Book Reviews 1355

a reconstruction of Burmese based upon the assumption, not completely unreasonable to be sure, that Burmese orthography indicates an older phonology.

In summary, Cornell’s teacher of Burmese, Thai, and Vietnamese has given us a sound grammatical outline of one Karen language, competent statements of portions of the phonology of six forms of Karen speech, an excellent foundation for the history of the Karen languages, and some information on a hitherto unknown Karen language.

Khasi, A Language o j Assam. LILI RABEL. (Louisiana State University Studies, Humanities Series, Number 10.) Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961. xv, 248 pp., bibliography, 2 photographs, tables, notes. $5.00.

Reviewed by BARBARA ANDERSON, University of Bujalo This grammar is the first structural description of Khasi, a Mon-Khmer language

spoken by about 200,000 people in the Khasi Hills of northern Assam. In view of the paucity of good descriptions of Mon-Khmer languages, this work is especially welcome.

The chapters are entitled Phonology, Word Classes, Gender and Number, Mor- phology, Arrangement, and Texts and Lexicon.

Segmental phonemes are clearly described, though one might disagree with some of the author’s interpretations, e.g., her treatment of aspirated consonants and of semi- vowels. Her treatment of stress and intonation is somewhat confusing and a t times contradictory. There is evidence in her material for an internal open juncture, but she does not discuss this, although she writes spaces between words in her phonemic nota- tion.

Perhaps partly because Rabel does not use an internal open juncture phoneme, she has a rather unsatisfactory definition of the word: “A morpheme is called a word when it has lexical meaning, is not further analyzable into its components, and has a pitch contour” (p. 30). She goes on to say that, “In context word stresses and word pitches are leveled out” (p. 30). This definition does not help tell what a word is in context. Aside from the pitch element, the definition would probably cover all mor- phemes, but not all syllables, since some contain more than one morpheme.

Rabel states that “membership in word classes is established by distribution in the clause . . . and by ability to enter into certain morphological processes” (p. 48). Thus, in her own view, her word classes are mixed morphological and syntactic classes. It seems to me from the data presented that all the word classes are syntactic classes except the pronouns and possibly the verbs. There are some possible prefixes occurring before verbs, but Rabel is not sure whether these are prefixes or bases (note 21).

There are four positions in which morphemes occur before the verb base (p. 134). Numbering back from the verb base, we have ( 1 ) the causative prefix; (2) the reciprocal prefix; (3) what I would call “aspect-mode,” judging from the meaning of the 12 morphemes listed (Rabel’s “pre-verbs”) ; and (4) what I would call “tense-mode” (nine morphemes listed) (Rabel’s “auxiliaries”). There are two positions following the verb base: post-verbs and adverbs. All of these, except the verb base, are optional.

Khasi nouns and third person singular personal pronouns have two genders, mascu- line and feminine-neuter (perhaps it would be better to call the latter nonmasculine). Nouns are marked for gender and number by being preceded by one of the “gender articles,” which are the same as the four third person pronouns; the verb is preceded by the same pronoun. Interestingly, most of the personal pronouns form a neat inflec- tional set in which two bases, signifying singular (4 -a ) and plural ( 4 3 ) can be

1356 American Anthropologisl [64, 19621

preceded by any of four prefixes, signifying first person (dg-), second person (dph-), third person (dk - ) , and third person diminuitive-respect (@-) (the last only occurs before the plural base). The masculine forms: /me/ second person “rude (to man)” and /?uu/ “he” are leftovers.

One text is given with analysis and interlinear translation as well as a free transla- tion. Five more texts are given with translation but not with analysis. The lexicon comprises “a complete list of syntactically and morphologically bound morphemes” (p. 169).

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Genes, Enzymes, and Znherited Diseases. H. ELDON SUTTON. (Biology Studies.) New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961. viii, 120 pp., chapter bibliographies, 42 figures, index, 7 tables. $3.50.

Reviewed by J. BUETTNER- JANUSCH, Yale University In less than 200 pages Sutton has covered the essence of modern biochemical

genetics. As of April, 1961, nothing of importance has been left out, and furthermore, this is a splendidly written little volume. Every sentence counts, and the grotesqueness of much modern social scientific and biological writing has been avoided. At a time when physical anthropology and cultural anthropology are beginning to work together to solve problems in human biology on a population level, i t is most appropriate that so excellent an introduction to a key subject, biochemical genetics, is a t hand.

The seven chapters introduce the history of biochemical genetics, the molecular structure of genes, protein structure and specificity, mechanisms for the synthesis of proteins, errors of metabolism, hidden genetic variation, and treatment for inherited diseases.

The chapter on protein structure and specificity is particularly good. If any social scientist or humanist took the trouble to read it, he would be most astonished a t how elegant and how simple some basic concepts in biological science are. The fascinating story of the abnormal and variant human hemoglobins is succinctly covered from a molecular point of view. Anyone interested in the population dynamics of this trait should be most interested in this chapter. The section on the treatment of inherited diseases should certainly dispel some myths common to nongeneticists. Most fascinat- ing here is the discussion of the “removal of inhibitiors” and the story of cures for phenylketonuric idiocy.

All in all, this is a book to be highly recommended to all subscribers to this journal

The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine. WILTON MARION KROGMAN. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 1962. xxvi, 337 pp., 2 appendices, 113 illustrations, indices, chapter references, 89 tables. $14.00

Reviewed by SHEILAGH T. BROOKS, Pasadena City College and Physiology De*artment, University of Calijornia, Berkeley

Although Krogman has slanted the contents of this book toward the uses of law enforcement agencies, it is actually of tremendous value to anyone working with skeletal material, both as a survey of the literature and as a reference text for skeletal identification. Since the theme is forensic medicine, the data are directed toward individual identification, hut this in no way lessens the importance of the compilation for application to the type of identification involved in archeological skeletal popula- tions or other aspects of skeletal identification not directly related to individuals. In