New comparative grammar of Greek and Latin

Oxford University Press

1995

xxii, 686 p.

9780195083453

Contents: pt. I. Introduction --The Indo-European family of languages 1-11 -- Greek 12-5. Latin and the italic languages 16-21 -- The Greek and Latin signaries 22-7 -- Notes on citation and transcription 28-35 -- pt. II. Phonology -- Vowels and diphthongs 36-129 -- Short vowels in initial syllables 36-48 -- Long vowels and vowel + laryngeal 49-56. Diphthongs (initial syllables) 57-64 -- Vowels in medial and final syllables in Latin 65-75 -- Phonetics of long and short vowels 76-8 -- Lengthening and shortening of vowels in Greek 79 -- Syncope in Greek 80 -- Lengthening of vowels in Latin 81 -- Shortening of vowels in Latin 82-5 -- Contraction of vowels in Greek 86-7 -- Contraction of vowels in Latin 88 -- Prothetic vowels in Greek 89-90 -- Vowel assimilation in Greek 91 -- Anaptyxis in Latin 92 -- Syllabic consonants 93-109 -- Vowel gradation -- ablaut 110-29 -- Disyllabic roots 121-3 -- Reduced grades 124 -- Conditions and causes of PIE ablaut 125 -- Lengthened grades 126 -- Distribution of PIE ablaut grades 127-9 -- Consonants 130-241.

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.

Английский