Elements of Kuṛux historical phonology By Martin Pfeiffer (review)

REVIEWS755 of the class of linguistic processes that we have considered, what is truly noteworthy is the remarkable stability of the system of rules and underlying representations after six centuries of linguistic isolation. But even to begin the exploration of this system, its relation to the systems of other Arabic dialects, and the implications of the underlying stability of the system, it is necessary to adopt a program of analysis altogether different from that employed in DACMA. It is fortunate that Tsiapera has carried out her aim of adding 'to our knowledge of Arabic dialects by describing a little known dialect which is rapidly disappearing.' It is, however, unfortunate that she has chosen to present the results of her study in an organizational format that, at the very least, requires a reader to pore over the data again and again before he can begin to extract the underlying system and to appreciate its fascinating theoretical and empirical implications. REFERENCES Abdo, Daud A. 1969. On stress and Arabic phonology: a generative approach. Beirut: Khayats. Brame, Michael. 1971. Stress in Arabic and generative phonology. Foundations of Language 7.556-91. Chomsky, Noam, and Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row. Halle, Morris, and Samuel Jay Keyser. 1971. English stress: its form, its growth, and its role in verse. New York: Harper & Row. Elements of Kurux historical phonology. By Martin Pfeiffer. (Indoiogía Berolinensis , 3.) Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972. Pp. xviii, 216./48.00. Reviewed by M. B. Emeneau, University of California, Berkeley This is the first in what one can hope will be a long series of works in a new stage of Dravidian comparative phonology. We have detailed treatment of this kind for several of the literary languages (though it would be invidious to specify what is still needed); but for the non-literary languages no such treatment, language by language, has appeared before this one on Kurux (a language which has usually been referred to as Kurukh or Oraon). It is somewhat cheering to note that it comes, as an English reworking of a dissertation in German, from the Freie Universität Berlin, which one can thereby hopefully assume is not completely politicized. The work is based in the main on the voluminous work of Grignard 1924, with additions from both earlier and later work. Notable, however, is the revision of Grignard's somewhat non-transparent transcription by contact with speakers of the language both in India and in Berlin (missionary organizations), as recorded (1964) by Pfeiffer's teacher Pinnow. Pf does not make it clear whether he shared in this contact, but he certainly made full use of Pinnow's results. The etymological side of the work is based chiefly on Burrow & Emeneau's etymological dictionary of 1961 (DED), with additions by Pf himself. Burrow & Emeneau's supplements of 1968 (DEDS) and 1972 (DEN) are related to Pfs work in a complicated way. The original dissertation was completed in 1968, before DEDS was available. This dissertation was available to Emeneau in 1969, and with Pfs consent numerous 756LANGUAGE, VOLUME 50, NUMBER 4 (1974) items were excerpted from it and included in DEN, with attribution to him ; in this way some earlier tangles were cleared up, as in DEN S22, which removed items that had been wrongly placed in DED 54 (184, no. 6). In Pf's present revision, he made some use of DEDS, but was unable to utilize it fully, since this would have disrupted his system of numbered entries. But Pf's revision has some further items which can now be added by Burrow and Emeneau to their collectanea, with a view to later supplementary publication ! The plan of the work is to trace back each of the Kurux phonemes to its PDr. sources, giving all the etymological groups for each correspondence (part II, 13-141); and then (part III, 142-66) to trace each of the PDr. phonemes to its various Kurux representations, with identification of regular correspondences, explanation (where possible) ofexceptions, and general discussion. Reconstructions of PDr. forms are given throughout. On the whole, most of the correspondences had been fairly clear earlier, but now they have been stated with great...