In compiling this bibliography, the main purpose was to assemble references to published material of a sociolinguistic nature concerning the Irish language. The intent was not to cover publications treating language per se, but rather to consider those dealing with language in its social context. Represented here are articles, chapters, books and pamphlets bearing upon social, historical, psychological and educational aspects of Irish – including the decline of the language, the restoration effort, the relationship of language to nationality and religion, and studies of important figures in the language movement.

This simple introduction to the history of the German language seeks to provide students who have some knowledge of modern German, but no knowledge either of its development or of linguistic theories, with a short account of the essential factors – chronological, geographical and linguistic – and their interrelation. The material is arranged in three parts. The first traces the history of the German language from its origins in Indo-European through the pre-documentary Germanic period and the Middle Ages to the present day. In the second part the development of the German vocabulary is described, including word formation, borrowing, and change in meaning; and the book concludes with a section on changes in sounds, grammatical forms, and syntax. Emphasis is placed on the development of the standard literary language in its historical and social context, while such topics as dialects and the relationship of German to other Germanic and European languages are treated very briefly as the need arises. The inclusion of maps, some specimen passages of German its early stages, suggestions for further reading after each chapter, and an extensive classified bibliography also contribute to making this a useful introduction to the subject and a reliable foundation for more advanced work.

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 book gives a comprehensive introduction to Comparative Indo-European Linguistics. It starts with a presentation of the languages of the family (from English and the other Germanic languages, the Celtic and Slavic languages, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit through Armenian and Albanian) and a discussion of the culture and origin of the Indo-Europeans, the speakers of the Indo-European proto-language.The reader is introduced into the nature of language change and the methods of reconstruction of older language stages, with many examples (from the Indo-European languages). A full description is given of the sound changes, which makes it possible to follow the origin of the different Indo-European languages step by step. This is followed by a discussion of the development of all the morphological categories of Proto-Indo-European. The book presents the latest in scholarly insights, like the laryngeal and glottalic theory, the accentuation, the ablaut patterns, and these are systematically integrated into the treatment. The text of this second edition has been corrected and updated by Michiel de Vaan. Sixty-six new exercises enable the student to practice the reconstruction of PIE phonology and morphology.

This book discusses a class of Reduced Constructions which exhibit both mono- and bi-clausal characteristics. In Spanish, as well as other Romance languages, the most salient mono-clausal characteristic is the possibility of clitic climbing, i.e. the possibility of an object clitic attaching to a verb that is higher (in the appropriate sense) than the verb which selects the object to which the clitic corresponds. Reduced constructions come in essentially two varieties: clause reduction (or restructuring) constructions and union (or causative / perception verb)constructions. There has been a good deal of work on a number of aspects of reduced constructions; here the author discusses work in three areas: the analysis of pronominal clitics, the structure of clause reduction and union constructions (and how these treatments interact with the analysis of clitics to yield an account of clitic climbing), and the encoding of embedded subjects in union constructions.

This contribution in this volume discuss a large variety of issues from the realm of Indo-European phonology in its broadest definition, stretching from minute phonetic to more abstract levels of phonemics and morphophonemics and centering upon all varieties of Indo-European, including the protolanguage and its recent pre-stages and, in effect, all of its post-stages till this day.

First published in 2008. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.