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Indo-European Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 1 of 10 22 April 2012 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
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Accidentally, I have hit on a very interesting book which has recently been published in Germany. It's called Die indogermanischen Sprachen - Von der Vorgeschichte bis zur Gegenwart (The Indo-Germanic Languages - From Pre-History till Present) by Ernst Kausen. Unfortunately, with EUR 68,-, it's really expensive - as most scientific publications - but I happened to detect a copy of it at my local university library. I couldn't borrow it at once, though, as it is lent out at present. So, I will have to wait until mid-May before I can read it.
So, now my question: Has anyone read this or a similar book about the Indo-European language family? Maybe, someone can recommend a good introduction to the topic? As far as I can judge by now, Ernst Kausen's book seems to be a very good and thorough introduction, as it is not only addressed to professional linguists but also to interested non-professionals. So, if you can read German, this might be a good first read in the field of comparative linguistics and the history of languages. I'm very much interested in this field of studies. At the moment, I'm especially interested in Old Norse (Old Icelandic) and Old English (Anglo-Saxon). It would be nice to meet other language enthusiasts here that are also interested in the history of languages. If anybody is interested in a preview of the book, here is a link. Edited by Josquin on 22 April 2012 at 6:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 10 22 April 2012 at 7:42pm | IP Logged |
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I like this book and used it to get some insight on the predecessor of Balto-Slavonic and Germanic - the only groups in I-E that interest me to a useful degree.
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| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5808 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 3 of 10 27 April 2012 at 12:39am | IP Logged |
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This book looks great. I was able to read a couple of chapters on Google Books for free:
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World see if this link to Google Books works, if not search on title: Google Books Edited by ChiaBrain on 27 April 2012 at 12:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 4 of 10 27 April 2012 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your recommended books!
Luckily, I could already collect my book at the library today and I have spent the whole afternoon and evening reading it. It is really a great introduction into the comparative linguistics of Indo-European. I especially like - no, the correct word must be 'love'! - that Kausen not only explains the reconstruction of Proto-IE, but gives a comparative overview over the grammars of ALL (!) IE language families and their historical development. It is really, really a very informative and great book - a must-read! It's even more impressive taking into account that Kausen is not a professional linguist himself - he's a mathematician who has linguistics as a hobby! So, I will go to bed soon, but I can't wait to continue reading tomorrow. Then I'll finally go into the details of the Germanic, Celtic, Slavic (and so on) branches of IE after having read primarily about Proto-IE itself and the IE "Urheimat" today. Anybody who is interested in comparative linguistics or the history of IE languages in general - and understands German - MUST read this book. Period. I can highly recommend it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Antimanner Pentaglot Newbie Denmark Joined 5347 days ago 12 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Danish*, Latin, Sanskrit, English, Ancient Greek Studies: French, Russian, Lithuanian | Message 5 of 10 01 May 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
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Try this one. It's comprehensive, accessible and fairly cheap.
I think it is the beginner's best option because it has a section dedicated to each of the indoeuropean subfamilies from baltoslavic to Hittite, a concise introduction to the grammar of the protolanguage and many excercises of a non-trivial nature. They are well thought out and will probably entertain you for hours :) http://ecimages.kobobooks.com/Image.ashx?imageID=xMLxTEzYqEG SvPPVLXCnBw&Type=Full It costs 43$ on Amazon + freight. Edited by Antimanner on 01 May 2012 at 4:53pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 6 of 10 01 May 2012 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you, Antimanner. The link did not work, but I was nevertheless able to figure out that you meant Benjamin W. Fortson's Indo-European Language and Culture. The book looks very promising. I think it's rather similar to Kausen's book, but I'll give it a shot. It's also available at my university library, so I won't even have to pay for it. Thanks again!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Antimanner Pentaglot Newbie Denmark Joined 5347 days ago 12 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Danish*, Latin, Sanskrit, English, Ancient Greek Studies: French, Russian, Lithuanian | Message 7 of 10 01 May 2012 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
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Exactly. It's the mandatory textbook for the introductory course on indo-european in Copenhagen. I've read most of the indtroductive textbooks by now and it is still my favorite. It is very well balanced between data and text. Many "introductions" like Meier-Brüggers are loaded with flowcharts and cognates. That makes them way too hard to understand for the beginner who studies without a teacher.
Edited by Antimanner on 01 May 2012 at 6:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5696 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 8 of 10 02 May 2012 at 1:09am | IP Logged |
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I also went through the Fortson book when I took Indo-European at Uni and really enjoyed
it. I think it is at the perfect level of detail for an introductory text. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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