The volume contains the texts of interviews realized with three linguists: the late Andre-Georges Haudricourt (1911-1996), Henry M. Hoenigswald (born in 1915) and Robert H. Robins (born in 1921). The book has a twofold objective: on the one hand, its goal is to bring together a number of "inside" testimonies on fundamental issues in linguistics; on the other hand, it is intended to provide a personalized documentation which is particularly relevant for a historiography of linguistics that does not limit itself to published sources. The issues addressed in these interviews concern the status of linguistics (and more particularly the relationship between the study of languages and history), the fundamental aims of the study of language, and the scientific and humanitarian status of linguistics. The three interviews also shed light on the intellectual itinerary of the three linguists and on the developments which took place in the linguistic landscape during the past 65 years. The three interviews are supplemented with useful bibliographical notes. The preface informs about the state of the art in the "oral archiving" of linguistics.

Volumes in the Trends in Linguistics. Documentation series focus on the presentation of linguistic data. The series addresses the sustained interest in linguistic descriptions, dictionaries, grammars and editions of under-described and hitherto undocumented languages. All world-regions and time periods are represented.

Preserved on undated palm-leaf manuscripts, Old Sundanese texts are generally in poor condition and unavailable to a wider audience. There are limited texts in any form of Sundanese, and only limited knowledge of Old Sundanese. In presenting three long Old Sundanese poems, Noorduyn and Teeuw, in a heretofore unequalled English-language study of Old Sundanese literature, bring to the light works of importance for further linguistic, literary and historical research. The three poems, The Sons of Rama and Rawana, The ascension of Sri Ajnyana and The story of Bujangga Manik: A pilgrim's progress were undiscovered before this book. The first two were found in a nineteenth-century manuscript collection of the former Batavian Society and are now in the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta, while the third was donated to the Bodleian Library in Oxford as early as 1627, though it was not identified as an Old Sundanese poem until the 1950s.