Internal Reconstruction in Indo-European: Methods, Results, and Problems [Hardcover]

The articles in the book discuss the perspectives as well as the problems related to the method of internal reconstruction. It thus offers a rich overview of one of the most important fields in historical linguistics today. The authors, renowned scholars in the field, are united in the ambition to shed light on the possibility to uncover the older stages of the history of a language through algebraic analysis and without the comparison to other languages. The collection of articles shows the strength of this technique concerning a range of classical problem fields within each Indo-European language and language group (Greek, Latin, Germanic, Old Irish, Tokharian), and also in the analysis of the Indo-European proto-language. Among other things the articles discuss the possibility of observing similarities with other language families.

Thomas Olander is postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen. Jens Elmegård Rasmussen is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Prefatory Note

The Old Indic cvi construction, the Caland system, and the PIE adjective
      Irene Balles
Residues as an aid in Internal Reconstruction
      Brigitte L. M. Bauer
On the expression of spatio-temporal locations in Late Proto-Indo-European
      Vit Bubenik
Reconsidering the system: verbal categorization and the coding of valency in Tocharian
      Gerd Carling
On the etymology of Latinoptumus/optimusand the reflex of PIE *H2o-
      Paul S. Cohen
Genitive and adjective—primary parts of the Proto-Indo-European language-system?
      Sabine Häusler
Tmesis and anastrophe: the beginnings of configuration in Indo-European languages
      John Hewson
Zur Rekonstruktion des urindogermanischen Konju