Panorama de los estudios de las lenguas indígenas de México Ed. by Doris Bartholomew, Yolanda Lastra, and Leonardo Manrique (review)

182 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 75, NUMBER 1 (1999) neologisms, Esperanto tradition in the family, and the role of Esperanto in the life of the Esperanto speakers, e.g. why. when, and how they learn and speak Esperanto. Ch. 4 deals with the ethical profile ofEsperanto speakers and their attitudes towards topics such as social justice, morality, solidarity, equal rights, freedom, and tolerance. Ch. 5 treats opinions about current political issues which were relevant when the survey was carried out in Germany. The last chapter of the second main part handles consumption patterns and purchasing priorities of the Esperanto speakers concerning possessions. The third part of the book summarizes all statistical results with attempts to explain and interpret several unexpected results within the scope ofthe overall picture. The interdependence and mutual influence of various factors are also discussed. S expresses here the surprising thesis that the Esperanto movement is a movement of intellectuals and that its own structure makes it impossible to integrate other social classes (130). The fourth part is an appendix with a short bibliography , a lot of complete tables (which are complementing the diagrams), and the questionnaire which was used in the survey. This book is comprehensive, simply structured, easy to read, and requires no previous knowledge about the subject. Its strength is not in its theoretical pretension or methodology but in its abundance of information. This book fills a gap in the research of Esperanto. It deals with the sociological aspect of Esperanto and by doing so brings this neglected aspect to the center of scientific attention. Undoubtedly it will stimulate further research in this field. Elisha Ben-Ezra Bonn University. Panorama de los estudios de las lenguas indígenas de México. Ed. by Doris Bartholomew, Yolanda Lastra, and Leonardo Manrique. 2 vols. (Colecci ón Biblioteca Abya-Yala, 16-17.) Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1994. Pp. 377, 319. When we are concerned with the geographical classification of cultures and languages, the labels 'Mexico' and 'Mesoamerica' are coextensive only in part: Mesoamerica refers to a cultural and linguistic area which excludes the arid northern regions of the Republic of Mexico but extends southward to include Guatemala and portions of the adjacent Central American republics. The present work, although focused on 'Mexico', in fact covers much more territory than either Mexico or Mesoamerica since it is organized in terms of language families One of these, Mayan, extends south from Mexico to cover most of the Central American area assigned to Mesoamerica ; another, Uto-Aztecan, extends north into a large part of the western US. The number and the diversity of languages in this area have meant that periodic bibliographical surveys are especially useful to scholars A major contribution was made by the Handbook ofMiddle American Indians, vol. 5: Linguistics (1967, ed. by Norman McQuown. Austin: University of Texas Press); unfortunately , the supplemental volume to HMAI5 (1984, ed. by Munro Edmonson. Austin: University of Texas Press) neglected the opportunity for a full bibliographic update. A landmark contribution, to be sure was made by Jorge Suárez in his Mesoamerican Indian languages (1983. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). However, the present work—basically a collection of eleven bibliographic essays (some in Spanish, some in English) by Mexican, North American, and European scholars—represents a new 'state of the art' in the field. The individual essays, perhaps unfortunately, do not all follow a uniform plan. 'La familia Yutoazteca ' , by Karin Dakin (1:1 1 — 136), is a very comprehensive listing, including many unpublished works, organized by subfamily from north to south; one may be grateful for the wealth of material here yet feel frustrated over the difficulty of finding the page on which a particular item appears. By contrast, 'Pasado , presente y futuro en la lingüística Maya', by Nicholas Hopkins and Kathryn Josserand (1: 269-334), is much less comprehensive but employs a single, user-friendly, alphabetic listing by author. 'El estado actual de los estudios de las lenguas Mixtecanas y Zapotecanas', by Thomas C. Smith Stark (2:5-187), combines comprehensiveness with a single alphabetic listing, making it especially useful. A welcome feature ofthis work is the special attention given to some of the small linguistic isolates of Mexico such...