Synopses & Reviews
Like Carl Darling Buck's Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin (1933), this book is an explanation of the similarities and differences between Greek and Latin morphology and lexicon through an account of their prehistory. It also aims to discuss the principal features of Indo-European linguistics. Greek and Latin are studied as a pair for cultural reasons only; as languages, they have little in common apart from their Indo-European heritage. Thus the only way to treat the historical bases for their development is to begin with Proto-Indo-European. The only way to make a reconstructed language like Proto-Indo-European intelligible and intellectually defensible is to present at least some of the basis for reconstructing its features and, in the process, to discuss reasoning and methodology of reconstruction (including a weighing of alternative reconstructions). The result is a compendious handbook of Indo-European phonology and morphology, and a vade mecum of Indo-European linguistics--the focus always remaining on Greek and Latin. The non-classical sources for historical discussion are mainly Vedic Sanskrit, Hittite, and Germanic, with occasional but crucial contributions from Old Irish, Avestan, Baltic, and Slavic.
About the Author
Andrew L. Sihler is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
PART I: Introduction
The Indo-European Family of Languages
Greek
Latin and the Italic Languages
The Greek and Latin Signaries
Notes on Citation and Transcription
PART II: Phonology
Vowels and Dipthongs
Vowel Gradation
Consonants
Stops
Laryngeals
Pie
Liquids, Nasals, and Changes in Groups of Consonants
Accent
PART III: Declension
Parts of Speech
Indo-European Nominals
Nouns
Declension of Adjectives
Comparison of Adjectives
PART IV: Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Demonstrative Interrogative
PART V: Numerals
Prepositions
PART VI: Conjugation
Survey of the Pie System
Eventive Verbs
Present Classes in Greek
Present Classes in Latin
The Verb 'Be' in Greek and Latin
Durative Eventive Preterite
Future
Punctual Eventive
Stative Verbs
Moods in Proto-Indo-European
Non-Finite Forms
Indexes