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