Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction.

• Author: Weiss, Michael
• Position: Book review

Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. By BENJAMIN W. FORTSON IV. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics, vol. 19. Oxford: BLACKWELL, 2004. Pp. xviii + 468, illus. $44.95 (paper).

If you ever thought about teaching an undergraduate introduction to Indo-European linguistics and had gotten so far in your planning as to examine the available course-books, you would have been in for a nasty surprise. Prior to 2004 there was no suitable book available. All of the candidates were seriously flawed either by inaccuracy, idiosyncrasy, impenetrability, or some combination of all three. With the publication of Benjamin Fortson's new book, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, all that has changed. Finally, there is a reliable, engaging and accessible presentation of the communis opinio. And there are even exercises!

Fortson covers a wide range of material in the book, not only the traditional highlights (the comparative method, the Indo-European family, an outline of PIE phonology, morphophonemics, the verb, the noun, pronouns, detailed character sketches of the major branches) but also some matters not normally taken up in similar books. There is an excellent chapter on PIE syntax (ch. 8, pp. 137-52) that presents the major issues with clarity and concision, even touching on the interesting but barely studied (in traditional IE circles) phonology-syntax interface. The other innovative chapter is one devoted to PIE culture and the archaeology of the Indo-European homeland question. This chapter presents the views of Benveniste, Watkins, and, with more skepticism, Dumezil. Fortson handles the difficult question of the PIE homeland with judicious caution.

Interestingly, Fortson has chosen to place this chapter second in the book rather than at the end, as one might have expected. The evident justification is that an early peek at these fascinating cultural issues might spur students on to dig deeper into the linguistic evidence that lays the groundwork for cultural reconstruction. But as a result of the early placement of this chapter Fortson does not supply many reconstructions or cognates and it seems to me that the absence of concrete data here might lessen the overall effect. I have always thought that an asterisked form followed by its reflexes has a certain glamor about it that is more compelling than the bare statement that the PIE word for "nephew" also meant "grandson." The final chapter of the book is devoted to the...