LINGUIST List 10.866

Tue Jun 8 1999

Books: Indo-European

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristarlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Indo-European: Latvian
2. Lisa Natascha Barrett, Indo-European: Baldi, The Foundations of Latin

LATVIAN
Nicole Nau, Univ. Kiel

Latvian is the official language of the Republic of Latvia, where about
1.4 million people speak it as a native language, and an increasing
number of mainly Russian speaking persons use it as a second language.
This sketch concentrates on morphology and syntax, with a short
introduction to Latvian phonology. The sample text, as well as most of
the examples that illustrate grammatical points, are taken from
autobiographical narratives collected by the Latvian Archive for Oral
History.

Compared to Lithuanian, the only other living Baltic language, Latvian
has further diverged from its Indo-European heritage in that it has
abandoned certain inflectional forms and categories and developed new
ones. The fact that, for centuries, speakers of Latvian have been in
close contact with speakers of Baltofinnic, Germanic and Slavic
languages has certainly been an important factor for innovations in all
parts of the grammar. However, Latvian still resembles the well known
old Indo-European languages in certain respects more closely than
Standard Average European languages do. 

Latvian is a fusional language with some traits of agglutination. The
morphology is strikingly regular, especially with nominals. Nominal
inflectional categories are gender, number, case, and definiteness,
which is marked on adjectives. The five morphological cases have clear
syntactic and/or semantic functions. Particularly noteworthy in the
verbal inflectional paradimg are evidentiality and the debitive mood, a
Latvian innovation. Characteristic features of the syntax are non-verbal
predicates and converb constructions.

ISBN 3 89586 228 2. 
Languages of the World/Materials 217. 
Ca. 60pp. USD 32.50 / DM 49.30 / \163 19.90. 

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail.
LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49
89 3148909; 
New titles: http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/new1.htm; 
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

Philip Baldi
The Foundations of Latin
1999. 23 x 15,5 cm. XXVII, 534 pages. 26 plates. 39 figures. 78 tables.
Cloth. DM 298,00. oeS 2175,00. sFr 265,00. Approx. US$ 186.00
ISBN 3110162946
(Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 117)

This volume provides an up-to-date account of the linguistic evolution
of Latin, from its origins in the Proto-Indo-European ancestral language
until the end of the 2nd century CE. As the first English-language
treatment of the history of Latin and its speakers in four decades, this
study fills a critical need in classical and linguistic scholarship. It
incorporates discussion of many important material discoveries of the
past few decades which have added to the knowledge base of the history
of Latin. Additionally, it is informed by contemporary advances in
historical linguistic methodology and comparative linguistics.

Published by Mouton de Gruyter.

Prices are subject to change without notice.

For order information please contact:
Walter de Gruyter & Co. KG
P.O. Box 30 34 21
10728 Berlin, Germany
Fax: +49 (0)30 26005 222
e-mail: ordersdeGruyter.de

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1999 Contributors