Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives ─ The Eurasiatic Language Family : Grammar

The latest product of recent efforts to find a deeper common root to the many family languages around the world that have been recognized for a century. Greenberg (anthropology and linguistics, Stanford U.) identifies numerous and interlocking resemblances between Indo-European, Uralic-Yukaghir, Altaic, Japanese-Korean-Ainu, Gilyak, Chukotian, and Eskimo-Aleut. These, he argues, can only be explained reasonably by descent from a common ancestor. All together he looks at 72 grammatical elements and the forms they take, but finds most telling the vowel-harmony system found in many of the languages. The second volume will continue his argument by considering lexicon. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)