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Linguapax Review 2010 Linguapax Review 2010
LINGUAPAX REVIEW 2010 MATERIALS / 6 / MATERIALS Col·lecció Materials, 6 Linguapax Review 2010 Linguapax Review 2010 Col·lecció Materials, 6 Primera edició: febrer de 2011 Editat per: Amb el suport de : Coordinació editorial: Josep Cru i Lachman Khubchandani Traduccions a l’anglès: Kari Friedenson i Victoria Pounce Revisió dels textos originals en anglès: Kari Friedenson Revisió dels textos originals en francès: Alain Hidoine Disseny i maquetació: Monflorit Eddicions i Assessoraments, sl. ISBN: 978-84-15057-12-3 Els continguts d’aquesta publicació estan subjectes a una llicència de Reconeixe- ment-No comercial-Compartir 2.5 de Creative Commons. Se’n permet còpia, dis- tribució i comunicació pública sense ús comercial, sempre que se’n citi l’autoria i la distribució de les possibles obres derivades es faci amb una llicència igual a la que regula l’obra original. La llicència completa es pot consultar a: «http://creativecom- mons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/es/deed.ca» LINGUAPAX REVIEW 2010 Centre UNESCO de Catalunya Barcelona, 2011 4 CONTENTS PRESENTATION Miquel Àngel Essomba 6 FOREWORD Josep Cru 8 1. THE HISTORY OF LINGUAPAX 1.1 Materials for a history of Linguapax 11 Fèlix Martí 1.2 The beginnings of Linguapax 14 Miquel Siguan 1.3 Les débuts du projet Linguapax et sa mise en place 17 au siège de l’UNESCO Joseph Poth 1.4 FIPLV and Linguapax: A Quasi-autobiographical 23 Account Denis Cunningham 1.5 Defending linguistic and cultural diversity 36 1.5 La defensa de la diversitat lingüística i cultural Fèlix Martí 2. GLIMPSES INTO THE WORLD’S LANGUAGES TODAY 2.1 Living together in a multilingual world. -
PAPERS in NEW GUINEA LINGUISTICS No. 18
PACIFIC LINGUISTICS S e.ft-<- e..6 A - No. 4 0 PAPERS IN NEW GUINEA LINGUISTICS No. 18 by R. Conrad and W. Dye N.P. Thomson L.P. Bruce, Jr. Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40, iv + 106 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. DOI:10.15144/PL-A40.cover ©1975 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is published by the Ling ui��ic Ci�cl e 06 Canbe��a and consists of four series: SERIES A - OCCAS IONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS SERIES V - SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS . EDITOR: S.A. Wurm . ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock , C.L. Voorhoeve . ALL CORRESPONDENCE concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary, PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, Department of Linguistics, School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra , A.C.T. 2600. Australia . Copyright � The Authors. First published 1975 . The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for help in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 0 85883 118 X TABLE OF CONTENTS Page SOME LANGUAGE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE UPPER SEPIK REGION OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA, by Robert Conrad and Wayne Dye 1 O. INTRODUCTION 1 1 . -
Language Isolates and Linguistic Diversity
Language Isolates and Linguistic Diversity Jean-Marie Hombert BLS 36 Berkeley, Feb 6-7, 2010 • 1. Isolates : How many? Where? • 2. Their importance • 3. Problem of time barrier in langage classification • 4. Why do we have Isolates? • 5. « Real » language isolates and polygenesis • Language Family : group of languages which have a common ancestor • Language isolate : language without linguistic relatives (single unit family) © http://ehl.santafe.edu/main.html Distribution of Language Families (from Campbell, 1998) Languages Families Americas > 2000 > 150 New Guinea > 750 > 60 Australia 250 > 60 Africa > 2500 > 20 Europe + Asia 37 Europe 3 Families, Isolates and Macro-Families Ruhlen WALS Nichols Campbell Families 17 37 > 250 > 250 Isolates 5 169 Wrong debate? • It could just depend on the time depth considered: –300 «groups» at 2000 BP –50 «groups» at 5000 BP –About 12 « groups » at 15000 BP 1. Localisation of language isolates Distribution of Isolates • Few Isolates in Africa • Many Isolates in (South) America • …and New Guinea 2. Importance of language isolates • Clearer image of classification of the world’s languages • Better understanding of langage dispersals • Adequate representation of linguistic diversity in sampling for typological studies • Priority list for study of endangered languages Isolates and African language classification • Afroasiatic • Laal • Niger-Congo • Shabo • Mande • Ongota • Nilo-Saharan • Dompo • Songhay • Mpre • Kadu • Bangi-Me • Coman • Cen Tuum • Ju • Hadza • Khoe-Kwadi • Tuu 3. The 10.000 to 100.000 years -
Fieldwork and Linguistic Analysis in Indigenous Languages of the Americas
Fieldwork and Linguistic Analysis in Indigenous Languages of the Americas edited by Andrea L. Berez, Jean Mulder, and Daisy Rosenblum Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 2 Published as a sPecial Publication of language documentation & conservation language documentation & conservation Department of Linguistics, UHM Moore Hall 569 1890 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822 USA http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc university of hawai‘i Press 2840 Kolowalu Street Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 USA © All texts and images are copyright to the respective authors. 2010 All chapters are licensed under Creative Commons Licenses Cover design by Cameron Chrichton Cover photograph of salmon drying racks near Lime Village, Alaska, by Andrea L. Berez Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data ISBN 978-0-8248-3530-9 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4463 Contents Foreword iii Marianne Mithun Contributors v Acknowledgments viii 1. Introduction: The Boasian tradition and contemporary practice 1 in linguistic fieldwork in the Americas Daisy Rosenblum and Andrea L. Berez 2. Sociopragmatic influences on the development and use of the 9 discourse marker vet in Ixil Maya Jule Gómez de García, Melissa Axelrod, and María Luz García 3. Classifying clitics in Sm’algyax: 33 Approaching theory from the field Jean Mulder and Holly Sellers 4. Noun class and number in Kiowa-Tanoan: Comparative-historical 57 research and respecting speakers’ rights in fieldwork Logan Sutton 5. The story of *o in the Cariban family 91 Spike Gildea, B.J. Hoff, and Sérgio Meira 6. Multiple functions, multiple techniques: 125 The role of methodology in a study of Zapotec determiners Donna Fenton 7. -
The Status of the Least Documented Language Families in the World
Vol. 4 (2010), pp. 177-212 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4478 The status of the least documented language families in the world Harald Hammarström Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig This paper aims to list all known language families that are not yet extinct and all of whose member languages are very poorly documented, i.e., less than a sketch grammar’s worth of data has been collected. It explains what constitutes a valid family, what amount and kinds of documentary data are sufficient, when a language is considered extinct, and more. It is hoped that the survey will be useful in setting priorities for documenta- tion fieldwork, in particular for those documentation efforts whose underlying goal is to understand linguistic diversity. 1. InTroducTIon. There are several legitimate reasons for pursuing language documen- tation (cf. Krauss 2007 for a fuller discussion).1 Perhaps the most important reason is for the benefit of the speaker community itself (see Voort 2007 for some clear examples). Another reason is that it contributes to linguistic theory: if we understand the limits and distribution of diversity of the world’s languages, we can formulate and provide evidence for statements about the nature of language (Brenzinger 2007; Hyman 2003; Evans 2009; Harrison 2007). From the latter perspective, it is especially interesting to document lan- guages that are the most divergent from ones that are well-documented—in other words, those that belong to unrelated families. I have conducted a survey of the documentation of the language families of the world, and in this paper, I will list the least-documented ones. -
The Status of the East Kainji Languages of Central Nigeria: Recent Research
The status of the East Kainji languages of Central Nigeria: recent research Version submitted for proceedings of the Hamburg meeting, March 2004, to mark the retirement of Professor Ludwig Gerhardt Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 E-mail [email protected] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm Cambridge, Saturday, 02 October 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES..........................................................................................................................................................I 1. INTRODUCTION: THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN EAST KAINJI GROUP.................................. 2 2. EAST KAINJI LANGUAGES TODAY.................................................................................................... 2 3. LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF EAST KAINJI........................................................................................ 3 3.1 Phonology............................................................................................................................................... 3 Consonants................................................................................................................................................... 4 Tones............................................................................................................................................................. 5 3.2 Nominal morphology............................................................................................................................ -
A Dictionary of Eggon
A DICTIONARY OF EGGON This is a version of a dictionary of the Eggon language apparently prepared by I.D. Hepburn in the 1940s. Mr. Hepburn was also responsible for the translation of the New Testament into Eggon. A photocopy of the original was taken by Ian Maddieson and the present draft edition has been prepared from the photocopy. The initial typing was done by Clement Madugu in Kaduna and the computer text-processing was carried out by Roger Blench in Cambridge. The text has been modernised in many places and the intention is to use this as a basis for publishing a modern tone-marked dictionary of Eggon. Additional entries have been added on the basis of fieldnotes from the files of Ian Maddieson. This is an appropriate place to pay tribute to the author of this dictionary which displays an extremely wide range of interests and elicits a great many unusual lexical items. [DRAFT PRINTOUT.] Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Ans (00-44)-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7847-495590 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm January 6, 2015 Eggon dictionary Main text Introduction The Eggon language is spoken by a large number of people in south-western Plateau State in Central Nigeria (Map 1). These represent the modern Local Government Areas of Akwanga, Lafia and Nasarawa-Eggon. The main towns of the Eggon people are Akwanga, Nasarawa-Eggon, Kagbu and Wana. They stretch as far south as Lafia and west of Akwanga as far as the railway line. -
Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria
KAY WILLIAMSON EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION 5 KWEF African languages monographs Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria Edited by Roger Blench and Stuart McGill RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG · KÖLN Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria Part I edited by Roger M. Blench and Stuart McGill RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG · KÖLN Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- thek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the In- ternet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-89645-426-3 © 2012 The Editors RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG P.O. Box 45 06 43 50881 Cologne Germany www.koeppe.de All rights reserved. Cover: Baba Yabani Ga’alla, Cicipu speaker (photograph by the editors) Production: Druckerei Hubert & Co., Göttingen / Germany â This book meets the requirements of ISO 9706: 1994, Information and documentation – Paper for documents – Requirements for permanence. Nigerian minority languages Roger Blench 1 Part I: Introduction Chapter 1 – Research and development of Nigerian minority languages Roger Blench, Kay Williamson Educational Foundation Keywords: Nigeria, endangered languages, research capacity, survey, sign language 1 Introduction Nigeria is one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth. There are nearly five hundred languages, and some of those have a considerable range of dialects. It is the meeting place of three of Africa’s four major language phyla, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic. Nigeria is the core area for one of the most widely spoken languages in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hausa, as well as severely endangered languages whose last speakers are now very old. Yet its languages remain very poorly researched; compared with the effort that has gone into the indigenous languages of Europe, the Americas or Australia, Nigeria is barely known. -
Prospecting Proto- Plateau
Prospecting Proto- Plateau [DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT -NOT FOR CITATION WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE AUTHOR Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm This version: Cambridge, April 24, 2008 R.M. Blench Prospecting proto-Plateau. Circulated for comment TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES.........................................................................................................................................................ii 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Plateau languages............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Existing subclassification of Plateau languages...................................................................................... 2 1.3 Reconstructing Plateau: methodological assumptions ............................................................................ 3 1.4 Language status and language endangerment ......................................................................................... 4 1.5 Plateau languages in education and the media ........................................................................................ 4 1.6 Plateau languages in politics; issues of administrative delineation.........................................................6 -
Lexicalization of Property Concepts: Evidence for Language Contact on the Southern Jos Plateau (Central Nigeria)?
Lexicalization of property concepts: Evidence for language contact on the southern Jos Plateau (Central Nigeria)? Birgit Hellwig Abstract This paper discusses issues of language contact within the Jos Plateau sprach- bund of Central Nigeria. It is known that the non-related Chadic and Benue- Congo languages of this region share numerous lexical and structural simi- larities, but it is largely unknown whether they also share similarities in their semantics and lexicalization patterns. This paper explores convergences in one such area: the lexicalization of property — or adjectival — concepts in the Chadic (Angas-Goemai and Ron groups) and Benue-Congo (Jukunoid, Tarok and Fyem) languages of the southern part of this sprachbund. It presents evi- dence that these non-related languages share a common lexicalization pattern: the predominant coding of property concepts in state-change verbs. This pat- tern is probably not of Chadic origin, and it is possible that it has entered the Chadic languages of the Jos Plateau through language contact. 1. Introduction The Jos Plateau region of Central Nigeria constitutes a linguistic area or sprachbund. Language contact has shaped the non-related Chadic and Benue- Congo languages of this region to the extent that they now share numerous similarities in their lexical forms, phonotactics, (frozen) morphology, and syn- tactic patterns. It is an empirical question as to whether they also share seman- tic structures and lexicalization patterns. This paper traces convergences in one such area: the lexicalization -
An Atlas of Nigerian Languages
AN ATLAS OF NIGERIAN LANGUAGES 3rd. Edition Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road, Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone 00-44-(0)1223-560687 Mobile 00-44-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm Skype 2.0 identity: roger blench i Introduction The present electronic is a fully revised and amended edition of ‘An Index of Nigerian Languages’ by David Crozier and Roger Blench (1992), which replaced Keir Hansford, John Bendor-Samuel and Ron Stanford (1976), a pioneering attempt to synthesize what was known at the time about the languages of Nigeria and their classification. Definition of a Language The preparation of a listing of Nigerian languages inevitably begs the question of the definition of a language. The terms 'language' and 'dialect' have rather different meanings in informal speech from the more rigorous definitions that must be attempted by linguists. Dialect, in particular, is a somewhat pejorative term suggesting it is merely a local variant of a 'central' language. In linguistic terms, however, dialect is merely a regional, social or occupational variant of another speech-form. There is no presupposition about its importance or otherwise. Because of these problems, the more neutral term 'lect' is coming into increasing use to describe any type of distinctive speech-form. However, the Index inevitably must have head entries and this involves selecting some terms from the thousands of names recorded and using them to cover a particular linguistic nucleus. In general, the choice of a particular lect name as a head-entry should ideally be made solely on linguistic grounds. -
A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Kulere Dialects of Plateau and Nassarawa States, Nigeria
DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2016-005 A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Kulere Dialects of Plateau and Nassarawa States, Nigeria John Muniru, Carol Magnusson, Marcus Hansley, and Samuel Ayenajeh A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Kulere Dialects of Plateau and Nassarawa States, Nigeria John Muniru, Carol Magnusson, Marcus Hansley, and Samuel Ayenajeh SIL International® 2016 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2016-005, November 2016 © 2016 SIL International® All rights reserved Abstract This report presents a sociolinguistic survey conducted in the Kulere speech communities of Bokkos Local Government Area (LGA), Plateau State and Wamba LGA, Nassarawa State, Nigeria. The purpose of the survey is to identify a potential reference dialect for the development of Kulere. Using participatory methods and group, church, and school interviews the researchers collected data concerning: reported levels of dialect intercomprehension; language use in various domains both public and private; language attitudes towards the dialects; reported levels of bilingualism in various languages; and data on education and literacy levels. While the elicitation and comparison of wordlists was used in determining the extent of shared vocabulary between the dialects, the administration of dialect intelligibility testing provided insights into the levels of dialect inherent intelligibility. Our findings show that considering relevant linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, the Toff dialect could be developed to serve all the Kulere speaking people. Contents 1 Introduction