The ability to compare is fundamental to human cognition. Expressing various types of comparison is thus essential to any language. The present volume presents detailed grammatical descriptions of how comparison and gradation are expressed in ancient Indo-European languages. The detailed chapters devoted to the individual languages go far beyond standard handbook knowledge. Each chapter is structured the same way to facilitate cross-reference and (typological) comparison. The data are presented in a top-down fashion and in a format easily accessible to the linguistic community. The topics covered are similatives, equatives, comparatives, superlatives, elatives, and excessives. Each type of comparison is illustrated with glossed examples of all its attested grammatical realizations. The book is an indispensable tool for typologists, historical linguists, and students of the syntax and morphosyntax of comparison.

The contents of the present volume will enhance our understanding of the diachrony of agreement systems and provide a useful starting point for future studies on this both fascinating and intricate field of research.

Ablaut--the grammatically conditioned vowel alternations found, for example, in the English verb "sing" (sing, sang, sung)--is one of the most characteristic features of the Indo-European languages. "Indo-European Accent and Ablaut" investigates the relationship between ablaut and accent in Indo-European languages and in their predecessor--Proto-Indo-European. It offers a thorough overview of the most recent scholarship on ablaut and accent by some of today's most expert linguists. With attention to both theoretical understandings and specific linguistic materials, the contributors discuss an array of empirical and methodological issues in researching these key linguistic phenomena, and in doing so they open up new horizons for research.

Die Habilitationsschrift des 1996 verstorbenen Munchner Finnougristen und Indogermanisten Hartmut Katz ist aus dessen langjahriger Beschaftigung mit der Lautlehre des Uralischen erwachsen, wobei den arischen Lehnwortern eine wichtige Kontrollfunktion zukam. Die Arbeit bietet einen Extrakt aus der geplanten uralischen Lautgeschichte und eine Substitutionslehre. Das "Herzstuck" der Arbeit besteht aus den nach Sachgruppen geordneten Lehnetymologien. Die Verbreitung der uralischen Belege kombiniert mit lautlichen Kriterien ergab eine prinzipiell klare Schichtung der arischen Lehnworter in den uralischen Sprachen.