1. Comparing empirical findings with the “mountain peak model”
In the introduction to this volume, we presented a “mountain peak model” of Nordic purism based on evidence showing that language scholars and lay people are very much in agreement as to where we find the more purist languages and communities in the Nordic area. The peak of openness to foreign influence is to be found in “the middle”, i.e. in Denmark and Sweden, with gradually diminishing openness as we move towards the periphery, be it either westwards across Norway and The Faroes to Iceland or eastwards across Swedish-speaking Finland to Finnish-speaking Finland. In this conclusion to the volume, we will summarize the empirical findings presented in the volume, findings for use and
attitudes alike, and compare them with the mountain peak model. That way, we may be able to estimate the nature of the cross-national ideological uniformity on which the model is based. Is the commonly shared representation of purism differences nothing but an ideological fact, or is there a reality to the mountain peak picture?