History

NAL was founded at the 3rd International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics in Austin, Texas in 1976, and begun its work January 1977. The first president of NAL was Stig Eliasson, University of Uppsala, Sweden. Since its foundation, its core work has been to be a meeting point for scholars in the Nordic countries and elsewhere. Throughout its history, NAL has organized two conference series and is responsible for one journal.

The International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics (ICNGL/NGL) was first organized in 1969. It has traditionally tended to place emphasis on the historical and descriptive study of the Scandinavian (i.e., North-Germanic) languages, although it also included presentations within the field of general linguistics. During the period 1969 to 2021, the conference has been organized 12 times. The Scandi­na­vian Confer­ence of Linguis­tics (SCL), which was first organized in 1974, has, compared to the ICNGL, been more concerned with general linguistic and theo­ret­ical issues and a wider range of languages. From 1974 to 2015, the conference has been held 26 times.

In 1978, NAL founded The Nordic Journal of Linguistics (NJL). Since 2003, NJL is published by the Cambridge Univer­sity Press. Currently the journal has three issues per year, where (since 1989) the second one is always a thematic issue. From 1977 to 2004, NAL also issued a news bulletin, the Nordic Linguistic Bulletin (NLB).

More information about the early history of NAL, “the first tentative airings of the idea in the early 1970s, the preparatory work in the years 1972-1976, the launching of the Association in 1977, and its subsequent devel­op­ment through 2006” can be found in the following publication:

• Eliasson, Stig. 2010. “The Nordic Association of Linguists: The preparatory phase and the first thirty years (1977–2006).” In: Hans Götzsche (ed.), Memory, mind and language, 4–54. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Previous Executive Committees

2015–2022*

• President: Hans Götzsche, Center for Linguistics, Aalborg University, Denmark
• Vice-President: Stig Eliasson, Sprachen Nordeuropas und des Baltikums, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany
• Secretary: Farshad Badie, Center for Linguistics, Aalborg University, Denmark
• Treasurer: Randi Alice Nilsen, Dept. of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
• Members:
  • Elisabet Engdahl, Dept. of Swedish, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Þórhallur Eyþórsson, Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, University of Iceland, Iceland
  • Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson, Icelandic Linguistics, University of Iceland, Iceland
  • Jan-Ola Östman, Dept. of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland
  • Martin H. Prior, Greenwich, London, UK

* Due to the Covid-19 epidemic from 2019 to 2022 'Acting Executive Committee'.

2012-2014

• President: Juhani Järvikivi, Dept of Linguistics, University of Alberta, Canada
• Vice-President: Hans Götzsche, Center for Linguistics, Aalborg University, Denmark
• Secretary: Anju Saxena, Dept. of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Sweden
• Treasurer: Stefan Werner, Linguistics, University of Eastern Finland, Finland
• Members:
  • Elisabet Engdahl, Dept. of Swedish, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Þórhallur Eyþórsson Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, University of Iceland, Iceland
  • Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson, Icelandic Linguistics, University of Iceland, Iceland
  • Urpo Nikanne, Finnish Language and Literature, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
  • Randi Alice Nilsen, Dept. of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Complete lists of all previous presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries and treasurers from 1977-2011 can be found in Eliasson (2010).