Book Description

This volume presents new work exploring how the study of historical linguistics can advance our understanding of Greek and Latin and, conversely, how the classical languages can help us to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European and the culture of its speakers. Classical and Indo-European linguistics have been particularly exciting areas of research in recent years, and this book is intended to provide insight into some of the main areas of current debate. It stems from an international conference held in Cambridge in 2005 and includes contributions from keynote speakers Andreas Willi and Joshua Katz. The book covers a wide range of topics: phonology (the accentuation of Greek monosyllables, the development of laryngeals in Greek, and typological discussion of the glottalic theory); morphology (the prehistory of the past-tense augment, the iteratives and causatives of the Latin second conjugation, the origin of the Latin prefix co(m)- , Indo-European root nouns and s-stem neuters, Greek and Latin reflexive pronouns, the Greek comparative suffix); the etymologies of etymos, Achilles, adulare, and a Macedonian gloss; the significance of the Greek particle tar; and comparisons of Sanskrit matrimonial names and poetic terminology with their Greek counterparts. Greek and Latin from an Indo-European Perspective demonstrates the continuing relevance of linguistics for the study of ancient languages and literature, and will be of interest to classicists, Indo-European linguists, and historical linguists generally