volume is thus an eclectic
but stimulating selection of work in progress, and contains
several papers of importance in their respective fields.
PAUL BIBIRE
THE VIKING LEGACY. THE SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE ON THE
ENGLISH [AND GAELIC] LANGUAGE[S]. By JOHN GEIPEL. David
and Charles. London, 1971. 225 pp. 14'25.
Since Bjorkman's Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English
(1900) there has been no general survey of the influence of the
Scandinavian languages on English. This, as one of the sub-titles
tells us, is the principal subject of Geipel's book. The main
title, for which I imagine the publishers are to blame, is to say the
least misleading and should be deleted in any subsequent edition.
The book has five chapters: The common roots of English and
Norse, The Northmen in Britain, The Norse invasion of the
languages of Britain, Scandinavian place-names in Britain, and
Scandinavian personal names in Britain. In addition the book
contains lists of Scandinavian loan-words in modern English and
of British surnames of probable or partial Scandinavian origin.
There is also a glossary of technical terms, a pronunciation guide
and a bibliography.
Mr Geipel's book is not a scholarly work, nor is it a linguistic
investigation in the scientific sense. It seems to be addressed to