Customer Reviews

The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (Oxford Linguistics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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This is a fascinating book but it is really aimed at the specialist with a background in linguistics and not at the general reader. I think Mallory's other book on the Indo-Europeans is much more accessible for anyone lacking a background in the subject. Why have I given it five stars then? I think that for the right person, for the reader who has a great interest in this subject and some background in linguistics, this is a perfect introduction. It is a monumental work of scholarship and they deserve the five stars but if you are a general reader with only a passing interest in these matters, this probably isn't the book for you.

Absolutely packed with detailed reconstructions of PIE words arranged in topic-based chapters, this is a fantastic and comprehensive introduction to the subject. The introductory chapters offer valuable background on trends in the field, and the authors adopt a sober and unbiased style in navigating through the various theories that have shaped PIE linguistics. Much detail is paid to the isoglosses which support the various reconstructions, and ample word lists make the volume not only an introduction but a great reference tool.

Aimed primarily at the academic reader, there is also plenty of material that the casual linguist will find fascinating here too, and the style is accessible to all, although some knowledge of linguistics would help in the introductory chapters. All in all, a thoroughly recommended book.

This is a quite invaluable introduction to a topic of huge importance but equally of ve great technical difficulty for those of us who, in the words of the distinguished Hellenist Martin West, are not 'black belts' in the subject, which to many seems the study of the 'unreadable in the pursuit of the unpronouncable' We are guided through the topic by language group, but also by analyses of themes in language - food, war, etc., which give the reader a true sense of how we Indo-Europeans spread our language and culture across Europe and much of Asia- and eventually virtually the entire American continent.