By the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory MOTHER TONGUE Publication of the Association for the Study of Language in Prebistory
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Grammatical Gender in Hindukush Languages
Grammatical gender in Hindukush languages An areal-typological study Julia Lautin Department of Linguistics Independent Project for the Degree of Bachelor 15 HEC General linguistics Bachelor's programme in Linguistics Spring term 2016 Supervisor: Henrik Liljegren Examinator: Bernhard Wälchli Expert reviewer: Emil Perder Project affiliation: “Language contact and relatedness in the Hindukush Region,” a research project supported by the Swedish Research Council (421-2014-631) Grammatical gender in Hindukush languages An areal-typological study Julia Lautin Abstract In the mountainous area of the Greater Hindukush in northern Pakistan, north-western Afghanistan and Kashmir, some fifty languages from six different genera are spoken. The languages are at the same time innovative and archaic, and are of great interest for areal-typological research. This study investigates grammatical gender in a 12-language sample in the area from an areal-typological perspective. The results show some intriguing features, including unexpected loss of gender, languages that have developed a gender system based on the semantic category of animacy, and languages where this animacy distinction is present parallel to the inherited gender system based on a masculine/feminine distinction found in many Indo-Aryan languages. Keywords Grammatical gender, areal-typology, Hindukush, animacy, nominal categories Grammatiskt genus i Hindukush-språk En areal-typologisk studie Julia Lautin Sammanfattning I den här studien undersöks grammatiskt genus i ett antal språk som talas i ett bergsområde beläget i norra Pakistan, nordvästra Afghanistan och Kashmir. I området, här kallat Greater Hindukush, talas omkring 50 olika språk från sex olika språkfamiljer. Det stora antalet språk tillsammans med den otillgängliga terrängen har gjort att språken är arkaiska i vissa hänseenden och innovativa i andra, vilket gör det till ett intressant område för arealtypologisk forskning. -
5. the Harappan Script Controversy
5. The Harappan script controversy (Subchapters 5.1-10 are the text of the paper “The Vedic Harappans in writing: Remarks in expectation of a decipherment of the Indus script”, written in late 1999, if I remember correctly. Instead of a postscript, subchapters 5.11-12 summarize a later development in 2003-2004, which throws an entirely different light on the meaning of the Indus script. At the time of editing this collection, I am agnostic on this question.) 5.1. Introduction In the Harappan cities some 4200 seals, many of them duplicates, have been found which carry short inscriptions in an otherwise unknown script. There is not the slightest doubt that this harvest of Harappan writings is but the tip of an iceberg, in this sense that the Harappan culture must have produced much more copious writings, but that most of them disappeared because the writing materials were not resistant to the ravages of time, particularly in the Indian climate. This fatality can still be seen today, when the libraries of many impoverished maharajas' castles are full of manuscripts which are decaying under our very eyes, turning large chunks of India's national memory and heritage into dust. Even of the oldest and most popular texts, the extant manuscripts are seldom older than a few centuries, copies made as the only guarantee to save the texts from the ravages of time which were destroying the earlier copies. It is fair to assume that a text corpus proportionate in size to the enormous extent of the Harappan cultural space, has gone the same way into oblivion. -
Language Documentation and Description
Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 17. Editor: Peter K. Austin Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan ZUBAIR TORWALI Cite this article: Torwali, Zubair. 2020. Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 44- 65. London: EL Publishing. Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/181 This electronic version first published: July 2020 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan Zubair Torwali Independent Researcher Summary Indigenous communities living in the mountainous terrain and valleys of the region of Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern -
Humiliation and Education in a Dani Modernity
Dreams Made Small: Humiliation and Education in a Dani Modernity Jenny Munro A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The Australian National University December 2009 **This electronic version has been edited to reduce digital size and is not the same as the printed version or the full electronic version with images** This thesis is the original work of the author except where otherwise acknowledged. Jenny Munro Department of Anthropology Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University i Abstract Indigenous youth from the Baliem Valley area of Papua, Indonesia aspire to be part of ‘progress’ ( kemajuan ) in their isolated region but are constrained by colonial conditions that favour migrant Indonesians. In this thesis, indigenous Dani students leave the tense social and political setting of highlands Papua in order, they say, to broaden their horizons in North Sulawesi, a relatively prosperous, peaceful province four days west of Papua by passenger ship. Based on 16 months of fieldwork conducted in 2005-2006 and 2009, this thesis explores Dani efforts to gain university degrees and obtain ‘modern’ skills and capabilities in a tangled web of racial stigma, prejudice, institutionalized corruption, and intense relationships with other Papuan highlanders. It follows Dani graduates back to the Baliem Valley to see what results they create from a university degree. This exploration of the personal histories and life chances of stigmatized individuals sheds light on Papuan nationalism, the everyday production and negotiation of racial hierarchies, and how affect, in this case humiliation, fuels the formation of a particular vision of identity and the future. -
The Role of Indigenous Knowledge
Lund University Lund University Master of International Development and Management May 2010 The Seed and the Shaman: Encountering Diversity in Development Indigenous Knowledge Production among the Lohorung Rai of Eastern Nepal Author: Nathaniel Adams Supervisor: Anne Jernek Acronyms _____________________________________________________________ 2 Glossary ______________________________________________________________ 3 1.0 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 5 2.0 Research Problem: Diversity and Poverty in Rural Nepal ____________________ 7 2.1 Diversity in Nepal: What's at Stake __________________________________________ 7 2.2 Deconstructing Rural Poverty and Agricultural Development in Nepal _____________ 9 3.0 Research Purpose and Questions ______________________________________ 10 4.0 Study Construction __________________________________________________ 11 4.1 Study Area _____________________________________________________________ 11 4.2 Methodology and Sampling Technique ______________________________________ 12 4.3 Reliability, Validity and Ethical Considerations _______________________________ 14 5.0 Local Perspectives in Development: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge _______ 15 5.1 Anthropological Perspectives on Indigenous Knowledge ________________________ 15 5.2 Indigenous Knowledge and the Domains of Cultural Memory ___________________ 16 6.0 Indigenous Knowledge and the Construction of Lohorung Identity ___________ 18 6.1 Public Labels ___________________________________________________________ -
ICONS and SIGNS from the ANCIENT HARAPPA Amelia Sparavigna ∗ Dipartimento Di Fisica, Politecnico Di Torino C.So Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, Torino, Italy
ICONS AND SIGNS FROM THE ANCIENT HARAPPA Amelia Sparavigna ∗ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Torino, Italy Abstract Written words probably developed independently at least in three places: Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa. In these densely populated areas, signs, icons and symbols were eventually used to create a writing system. It is interesting to see how sometimes remote populations are using the same icons and symbols. Here, we discuss examples and some results obtained by researchers investigating the signs of Harappan civilization. 1. Introduction The debate about where and when the written words were originated is still open. Probably, writing systems developed independently in at least three places, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa. In places where an agricultural civilization flourished, the passage from the use of symbols to a true writing system was early accomplished. It means that, at certain period in some densely populated area, signs and symbols were eventually used to create a writing system, the more complex society requiring an increase in recording and communication media. Signs, symbols and icons were always used by human beings, when they started carving wood or cutting stones and painting caves. We find signs on drums, textiles and pottery, and on the body itself, with tattooing. To figure what symbols used the human population when it was mainly composed by small groups of hunter-gatherers, we could analyse the signs of Native Americans. Our intuition is able to understand many of these old signs, because they immediately represent the shapes of objects and animals. It is then quite natural that signs and icons, born among people in a certain region, turn out to be used by other remote populations. -
Gender, Ritual and Social Formation in West Papua
Gender, ritual Pouwer Jan and social formation Gender, ritual in West Papua and social formation A configurational analysis comparing Kamoro and Asmat Gender,in West Papua ritual and social Gender, ritual and social formation in West Papua in West ritual and social formation Gender, This study, based on a lifelong involvement with New Guinea, compares the formation in West Papua culture of the Kamoro (18,000 people) with that of their eastern neighbours, the Asmat (40,000), both living on the south coast of West Papua, Indonesia. The comparison, showing substantial differences as well as striking similarities, contributes to a deeper understanding of both cultures. Part I looks at Kamoro society and culture through the window of its ritual cycle, framed by gender. Part II widens the view, offering in a comparative fashion a more detailed analysis of the socio-political and cosmo-mythological setting of the Kamoro and the Asmat rituals. These are closely linked with their social formations: matrilineally oriented for the Kamoro, patrilineally for the Asmat. Next is a systematic comparison of the rituals. Kamoro culture revolves around cosmological connections, ritual and play, whereas the Asmat central focus is on warfare and headhunting. Because of this difference in cultural orientation, similar, even identical, ritual acts and myths differ in meaning. The comparison includes a cross-cultural, structural analysis of relevant myths. This publication is of interest to scholars and students in Oceanic studies and those drawn to the comparative study of cultures. Jan Pouwer (1924) started his career as a government anthropologist in West New Guinea in the 1950s and 1960s, with periods of intensive fieldwork, in particular among the Kamoro. -
A Grammatical Description of Dameli
Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli A Grammatical ISBN 978-91-7447-770-2 Department of Linguistics Doctoral Thesis in Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden 2013 A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder ©Emil Perder, Stockholm 2013 ISBN 978-91-7447-770-2 Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice AB, Stockholm 2013 Distributor: Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University ماں َتارف تہ ِاک توحفہ، دامیاں A gift from me, Dameli people Abstract This dissertation aims to provide a grammatical description of Dameli (ISO-639-3: dml), an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 5 000 people in the Domel Valley in Chitral in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the North-West of Pakistan. Dameli is a left-branching SOV language with considerable morphological complexity, particularly in the verb, and a complicated system of argument marking. The phonology is relatively rich, with 31 consonant and 16 vowel phonemes. This is the first extensive study of this language. The analysis presented here is based on original data collected primarily between 2003-2008 in cooperation with speakers of the language in Peshawar and Chitral, including the Domel Valley. The core of the data consists of recorded texts and word lists, but questionnaires and paradigms of word forms have also been used. The main emphasis is on describing the features of the language as they appear in texts and other material, rather than on conforming them to any theory, but the analysis is informed by functional analysis and linguistic typology, hypotheses on diachronical developments and comparisons with neighbouring and related languages. -
Introduction Roger D
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-56256-0 — The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages Edited by Roger D. Woodard Excerpt More Information chapter 1 Introduction roger d. woodard 1.1 Preliminary remarks What makes a language ancient? The term conjures up images, often romantic, of archeol- ogists feverishly copying hieroglyphs by torchlight in a freshly discovered burial chamber; of philologists dangling over a precipice in some remote corner of the earth, taking impres- sions of an inscription carved in a cliff-face; of a solitary scholar working far into the night, puzzling out some ancient secret, long forgotten by humankind, from a brittle-leafed manuscript or patina-encrusted tablet. The allure is undeniable, and the literary and film worlds have made full use of it. An ancient language is indeed a thing of wonder – but so is every other language, all remarkable systems of conveying thoughts and ideas across time and space. And ancient languages, as far back as the very earliest attested, operate just like those to which the linguist has more immediate access, all with the same familiar elements – phonological, morphological, syntactic – and no perceptible vestiges of Neanderthal oddities. If there was a time when human language was characterized by features and strategies fundamentally unlike those we presently know, it was a time prior to the development of any attested or reconstructed language of antiquity. Perhaps, then, what makes an ancient language different is our awareness that it has outlived those for whom it was an intimate element of the psyche, not so unlike those rays of light now reaching our eyes that were emitted by their long-extinguished source when dinosaurs still roamed across the earth (or earlier) – both phantasms of energy flying to our senses from distant sources, long gone out. -
The Linguistic History of Some Indian Domestic Plants the Harvard
The Linguistic History of Some Indian Domestic Plants The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Witzel, Michael. 2009. The linguistic history of some Indian Citation domestic plants. Journal of BioSciences 34(6): 829-833. Published Version doi:10.1007/s12038-009-0096-1 Accessed April 17, 2018 3:26:20 PM EDT Citable Link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:8954814 This article was downloaded from Harvard University's DASH Terms of Use repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms- of-use#OAP (Article begins on next page) Michael Witzel, Harvard University [email protected] THE LINGUISTIC HISTORY OF SOME INDIAN DOMESTIC PLANTS From* the mist of times emerge our earliest Indian texts, the Ṛgveda (c. 1300 -1000 BCE), composed in the Northwest of the subcontinent, and the Sangam texts (c. 2nd cent. BCE - early CE), composed in the extreme South. They contain valuable materials in archaic Indo-Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit) and in archaic Old Tamil respectively. The former belongs, along with Old Iranian (Avestan of Zarathustra), to the ancient Indo-Iranian subfamily of Indo-European that stretches from Iceland to Assam and Sri Lanka.1 The latter belongs to the Dravidian family2 that is restricted to the subcontinent but may have relatives in Northern Asia (Uralic) and beyond.3 As for the plant names found in these old sources, it must be observed that recent advances in archaeobotany4 indicate at least three major nuclei of food production in the subcontinent. -
An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri GLOSSARY
An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri GLOSSARY Braj B Kachru Kashmir News Network http://koshur.org/SpokenKashmiri A Basic Course and Referene Manual for Learning and Teaching Kashmiri as a Second Language PART II GLOSSARY BRAJ B. KACHRU Department of Linguistics, University of lllinois Urban, lllinois 61810 U.S.A June, 1973 The research project herein was performed pursuant to a contract with the United States Office of Education, Department of health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C. Contract No. OEC-0-70-3981 Project Director and Principal Investigator: Braj B. Kachru, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, U.S.A. Disclaimer: We present this material as is, and assume no responsibility for its quality, any loss and/or damages. © 2006 Braj B. Kachru. All Rights Reserved. Kashmir News Network http://koshur.org/SpokenKashmiri Kashmir News Network http://koshur.org/SpokenKashmiri An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri - GLOSSARY by Braj B. Kachru TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ....................................................................................................1 GLOSSARY ...................................................................................................2 ABBREVIATIONS .........................................................................................3 1.0 KASHMIRI-ENGLISH ........................................................................ 1-4 2.0 ENGLISH-KASHMIRI ...................................................................... 2-32 3.0 A PARTIAL LIST OF ENGLISH -
Sociolinguistic Survey of Lohorung
DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2014-003 ® Sociolinguistic Survey of Lohorung Jessica R. Mitchell and Holly J. Hilty Sociolinguistic Survey of Lohorung Jessica R. Mitchell and Holly J. Hilty SIL International® 2014 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2014-003, March 2014 © 2014 SIL International® All rights reserved 1 Abstract This report presents the results of sociolinguistic research conducted among representatives of the Lohorung [ISO 639-3: lbr], Yamphu [ybi], and Southern Yamphu [lrr] language communities of Sankhuwasabha and Dhankuta districts in Nepal. Linguistic and anthropological research, by van Driem (2001), Rutgers (1998), Hansson (1991), and Hardman (2000), provide helpful context for this investigation of sociolinguistic realities between these groups. The goals of this survey include clarifying the relationships between Lohorung and two related languages; investigating dialect variation and attitudes between three Lohorung communities (Pangma, Angala, and Dhupu); assessing Lohorung language vitality in these three communities; and understanding the Lohorung community’s desires for development. This research adds to previous linguistic description of Lohorung and Yamphu to confirm that, despite their close relationship, they speak separate languages. There is little dialect variation between the Lohorung villages we visited. There are positive attitudes towards the speech variety of Pangma. While language vitality varies among these three Lohorung villages, the degree of vitality (EGIDS 6b, Threatened) warrants language-based