This volume offers a discussion of the phonological and morphological development of Old Irish and its Indo-European origins. The emphasis is on the relative chronology of sound changes and on the development of the verbal system. Special attention is devoted to the origin of absolute and relative verb forms, to the rise of the mutations, to the role of thematic and athematic inflexion types in the formation of present classes, preterits, subjunctives and futures, and to the development of deponents and passive forms. Other topics include infixed and suffixed pronouns, palatalization of consonants and labialization of vowels, and the role of Continental Celtic in the reconstruction of Proto-Celtic. The final chapter provides a detailed analysis of the Latin and other Italic data which are essential to a reconstruction of Proto-Italo-Celtic. The appendix contains a full reconstruction of the Old Irish verbal paradigms, which renders the subject more easily accessible to a wider audience. The book is of interest to Celticists, Latinists, Indo-Europeanists and other historical linguists.

This volume offers a discussion of the phonological and morphological development of Old Irish and its Indo-European origins. The emphasis is on the relative chronology of sound changes and on the development of the verbal system. Special attention is devoted to the origin of absolute and relative verb forms, to the rise of the mutations, to the role of thematic and athematic inflexion types in the formation of present classes, preterits, subjunctives and futures, and to the development of deponents and passive forms. Other topics include infixed and suffixed pronouns, palatalization of consonants and labialization of vowels, and the role of Continental Celtic in the reconstruction of Proto-Celtic. The final chapter provides a detailed analysis of the Latin and other Italic data which are essential to a reconstruction of Proto-Italo-Celtic. The appendix contains a full reconstruction of the Old Irish verbal paradigms, which renders the subject more easily accessible to a wider audience. The book is of interest to Celticists, Latinists, Indo-Europeanists and other historical linguists.

The Celtic languages and groups called Keltoi (i.e. ‘Celts’) emerge into our written records at the pre-Roman Iron Age. The impetus for this book is to explore from the perspectives of three disciplines—archaeology, genetics, and linguistics—the background in later European prehistory to these developments. There is a traditional scenario, according to which, Celtic speech and the associated group identity came in to being during the Early Iron Age in the north Alpine zone and then rapidly spread across central and western Europe. This idea of ‘Celtogenesis’ remains deeply entrenched in scholarly and popular thought. But it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with recent discoveries pointing towards origins in the deeper past. It should no longer be taken for granted that Atlantic Europe during the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC were pre-Celtic or even pre-Indo-European. The explorations in Celtic from the West 3 are drawn together in this spirit, continuing two earlier volumes in the influential series.

From prehistory to the present day, an unrivaled look deep into the contentious origins of the Celts Blood of the Celts brings together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic evidence to address the often-debated question: who were the Celts? What peoples or cultural identities should that term describe? And did they in fact inhabit the British Isles before the Romans arrived? Author Jean Manco challenges existing accounts of the origins of the Celts, providing a new analysis that draws on the latest discoveries as well as ancient history. In a novel approach, the book opens with a discussion of early medieval Irish and British texts, allowing the Celts to speak in their own words and voices. It then traces their story back in time into prehistory to their deepest origins and their ancestors, before bringing the narrative forward to the present day. Each chapter also has a useful summary in bullet points to aid the reader and highlight the key facts in the story.

A new collective volume with over twenty important studies on less well-studied dialects of ancient Greek, particularly of the northern regions. The book covers geographically a broad area of the classical Greek world ranging from Central Greece to the overseas Greek colonies of Thrace and the Black Sea. Particular emphasis is placed on the epichoric varieties of areas on the northern fringe of the classical Greek world, including Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia. Recent advances in research are taken into consideration in providing state-of-the art accounts of these understudied dialects, but also of more well-known dialects like Lesbian. In addition, other papers address special intriguing topics in these, but also in other dialects, such as Thessalian, Lesbian and Ionic, or focus on important multi-dialectal corpora such as the oracular tablets from Dodona. Finally, a number of studies examine broader topics like the supraregional Doric koinai or the concept of dialect continuum, or even explore the possibility of an ancient Balkansprachbund, which included Greek too. This new reference work covers a gap in current research and will be indispensable for people interested in Greek dialectology and ancient Greek in general.

The International Conference on Historical Linguistics is the main conference for specialists in language change, and the 2013 conference in Oslo drew more than 300 participants, with 182 papers presented in the general session. The 16 papers selected for inclusion in this volume from the general session of ICHL 2013 not only provide a clear picture of the state of the art in various subfields of historical linguistics but also present recent insights in diachronic phonology, typology, morphology and morphosyntax. The languages and families covered include English, German, Scandinavian, French, Occitan, Portuguese, Sardinian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Old Japanese and Austronesian. The volume will be useful to any linguist with an interest in diachronic matters as well as general linguistic theory.

“An ambitious and lucid full narrative account of the peopling of Europe . . . this will undoubtedly provide a base line for future debates on the origins of the Europeans.” —J. P. Mallory, author of In Search of the Indo-Europeans and The Origins of the Irish Who are the Europeans? Where did they come from? New research in the fields of archaeology and linguistics, a revolution in the study of genetics, and cutting-edge analysis of ancient DNA are dramatically changing our picture of prehistory, leading us to question what we thought we knew about these ancient peoples. This paradigm-shifting book paints a spirited portrait of a restless people that challenges our established ways of looking at Europe’s past. The story is more complex than at first believed, with new evidence suggesting that the European gene pool was stirred vigorously multiple times. Genetic clues are also enhancing our understanding of European mobility in epochs with written records, including the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the spread of the Slavs, and the adventures of the Vikings. Now brought completely up to date with all the latest findings from the fast-moving fields of genetics, DNA, and dating, Jean Manco’s highly readable account weaves multiple strands of evidence into a startling new history of the continent, of interest to anyone who wants to truly understand Europeans’ place in the ancient world.