Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) [Paperback]

Benjamin W. Fortson IV (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1405103167 | ISBN-13: 978-1405103169 | Publication Date: November 22, 2004 | Edition: 1

Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction provides a comprehensive overview of comparative Indo-European linguistics and the branches of the Indo-European language family, covering both linguistic and cultural material.

• Fills a long-present gap in the literature of Indo-European studies.
  
• Designed for use in courses, with exercises and suggestions for further reading included in each chapter.
  
• Discusses linguistic and cultural developments for each branch of the Indo-European language family.
  
• Provides an overview of Proto-Indo-European culture, society, and language.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“If you ever thought about teaching an undergraduate introduction to Indo-European linguistics and had gotten so far in your planning as to examine the available course-books, you would have been in for a nasty surprise. Prior to 2004 there was no suitable book available … Finally, there is a reliable, engaging and accessible presentation of the communis opinio. And there are even exercises! … Fortson has produced an excellent book that fulfills its goals admirably. I hope it will inspire a renaissance of Indo-European linguistics in English speaking countries.” Journal of the American Oriental Society

“The perfect book for an introductory Indo-European course, lively and engaging throughout, yet detailed, accurate, and authoritative. The hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter are a unique and valuable feature.”
Jay Jasanoff, Harvard University

"This is an excellent introduction to Proto-Indo-European and its study. Both the chapters on various aspects of PIE grammar and those describing the various Indo-European branches are masterly précis of their subjects. As a Tocharianist I’m pleased to see that all branches of Indo-European are given the same thoughtful, substantial treatment. Both novices and the experienced Indo-Europeanists will read this book with profit; more than one of the latter group will wish he had written himself."
Douglas Q. Adams, University of Idaho

"I would like to conclude by stressing that this is an excellent textbook. I have taught from it, and the students in my class not only learned a great deal from it, they also seemed to enjoy the book almost as much as I did."
Bryn Mawr

Review

“The perfect book for an introductory Indo-European course, lively and engaging throughout, yet detailed, accurate, and authoritative. The hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter are a unique and valuable feature.”
–Jay Jasanoff, Harvard University

"This is an excellent introduction to Proto-Indo-European and its study. Both the chapters on various aspects of PIE grammar and those describing the various Indo-European branches are masterly précis of their subjects. As a Tocharianist I’m pleased to see that all branches of Indo-European are given the same thoughtful, substantial treatment. Both novices and the experienced Indo-Europeanists will read this book with profit; more than one of the latter group will wish he had written himself."
–Douglas Q. Adams, University of Idaho

"I would like to conclude by stressing that this is an excellent textbook. I have taught from it, and the students in my class not only learned a great deal from it, they also seemed to enjoy the book almost as much as I did."
–Bryn Mawr --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (November 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405103167
• ISBN-13: 978-1405103169
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,111,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book I wish I'd had in 1974, July 2, 2006

By 

William J. Poser (Prince George, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

This is the book I wish I'd had when I took Introduction to Indoeuropean many years ago. It covers not only the traditional topic of the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European but PIE culture, homeland, and migrations. The most valuable part is the survey of the subgroups of IE. It gives much more extensive coverage than is usual to "minor" subgroups such as Tocharian, Albanian, and Armenian, and does not ignore the lesser known languages within subgroups, such as the Anatolian languages other than Hittite and the minor Italic languages.

By providing information about the entire subgroup, not just its earliest attested languages, it avoids the overemphasis on reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European of so many books on this topic and thereby provides more of a sense of the history of the many and widespread languages of this important language family. Even for linguists, historical linguistics is not only about reconstruction of protolanguages: it is also about how particular languages have changed over time and how language change works in general. Non-linguists are also likely to be interested in questions like: "How did the Slavic languages get to be the way they are?". Books that focus exclusively on reconstruction and earliest attestations do a poor job of responding to such questions.

The view of Indo-European presented is modern, with good coverage of laryngeal theory, but appropriately conservative for an introductory book in not digressing excessively on marginal aspects of the field, such as possible remoter connections of Indo-European and reconstruction strongly influenced by typology.

It is a virtue of this book that all data is provided in romanization as this makes it accessible to people who are not already committed students of Indo-European. The fact is that it has been several generations since educated Americans or Europeans could be assumed to know Greek. Even my eighty-year old mother had a year of Greek in highschool only because the Latin teacher agreed to teach an extra class during the lunch period. For those of us who read Greek it may look funny in romanization, but this book is not intended primarily for us. Furthermore, comparison of data from different languages is facilitated by a common representation of the data.

The chapters on the various subgroups are sufficiently self-contained that they can be read independently by someone who wants to bone up on a particular group of languages so long as he or she has a basic understanding of historical linguistics and of the elements of comparative Indo-European presented in the first few chapters. The bibliographies for the chapters on subgroups focus on recent reference works and important recent developments rather than on the classics. This is appropriate for an introductory work as references to classic works and other information about the history of the field are easily obtained elsewhere.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book That is What It Says It Is!, October 24, 2005

By 

Khodadad REZAKHANI "Vis Historica" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

Fortson has intended this book to be an introduction for the undergraduates, and it exactly is that, and a bit more (in my experience with undergrads, not all of them are very comfotable with learning about complicated linguistic theories).

The book's first part has sections on the history of IE studies and discusses matters of Morphology, Phonology, Nouns, Verbs, and Syntax in seperate chapters which are well written, but sometimes uneven. The second half of the book runs through each major IE linguistic subgroup, sometimes paying attention to some groups more than others.

For those previous reviewers who seem to find the book ineffcient, I have to repeat that this book has no claim of replacing Szemerenyi or Meier-Brugger, which are more advance handbooks for already well-versed IE experts. Also, for someone who asked "do we want to admit people to the field who have no Greek", my answer would be, why not? Who said Greek and Latin should be the prerequisites to IE? Why not admit someone who is familiar with Sanskrit or OCS or Avestan to the field, and then make them learn Greek? It is quite common for people with good Greek or Latin who come in and then embark upon learning Sanskrit and the rest, so why not the other way around? I disagree with the statement on the transliteratio of Greek being annoying. You would expect him to transliterate Hittite and Sanskrit and OCS and the rest, so why not Greek?

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful introduction to linguistic elements, but cultural elements are underdeveloped, June 14, 2009

By 

Christopher R. Travers "Einhverfr" (Chelan, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

This is a useful introduction to Indo-European linguistics, and it provides the barest of introductions to the cutural aspects. These are hardly on the same level: the linguistic introduction is solid and well-developed, while the cutural aspects are barely outlined and largely undeveloped.

The book provides a reasonably comprehensive but introductory survey to each of the Indo-European language branches, as well as brief surveys within the branches. Each of these surveys looks at phonological, morphological, and syntactic changes.

This book is designed to take an absolute beginner from no knowledge in comparative linguistics to a point of having a good foundation of the comparative and historical linguistics of the Indo-European language family. While I am not entirely sure this book hits the mark there (it starts out assuming no knowledge but moves forward EXTREMELY FAST), it certainly is close.

I would recommend this work subject to the caveat that the promise of an introduction to Indo-European cultural studies is entirely unfulfilled.