Three New Introductions to Romance Linguistics

Three introductions to Romance linguistics are reviewed: (1) Eduardo Biasco Ferrer, Linguistik fur Romanisten: Grundbegriffe im Zusammenhang ([Romance Linguistics: Basic Concepts in Interrelationship] Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1996), (2) Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, Des langues romanes: Introduction aux etudes de linguistique romane ([On Romance Languages: An Introduction to Romance Studies] Louvain-la-Neuve: Duculot, 1994), & (3) Rebecca Posner, The Romance Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1996). The contents of these three books are outlined & commented on. It is noted that they approach their task from different perspectives. Posner's work seeks to offer, through the study of selected key problems, an introduction to the Romance languages as a family without a systematic language-by-language description while dispensing with the traditional focus on the evolutionary transition from Latin to its various daughter languages. Klinkenberg's book is designed as an introduction for Francophone university students & focuses on individual Romance languages rather than the Romance family or Romance linguistics as a scholarly discipline. Ferrer wrote an introduction for German-speaking students for whom linguistic concepts & phenomena are illustrated with examples from Romance varieties. It is concluded that Posner's book is the only one of the three than can lay claim to any degree of scholarly originality. Ferrer's book contains too many inaccuracies & errors, & students should use it only with the guidance of their teacher. Klinkenberg's work does not meet the standard of a university-level introductory manual to either Romance linguistics or Romance languages. 46 References. Z. Dubiel