Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgments -- List of Figures, Maps, and Tables -- Abbreviations -- Conventions Followed -- 1 Introducing the Reinforced Demonstrative -- 1.1 The Germanic Family Tree -- 1.2 (Reinforced) Demonstratives -- 1.3 Treatment in the Literature -- 1.4 Goals and Outline of the Book -- 2 Synchronic and Diachronic Background -- 2.1 Basic Concepts and Terms -- 2.2 A Typology of rdem Forms -- 2.3 Doubly Inflected (Hybrid  I / II ) Forms -- 2.4 A Generalization about D and K D -- 2.5 Etymologies -- 2.6 Summary of Types and Etymologies -- 3 A Methodology for Studying the Viking Age Material -- 3.1 Background on Runes -- 3.2 Method -- 3.3 Critique of Massengale (1972) -- 3.4 Summary of Methods -- 4 Regional Variation: si , sa , a , and i Forms -- 4.1 Background -- 4.2 Data -- 4.3 Analysis -- 4.4 Sociolinguistic Evidence -- 4.5 The i and Endingless Variants -- 4.6 Taking Stock -- 5 Regional Variation: Internal vs. External Inflection -- 5.1 Background: Gemination in the New Stem -- 5.2 Data -- 5.3 Taking Stock -- 6 Paradigm Reconstructions -- 6.1 Loss of Generalized dem - si -- 6.2 Proto-Nordic -- 6.3 Common Nordic -- 6.4 Summary -- 7 Conclusion -- 7.1 Variation in the m. acc. sg and n. nom / acc. sg -- 7.2 Internal to External Inflection: A Fitful Evolution -- 7.3 Etymological and Reconstructive Considerations -- Appendix 1: List of rdem Attestations in the Runic Corpus -- Appendix 2: Supplementary Tables -- Bibliography -- Index.

The task of reconstructing the reinforced demonstrative paradigm for early Nordic has been called "impossible" by the eminent Einar Haugen. In The History of the Reinforced Demonstrative in Nordic , Eric Lander aims to accomplish exactly this, by way of an exhaustive study of the pronoun's attestations in the Viking Age runic inscriptions, which are the earliest forms of this item to be recorded in Scandinavia. The detailed picture of regional variation that emerges is then used to inform reconstructions of the paradigm from Proto-Nordic to Common Nordic. The book represents the first serious attempt in historical-comparative linguistics to grapple with the morphological development of the North-West Germanic reinforced demonstrative since the work of 19th-century scholars like Sophus Bugge.

Description based on print version record.