Indo-European Linguistics [Paperback]

Michael Meier-Br]gger (Author), Charles Gertmenian (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3110174332 | ISBN-13: 978-3110174335 | Publication Date: October 2003

This textbook on Indo-European Linguistics is designed as an introduction to the field. It presents current topics and questions in Indo-European linguistics in a clear and informative manner. This is the English translation of the eight edition of the work first published by Hans Krahe and it takes account of more recent research. While Krahe only considered phonology and morphology, the edition also includes a comprehensive account of syntax and lexis. Manfred Mayrhofer assisted with the section of phonology; Matthias Fritz wrote the section on syntax and provided support for the project as a whole.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Walter de Gruyter (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3110174332
• ISBN-13: 978-3110174335
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A useful but flawed textbook for students with prior experience, March 20, 2006

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Indo-European Linguistics (Paperback)

Michael Meier-Brugger's INDO-EUROPEAN LINGUISTICS is a textbook published by Walter De Gruyter that has already gone through eight editions in the original German. New information on phonology was contributed by Manfred Mayrhofer, a section on Proto-Indo-European syntax by M. Fritz, and then the entire enterprise was translated into English by Charles Gertmenian.

This is not an introduction to comparative Indo-European linguistics, for it assumes some prior knowledge of the basics of the field. Many terms, such as ablaut, as used extensively long before they are even defined. If you have no experience with IE linguistics, try a basic introduction such as Lehmann's THEORETICAL BASES or Fortson's INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. What Meier-Brugger does is get the student to a higher level of understanding through a more rigorous presentation of concepts and encouragement to seek out papers and monographs. The basic format of the book is an outline: concepts are concisely described, and then followed by a long list of bibliographic citations.

The format doesn't usually permit much in the way of explanation--information in the section on PIE verbal morphology is especially meagre--but the book does shine in several areas. Its description of the very complicated world of nominal morphology, with its varying accentuations and ablaut, is admirable. The last portion of the book, a treatment of the PIE lexicon, has some very entertaining insights into onomastics.

One major complaint I have is that this is a very poorly edited translation. Gertmenian seems to have very hastily translated the German original, judging from the enormous amount of German words left untouched (and Germanisms like "KVK(K)" for "CVC(C)"), and De Gruyter evidently gave the text no significant proofreading because all these would have been spotted and corrected immediately. Another issue I have with the book is that its authors couldn't decide whether to neutrally reflect all schools of scholarship, as in many sections, or take sides, as when they dismiss glottalic theory and the existence of three genders in PIE. Nonetheless, in spite of its problems this is a text worth seeking out for students of Indo-European linguistics, if only for its rich bibliography.