Maria Polinsky (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus (Oxford Handbooks). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xxx + 1158.

Abstract

This volume is intended to be a reference manual on the linguistics of the Caucasian languages, targeted at researchers, students, and the initiated public. The general outline of the volume, the choice of authors, and the quality of their contributions greatly contribute to achieving this ambition. The book is well-crafted and thoroughly edited byMaria Polinsky. Its chapters are designed to make a whole, with a coherent and effective plan, a unique consolidated list of references at the end of the volume, and a 68-page index (which is, however, far from satisfactory, in terms of relevance and accuracy). It successfully fulfills the dual mission of being an effective handbook and a milestone in scientific research in its field, providing stimulating reading for scholars in typological, areal, and theoretical terms. The chapters are based on a substantial body of data, compiled in grammars or collected first-hand by the authors. Most of the 28 contributors are experts in North-West Caucasian languages (hereafter NWC), Nakh-Daghestanian languages (hereafter ND), or Kartvelian, sometimes the leading authors for one or more specific language. Yuri Koryakov, a recognized expert in linguistic cartography of the region, provides four maps representing administrative divisions, language families, languages, and one specific map detailing the ND languages. No contributor has specific expertise in Armenian or Azerbaijani. The book has six parts. The first part, together with the general introduction from the editor, provides a comprehensive linguistic, sociolinguistic, and demographic overview of the region (1–86). The following four parts (12 chapters of varying granularity in terms of languages covered) contain a sociolinguistic, linguistic, and typological description for each main family: ND (87–368), NWC (369–490), Kartvelian (491–572), and Indo-European (IE) (573–688). The last part, entitled ‘Phenomena’, cross-linguistically addresses ten descriptive and theoretical issues (689–1002). All references are compiled in a single bibliography section. The book is completed by two appendices ‘Languages and language names’ and ‘Transliteration tables’ by Yuri Koryakov as well as an Index (1091–1158). In her general introduction, Maria Polinsky outlines the scope of the book, namely non-extinct languages of the Caucasus. She presents the languages and linguistic families of the region, its linguistic history, sociolinguistic and typological challenges, the state of research, and the structure of the handbook. Thewidefield covered makes a few factual errors or problematic formulations unavoidable, but this