Fonética histórica vasca By Luis Michelena (review)

474 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 56, NUMBER 2 (1980) presented in the plain language of oldfashioned grammars' (55). J's aim is not to discredit transformational approaches to morphology entirely, but merely to show that they have no advantages over his own structuralist approach. Indeed, he recognizes the value of transformational approaches to syntax—an area where structuralism had perhaps the least value. But it is a pity, even though the Rumanian conjugation system is an excuse rather than a reason for this volume, that so little of it—less than half—is actually devoted to the morphological problem. Much of the rest is rhetoric and, in places, rather tiresome modelbashing , so that even a sympathetic reader may lose patience. Finally, one wonders about the appropriateness of including this book in a series otherwise concerned with French and Italian literature. [Graham Mallinson, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.] Fonética histórica vasca. By Luis MiCHELENA. 2a edición, corregida y aumentada. San Sebastián: Diputaci ón Provincial de Guipúzcoa, 1976. Pp. 596. Monumental is the only appropriate word to describe this volume, which subsumes all previous work in the field as well as everything done since its initial publication in 1961. Any future phonologies of Basque can only be commentaries on Michelena's achievement. M's book sets out to study systematically and diachronically the segmental phones of Basque from the earliest attested forms to the present. This endeavor required the painstaking collection and collation of thousands of forms. The basic formal arrangement of the materials is phonological, i.e. according to phonetic processes (Iabialization/delabialization , palatalization etc.), phonetic classes (occlusives, sibilants, nasals, laterals), and suprasegmental phenomena (stress accent and musical accent). The order of treatment of these parameters is dictated by the nature of the problems that occur in Basque studies rather than by any universal scheme. Of most interest to the historical linguist is Chap. 19 (pp. 371-8), where the earliest stage of Basque consonantism attainable by internal reconstruction is presented. Actually, awareness of Proto-Basque hovers over every historical explanation in the book. As M avers, the fundamental techniques of historical reconstruction have not changed since the publication of the first edition. Thus he has preferred to leave the book as it was except for minor modifications and the addition of two appendices. He confesses that he is a 'neogramático nacido con retraso', since 'the neogrammarians were, after all, the first who consistently demanded the formulation of explicit rules to "generate" the form of a given state of language, starting from a previous state, attested or hypothetical, i.e. to introduce what is equivalent to the logicalmathematical concept offunction even though they did not give a full account of it or of the cybernetics of transformation ...' The book is therefore a systematic treatment of all the raw materials for the formulation of a generative phonology. Pp. 1-458 of this new edition represent the original, corrected text. The original fourpage 'adiciones y correcciones' have been expanded into pp. 459-589. The original index has been retained, but the expanded section is provided with a new index. In addition, there is a supplementary index of Latin, Romance, Aquitanian, Iberian, and Ancient Greek words and place names. The format of the comprehensive work is lucid, even if somewhat inconvenient. The new portion of the work follows, section by section, the plan of the original chapters— except for the new Chap. 20, 'El acento moderno', where sections are numbered independently. M points out (467-8) the great lack in Basque phonological and historical studies: a comprehensive dialect atlas. Until the appearance of such a work, the present book will remain the source of our knowledge of Basque phonological phenomena, both in time and space. With great depth and great sensitivity for meaningful detail, M explores all the problems, major and minor, in the history of the Basque language. [Terence H. Wilbur, UCLA.] Lehrbuch des Pashto (Afghanisch). By Manfred Lorenz. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, 1979. Pp. 303. ?42.00. This East German publication is, so far as I know, the first German textbook of Pashto ever to appear. (The many years of a Goethe ...