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HUMANITIES 493 classee comme feminine, une autre terminaison -son est donnee comme masculine, ce qui fait considerer guerisan et pamaisan comme exceptions ii la regIe; la rubrique -son masculin ne renferme en fait que quinze exemples de noms masculins, contre onze noms feminins auxquels il faudrait ajouter trahison, garnisan et claison - donc quatorze en tout. Les exemples sont systematiquement donnes en listes ouvertes (Ie dernier item est toujours 'etc.'), cependant que les exceptions sont presentees en listes apparemment closes. Notons, parmi les exceptions oubliees: (a) -ale/-aile, f: dlidale, regale- ce qui porte l'effectif des noms masculins Ii dix contre vingt noms feminins cites; (b) -ee, f: macchabee, apogee, trochee; (c) -eur, f: ClEur, pleur, chlEur, vecteur, secteur; (d) -ase, f: rose (couleur - cf. bleu s.v. -eu); (e) -is, m: fais: (f) -it, m: chienlit; (g) -non, m: guenan; (h) -amme, m: pomme; (i) our, m: caur. Notons egalement les rubriques oubliees -ique (f), ing (m). L'ii-peu-pres de I'application d'une approche formelle rend I'ouvrage peu fiable comrne outil pedagogique. L'on se demande, a ce propos, pourquoi I'auteur a utilise comme source un ructionnaire de rimes de '925, alors qu'elle avait ii sa disposition Ie tres complet Dictionnaire inverse d'A. Juilland qui donne, pour chaque terminaison, des listes de mots completes avec !'indication du genre des noms. La primaute de la forme deforme parfois la realite linguistique: ainsi, par exemple, les homonymes (vase mlvase f; coche mlcache f), voire les homophones (jaretlforet), sont pn'sentes comme des mots polysemiques (d. 'Quelques noms dont Ie genre varie d'apres Ie sens: p 112). Le manque d'un classement rigoureux, Ie manque de listes exhaustives et de statistiques probabilistes, renvoient fatalement I'usager au dictionnaire de langue. Il est ii regretter aussi que la liste de 'quelques pays et regions du monde' qui clot Ie livre soit tres incomplete: Vatican est donne (sans indication de genre), mais non Suede, Ceylan mais non Sri Lanka, et Terre-Neuve seule des provinces du Canada. (T.R. WOOLDRIDGE) WRIT '4, Translation Issue. Edited by Roger Greenwald. Innis College, University of Toronto. 166. $12.00 WRIT has appeared approximately once a year since '970. Its aim is to publish good fiction and poetry by people who, for the most part, are not yet well known. WRIT '4 is a speCial issue devoted to translations of recent fiction and poetry from, in general, less frequently translated European languages: Czech, Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, German, Latvian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. Most of the material appears in English here for the first time. Twenty-four writers are included in the handsome volume, designed by the editor, Roger Greenwald. Only two of these, Josef Skvorecky and Boris Pasternak, are known to the Canadian reading public. The other 494 LEITERS IN CANADA 1983 twenty-two, including the Nobel laureate Harry Martinson, are, if I can depend on an informal survey of colleagues in the English Department of the University of Toronto, unknown to the English-speaking world, and the twenty-two are, without exception, worth knowing. The editor provides a brief, helpful introduction to each author, indicating what he has written and what, if anything, is available in English. Five of the authors are immigrants to Canada: josef Skvorecky writing in Czech, Fedir Odrach writing in Ukrainian, Yaacov Zipper writing in Yiddish, Tomas Haj6s writing in Hungarian, and Flavia Cosma writing in Romanian. Many of the translators are also Canadian with roots in Europe. Thus the Canadian mosaic is ably projected; readers in the United States, Britain, and Australia will become aware of some excellent Canadian writing produced in languages other than French and English. With all its variety, however, the volume has a focus - on Scandinavian poetry. Translations from the three major languages (Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish) are represented. It happens that the editor has special competence in the Scandinavian languages. But also the northern countries of Europe have a great deal in common with Canada, as j.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris realized when, in 1913, they saw the exhibition of contemporary Scandinavian art at the Albright Gallery in Buffalo. No fewer than eight...

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