"A FISHERMEN'S DIALECT"
SIR,—Mr. Harcourt-Smith writes in his review of Mr. Hertz's book, " Nationality in History and Politics," that the Irish Government fetched "a professor all the way from Norway to fabricate a national language out of a fishermen's dialect." As I am probably the man who has given rise to this legend I may be permitted to point out its entirely apocryphal character. The Irish Government did not need any Norwegian help in their language policy. On their side the Norwegian students of Gaelic have gone to Ireland on their own initiative. Their interest in Gaelic is quite natural. The Irish dialects are among the most interesting linguistic specimens in contemporary Europe and hundreds of years of Norwegian history are recorded in medieval Irish manuscripts.—Yours
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