Volume 187 in the North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures series.

The ten articles collected in this volume are an impressive indication of the range and depth of Malkiel's knowledge of diachronic processes in the Romance languages. In the author's experience, etymological studies of lexis frequently lead one into the areas of phonology and morphology, and the title of the book reflects these interrelationships. The volume opens with a previously unpublished paper which centers around the history of English. The other papers deal with topics from the Romance languages in general, and from Old French and Spanish in particular. The author has added a “Retrospect”, in which all articles are discussed once more in the light of recent developments. An Index of Names and an exhaustive Index of Key Concepts round off the volume.

This Festschrift volume is published in Honor of Yaacov Choueka on the occasion of this 75th birthday. The present three-volumes liber amicorum, several years in gestation, honours this outstanding Israeli computer scientist and is dedicated to him and to his scientific endeavours. Yaacov's research has had a major impact not only within the walls of academia, but also in the daily life of lay users of such technology that originated from his research. An especially amazing aspect of the temporal span of his scholarly work is that half a century after his influential research from the early 1960s, a project in which he is currently involved is proving to be a sensation, as will become apparent from what follows. Yaacov Choueka began his research career in the theory of computer science, dealing with basic questions regarding the relation between mathematical logic and automata theory. From formal languages, Yaacov moved to natural languages. He was a founder of natural-language processing in Israel, developing numerous tools for Hebrew. He is best known for his primary role, together with Aviezri Fraenkel, in the development of the Responsa Project, one of the earliest fulltext retrieval systems in the world. More recently, he has headed the Friedberg Genizah Project, which is bringing the treasures of the Cairo Genizah into the Digital Age. This third part of the three-volume set covers a range of topics related to language, ranging from linguistics to applications of computation to language, using linguistic tools. The papers are grouped in topical sections on: natural language processing; representing the lexicon; and neologisation.

Volume 202 in the North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures series.

This volume opens with two pieces, hitherto unpublished, in which Professor Malkiel sets out his views on Romance etymology and its history. He provides a detailed analysis of the principles, even prejudices, whether explicit or implicit, which have directed scholars in their enquiries, and argues that the goal should be a discipline integrated with others in related fields, and avoiding reliance on any one method of research. He insists, moreover, that linguistic variation is directly affected by social and cultural factors: the transformation of Latin into the Romance languages must be studied in relation to the break-up of the Roman world and the formation of the medieval and modern peoples of 'Latin' Europe. The following articles, now with an extensive additional commentary, reflect the author's move towards a more experimental etymology, and provide case-studies of particular words and word-complexes and their historical and cultural context. As an example, one article asks whether it is any coincidence that the Spanish word for a hog, marrano, was also used of the crypto-Jews who, though formally converted to Christianity, kept up some Jewish practices.