What do you think?
Rate this book
A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic
This book is the first since 1897 to describe the earliest reconstructable stages of the prehistory of English. It outlines the grammar of Proto-Indo-European, considers the changes by which one dialect of that prehistoric language developed into Proto-Germanic, and provides a detailed account of the grammar of Proto-Germanic. The first volume in Don Ringe's A Linguistic History of English will be of central interest to all scholars and students of comparative Indo-European and Germanic linguistics, the history of English, and historical linguists. The next volume will consider the development of Proto-Germanic into Old English. Subsequent volumes will describe the attested history of English from the Old English period to the present.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2006
8 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Don Ringe
11 books2 followersDon Ringe is a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 20, 2021
REVIEW OF THE KINDLE EDITION
I bought the Kindle edition of Donald A. Ringe’s A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic in 2015, and at quite a substantial cost, I might add (priced at well over twenty dollars). And in retrospect, I very much do now regret not checking the extant Amazon reviews prior to my purchase, since in particular the Kindle format of A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been pretty much scathingly criticised if not even totally condemned. And sadly, frustratingly, after perusing my Kindle download without ANY kind of pleasure and only very little enlightenment, I very much, I totally do agree with the negativity regarding how A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been rendered electronically, and as such I do not AT ALL recommend purchasing this book for the Kindle or for other e-platforms.
For one, the index for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic absolutely and totally does NOT work in the Kindle edition. It truly is impossible to read (majorly blurry, with almost illegible printing) and the featured page numbers also do not correspond anymore, because guess what, there are no longer any page numbers at all to be encountered in the text proper of the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, therefore making it rather impossible to check out specific pieces of linguistic information and basically forcing a reader to plow through Donald E. Ringe’s text from the beginning to the very end, and yes indeed, even if a reader might only have very few and specific linguistic questions regarding the development of Proto-Germanic from PIE.
And for two, for Donald A. Ringe’s featured text (which is well researched, academically sound but can also easily become a total linguistic nightmare for readers who do not already have advanced university level knowledge and skills regarding in particular Indo-European phonology, morphology and syntax), the supremely annoying fact that ALL included diagrams and the majority of necessary examples are at best difficult and at worst quite impossible to read with any kind of ease in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, this is not only absolutely frustrating, it also makes the author’s already in and of themselves rather difficult by necessity words basically pretty much totally and utterly impossible to sufficiently follow and understand (as yes, the vast majority of specific linguistic examples Donald A. Ringe uses to demonstrate and show Proto-Indo-European changing to Proto-Germanic are not really sufficiently legible for my eyes in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic and the diagrams are much too blurry and also majorly lacking in enough visual contrast).
Therefore, I have sadly only been able to roughly skim through what in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been sufficiently readable (and this has really and truly not been all that much). And well, before I actually am able to provide a detailed review regarding Donald A. Ringe’s textual contents and scope for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (except to point out that Ringe presupposes and expects quite a lot of prior linguistic knowledge from his readers) I will have to get my hands on a traditional dead tree copy of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (and yes, the Kindle format for this book, for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic is ridiculously and totally reader unfriendly, absolutely not to be recommended and also richly deserves a ranking of only one star).
I bought the Kindle edition of Donald A. Ringe’s A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic in 2015, and at quite a substantial cost, I might add (priced at well over twenty dollars). And in retrospect, I very much do now regret not checking the extant Amazon reviews prior to my purchase, since in particular the Kindle format of A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been pretty much scathingly criticised if not even totally condemned. And sadly, frustratingly, after perusing my Kindle download without ANY kind of pleasure and only very little enlightenment, I very much, I totally do agree with the negativity regarding how A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been rendered electronically, and as such I do not AT ALL recommend purchasing this book for the Kindle or for other e-platforms.
For one, the index for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic absolutely and totally does NOT work in the Kindle edition. It truly is impossible to read (majorly blurry, with almost illegible printing) and the featured page numbers also do not correspond anymore, because guess what, there are no longer any page numbers at all to be encountered in the text proper of the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, therefore making it rather impossible to check out specific pieces of linguistic information and basically forcing a reader to plow through Donald E. Ringe’s text from the beginning to the very end, and yes indeed, even if a reader might only have very few and specific linguistic questions regarding the development of Proto-Germanic from PIE.
And for two, for Donald A. Ringe’s featured text (which is well researched, academically sound but can also easily become a total linguistic nightmare for readers who do not already have advanced university level knowledge and skills regarding in particular Indo-European phonology, morphology and syntax), the supremely annoying fact that ALL included diagrams and the majority of necessary examples are at best difficult and at worst quite impossible to read with any kind of ease in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, this is not only absolutely frustrating, it also makes the author’s already in and of themselves rather difficult by necessity words basically pretty much totally and utterly impossible to sufficiently follow and understand (as yes, the vast majority of specific linguistic examples Donald A. Ringe uses to demonstrate and show Proto-Indo-European changing to Proto-Germanic are not really sufficiently legible for my eyes in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic and the diagrams are much too blurry and also majorly lacking in enough visual contrast).
Therefore, I have sadly only been able to roughly skim through what in the Kindle edition of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic has been sufficiently readable (and this has really and truly not been all that much). And well, before I actually am able to provide a detailed review regarding Donald A. Ringe’s textual contents and scope for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (except to point out that Ringe presupposes and expects quite a lot of prior linguistic knowledge from his readers) I will have to get my hands on a traditional dead tree copy of A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (and yes, the Kindle format for this book, for A Linguistic History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic is ridiculously and totally reader unfriendly, absolutely not to be recommended and also richly deserves a ranking of only one star).
February 11, 2008
When Oxford University Press launched their multi-volume "A Linguistic History of English", they started from the very beginning. This first volume, written by Don Ringe, is titled FROM PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN TO PROTO-GERMANIC, and covers over its four hundred pages two reconstructable ancestors of English. While the series as a whole may interest a different crowd or crowds, this first volume is a major event for Indo-Europeanists. Ringe presents a complete view of Proto-Indo-European according to the current consensus of scholars, surpassing the other, more dated handbooks on the market.
Ringe has been greatly inspired by the work of the late Warren Cowgill, and in many respects his view of Proto-Indo-European is like that of Sihler in his NEW COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR. Ringe believes Anatolian split off early, and the other early IE families are descended from a "North IE" branch, which he focuses on in this work. This allows him to present the verb system as it is easily reconstructible from the bulk of the early IE languages without having to complicate the issue with the very different Anatolian verb. The entire first half of the book is dedicated to a contemporary reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European. All the recently discovered etymologies are here, such as the verb "to listen" being a compound "(s)he is sharp-eared".
In the second half, Ringe exhaustively describes how PIE changed over time into Proto-Germanic, describing the major sound laws and seismic shifts in the verbal system. The new inflectional classes that arose are given in detail. Finally, Ringe takes a synchronic look at Proto-Germanic, comparing its phonological inventory to that of other languages, and conjecturing what allophones each phoneme may have had. I do wish there were more on the Proto-Germanic lexicon than the page and a half here, and this is my only real complaint about the book.
Ringe has maintained correspondence with today's other eminent Indo-Europeanists, and his book includes a number of ideas which, though hitherto unavailable in print, have been floating around in e-mails for some time. Also, though Ringe generally sticks to the consensus view in his reconstructions, he occasionally expresses his own opinions on matters, and these are often thought-provoking. For example, for the ancestor of English "bear (animal)", Ringe would posit PIE *gwer "wild animal" (cf. Gr. ther, Latin ferus) instead of the usual conjecture that it is from a tabooistic circumlocution meaning "the brown one".
If you are new to comparative Indo-European linguistics, this work will probably be hard going. I'd recommend Lehmann's THEORETICAL BASES for a friendly introduction. And those looking for a history of English that includes Proto-Indo-European, but not to the level of detail that Ringe gives, try Roger Lass' concise OLD ENGLISH: A Historical Linguistic Companion. Nonetheless, if you have experience in the field of IE linguistics and like to keep up with the most recent developments, Ringe's book is something you must seek out.
Ringe has been greatly inspired by the work of the late Warren Cowgill, and in many respects his view of Proto-Indo-European is like that of Sihler in his NEW COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR. Ringe believes Anatolian split off early, and the other early IE families are descended from a "North IE" branch, which he focuses on in this work. This allows him to present the verb system as it is easily reconstructible from the bulk of the early IE languages without having to complicate the issue with the very different Anatolian verb. The entire first half of the book is dedicated to a contemporary reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European. All the recently discovered etymologies are here, such as the verb "to listen" being a compound "(s)he is sharp-eared".
In the second half, Ringe exhaustively describes how PIE changed over time into Proto-Germanic, describing the major sound laws and seismic shifts in the verbal system. The new inflectional classes that arose are given in detail. Finally, Ringe takes a synchronic look at Proto-Germanic, comparing its phonological inventory to that of other languages, and conjecturing what allophones each phoneme may have had. I do wish there were more on the Proto-Germanic lexicon than the page and a half here, and this is my only real complaint about the book.
Ringe has maintained correspondence with today's other eminent Indo-Europeanists, and his book includes a number of ideas which, though hitherto unavailable in print, have been floating around in e-mails for some time. Also, though Ringe generally sticks to the consensus view in his reconstructions, he occasionally expresses his own opinions on matters, and these are often thought-provoking. For example, for the ancestor of English "bear (animal)", Ringe would posit PIE *gwer "wild animal" (cf. Gr. ther, Latin ferus) instead of the usual conjecture that it is from a tabooistic circumlocution meaning "the brown one".
If you are new to comparative Indo-European linguistics, this work will probably be hard going. I'd recommend Lehmann's THEORETICAL BASES for a friendly introduction. And those looking for a history of English that includes Proto-Indo-European, but not to the level of detail that Ringe gives, try Roger Lass' concise OLD ENGLISH: A Historical Linguistic Companion. Nonetheless, if you have experience in the field of IE linguistics and like to keep up with the most recent developments, Ringe's book is something you must seek out.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews