All:
In terms of a general reference for the Slavic/Slavonic language group, given a choice between de Bray's "A Guide to the Slavonic Languages" (either the single volume edition or the 3-volume edition) and Routledge's "The Slavonic Languages" (edited by Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett), which would you choose, and why? Or, is there something even better available?
I went through both editions of de Bray's work more than 14 years ago, when I had access to them through a government agency library and am now thinking about getting a copy for myself. I now have a copy of the Routledge book. It seems to me that de Bray went more into the nuts-and-bolts of each language, but I don't remember if he said much, if anything, about Common/Proto-Slavic. The Routledge book, on the other hand has a chapter devoted to Proto-Slavic, even going back to Balto-Slavic.
I understand that there is some disagreement about whether Baltic and Slavic share a common ancestor more recent than PIE. In fact, I believe it's been discussed on this list, but, while I'm interested in Baltic, that's not the focus of my question.
Any comments or suggestions?
Andy Howey
ps. I'd also appreciate a referral for a good English-language Baltic reference, although I could deal with German as well (I could struggle through Russian if I had to, but my Russian is so rusty now...) I have Mathiassen's "A Short Grammar of Latvian" and "A Short Grammar of Lithuanian", and I have Jan Endzelin's "Altpreussische Grammatik" and Schmalstieg's "Studies in Old Prussian", but I can't seem to locate a copy of Schmalstieg's "Old Prussian Grammar". Is there anything that brings the three together?