Reviewed by Iván Ortega-Santos, University of Memphis

Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen’s introduction to the history of Romance languages focuses on five major languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Spanish, French, and Italian are discussed together in the first eight chapters, and Portuguese and Romanian are presented in separate chapters that follow (Ch. 9 and Ch. 10, respectively). Particular emphasis is put on the evolution of the sound system; Chs. 1–5 look at Spanish, French, and Italian. Emphasis is put also on morphological evolution: verb morphology in Chs. 6–7 and noun and adjective morphology in Ch. 8, for the same three languages. In Ch. 11, the authors look at the evolution of the lexicon in all five languages.

Ch. 1 (5–25) deals with the vowel system of Latin and its evolution in Spanish, French, and Italian. Chs. 2–4 (26–76) focus on the evolution of the consonant system (e.g. degemination in Spanish and French, lenition processes, or the birth of new consonants). Ch. 5 (77–94) further discusses the vowel system (e.g. vowel raising in Italian and yod effects in Spanish and French). The evolution of the present indicative and the rest of the tenses is discussed in Chs. 6 and 7 respectively. Ch. 8 (185–205) deals with the development of the nominal, adjectival, and pronominal system in these three languages. A discussion of Portuguese and Romanian, in Ch. 9 (209–51) and Ch. 10 (252–86), respectively, follow a similar approach. The lexicon is taken up in Ch. 11 (287–316), and particular attention is paid to word formation processes and loanwords. Additionally, in Ch. 12 (317–38), further attention is paid to the earliest Romance texts showing the emergence of the Romance vernaculars or dialect standardization.

Interspersed throughout the chapters are a number of carefully chosen topics that will be appealing to readers, including the birth and death of rules or how researchers gained an insight into Popular Latin. Syntax is briefly discussed with morphology when relevant; for instance, the birth of the definite article and the change from synthetic to periphrastic passive forms are presented.

Though some degree of familiarity with linguistic terms is certainly assumed, most technical words are explained in the body of the text or else in the glossary. In general, the discussion stands out as particularly clear, as is necessary for an introduction. The exercises contribute further to the usefulness of this book.

Some scholars will miss a more extensive discussion of the evolution of syntax in these languages. However, one should bear in mind that this is an introduction and that extensive attention has been paid to other matters. By necessity some aspects were omitted from the discussion (e.g. the birth of analytic comparative and superlative forms). The highly detailed use of references concerning the analyses and derivations discussed will prove useful not only to beginning students but also to more seasoned scholars. All in all, this book is an excellent pedagogical tool.