Historical Linguistics, Fourth Edition: An Introduction

Campbell's book is perfect for anyone looking to a solid introduction to historical linguistics. It came highly recommended by a friend of mine who is a professor at Cambridge. Not only does it introduce you to the basic concepts of the field, it teaches you how to apply them. Perhaps the only drawback is the lack of answers to the exercises. However, if you re-read the chapter preceding the exercises, you will probably be able to figure out the correct answer. I highly recommend it!

I would highly recomment this book to anyone interested in historical linguistics. Having read four introductory textbooks on historical linguistics (Campbell's, R. L. Trask's, Anthony Fox's, and Terry Crowley's), I believe that Campbell's is probably the best. His writing style is clear and accessible, his explanations easy to understand, and his examples drawn from a wide variety of languages, particularly indegenous languages of Central America (Campbell is one of the leading experts in Mayan languages today). His step-by-step description on how to apply the comparative method, in particular, is in my opinion both more detailed and better-illustrated than those in most of his colleague's works. He does assume some knowledge of basic linguistic concepts, but defines those concepts which are more advanced as they come up. The exercises given at the end of each chapter are well-chosen, but unfortunately for those who are not students but merely reading the book outside of a classroom, answers are not provided. The only complaint I have is not a problem with the writing per se, but with the way the book was printed. Several of the diacritics used in the text (in particular, an upside-down semi-circle placed under a velar consonant to signify that the consonant is fronted or palatalized) do not appear correctly, and show up a line below where they are supposed to be, which tends to interfere with the reading, as it forces you to read slower and return to previous lines to see which characters are supposed to have diacritical marks. This is not a fault of Campbell's, but it does detract somewhat from the reading (hopefully it will be fixed if there is another edition).

Lyle Campbell's HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: An Introduction is the latest textbook initiating students into the study of language change. Already in its second edition, the book is quite impressive and I highly recommend it to anyone entering the field. Campbell begins by discussing three types of change, that of sounds, that of the lexicon in borrowing, and analogical change. After making students aware of these diachronic developments, he then presents the comparative method and the technique of proto-language reconstruction. After showing how regular correspondences indicate development from a common source, Campbell discusses the classification of languages and models of linguistic change. For me, the most exciting chapter is that on internal reconstruction, where Campbell gives a number of examples (not just the usual one of PIE ablaut). The author then covers three others types of change, semantic, lexical, and syntactic. A chapter on areal linguistics familiarises the reader with dialectology, and one on distant genetic relationships introduces theories like Nostratic. Finally, discussion of philology and a chapter on reconstruction of proto-cultures and the hunting of Urheimats closes the book. The finest aspect of this book is the great variety of languages from which Campbell draws his examples. Many textbooks, such as that of Lehmann, limit their focus mostly to Indo-European, but Campbell also gives attention to Finno-Ugric, Polynesian languages, Semitic, and many indigenous American languages, especially the Mayan languages which the authors seems expert in. In fact, the lack of sticking just to Indo-European makes this a very useful text for budding Indo-Europeanists, because most of the other language family reconstructions make use of typology, a technique only now beginning to be applied to IE. I can make few complaints about the work, though his use of palatal velars in PIE reconstructions seems out of fashion. This is a real textbook, exercises are abudant and really challenge the student to apply all he has learned. The author does assume students already have some understanding of phonology and general linguistic terminology. If you are interested in the general field of historical linguistics and have some prior training in linguistics, Campbell's textbook is one of the best primers available and highly worth seeking out.

I don't intend to provide the opinion of a professional linguist, though I am a translator, I speak several languages and I sometimes read books on linguistics as a nerdy hobby. Therefore, my perspective is limited to the book's value for other readers like myself, though I realize that the vast majority of people who purchase the book will probably be linguistics students.In any case, the book is excellent and provides a thorough overview of the subject of historical linguistics. In a very well-organized manner, the book presents each of the concepts, terms and definitions and then provides excellent examples from languages with which the author is familiar. I sometimes felt the explanations to be slightly hard to follow, but of course I am not a linguistics student. The examples provided afterwards cleared up these doubts in most cases. Some of the more in-depth examples are fascinating, such as the closer look at the history of the Gypsies' language over time and space.Perhaps the only thing I sometimes found annoying was the variety of languages used to provide examples. Campbell often uses Mesoamerican languages and Finnish in his examples, and I don't happen to be familiar with either, which caused me to lose interest at certain points. It would have been nice to have a few more examples from African, Asian and Pacific languages, as well as the many examples from American and European languages.

Campbell is a more lucid writer other authors in historical linguistics (one for example, Theodora Bynon's Historical Linguistics) are, since he describes 'seven steps' of the comparative method and 'four steps' of the method of internal reconstruction. In these steps, technically reductio ad absurdum and ad hominem is employed in 'directionality' to argue for direction of change from a phoneme to another (pp.116, 203-204). Also is employed ex concesso in 'the majority-wins principles' (p. 117) and 'factoring in features held in common' (p. 118) to postulate a phoneme for a proto-language sound. In a word, as a graduate student in linguistics I can unquestionably recommend that a learner of historical linguistics study this book.