A lost Indo-European handbook
In the preface of Routledge’s The Indo-European Languages (the first, Italian edition of which was published in 1993, an English translation in 1998), the editors mention that in 1968 a project was undertaken by Kuryłowicz called the Indogermanische Grammatik which would be a modern version of Brugmann and Delbrück’s Vergleichende Grammatik. The project was subsequently continued by Watkins, Cowgill, and Mayrhofer, and is nowhere near completion. Does anyone know the status of this? Considering that Cowgill is no longer with us and Watkins is advanced in age, I suppose that the project has already been passed on to another generation.
I wonder what the oldest perpetually unfinished project is in Indo-European linguistics.
September 8th, 2005 at 21:55
Likewise Wackernagel et al.’s Altindische Grammatik, which in 4 fat volumes only got through phonology (1 vol.) and nominal (2!) / pronominal (1) morphology.
As far as I know, what we see is what we get of the Idg. Grammatik. But it’s also the closest to communis opinio we have.
(Note, however, that despite “advanced age” Prof. Watkins remains healthy and active.)
Funnily enough, the complete works are getting reworked instead of the old incompletes completed, e.g. Meier-Bruegger’s new Schwyzer in progress.
September 12th, 2005 at 03:42
How about the Poona Sanskrit Dictionary, begun in 1948 and so far still on the letter A?