Re: [tied] book about the sound laws of Indo-European

From: P&G
Message: 28933
Date: 2003-12-30

> Is anyone familiar with the following book title?
> Title: The Laws of Indo-European
> Author: N.E. Collinge

I can support Miguel's comment. It is a useful reference book, but not an
easy read, and not a good one to learn IE linguistics from. The book would
gain by a straightforward statement of each law - unfortunately, many of the
laws appear in several forms. The book gives arguments against all of
these, but is sometimes a little uncritical in its accceptance of the
anti-arguments, and a little unclear. It also describes the laws in terms
of distinctive features, which can be a little off-putting if you're not
used to it.

Despite the number of laws on Balto-Slavic accentuation (to which Miguel
drew your attention) it is still worth having, in my opinion, but only as a
reminder/reference book, or to learn about the history of acceptance of
these laws. At the very least, it makes us aware that the status of each
law varies enormously! Some are widely accepted, some - still called
"laws" - are hotly disputed. But it's a book I'm glad to have on my shelf.

Peter