A new multi-volume book is widely considered the most comprehensive coverage of the field of Indo-European linguistics in a century:
The Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics is a collaborative, three-volume work of 120 scholars from 22 countries. Edited by University of Georgia professor Jared Klein, the book combines the exhaustive coverage of an encyclopedia with the in-depth treatment of individual monographic studies focusing on the entire Indo-European family and treating each major branch and most minor languages.
Published between October 2017 and June 2018, the work consists of three volumes totaling 2,410 pages and has a heavy UGA imprint: Klein is the lead editor, and former UGA linguistics Ph.D. Mark Wenthe is the editorial assistant.
In addition to a chapter by Klein, the book contains two chapters written by Keith Langston, professor and head of the linguistics department, and single chapters by UGA alumni Martin Macak, Caley Smith, Andrew Byrd and Tony Yates.
Following sections on general methodology of historical and comparative linguistics and specifically Indo-European linguistics, the fruits of this methodology in an array of other language families or super-phyla (Semitic, Uralic, Caucasian, African, Austronesian, Australian), and the history of Indo-European studies, the book then takes up one by one the 12 subgroups of Indo-European (Indic, Iranian, Greek, Italic, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc.) with chapters on the documentation, sound systems, grammatical systems, vocabulary, syntax, dialectology and evolution to the modern day (for those groups that have survived). Italic is the language family of modern Romance languages; English arose from the Germanic subgroup.
A tremendous scholarly accomplishment by Klein, Wenthe, and colleagues, including several of their former students. Congratulations on this prodigious new work that will aid scholars worldwide for many years to come.
Image: Indo-European branches map, via wikimedia commons
