Del IV: Humaniora: Marcus Schnabel Prøve paa hvorvidt det gamle Norske Sprog endnu er til udi det Hardangerske Bonde=Maal

Abstract

Marcus Schnabel’s (1744–80) essay investigating if Old Norse could still be traced in the rural dialect of his native Hardanger, Western Norway, was published in DKNVS New Series No 1, 1784. The essay is considered to be the first scholarly treatise ever on post-medieval Norwegian. It is in many ways a corner stone in the historiography of Norwegian language history, attempting for the first time a diachronic approach to the study of a contemporary Norwegian dialect. The printed version is modest in scope, confined as it is to the lexical level of language. Schnabel, however, extended his work to a more comprehensive dialect grammar. Although never published in Schnabel’s life time, his work is preserved in the University Library in Trondheim, and has since its publication in 1933 secured him a lasting place in the historiography of the Norwegian language.