New Comparative Grammar of Greek and LatinLike 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. |
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ablaut acc.pl acc.sg accent adjectives analogical aorist athematic Att.-Ion attested Brugmann's Law Celt cognate consonant contrast dat.pl derived dialects diphthong enclitic ending etymology etymon evidence example explanation formation forms full grade gen.pl gen.sg Greek H₂ Hitt Hittite homophonous IE languages imperative Indic inflection inherited InIr inscriptions Italic laryngeal laryngeal theory later Latin lengthening Lesb Lith long vowel marker masc medial morphological n-infix nasal neut neuter nom.pl nom.sg nouns o-grade o-stem orig original Oscan paradigm parallel perf PGmc phonetic phonological PItal pple pres pronouns reduplication reflexes regular remodeling Rigveda root satem secondary seen semantics short vowel sound laws stative stem stops suffix syllables syncope tense thematic tonic usual Vedic verb whence words zero grade