Re: my conlang: anyone interested?
| From: | Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, December 1, 2003, 16:59 |
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On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:31:33 +0100, Carsten Becker <post@...>
wrote:
> If someone knows a good
> online ethymologic dictionary (preferably an English one), could you
> please
> mail me a link off-list?
Not on-line (I only wish such a thing existed), but Barnhart
http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/detail/-/0550142304 is good for American English
(though the etymologies tend to only go as far as (e.g) Latin instead of
PIE), and there's always Skeats http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/detail/-
/0788191616, though the representation of PIE is sevèrely outdated (by a
century, and then some), it still gives a flavour for the relatedness and
history of words as far back as Classical languages (but not reliably any
further).
Also worth having is Calvert Watkins' appendix to the AHD
http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/detail/-/0618082506 which is thin on the ground
as far as listing etymologies, but decidedly well-stuffed regarding the
nature of the PIE lexicon.
And, of course, no etymology enthusiasts bookshelf is complete without the
very excellent dictionary by Carl Darling Buck
http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/detail/-/0226079376, which is somewhat of a pan-
linguistic thesaurus of the PIE languages.
In most PIE work, you'll also hear references to Pokorny
http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/detail/-/0828866023, which is a complete
behemoth of a book at 1648 pages and $600, but allegedly it's totally where
it's at regarding PIE. I have never seen an actual copy in the flesh,
however.
Paul
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