North Caucasian Languages
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Contact-Induced Usages of Volitive Moods in East Caucasian Languages 1
Nina Dobrushina State University Higher School of Economics Contact-induced usages of volitive moods 1 in East Caucasian languages 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to test a hypothesis of the influence of Azerbaijani on East Caucasian languages. It was noticed that most (if not all) Turkic languages widely use forms of imperatives and / or optatives for the main predicate of subordinate clauses of certain types, in particular purpose clauses and complement clauses of verbs of wish. I suppose that some East Caucasian languages had acquired these constructions under the influence of Azerbaijani. To support this hypothesis, I will consider the data of 13 East Caucasian languages and one Turkic language spoken in Dagestan. The structure of the article is as follows. Section 2 provides a preliminary discussion of Turkic Dagestanian contacts (2.1), justifies the choice of the languages in the sample (2.2), provides information on the contact situation for each of the languages (2.3), gives an overview of the imperative / optative forms in each language (2.4), argues that the subordinate usages of imperatives / optatives is a structural feature of Turkic languages (2.5), and introduces the constructions which will be diagnostic for the study (2.6). Languages which use volitional forms both in purpose clauses and in wish complement clauses are considered in Section 3, languages which have volitional forms only in purpose clauses are considered in Section 4, while Section 5 lists the languages which do not use volitional forms in subordinate clauses. Section 6 summarizes the discussion. 2.1. Turkic Dagestanian contacts According to the 2002 census, Turkic peoples constitute 20 percent of the population of Dagestan, while the speakers of East Caucasian languages are almost 75 %. -
Comparative-Historical Linguistics and Lexicostatistics
COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND LEXICOSTATISTICS Sergei Starostin COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND LEXICOSTATISTICS [This is a translation, done by I. Peiros and N. Evans, of my paper "Sravnitel'no-istoričeskoe jazykoznanie i leksikostatistika", in "Lingvističeskaja rekonstrukcija i drevnejšaja istorija Vostoka", Moscow 1989. I have introduced, however, a number of modifications into the final English text — basically rewritten it again, since the English version needs English examples and etymologies, not Russian ones.] The last two decades have witnessed a fundamental advance in the techniques of comparative linguistic research. A prolonged period of comparative work with a wide range of language families has laid the foundation for the study of genetic relationships between remotely related languages or language groups. The first step in this direction was taken by V.M. Illich-Svitych in his seminal work 'Towards a comparison of the Nostratic languages' in which, with a combination of rigorous methods and intuitive flare, he begins to demonstrate the relatedness of a number of languages of the Old World. This new level of comparative studies appears completely legitimate. In fact, if we take the theory of language divergence as axiomatic, we have to concede the fact that from around the sixth millenium B.C. to the first millenium B.C. there was quite a number of different reconstructable proto-languages throughout the world. Once the level of reconstruction of various proto-languages is improved, the question inevitably arises: are any of these proto-languages genetically related and, if so, can we prove this relationship? To the first part of this question we must now answer in the affirmative. -
V International Symposium of Linguist-Caucasologists
საქართველოს მეცნიერებათა ეროვნული აკადემია ივ. ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი არნ. ჩიქობავას სახელობის ენათმეცნიერების ინსტიტუტი ჰუმანიტარულ მეცნიერებათა ფაკულტეტის კავკასიოლოგიის სასწავლო-სამეცნიერო ინსტიტუტი ენათმეცნიერ-კავკასიოლოგთა V საერთაშორისო სიმპოზიუმი მეტყველების ნაწილთა პრობლემა იბერიულ-კავკასიურ ენებში ეძღვნება აკადემიკოს არნოლდ ჩიქობავას დაბადების 120 წლისთავს პ რ ო გ რამა თბილისი 2018 The Georgian National Academy of Sciences Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Arn. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics The Institute of Caucasology at the Faculty of Humanities V International Symposium of Linguist-Caucasologists The Problems of Parts of Speech in Ibero-Caucasian Languages Dedicated to the 120th Birth Anniversary of Academician Arnold Chikobava P r o g r a m Национальная Академия наук Грузии Тбилисский государственный университет имени Ив. Джавахишвили Институт языкознания имени Арн. Чикобава Инcтитут кавказоведения факультета гуманитарных наук V Международный симпозиум лингвистов-кавказоведов Проблема частей речи в иберийско-кавказских языках Посвящается 120-летию со дня рождения академика Арнольда Чикобава П р о г р а м м а Tbilisi 2018 Тбилиси 2 სიმპოზიუმის მუშაობის განრიგი 22 ნოემბერი (საქართველოს მეცნიერებათა ეროვნული აკადემია, რუსთაველის გამზირი, 52, V სართული) 930 – 1130 – მონაწილეთა რეგისტრაცია 1200 – სიმპოზიუმის გახსნა, მისალმებები, მოხსენებები 1400 – ხემსი 1500 – 1700 – სექციური სხდომები 23 ნოემბერი სექციუ რი ს ხ დ ო მ ა (ივ. ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი, I -
Stress Chapter
Word stress in the languages of the Caucasus1 Lena Borise 1. Introduction Languages of the Caucasus exhibit impressive diversity when it comes to word stress. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the stress systems in North-West Caucasian (henceforth NWC), Nakh-Dagestanian (ND), and Kartvelian languages, as well as the larger Indo-European (IE) languages of the area, Ossetic and (Eastern) Armenian. For most of these languages, stress facts have only been partially described and analyzed, which raises the question about whether the available data can be used in more theoretically-oriented studies; cf. de Lacy (2014). Instrumental studies are not numerous either. Therefore, the current chapter relies mainly on impressionistic observations, and reflects the state of the art in the study of stress in these languages: there are still more questions than answers. The hope is that the present summary of the existing research can serve as a starting point for future investigations. This chapter is structured as follows. Section 2 describes languages that have free stress placement – i.e., languages in which stress placement is not predicted by phonological or morphological factors. Section 3 describes languages with fixed stress. These categories are not mutually exclusive, however. The classification of stress systems is best thought of as a continuum, with fixed stress and free stress languages as the two extremes, and most languages falling in the space between them. Many languages with fixed stress allow for exceptions based on certain phonological and/or morphological factors, so that often no firm line can be drawn between, e.g., languages with fixed stress that contain numerous morphologically conditioned exceptions (cf. -
"Evolution of Human Languages": Current State of Affairs
«Evolution of Human Languages»: current state of affairs (03.2014) Contents: I. Currently active members of the project . 2 II. Linguistic experts associated with the project . 4 III. General description of EHL's goals and major lines of research . 6 IV. Up-to-date results / achievements of EHL research . 9 V. A concise list of actual problems and tasks for future resolution. 18 VI. EHL resources and links . 20 2 I. Currently active members of the project. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Center for Comparative Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow). Web info: http://ivka.rsuh.ru/article.html?id=80197 George Publications: http://rggu.academia.edu/GeorgeStarostin Starostin Research interests: Methodology of historical linguistics; long- vs. short-range linguistic comparison; history and classification of African languages; history of the Chinese language; comparative and historical linguistics of various language families (Indo-European, Altaic, Yeniseian, Dravidian, etc.). Primary affiliation: Visiting researcher, Santa Fe Institute. Formerly, professor of linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Ilia Publications: http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n97-4759 Research interests: Genetic and areal language relationships in Southeast Asia; Peiros history and classification of Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austroasiatic languages; macro- and micro-families of the Americas; methodology of historical linguistics. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow / Novosibirsk). Web info / publications list (in Russian): Sergei http://www.inslav.ru/index.php?option- Nikolayev =com_content&view=article&id=358:2010-06-09-18-14-01 Research interests: Comparative Indo-European and Slavic studies; internal and external genetic relations of North Caucasian languages; internal and external genetic relations of North American languages (Na-Dene; Algic; Mosan). -
The Biabsolutive Construction in Lak and Tsez
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Lingua 150 (2014) 137--170 www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua The biabsolutive construction in Lak and Tsez Annie Gagliardi a, Michael Goncalves a, Maria Polinsky a,*, Nina Radkevich b a Harvard University, USA b University of York, United Kingdom Received 12 November 2013; received in revised form 4 July 2014; accepted 8 July 2014 Available online Abstract In ergative constructions, the agent of a transitive verb is in the ergative case and the theme is in the absolutive case. By contrast, in biabsolutive constructions, both the agent and theme of a transitive verb appear in the absolutive case. This paper presents and analyzes the biabsolutive construction in two Nakh-Dagestanian languages, Lak and Tsez. Despite many surface similarities, the biabsolutive constructions in Lak and Tsez call for different syntactic analyses. We argue that the biabsolutive construction in Lak is an instance of restructuring in the presence of an aspectual head bearing a progressive (imperfective) feature. Tsez biabsolutive constructions, on the other hand, are biclausal; we argue that the theme and the lexical verb are contained in a PP complement selected by a light verb. Related languages may be classified as ‘‘Lak-type’’ or ‘‘Tsez-type’’ based on the behavior of their biabsolutives. The existence of two underlying structures for one surface pattern in Nakh-Dagestanian poses a learnability problem for a child acquiring a language with biabsolutive constructions. We outline a set of strategies used by a learner who must compare the available input data with a set of structural hypotheses. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. -
Elevation As a Category of Grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and Beyond Received May 11, 2018; Revised August 20, 2018
Linguistic Typology 2019; 23(1): 59–106 Diana Forker Elevation as a category of grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and beyond https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2019-0001 Received May 11, 2018; revised August 20, 2018 Abstract: Nakh-Daghestanian languages have encountered growing interest from typologists and linguists from other subdiscplines, and more and more languages from the Nakh-Daghestanian language family are being studied. This paper provides a grammatical overview of the hitherto undescribed Sanzhi Dargwa language, followed by a detailed analysis of the grammaticalized expression of spatial elevation in Sanzhi. Spatial elevation, a topic that has not received substantial attention in Caucasian linguistics, manifests itself across different parts of speech in Sanzhi Dargwa and related languages. In Sanzhi, elevation is a deictic category in partial opposition with participant- oriented deixis/horizontally-oriented directional deixis. This paper treats the spatial uses of demonstratives, spatial preverbs and spatial cases that express elevation as well as the semantic extension of this spatial category into other, non-spatial domains. It further compares the Sanzhi data to other Caucasian and non-Caucasian languages and makes suggestions for investigating elevation as a subcategory within a broader category of topographical deixis. Keywords: Sanzhi Dargwa, Nakh-Daghestanian languages, elevation, deixis, demonstratives, spatial cases, spatial preverbs 1 Introduction Interest in Nakh-Daghestanian languages in typology and in other linguistic subdisciplines has grown rapidly in recent years, with an active community of linguists from Russia and other countries. The goal of the present paper is to pour more oil into this fire and perhaps to entice new generations of scholars to join the throng. -
The Present and the Future Within the Lezgic Tense and Aspect Systems∗
TIMUR MAISAK (Institute of Linguistics, Moscow) The Present and the Future within the Lezgic tense and ∗ aspect systems In this paper those finite verbal forms of the Lezgic languages are discussed whose main function is to express the present or the future time reference. As a rule, such forms are built on imperfective non-finite forms and include a present copula. The following source patterns which usually give rise to Presents and Futures in these languages are analysed in detail: the Infinitive Pattern (“Infinitive + Copula”), the Locative Pattern (“Imperfective Converb + Locative Copula”), the Imperfective Converb Pattern (“Imperfective Converb + Copula”), and the Participle Pattern (“Imperfective Participle + Copula”). Grammaticalization paths of these patterns show much in common, in particular the ‘present’ to ‘future’ semantic evolution. Introduction Tense and aspect systems of languages belonging to the Lezgic group of the Nakh-Daghestanian (East Caucasian) family share the following important features — some of which are certainly not restricted to this particular group, but can be viewed as defining the typological profile of the family as a whole: • most finite indicative verbal forms are analytical, at least historically, and have more or less transparent structure: although at the present stage they can be morphologically rather tight (and, strictly speaking, synthetic), their original periphrastic structure is very often quite evident; • such analytical forms are most often made of one of three independently existing non-finite forms (a participle, a converb, or an infinitive) and a copula (a defective stative verb meaning ‘be, exist’ or ‘be inside’); • non-finite forms (at least participles and converbs) are regularly marked for either perfective or imperfective aspect, and as a rule are derived from the corresponding verbal stems: this constitutes what may be called the “perfective” vs. -
[.35 **Natural Language Processing Class Here Computational Linguistics See Manual at 006.35 Vs
006 006 006 DeweyiDecimaliClassification006 006 [.35 **Natural language processing Class here computational linguistics See Manual at 006.35 vs. 410.285 *Use notation 019 from Table 1 as modified at 004.019 400 DeweyiDecimaliClassification 400 400 DeweyiDecimali400Classification Language 400 [400 [400 *‡Language Class here interdisciplinary works on language and literature For literature, see 800; for rhetoric, see 808. For the language of a specific discipline or subject, see the discipline or subject, plus notation 014 from Table 1, e.g., language of science 501.4 (Option A: To give local emphasis or a shorter number to a specific language, class in 410, where full instructions appear (Option B: To give local emphasis or a shorter number to a specific language, place before 420 through use of a letter or other symbol. Full instructions appear under 420–490) 400 DeweyiDecimali400Classification Language 400 SUMMARY [401–409 Standard subdivisions and bilingualism [410 Linguistics [420 English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) [430 German and related languages [440 French and related Romance languages [450 Italian, Dalmatian, Romanian, Rhaetian, Sardinian, Corsican [460 Spanish, Portuguese, Galician [470 Latin and related Italic languages [480 Classical Greek and related Hellenic languages [490 Other languages 401 DeweyiDecimali401Classification Language 401 [401 *‡Philosophy and theory See Manual at 401 vs. 121.68, 149.94, 410.1 401 DeweyiDecimali401Classification Language 401 [.3 *‡International languages Class here universal languages; general -
Azeri Morphology in Kryz (East Caucasian) Gilles Authier Gilles Authier 2010
Azeri morphology in Kryz (East Caucasian) Gilles Authier Gilles Authier 2010. Azeri morphology in Kryz (East Caucasian). Turkic Languages 10, xx-xx. Abstract: The paper deals with the copying of morphemes and patterns from Turkic into the morphology of Kryz, an East Caucasian language of northern Azerbaijan. The copied morphemes in question are clitics found in the periphery of the verb system (expressing evidentiality, indefiniteness) and valency-changing morphology imported globally together with Azeri forms, as well as adjective-forming derivational suffixes. The copied structures are more diverse, and have left a mark on many areas of the morphology, in both verb and noun phrases. Gilles Authier, 50 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 75003 Paris, France E-mail: [email protected] 1. Introduction Most of the data presented here are taken from (Authier 2009), which is a complete description of one of the dialects of Kryz, a language belonging to the Lezgic branch of East Caucasian. In this paper we shall discuss some of the issues related to language contact which have left traces in the grammar of Kryz, namely the global and selective copying (for these terms see Johanson 2006a) of Turkic (Azeri) morphological features. There are some striking typological similarities between East Caucasian and Turkic languages, in contrast with other adjacent languages or language families such as North Caucasian, South Caucasian (Kartvelian) or Indo-European. For instance, the major strategies for subordinate clauses is left-branching, involving the use of non finite or low-focal elements as heads of subordinate clauses (participles in relative clauses, converbs in adverbial clauses, and masdars (nominalized verbs) in complement clauses); the unmarked word order is also rather similar (basically SOV, GN, AN) in Turkic and East Caucasian. -
Final Report Documenting Dargi Languages in Daghestan: Shiri and Sanzhi (2012-2019) Reference Number: 86 357 (A107808)
Final report Documenting Dargi languages in Daghestan: Shiri and Sanzhi (2012-2019) Reference number: 86 357 (A107808) Project leader: Prof. Dr. Diana Forker Other project members: Prof. Dr. Rasul Mutalov Dr. Oleg Belyaev Dr. Iwona Kaliszewska Student assistants: André Müller Felix Anker Teresa Klemm Nils Schiborr Introduction Due to a number of historical circumstances, Dargwa remains one of the most underdescribed genera of Nakh-Daghestanian (= East Caucasian) languages. The people now known as Dargwa were never unified into a single political entity before becoming part of the Russian Empire and then, the Soviet Union, and up to this day, have strong regional identities. Consequently, many of the Dargwa “dialects” are mutually unintelligible and possess numerous grammatical and lexical differences — an estimate by Yuri Koryakov puts the linguistic distance between Dargwa varieties on par with Germanic. However, due to Soviet language policy in the 1920–1930s all Dargwa varieties were lumped together into a single Dargwa language, with the dialect of Akusha as the basis of its standard form. While this dialect was and remains one of the largest, it is certainly not representative of the group as a whole, and Standard Dargwa is perceived as a foreign language by the speakers of the majority of the Dargwa varieties. As a consequence, most local varieties, treated as mere “dialects”, are poorly described. With the exception of larger varieties such as Akusha and Kubachi, all of them are heavily endangered, especially since villagers travelling to the lowlands are rapidly switching to Russian. Shiri and Sanzhi were in especially dire need of adequate documentation for two additional reasons. -
RUSSIAN ORIENTAL STUDIES This Page Intentionally Left Blank Naumkin-Los.Qxd 10/8/2003 10:33 PM Page Iii
RUSSIAN ORIENTAL STUDIES This page intentionally left blank naumkin-los.qxd 10/8/2003 10:33 PM Page iii RUSSIAN ORIENTAL STUDIES Current Research on Past & Present Asian and African Societies EDITED BY VITALY NAUMKIN BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2004 naumkin-los.qxd 10/8/2003 10:33 PM Page iv This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Current research on past & present Asian and African societies : Russian Oriental studies / edited by Vitaly Naumkin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 90-04-13203-1 (hard back) 1. Asia—Civilization. 2. Africa—Civilization. I. Title: Current research on past and present Asian and African societies. II. Naumkin, Vitalii Viacheslavovich. DS12.C88 2003 950—dc22 2003060233 ISBN 90 04 13203 1 © Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change printed in the netherland NAUMKIN_f1-v-x 11/18/03 1:27 PM Page v v CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................ vii PART ONE POLITICS AND POWER Monarchy in the Khmer Political Culture .............................. 3 Nadezhda Bektimirova A Shadow of Kleptocracy over Africa (A Theory of Negative Forms of Power Organization) ...