Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction

Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics

by James Clackson

The Indo-European language family consists of many of the modern and ancient languages of Europe, India and Central Asia, including Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English. Spoken by an estimated three billion people, it has the largest number of native speakers in the world today. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of the Indo-European languages. It clearly sets out the methods for relating the languages to one another, presents an engaging discussion of the current debates and controversies concerning their classification, and offers sample problems and suggestions for how to solve them. Complete with a comprehensive glossary, almost 100 tables in which language data and examples are clearly laid out, suggestions for further reading, discussion points, and a range of exercises, this text will be an essential toolkit for all those studying historical linguistics, language typology and the Indo-European languages for the first time.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Textbooks, Nonfiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

I have wide interests in the history of the Latin and Greek languages, ancient sociolinguistics and bilingualism, the languages and epigraphy of the ancient Mediterranean and comparative Indo-European studies. I have particular interests in the historical sociolinguistics of Latin; the other ancient Languages of the Italian peninsula especially Sabellian and Etruscan; and the history of the Armenian language. I am currently Principal Investigator of the AHRC funded project ‘Greek in Italy’. I am editor of the oldest scholarly journal devoted to the general study of language and languages that has an unbroken tradition,Transactions of the Philological Society.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The past several years have seen the publication of a number of new works summarizing the current state of Indo-European linguistics for those outside the field's inner circles. Benjamin Fortson's 2004 work INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE was the first modern textbook (as opposed to handbook) of the methods and the traditional reconstruction. Donald Ringe's A HISTORY OF ENGLISH Vol 1: FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN TO PROTO-GERMANIC gave a cutting-edge reconstruction based on the very latest research, much of which is yet unpublished and passed around the experts in e-mail correspondence.

With James Clackson's INDO-EUROPEAN LINGUISTICS: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press has finally added a book on the subject to its fine Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series. And this textbook really combines the best of Fortson's and Ringe's recent efforts. On one hand, it includes the latest findings that have necessitated (limited) rethinking of the traditional model. On the other hand, it is a textbook with a gentle tone and abundant exercises, assuming some training in basic linguistics but no proficiency in ancient languages.

The view of Proto-Indo-European is the Cowgill model, which has gone from being highly controversial to now perhaps ascendant. According to this conception, Hittite and the rest of Anatolian split off first from the main body of speakers of the proto-language, followed eventually by Tocharian. This view helps explain while Anatolian and Tocharian seem so different from the bulk of the early Indo-European languages in verbal morphology and other features. Also keeping up with contemporary practice, Clackson gives syntax just as much coverage as phonology and morphology. He even briefly touches on comparative Indo-European poetics, launched by Watkins in his '90s monograph HOW TO KILL A DRAGON.

My only complaints about the book are that it does not have the usual fascinating description of each ancient language (like Sihler in his NEW COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR), and that it insufficiently covers the work of Lehmann et al. in Pre-Indo-European. Nonetheless, this is a fine introduction to Indo-European linguistics, suitable for classroom assignment. Still, for the individaual (perhaps well-educated amateur) trying to learn about the field, I'd have to say that my favourite introduction remains Lehmann's THEORETICAL BASES, where you learn not only about methodology and the modern reconstruction, but also about the major personalities of the field and even some of the missteps.

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of book a certain kind of reviewer would feel obliged to call "salutary". Though still basically introductory, Clackson doesn't provide an overview of the things we know well about Proto-Indo-European, but rather highlights the areas where our understanding is still very shaky, or where legitimate diversity of opinion exists. Once or twice he gives un- or barely critical exposure to unambiguously crank theories in doing so (including Calvert Watkins' work on "comparative poetics", where he very carefully steps around the most obvious nonsense, but also some that aren't taken seriously by really anyone), but for the most part he provides relatively lucid discussion of topics that are, for obvious reasons, often neglected in introductory textbooks.

[Elizabeth]

As heard on Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics (110: The history of the history of Indo-European - Interview with Danny Bate)

Before there was English, or Latin, or Czech, or Hindi, there was a language that they all have in common, which we call Proto-Indo-European. Linguists have long been fascinated by the quest to get a glimpse into what Proto-Indo-European must have looked like through careful comparisons between languages we do have records for, and this very old topic is still undergoing new discoveries.

In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch gets enthusiastic about the process of figuring out Proto-Indo-European with Dr. Danny Bate, public linguist, host of the podcast A Language I Love Is..., and author of the book Why Q Needs U. We talk about why figuring out the word order of a 5000-year-old language is harder than figuring out the sounds, and a great pop linguistics/history book we've both been reading that combines recent advances in linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence to reexamine where these ancient Proto-Indo-European folks lived: Proto by Laura Spinney. We also talk about Danny's own recent book on the history of the alphabet, featuring fun facts about C, double letters, and izzard!

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/d...
Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/8007798...

Announcements:
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about celebratory days, years, decades, and more with some relationship to linguistics! We recently learned that people in the UK have been celebrating National Linguistics Day on November 26th and many lingcommers are excited about the idea of taking those celebrations international: World Linguistics Day, anyone? What we learned putting this episode together is that celebratory days take off when groups of people decide to make them happen so…let's see how many different locations around the world we can wish each other Happy World Linguistics Day from this year!

Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142860621

For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/8007796...
https://soundcloud.com/lingthusiasm/1...

[Michel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tgo ja, hoe gaan die dingen? Ik had een boek gelezen en ik begreep het niet allemaal maar ik vond het wel zeer wijs om lezen, en dus dacht ik: ik zoek er nog eentje over het onderwerp.

Het internet heeft me Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction van James Clackson aangeraden, en het internet had daar gelijk in. Knippety-plakkety uit het voorwoord:

Do we need another introduction to Indo-European linguistics? Since 1995 four have been published in English (Beekes 1995, Szemerényi 1996, Meier-Brügger 2003, Fortson 2004) and the ground seems to be pretty well covered. This book, however, aims to be an introduction of a different sort. Whereas the works mentioned give up-to-date and (usually) reliable information on the current thinking on what is known in Indo-European studies, here the aim is to present rather areas where there currently is, or ought to be, debate and uncertainty. Whereas previous introductions have aimed for the status of handbooks, reliable guides to the terrain presented in detail, this one aspires more to the status of a toolkit, offering up sample problems and suggesting ways of solving them. The reader who wants to know the details of how labio-velar consonants developed in Indo-European languages or the basis for the reconstruction of the locative plural case ending will not find them here; instead they will be able to review in detail arguments about the categories of the Indo-European verb or the syntax of relative clauses. The result is that this book has shorter chapters on areas such as phonology, where there is now more general agreement in the field, and correspondingly longer sections on areas which are passed by more summarily in other introductions.

Yepyep. Nog meer dan bij Fortson gaan er hier dingen helemaal over mijn hoofd, maar daar staat tegenover dat er ook enorm veel wijze en boeiende en interessante dingen in staan.

Na een korte inleiding volgen een paar gebalde hoofdstukken (Phonology, Morphophonology; Nominal morphology, Verbal morphology) waar ik me meer aan het zinken dan aan het zwemmen voelde, maar de laatste twee dikke hoofdstukken (Syntax en Lexicon and lexical semantics) alleen waren de prijs van het boek waard.

En nu, verdorie, zou ik meer willen weten en er meer willen over lezen. Heb ik goesting om op zoek te gaan naar Dumézil en dingen.

Maar een mens moet weten waar zijn grenzen liggen. Ik denk niet dat het goed zou voelen. Ik zou eigenlijk dat eerste boek nog eens moeten grondig lezen en helemaal proberen begrijpen.

Even terug naar fictie, denk ik.

[Mahira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clackson's Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction is a perfect example of what a general introduction to a field in book form should look like. I would maybe give a little bit more space to the first chapter focused on the general linguistics stuff before diving into reconstruction but that's just personal preference. For the sake of thoroughness Clackson also includes some of the more odd and less probable theories but doesn't forget to pass on the general disapproval for them. It is not a super easy read, it's a textbook after all, but it is still fairly readable and all the information is I would even say enjoyably presented to the reader (and I'm saying that as a non-indoeuropeanist). Can't but recommend to whoever needs for whatever reason to be introduced to the field of Indo-European linguistics, this is the book to go for!