DOCSLIB.ORG

Mutual Intelligibility: Language, Culture, Cognition Online Event Workshop Programme

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mutual Intelligibility: Language, Culture, Cognition Online Event Workshop Programme MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY: LANGUAGE, CULTURE, COGNITION ONLINE EVENT WORKSHOP PROGRAMME 24-25 June 2021 SURREY.AC.UK OUR SPONSORS INTRODUCTION Despite being perceived as unique, self- Our timely inter-disciplinary two-day contained systems, most languages of the workshop is the first of its kind to examine world are not isolated entities, and exist in mutual intelligibility from cultural and linguistic continua with other related cognitive as well as linguistic perspectives. varieties. Related languages share many By bringing together researchers from a properties, giving rise to the global range of fields, this workshop aims to Surrey Morphology Group (SMG) is a The institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) phenomenon of mutual intelligibility, where provide a foundation for the development of linguistics research centre dedicated to the The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at a speaker of one language can use their multi-disciplinary research projects on study of language diversity and its theoretical the University of Surrey sponsors workshops variety to efficiently communicate with a mutual intelligibility. The goal is to gain a consequences. and Fellowships at the ‘cutting edge’ of speaker of another language, and vice versa broader understanding of this significant and Its research combines the investigation of science, engineering, social science and the (e.g. Spanish and Portuguese). complex global phenomenon, and identify grammatical categories in a broad sample of humanities. Through this scheme the Whilst research in this area has typically how various theoretical and empirical languages with the use of explicit formal and Institute fosters interdisciplinary been associated with the realm of linguistics, research methods can be combined in future statistical frameworks for the expression of collaborations and encourages a flow of a cultural studies approach to mutual research. typological and theoretical generalizations. international scholars to visit, enjoy their intelligibility demonstrates how it facilitates SMG has received funding from the European stay at Surrey and leave behind excellent intercultural exchange between Research Council, the Economic and Social ideas and innovations. communities, challenging the misconception Research Council, the Arts and Humanities of languages as discrete units that has Research Council, the British Academy and ias.surrey.ac.uk reinforced national and racial essentialism. Workshop Chair: the Leverhulme Trust, among others. From the point of view of cognition, Dr Nadezda Christopher, University of meanwhile, empirical research methods can Surrey smg.surrey.ac.uk shed light on the biological underpinnings of mutual intelligibility, i.e. what neural Organising committee: correlates and cognitive processes underlie Dr Catherine Barbour, University of Surrey language comprehension and by extension Dr Katie Gilligan, University of Surrey enable speakers of different languages to successfully communicate with each Administrative support: other. Ms Vicki Blamey and Ms Penny Everson (University of Surrey) 2 3 SURREY.AC.UK UNIVERSITY OF SURREY PROGRAMME DAY 2 – FRIDAY 25TH JUNE DAY 1 – THURSDAY 24TH JUNE (UK TIME ) (UK TIME) 12.45 – 13:00 Welcome Remarks 12.50 – 13.00 Welcome back 13:00 – 14:00 Keynote Talk: Mutual Intelligibility between Closely Related Languages 13.00 – 14.00 Keynote Talk: Estimated Mutual Intelligibility of Kurdish - Eve Eppler in Europe - Charlotte Gooskens 14.00 – 14.15 Break 14.00 – 14.15 Break 14.15 – 14.45 Mutual intelligibility in Philippine Austronesian languages: The case of 14.15 – 14.45 Receptive multilingualism in scenarios involving one dominant Tagalog and Bikol - Orlyn Joyce D. Esquivel variety - Slavomír Čéplö 14.45 – 15.15 L3 word recognition based on non-native competence in an L2 - Jacopo 14.45 – 15.15 Intelligibility in Natural Languages and Formal Languages - Harald Saturno Hammarström 15.15 – 15.45 Word Order Transfer on Learning Mandarin Writing for Hong Kong 15.15 – 15.45 Intelligibility across Romance languages: the role of inflexional (Cantonese-Speaking) Learners - Yijun Hu morphology - Chiara Cappellaro 15.45 – 16.00 Break 15.45 – 16.00 Break 16.00 – 17.00 Keynote Talk: Interview with artist, poet and translator Andreea 16.00 – 17.00 Keynote Talk: Miniature artificial languages: a promising approach to Birsanu study SLA - Bertram Opitz 4 5 SURREY.AC.UK UNIVERSITY OF SURREY KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Charlotte Gooskens Bertam Opitz Eve Eppler Andreea Birsanu University of Groningen University of Surrey University of Roehampton Andreea Birsanu, (born 1998, Bacău, Charlotte (BA in Comparative Linguistics, Bertram Opitz studied Biophysics at the Eva Eppler is Associate Professor of Romania) is an artist based in Galicia, north- University of Aarhus, Denmark; MA in Russian State University in Moscow, Russia. Linguistics at the University of Roehampton, west Spain, where she emigrated with her General Linguistics, Leiden University, the He was a PhD student at the Max-Planck- London. She completed her MA in English family in 2005. Her artistic project Silvatiica, Netherlands; PhD in Linguistics, University of Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain and German Language and Literature at the an exploration of Galician nature in art, was Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is an associate Sciences, Leipzig and received his doctoral University of Vienna where she later worked developed during the pandemic in 2020. She professor of European Linguistics at the degree in 2000. Until autumn 2001 he as teaching and research assistant to Prof believes in the power of artistic creation for University of Groningen and an adjunct continued working as a post-doc researcher Dieter Kastovsky. A post-graduate grant from social change, with particular commitment associate professor at the University of New and then moved to Saarland University as an the Austrian Ministry of Science enabled her to the rural sphere, feminism, and England, Australia. Assistant Professor for Cognitive to move to University College London for her motherhood. She commissions projects via Her research focuses on the perceptual and Neuroscience. Bertram joined the Brain & PhD. In London she got involved with the her personal website and Etsy shop. Andreea communicative effects of language variation, Behaviour Group at the University of Surrey Language Interaction in Plurilingual and is currently undertaking a literary translation e.g. language attitudes, speaker identity and in August 2012 as a Professor for Plurilectal Speakers group and set up a project from Romanian to Galician, as well as mutual intelligibility between closely related Neuroimaging. He has been leading the Brain transcription and coding system for creating the first illustrated Romanian- languages. She has authored more than 120 and Behaviour Group since 2015. multilingual data (LIDES, 2000). Her PhD on Galician dictionary. She is a keen writer and articles and book chapters, and served as a Bertram’s research focuses on the neural structural aspects of German-English code- runs the project ‘Mulleres que escriben en guest editor for several special issues of underpinnings of learning and memory, with switching is conducted within one of the first galego’ (Women Who Write in Galician) to linguistic journals; she also co-organised a his primary interest being in the neural cognitive theories of language as a promote writing by women in the language. large number of international conferences mechanisms of language acquisition and system, Word Grammar (Hudson 1990, Andreea speaks Romanian, Galician and and workshops. what factors influence the learning process. 2007). It generated the ‘Dependency Spanish fluently. She is a consultant and co-investigator in Bertram is also interested in the functional Distance Hypothesis for bilingual code- various international projects examining architecture of different memory systems switching’ which has been tested on Website: https://silvatiica.com/ mutual intelligibility between closely related and the processes by which information is German-English and Chinese-English data languages (e.g. Scandinavian languages, transferred between these memory systems. which support it. Romance languages, Finnish-Estonian, In current research projects he investigates Since then Eva Eppler has been working on Czech-Slovak, Kurdish dialects in the Middle the processes of creating new enduring various aspects of multilingualism, including East, Gurage dialects of Ethiopia, languages memory traces and modulating existing testing predictions of theoretical frameworks of the Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, dialects of ones. Other projects focus on how we can on code-mixed data and multilingualism in Indonesia and Nigeria). She was a guest exert control over our memories, and how audio-visual translation. Her recent interest researcher at Firat University (Turkey), these control processes could be trained. in Kurdish has led her to pursue more University of New England (Australia), and The main focus of these projects lies on impactful applied topics in collaborations University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and training induced changes in the neural with a geographer/GIS expert, such as a currently is a fellow at the Polish Institute of network in healthy participants and patient Perceptual Dialectological study of Kurdish. Advanced Studies (PIASt) in Warsaw. samples. She has written and edited six books, To achieve a comprehensive understanding published nine peer reviewed journal of learning and memory systems Bertram articles
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Exonormativity, Endonormativity Or Multilingualism: Teachers' Attitudes
    Exonormativity, Endonormativity or Multilingualism: Teachers’ Attitudes towards Pronunciation Issues in Three Kachruian Circles Mohammad Amin Mozaheb Abbas Monfared* Department of Foreign Languages, Language Center, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding author Abstract Despite the accumulated body of debates surrounding English as an international language (EIL), and stronger orientations towards mutual intelligibility, little research has been done on teachers’ attitudes towards English pronunciation pedagogy in ELT classes. To address this gap, this study explores the perceptions of 352 English teachers from all Kachruvian Circles towards pronunciation pedagogy within the framework of English as an international language. Using a questionnaire, supplemented with interviews, the findings demonstrated an exonormative-endonormative gap among teachers in expanding circles (EC) and outer circles (OC). While teachers in the EC circle were in favour of native-speakerism, OC teachers highly valued their own local forms of English while they were in favour of native English. Native English teachers’ replies were also indicative of their acceptance of different varieties of English. Teachers’ preferences in regard to their attitudes towards varieties of English also show a disconnection between teachers’ theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge about world Englishes (WEs) in ELT classes which might have influenced the construction of their professional identity. This article argues that together with encouraging and valuing
    [Show full text]
  • Judeo-‐Spanish and the Sephardi
    The Last Generation of Native Ladino Speakers? Judeo-Spanish and the Sephardic Community in Seattle Mary K. FitzMorris A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Washington 2014 Faculty advisor: Devin E. Naar Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Spanish & Portuguese Studies 2 © Copyright 2014 Mary K. FitzMorris 3 University of Washington Abstract The Last Generation of Native Ladino Speakers? Judeo-Spanish and the Sephardic Community in Seattle Mary K. FitzMorris Faculty advisor: Devin E. Naar, Marsha and Jay Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies, Assistant Professor of History, Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program La comunidad sefardí de Seattle, Washington es única no sólo por su tamaño en comparación con el tamaño de la ciudad, sino también por la cohesión que se percibe que existe aquí (Bejarano y Aizenberg, 2012, p. 40n2). Esta comunidad tiene dos sinagogas, varios organizaciones y grupos religiosos y culturales, y, más importantemente, un grupo de hablantes que se reúne cada semana para leer textos en judeo-español y “echar lashon” sobre sus experiencias con esta lengua. De hecho, Seattle es una de las pocas ciudades en el mundo que quedan con una población respetable de ladinohablantes. El judeo-español, o ladino, la lengua histórica de los judíos sefardíes, nació cuando los judíos hispanohablantes fueron expulsados de España en 1492 y se trasladaron a varias partes del mundo, particularmente al Imperio Otomano, integrando elementos de las lenguas que encontraron a su propia 4 lengua ibérica. Un gran porcentaje de la generación más vieja de los sefardíes de Seattle creció, si no hablando, por lo menos escuchando el ladino en casa; eran hijos de inmigrantes recientes, pero no hablaban la lengua con sus propios hijos.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance Advantage — the Significance of the Romance Languages As a Pathway to Multilingualism
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 8, No. 10, pp. 1253-1260, October 2018 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0810.01 The Romance Advantage — The Significance of the Romance Languages as a Pathway to Multilingualism Kathleen Stein-Smith Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck, NJ, USA Abstract—As 41M in the US speak a Romance language in the home, it is necessary to personally and professionally empower L1 speakers of a Romance language through acquisition of one or more additional Romance languages. The challenge is that Romance language speakers, parents, and communities may be unaware of both the advantages of bilingual and multilingual skills and also of the relative ease in developing proficiency, and even fluency, in a second or third closely related language. In order for students to maximize their Romance language skills, it is essential for parents, educators, and other language stakeholders to work together to increase awareness, to develop curriculum, and to provide teacher training -- especially for Spanish-speakers, who form the vast majority of L1 Romance language speakers in the US, to learn additional Romance languages. Index Terms—romance languages, bilingual education, multilingualism, foreign language learning, romance advantage I. INTRODUCTION The Romance languages, generally considered to be French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, and in addition, regional languages including Occitan and Catalan, developed from Latin over a significant period of time and across a considerable geographic area. The beginnings of the Romance languages can be traced to the disappearance of the Roman Empire, along with Latin, its lingua franca.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rhaeto-Romance Languages
    Romance Linguistics Editorial Statement Routledge publish the Romance Linguistics series under the editorship of Martin Harris (University of Essex) and Nigel Vincent (University of Manchester). Romance Philogy and General Linguistics have followed sometimes converging sometimes diverging paths over the last century and a half. With the present series we wish to recognise and promote the mutual interaction of the two disciplines. The focus is deliberately wide, seeking to encompass not only work in the phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis of the Romance languages, but also studies in the history of Romance linguistics and linguistic thought in the Romance cultural area. Some of the volumes will be devoted to particular aspects of individual languages, some will be comparative in nature; some will adopt a synchronic and some a diachronic slant; some will concentrate on linguistic structures, and some will investigate the sociocultural dimensions of language and language use in the Romance-speaking territories. Yet all will endorse the view that a General Linguistics that ignores the always rich and often unique data of Romance is as impoverished as a Romance Philogy that turns its back on the insights of linguistics theory. Other books in the Romance Linguistics series include: Structures and Transformations Christopher J. Pountain Studies in the Romance Verb eds Nigel Vincent and Martin Harris Weakening Processes in the History of Spanish Consonants Raymond Harris-N orthall Spanish Word Formation M.F. Lang Tense and Text
    [Show full text]
  • What Is a Dialect?*
    What is a Language? What is a Dialect?* Hizniye Isabella Boga Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen [email protected] The current study shows how to distinguish dialects from languages. This distinction was found with the help of the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm with a weighted scorer system of PMI distances and the Levenshtein distance. The study focused on the Romance language family, especially languages of Italy. The means used in order to identify groupings in the data were mixture models and the k-means clustering. The results support the hypothesis of bearing two thresholds which divide language-language pairs, language-dialect pairs and dialect- dialect pairs into three distinct clusters. These clusters were found with the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm with normalised and divided (NWND) scores and an additional scorer system of PMI distances. Furthermore, I also used Levenshtein Distances Normalised and Divided (LDND) for comparative reasons. The suggested thresholds differentiated between the two methods. The threshold by the NWND method are 4.49 for distinguishing dialect-dialect pairs from language-dialect pairs and a threshold of 2.54 in order to distinguish dialect-language pairs from language- language pairs. For the LDND method the cut off-points are 0.37 to distinguish dialect-dialect pairs from dialect-language pairs, 0.58 to distinguish close dialect-language varieties from distant dialect- language varieties and 0.7 to distinguish distant dialect-language varieties from language-language pairs. 1. Introduction The question of what a dialect is in opposition, relation or contrast to a language has been answered many times in many different manners.
    [Show full text]
  • 8 Introduction Lily Kahn This Volume Is Devoted to the Diverse Array Of
    Introduction Lily Kahn This volume is devoted to the diverse array of spoken and written language varieties that have been employed by Jews in the Diaspora from antiquity until the twenty-first century. The volume grew out of a UCL Institute of Jewish Studies two-day conference dedicated to Jewish languages held in July 2016. The conference and the resulting volume are the product of an increasing recognition in recent years of Jewish languages and linguistics as an important field of academic enquiry. This heightened awareness is evidenced by the establishment in 2013 of Brill’s Journal of Jewish Languages, a peer-reviewed forum for theoretical and descriptive research into historical and present-day Jewish linguistic varieties, and by the recent or forthcoming publication of several volumes providing systematic overviews of Jewish languages, namely Kahn and Rubin (2016), Hary and Benor (2018), and Edzard and Tirosh- Becker (2018), in addition to a number of studies devoted to more overarching and theoretical issues relating to Jewish languages such as Myhill (2004), Benor and Spolsky (2006), Benor (2008), and Spolsky (2014). The present volume is designed to complement the above works by examining a number of particular issues relating to individual historical and current Jewish language varieties, while simultaneously highlighting a range of broader themes that can be seen to emerge from the specific case studies. The volume is divided into five parts, each showcasing a different aspect of the history of Diaspora Jewish languages and each drawing attention to different wider concerns relating to them. The five parts are devoted to the following themes: Jewish languages in dialogue with sacred Jewish texts; Jewish languages in contact with the co-territorial non- Jewish languages; Jewish vernacular traditions; the status of Jewish languages in the twenty- first century; and theoretical issues relating to Jewish language research.
    [Show full text]
  • Dialectology
    CTIA01 08/12/1998 12:34 PM Page iii DIALECTOLOGY J. K. CHAMBERS AND PETER TRUDGILL SECOND EDITION CTIA01 08/12/1998 12:34 PM Page iv published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge cb2 1rp, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, United Kingdom 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011–4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1980 © Jack Chambers and Peter Trudgill 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1980 Reprinted 1984 1986 1988 1990 1993 1994 Second edition 1998 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Times 9/13 [gc] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library First edition isbn 0 521 22401 2 hardback isbn 0 521 29473 8 paperback Second edition isbn 0 521 59378 6 hardback isbn 0 521 59646 7 paperback CTIA01 08/12/1998 12:34 PM Page v CONTENTS Maps page ix Figures xi Tables xii Preface to the second edition xiii The international phonetic alphabet xiv background 1 Dialect and language 3 1.1 Mutual intelligibility 3 1.2 Language, dialect and accent 4 1.3 Geographical dialect continua 5 1.4 Social dialect continua 7 1.5 Autonomy and heteronomy 9 1.6 Discreteness and continuity 12 Further information 12 2 Dialect
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3 Reconstructing Linguistic History in a Dialect Continuum: Theory and Method
    Chapter 3 Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: theory and method 3.1. Introduction The goal of this chapter is to articulate a reliable method for reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum. Desiderata for such a method are outlined in 3.1.1, followed by an introduction in section 3.1.2 to those characteristics of a dialect continuum which complicate historical reconstruction. Section 3.2 presents a sociohistorical theory of language change, which guides both the criticism of the traditional Comparative Method in section 3.3 and the development of a revised methodology in section 3.4. The more innovative aspects of the methodology revolve around reconstructing the sociohistorical conditioning of language change, which is guided by the sociohistorical linguistic typology outlined in section 3.5. This methodological and theoretical framework is then put to the test in the reconstruction of KRNB linguistic history in Chapters 4-7. 3.1.1. Desiderata for a method of historical reconstruction The desiderata outlined here are a summary of some of the principles which modern linguists bring to the task of historical reconstruction. The framework presented in the rest of this chapter is then an argument regarding how these desiderata might be satisfied for reconstruction of linguistic history in a dialect continuum. Our methods of historical reconstruction should, in the maximum number of contexts, have the capacity to: 1. reconstruct change events in linguistic history; that is, linguistic innovations. 2. reconstruct the historical sequencing of these change events. 3. reconstruct continuous transmission in linguistic history; that is, linguistic inheritance. 32 4.
    [Show full text]
  • On Dialect Continuum
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repository of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek Sveučilište J.J. Strossmayera u Osijeku Filozofski fakultet Preddiplomski studij engleskog jezika i književnosti i njemačkog jezika i književnosti Stana Pavić On Dialect Continuum Završni rad doc. dr. sc. Gabrijela Buljan Osijek, 2011. 1. Summary and key-words This paper deals with the issue of dialect continuum, which is a range of dialects spoken in some geographical area that are only slightly different between neighbouring areas. A dialect is not superior to another one, and certain dialects are considered languages mostly because of historical, political, and geographical reasons. We cannot discuss dialect continuum without mentioning the cumulative, Levenshtein, geographic, and phonological distances. Those are “tools” used to study and explore dialect. Lines marking the boundaries between two regions which differ with respect to some linguistic feature are called isoglosses, and they can cause a number of problems because they are not always “perfect”, they do not always coincide. Certain political and cultural factors created boundaries between different varieties of a dialect because a shared language is seen as something very important in the shared culture and economy, and a distinct language is important in demarcation one state of another. Some of the most important dialect continua in Europe are the Western Romance, the West Germanic, and the North Slavic dialect continuum. Also the 27 Dutch dialects that lie on a straight line are a good example of how a dialect continuum looks like.
    [Show full text]
  • Mutual Intelligibility Between West and South Slavic Languages Взаимопонимание Между Западнославянскими И Южнославянскими Языками
    Russ Linguist (2015) 39:351–373 DOI 10.1007/s11185-015-9150-9 Mutual intelligibility between West and South Slavic languages Взаимопонимание между западнославянскими и южнославянскими языками Jelena Golubovic´1 · Charlotte Gooskens1 Published online: 18 September 2015 © The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract In the present study we tested the level of mutual intelligibility between three West Slavic (Czech, Slovak and Polish) and three South Slavic languages (Croatian, Slovene and Bulgarian). Three different methods were used: a word translation task, a cloze test and a picture task. The results show that in most cases, a division between West and South Slavic languages does exist and that West Slavic languages are more intelligible among speakers of West Slavic languages than among those of South Slavic languages. We found an asymmetry in Croatian-Slovene intelligibility, whereby Slovene speakers can understand written and spoken Croatian better than vice versa. Finally, we compared the three methods and found that the word translation task and the cloze test give very similar results, while the results of the picture task are somewhat unreliable. Аннотация В настоящей статье рассматривается вопрос взаимопонимания между тремя западнославянскими (чешским, словацким и польским) и тремя южнославян- скими (хорватским, словенским и болгарским) языками. В исследовании использова- лись три различных метода: задание перевода слов, тестовое задание с заполнением пробелов и изобразительное задание. Результатытеста показывают,что в большинстве случаев разделение между западнославянскими и южнославянскими языками сущест- вует. При этом западнославянские языки—более близки между собой в смысле пони- мания для их носителей, в то время как у носителей южнославянских языков такое взаимопонимание затруднено.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status of Judeo-Spanish in a Diachronic and Synchronic Perspective Includes Six Translated Romances Plus Sample Texts of Biblical Literature and Modern Press
    The status of Judeo-Spanish in a diachronic and synchronic perspective Includes six translated Romances plus sample texts of biblical literature and modern press Lester Fernandez Vicet Master thesis in Semitic Linguistics with Hebrew (60 credits) Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages University of Oslo May 2016 Abstract. The speech of the Sephardic Jews have been defined as both language and dialect, depending always on the standpoint of the analyzer, but is it a language on its own right or is it “just a dialect”? What is, then, the difference between both concepts? In the case Judeo-Spanish could be considered a language, what are the criteria taken into account in the classification? In an attempt to answer these questions I will provide facts on the origin of both terms, their modern and politicized use as well as on the historical vicissitudes of Judeo-Spanish and its speakers. Their literature, both laic and religious, is covered with an emphasis on the most researched and relevant genres, namely: the biblical Sephardic translations, the Romancero and the modern press of the 19th Century. A descriptive presentation of Judeo-Spanish main grammatical features precedes the last chapter, where both the diagnosis of Judeo-Spanish in the 20th Century, and its prognosis for the 21st, are given with the aim of determine its present state. Acknowledgements The conception and execution of the present work would have been impossible without the help and support of the persons that were, directly or indirectly, involved in the process. I want to express my gratitude, firstly, to my mentor Lutz E.
    [Show full text]
  • An Etymological Approach to Cross-Language Orthographic Similarity
    An Etymological Approach to Cross-Language Orthographic Similarity. Application on Romanian Alina Maria Ciobanu, Liviu P. Dinu Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bucharest Center for Computational Linguistics, University of Bucharest [email protected],[email protected] Abstract spondences are the most popular approaches em- ployed for establishing relationships between lan- In this paper we propose a computational guages. Barbanc¸on et al. (2013) emphasize the va- method for determining the orthographic riety of computational methods used in this field, similarity between Romanian and related and state that the differences in datasets and ap- languages. We account for etymons and proaches cause difficulties in the evaluation of the cognates and we investigate not only the results regarding the reconstruction of the phylo- number of related words, but also their genetic tree of languages. Linguistic phylogeny forms, quantifying orthographic similari- reconstruction proves especially useful in histor- ties. The method we propose is adaptable ical and comparative linguistics, as it enables the to any language, as far as resources are analysis of language evolution. Ringe et al. (2002) available. propose a computational method for evolutionary 1 Introduction tree reconstruction based on a “perfect phylogeny” Language relatedness and language change across algorithm; using a Bayesian phylogeographic ap- space and time are two of the main questions of the proach, Alekseyenko et al. (2012), continuing the historical and comparative linguistics (Rama and work of Atkinson et al. (2005), model the expan- Borin, 2014). Many comparative methods have sion of the Indo-European language family and been used to establish relationships between lan- find support for the hypothesis which places its guages, to determine language families and to re- homeland in Anatolia; Atkinson and Gray (2006) construct their proto-languages (Durie and Ross, analyze language divergence dates and argue for 1996).
    [Show full text]