Reviewed by Sarah Turner, University of Waterloo

In this book on the history of Russian, Ian Press offers sample responses to questions set in undergraduate examinations at the University of London in the 1960s and in 1970. Whereas A history of the Russian language and its speakers (Munich: LINCOM Europa, 2007) gave a broad overview of the development of Russian, this volume focuses on specific topics central to that subject. Some questions are formulated in general terms (e.g. ‘Write notes on the relationship to Common Slavonic of the nominal declension in Modern Russian’), while others ask for commentaries on particular words of linguistic interest.

The topics are arranged into four subsections: ‘General topics’ (3–30), which include sections on borrowings and the role of Church Slavonic, ‘Phonology’ (31–58), ‘Morphology’ (59– 77), which includes some discussion of syntax, and ‘Dialects’ (78–87). The responses take the form of ordered notes, intended, as P states in his introduction, as ‘a guideline to data of the sort the answer might include’ (1). The text is rich in examples from modern and pre-modern Russian, as well as from other languages where relevant. The discursive parts of the responses hint at the linguistic controversies that lie behind some of the material presented, but presumably in keeping with his conception of his target audience, P generally does not explain or explore them at any length. An engaged student who has not had the benefit of a lecture or seminar on a particular subject may regret the absence of references to works where a fuller account of the issue can be found.

The nature of the project means that repetition of the same material in response to different questions is inevitable, and sometimes this repetition is welcome when points that are treated cursorily in one section are expanded upon elsewhere. P retains the informal writing style of his 2007 book. Although at first sight this approach makes his book more accessible than the average book in the field, as in his earlier work, there are instances when the clarity of the exposition is compromised.

The appendices on the sounds and forms of Russian (89–104) repeat in a systematized manner much of the information contained in the phonology and morphology sections, offering in addition a more extensive overview of Old Church Slavonic (104–24) than is available from the main text of the book.

The bibliography (125–29) lists many major studies of the history of the language, as well as important works on a wide range of more specific topics. It will be a valuable resource to any student in the field, and particularly to one who is already able to read scholarly writing in Russian. P’s book as a whole will be a helpful revision aid for the well-prepared student.