request for reference

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 23, 2012, at 12:20 AM, W Brewer wrote:

> IE primer
>
> AZ wrote: <<< Indoeuropean linguistics overview, superficial>>>
>
> WB: The impossible-to-answer question. What is your classmate interested
> in? Or WHY would he/she be interested in IE lx specifically? General
> survey? What about the broader field of Indo-European Studies, including
> also archaeology, culture, religion? The Wikipedia articles seem not too
> neophyte-friendly.

i believe his interest is just general intellectual curiosity.  (when you retire, you have more time to pursue things that intrigue you.)  and the comparative method is one of the great ideas of the 19th century.

> The briefest of authoritative thumbnail sketches (I have
> at hand) would be Calvert Watkins, Indo-European & Indo-Europeans, in the
> _American_Heritage_Dictionary_ (pp. xix-xx, 1496-1502, plus IE roots
> throughout the dictionary, i.e. my 1969 edition). If this whets your
> classmate?s appetite for more, let us know.

AHD5 has Watkins's sketch, an appendix with Indo-Euopean roots, a guide to this appendix, a table of IE sound correspondences, and a graph of the IE family of languages.  good stuff.

thanks for reminding me about it.

arnold

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