Netherlandic language research

[p. VII]

From the preface to the first edition (1954)

The initiative for this publication was taken by the ‘Belgisch-Nederlands Interuniversitair Centrum voor Neerlandistiek’, a committee composed of all the professors of Dutch Language at Belgian and Dutch universities. It was their opinion that a short survey of methods and results in the study of the language of the Low Countries might have its uses for Germanists and other linguists abroad.

For the contents of this book, however, I myself am entirely responsible. It was not my intention to compile a complete bibliography, the very completeness and impersonality of which would have rendered it unpalatable. I had to be selective, therefore, and was not bound to refrain from giving my own opinions. Inevitably, both the selection and the opinions expressed are somewhat personal, and I do not expect every one to agree with them. Fellow-Netherlandists will perhaps regret the absence of certain publications, and be surprised at the presence of others. Moreover, omissions may be due, not to my lack of appreciation, but to my simply having overlooked the existence of some article or other. Nevertheless, I hope I have attained a sufficient degree of objectivity to render the book suitable both for scholars abroad and for Belgian, Dutch and South African students, as a survey of investigations and investigators in the field of Netherlandic linguistics.

Preface to the second edition

The kind reception this work has met with leads me to think that it has achieved its aim. I therefore thought it better to leave plan and outline unchanged, and to confine myself to working up the material published after 1953. What is near to one in time is fresh in the memory, and in order to avoid the danger of recent publications being unduly emphasized, I had to try and preserve a normal chronological balance. The period covered by this survey now extends to the first half of 1959.

The Index has been composed by Dr. L. Koelmans. Mr. D.A.S. Reid, M.A. and Mr. P.J. Verhoeff have corrected the English of the first edition and translated the new material.

Utrecht, Summer 1959.

C.B. van Haeringen