Reviews 187 on Hungarian influence on Austrian civilization, not merely on Hungary's contri- butions from a treasure house of Naturvolk. Because the Hungarians have a large "diaspora" of a pluralistic character, their influence on contemporary civilizations can be highly pertinent to diffusional studies. Inquiries into Hungarian intel- lectual influences (Ady's and Attila Jozsef's, for example) in Slovak, Croatian, and Rumanian literatures probably exist, but buried in learned journals. Given the large number of Americans of East European background, it is also pertinent to ask about Hungarian influence on American literature, a topic recently raised in College English (March 1974), by Rose Mary Prosen. In a contemporary con- text, a study such as this is meaningful when focused on genuine interaction—in this case, the ability of Hungarian civilization to be creative when receiving out- side influences in its own environment or when encountering new environments. A N T O N N. NYERGES Eastern Kentucky University A D I C T I O N A R Y O F S L A V I C W O R D F A M I L I E S . Compiled and edited by Louis Jay Herman. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1975. xvi, 667 pp. $20.00. A unique cross between a root lexicon and a polyglot dictionary with prominent characteristics of an etymological dictionary, Herman's work is a comparative display of the vocabulary structure of the four major Slavic languages. Each of the two hundred articles is headed by a list of the various Russian, Polish, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian allomorphs of a particular Slavic root. The most important or interesting derivatives of the root are then listed in columns according to lan- guage so that morphologically identical words line up horizontally. English- language glosses are supplied for every derivative, and the semantic differences and similarities among cognates are immediately apparent. After the tabular listings, notes are provided which point out salient facts concerning the origin, form, and meaning of particular words. For example, the article for clias is structured as follows (only one of Herman's thirty derivatives is copied here) : ^AC CZAS, CZES CAS CAS l a c : hour czas: time; cas: time; cas: hour; weather; weather; moment, (gram.) (gram.) instant tense tense [R] [ P ] [Cz] [ S - C ] Notes for the article on chas point out the basic meaning of the root ( t i m e ) , the parallelism with other European languages in usage of the same word for both "time" and "weather," the rationale behind such far-removed derivatives as Polish caasoivnik ( v e r b ) , Russian chasovnia (chapel), and the origins of caiques like Polish csasopismo (magazine, periodical), on German Zeitschrift. The value of root lexicons has long been recognized for advanced vocabu- lary study of Russian (compare the lexicons of Wolkonsky and Poltoratzky, George Z. Patrick, and Worth, Kozak, and Johnson). Herman's book recognizes 188 Slavic Review the need for similar expositions of the vocabulary structure of other Slavic lan- guages, and provides a useful tool for pinpointing translator's "false friends"— for example, Russian otperet' (to unlock), Polish odeprzec (to repel), Czech odepfiti (to refuse), Serbo-Croatian odaprijeti (to open)—for linguistic study of the routes of semantic or phonetic change, or for moments of pleasant and use- ful browsing. P H I L I P J. REGIER University of Southern California R U S S I A N C U B O - F U T U R I S M , 1910-1930. By Vahan D. Barooshian. The Hague and P a r i s : Mouton, 1974. 176 pp. Literature on Futurism—as a movement both in literature and in the other arts— has grown considerably during the last decade. While Russian Futurism was virtually unknown to Western readers (except a small group of specialists) some ten or fifteen years ago, they now have available a number of monographs, trans- lations, reproductions of original materials, and so forth. Vladimir Markov's Russian Futurism: A History has competently documented and put in perspective the main phenomena of the movement in Russia, and thus has laid the ground- work for further studies of specific groups, or of individual contributions. Barooshian's study, entitled Russian Cubo-Futurism, 1910-1930, is, in effect, a presentation of the five major members of the so-called "Gileia" group. That these members were Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky, Burliuk, Kruchenykh and Kamen- skii should not be questioned, although it might be noted that contributions by some other artists, especially Benedikt Livshits and Elena Guro, could have been afforded at least a brief subchapter to make the picture more complete. The presentations of the five artists are quite lucid and well documented. They are preceded by a brief introductory chapter, "The Background of Early Russian Cubo-Futurism in Brief Historical Perspective." Perhaps because the perspective is so "brief," the triangle Symbolism-Cubism-Futurism appears a little too idyllic and too "equilateral." It is true that Cubism made itself felt in Russia earlier, but the question of the role of Cubism in the program of the Russian Futurists could have been afforded a little more discussion. On the other hand, the chapter entitled "French Surrealism and Russian Futurism" tends to con- centrate, at times, on some less "intrinsic" aspects; it assigns too much impor- tance to the French artists' ideological declarations. The interesting chapter on "Futurism in the Post-Revolutionary Period" contributes some valid remarks, al- though in some places a slight uncertainty in delineating the subject is evident. At one point, for example, the author speaks of "the avant-garde which included the Russian Cubo-Futurists" (p. 116), and on the next page of "the avant-garde and the Cubo-Futurists" (p. 117). On the whole, this study is a valuable piece of research. It is a welcome addi- tion to the body of "Futurisiana." Z. F O L E J E W S K I University of British Columbia