The World Tree of Languages: How to Infer It from Data, and What It Is Good For
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Options for a National Culture Symbol of Cameroon: Can the Bamenda Grassfields Traditional Dress Fit?
EAS Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Abbreviated Key Title: EAS J Humanit Cult Stud ISSN: 2663-0958 (Print) & ISSN: 2663-6743 (Online) Published By East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya Volume-2 | Issue-1| Jan-Feb-2020 | DOI: 10.36349/easjhcs.2020.v02i01.003 Research Article Options for a National Culture Symbol of Cameroon: Can the Bamenda Grassfields Traditional Dress Fit? Venantius Kum NGWOH Ph.D* Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Buea, Cameroon Abstract: The national symbols of Cameroon like flag, anthem, coat of arms and seal do not Article History in any way reveal her cultural background because of the political inclination of these signs. Received: 14.01.2020 In global sporting events and gatherings like World Cup and international conferences Accepted: 28.12.2020 respectively, participants who appear in traditional costume usually easily reveal their Published: 17.02.2020 nationalities. The Ghanaian Kente, Kenyan Kitenge, Nigerian Yoruba outfit, Moroccan Journal homepage: Djellaba or Indian Dhoti serve as national cultural insignia of their respective countries. The https://www.easpublisher.com/easjhcs reason why Cameroon is referred in tourist circles as a cultural mosaic is that she harbours numerous strands of culture including indigenous, Gaullist or Francophone and Anglo- Quick Response Code Saxon or Anglophone. Although aspects of indigenous culture, which have been grouped into four spheres, namely Fang-Beti, Grassfields, Sawa and Sudano-Sahelian, are dotted all over the country in multiple ways, Cameroon cannot still boast of a national culture emblem. The purpose of this article is to define the major components of a Cameroonian national culture and further identify which of them can be used as an acceptable domestic cultural device. -
5 Phonology Florian Lionnet and Larry M
5 Phonology Florian Lionnet and Larry M. Hyman 5.1. Introduction The historical relation between African and general phonology has been a mutu- ally beneficial one: the languages of the African continent provide some of the most interesting and, at times, unusual phonological phenomena, which have con- tributed to the development of phonology in quite central ways. This has been made possible by the careful descriptive work that has been done on African lan- guages, by linguists and non-linguists, and by Africanists and non-Africanists who have peeked in from time to time. Except for the click consonants of the Khoisan languages (which spill over onto some neighboring Bantu languages that have “borrowed” them), the phonological phenomena found in African languages are usually duplicated elsewhere on the globe, though not always in as concen- trated a fashion. The vast majority of African languages are tonal, and many also have vowel harmony (especially vowel height harmony and advanced tongue root [ATR] harmony). Not surprisingly, then, African languages have figured dispro- portionately in theoretical treatments of these two phenomena. On the other hand, if there is a phonological property where African languages are underrepresented, it would have to be stress systems – which rarely, if ever, achieve the complexity found in other (mostly non-tonal) languages. However, it should be noted that the languages of Africa have contributed significantly to virtually every other aspect of general phonology, and that the various developments of phonological theory have in turn often greatly contributed to a better understanding of the phonologies of African languages. Given the considerable diversity of the properties found in different parts of the continent, as well as in different genetic groups or areas, it will not be possible to provide a complete account of the phonological phenomena typically found in African languages, overviews of which are available in such works as Creissels (1994) and Clements (2000). -
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. -
Highlights from Three Language Families in Southwest China
Highlights from three Language Families in Southwest China Matthias Gerner RFLR Monographs Matthias Gerner Highlights from three Language Families in Southwest China RFLR Monographs Volume 3 Matthias Gerner Highlights from three Language Families in Southwest China Burmese-Lolo, Tai-Kadai, Miao Research Foundation Language and Religion e-Book ISBN 978-3-947306-91-6 e-Book DOI https://doi.org/10.23772/9783947306916 Print ISBN 978-3-947306-90-9 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie and available in the Internet at https://www.dnb.de. © 2019 Research Foundation Language and Religion Duisburg, Germany https://www.rflr.org Printing and binding: Print Simply GmbH, Frankfurt Printed in Germany IX Acknowledgement God created rare language phenomena like those hidden in the Burmese-Lolo, Tai-Kadai and Miao languages which are the subject of this monograph (Proverbs 25:2). I am grateful to Emil Reschke and Siegfried Lechner of Research Foundation Language and Religion for their kind assistance. The following native speakers have provided helpful discussion: Michael Mǎhǎi 马海, Zhū Wén Xù 朱文旭, Hú Sùhúa 胡素华, Āyù Jĭpō 阿育几坡, Shí Défù 石德富, Zhāng Yǒngxiáng 张永祥, Wú Zhèngbiāo 吴正彪, Xióng Yùyǒu 熊玉有, Zhāng Yǒng 张勇, Wú Shìhuá 吴世华, Shí Lín 石林, Yáng Chéngxīng 杨成星, Lǐ Xùliàn 李旭练. The manuscript received feedback from colleagues who commented on the data presented at eleven international conferences between 2006 and 2016. Thanks are due to Jens Weigel for the cover design and to Jason Kline for proofreading the manuscript. X Preface The Burmese-Lolo, Tai-Kadai, Miao-Yao and Chinese languages form a loose Sprachbund in Southwest China with hundreds of languages coexisting and assimilating to each other. -
University of California Santa Cruz NO SOMOS ANIMALES
University of California Santa Cruz NO SOMOS ANIMALES: INDIGENOUS SURVIVAL AND PERSEVERANCE IN 19TH CENTURY SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY with emphases in AMERICAN STUDIES and LATIN AMERICAN & LATINO STUDIES by Martin Adam Rizzo September 2016 The Dissertation of Martin Adam Rizzo is approved: ________________________________ Professor Lisbeth Haas, Chair _________________________________ Professor Amy Lonetree _________________________________ Professor Matthew D. O’Hara ________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright ©by Martin Adam Rizzo 2016 Table of Contents List of Figures iv Abstract vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: “First were taken the children, and then the parents followed” 24 Chapter 2: “The diverse nations within the mission” 98 Chapter 3: “We are not animals” 165 Chapter 4: Captain Coleto and the Rise of the Yokuts 215 Chapter 5: ”Not finding anything else to appropriate...” 261 Chapter 6: “They won’t try to kill you if they think you’re already dead” 310 Conclusion 370 Appendix A: Indigenous Names 388 Bibliography 398 iii List of Figures 1.1: Indigenous tribal territories 33 1.2: Contemporary satellite view 36 1.3: Total number baptized by tribe 46 1.4: Approximation of Santa Cruz mountain tribal territories 48 1.5: Livestock reported near Mission Santa Cruz 75 1.6: Agricultural yields at Mission Santa Cruz by year 76 1.7: Baptisms by month, through -
The POSS-Final Suffix Order in Dagur∗
The POSS-Final Suffix Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Suffix Order in Dagur∗ 2 Background on Dagur • Dagur is an endangered Mongolic language of northern China spoken by about 132,000 people Mia Zhiyu Gong, Cornell University with 24,300 monolinguals (Ethnologue 2019). [email protected] • There are four (mutually-intelligible) dialects of Dagur: Buteha, Qiqihar, Hailar, and Ili/Xinjiang. The 50th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society • The data in this paper comes from Buteha and Hailar dialects. October 26, 2019 2.1 Background on Dagur Nominal Morphology ................................................... ......................................... • The head noun can be followed by three types of suffixes (in this order): PL, CASE, POSS. 1 Introduction j • This talk: (2) Merden (minii) guˇc -sul -d -min ˇašGen ši -sen Merden 1S.GEN friend -PL -DAT -1S.POSS letter write -PST ⊲ Dagur possessive constructions ‘Merden wrote a letter/letters to my friends’ ⊲ The stem-CASE-POSS (POSS-final) order as in (1)1 (1) Merden (maanii) guˇc -d -maan j ˇašGen ši -san • The basic possessive morphology in Dagur is illustrated with (3): Merden 1PL.GEN friend -DAT -1PL.POSS letter write -PST (3) a. (minii) biteG -min j b. *minii biteG ‘Merden wrote a letter to our friend’ 1S.GEN book -1S.POSS • In (1) ‘my book’ ⊲ The DP our friend is marked for dative case ⊲ There is person and number agreement between the possessor (marked as genitive case) and the ⊲ The dative marker precedes the 1PL.POSS suffix possessive (POSS) suffix. ⊲ • All (attested) case and POSS suffix in all person-number combination follow this order 2. -
Ua2019 34.Pdf
2500-2902 № 3 (34) 2019 Ural-Altaic Studies Урало-алтайские исследования ISSN 2500-2902 ISBN 978-1-4632-0168-5 Ural-Altaic Studies Scientific Journal № 3 (34) 2019 Established in 2009 Published four times a year Moscow © Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2019 © Tomsk State University, 2019 ISSN 2500-2902 ISBN 978-1-4632-0168-5 Урало-алтайские исследования научный журнал № 3 (34) 2019 Основан в 2009 г. Выходит четыре раза в год Москва © Институт языкознания Российской академии наук, 2019 © Томский государственный университет, 2019 CONTENTS No 3 (34) 2019 Maria P. Bezenova, Natalja V. Kondratjeva. Some peculiarities of the Udmurt translation of “The law of the Lord” (1912): graphics, orthography, phonetics ...............................................................7 Anar A. Gadzhieva. Analysis of the vowel and consonant systems of the first Cyrillic books in Kazakh..............53 Karina O. Mischenkova. Reflections of the Proto-Evenki *s in the Evenki dialects in the late 17th century and the first half of the 18th century.....................................................................72 Irina A. Nevskaya, Aiiana A. Ozonova. Attempt of the questionnaire on the nominal sentences in the South-Siberian Turkic languages and the first results.........................................................................84 Iraida Ya. Selyutina, Nikolay S. Urtegeshev, Albina A. Dobrinina. Telengits consonants based on instrumental data .....................................................................................124 -
'Undergoer Voice in Borneo: Penan, Punan, Kenyah and Kayan
Undergoer Voice in Borneo Penan, Punan, Kenyah and Kayan languages Antonia SORIENTE University of Naples “L’Orientale” Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology-Jakarta This paper describes the morphosyntactic characteristics of a few languages in Borneo, which belong to the North Borneo phylum. It is a typological sketch of how these languages express undergoer voice. It is based on data from Penan Benalui, Punan Tubu’, Punan Malinau in East Kalimantan Province, and from two Kenyah languages as well as secondary source data from Kayanic languages in East Kalimantan and in Sawarak (Malaysia). Another aim of this paper is to explore how the morphosyntactic features of North Borneo languages might shed light on the linguistic subgrouping of Borneo’s heterogeneous hunter-gatherer groups, broadly referred to as ‘Penan’ in Sarawak and ‘Punan’ in Kalimantan. 1. The North Borneo languages The island of Borneo is home to a great variety of languages and language groups. One of the main groups is the North Borneo phylum that is part of a still larger Greater North Borneo (GNB) subgroup (Blust 2010) that includes all languages of Borneo except the Barito languages of southeast Kalimantan (and Malagasy) (see Table 1). According to Blust (2010), this subgroup includes, in addition to Bornean languages, various languages outside Borneo, namely, Malayo-Chamic, Moken, Rejang, and Sundanese. The languages of this study belong to different subgroups within the North Borneo phylum. They include the North Sarawakan subgroup with (1) languages that are spoken by hunter-gatherers (Penan Benalui (a Western Penan dialect), Punan Tubu’, and Punan Malinau), and (2) languages that are spoken by agriculturalists, that is Òma Lóngh and Lebu’ Kulit Kenyah (belonging respectively to the Upper Pujungan and Wahau Kenyah subgroups in Ethnologue 2009) as well as the Kayan languages Uma’ Pu (Baram Kayan), Busang, Hwang Tring and Long Gleaat (Kayan Bahau). -
Notes on Paha Buyang*
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Volume 29.1 — April 2006 NOTES ON PAHA BUYANG* Li Jinfang1 Central University for Nationalities and University of Melbourne Luo Yongxian2 University of Melbourne This paper is an outline of some of the major features of the phonology and grammar of a dialect of the Buyang language, a Tai-Kadai language with roughly 2000 speakers spread over the border area of Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces in China, and northern Vietnam and Laos. The particular variety described is the Paha variety spoken in Yanglian village, Guangnan County in Yunnan Province, China. The genetic position of Buyang within Tai-Kadai, and the influence of Zhuang and Chinese on the language are also discussed. Keywords: Tai-Kadai, Buyang, language description, Yunnan, endangered languages 1. INTRODUCTION Buyang is a small ethnic group in Southwest China, with approximately 2,000 speakers. They are distributed in the following locations (see Map 1). 1) Southeast of Gula Township of Funing County Yunnan Province on the Sino-Vietnamese border. There are eight villages: Ecun, Dugan, Zhelong, Nada, Longna, Maguan, Langjia, and Nianlang. These form the largest concentration of Buyang, with about 1,000 speakers. These villages, which are in close geographical proximity, are referred to by the local Han and Zhuang people as 布央八寨 ‘the eight Buyang villages’; 2) North of Guangnan County in southeastern Yunnan. About five hundred speakers live in Yanglian Village of Dixu Township, and about a hundred in Anshe Village of Bada Township; 3) Central Bohe Township of Napo County, western Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on the Sino-Vietnamese border. -
Appositive Possession in Ainu and Around the Pacific
Appositive possession in Ainu and around the Pacific Anna Bugaeva1,2, Johanna Nichols3,4,5, and Balthasar Bickel6 1 Tokyo University of Science, 2 National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, 3 University of California, Berkeley, 4 University of Helsinki, 5 Higher School of Economics, Moscow, 6 University of Zü rich Abstract: Some languages around the Pacific have multiple possessive classes of alienable constructions using appositive nouns or classifiers. This pattern differs from the most common kind of alienable/inalienable distinction, which involves marking, usually affixal, on the possessum and has only one class of alienables. The language isolate Ainu has possessive marking that is reminiscent of the Circum-Pacific pattern. It is distinctive, however, in that the possessor is coded not as a dependent in an NP but as an argument in a finite clause, and the appositive word is a verb. This paper gives a first comprehensive, typologically grounded description of Ainu possession and reconstructs the pattern that must have been standard when Ainu was still the daily language of a large speech community; Ainu then had multiple alienable class constructions. We report a cross-linguistic survey expanding previous coverage of the appositive type and show how Ainu fits in. We split alienable/inalienable into two different phenomena: argument structure (with types based on possessibility: optionally possessible, obligatorily possessed, and non-possessible) and valence (alienable, inalienable classes). Valence-changing operations are derived alienability and derived inalienability. Our survey classifies the possessive systems of languages in these terms. Keywords: Pacific Rim, Circum-Pacific, Ainu, possessive, appositive, classifier Correspondence: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 2 1. -
Languages of Southeast Asia
Jiarong Horpa Zhaba Amdo Tibetan Guiqiong Queyu Horpa Wu Chinese Central Tibetan Khams Tibetan Muya Huizhou Chinese Eastern Xiangxi Miao Yidu LuobaLanguages of Southeast Asia Northern Tujia Bogaer Luoba Ersu Yidu Luoba Tibetan Mandarin Chinese Digaro-Mishmi Northern Pumi Yidu LuobaDarang Deng Namuyi Bogaer Luoba Geman Deng Shixing Hmong Njua Eastern Xiangxi Miao Tibetan Idu-Mishmi Idu-Mishmi Nuosu Tibetan Tshangla Hmong Njua Miju-Mishmi Drung Tawan Monba Wunai Bunu Adi Khamti Southern Pumi Large Flowery Miao Dzongkha Kurtokha Dzalakha Phake Wunai Bunu Ta w an g M o np a Gelao Wunai Bunu Gan Chinese Bumthangkha Lama Nung Wusa Nasu Wunai Bunu Norra Wusa Nasu Xiang Chinese Chug Nung Wunai Bunu Chocangacakha Dakpakha Khamti Min Bei Chinese Nupbikha Lish Kachari Ta se N a ga Naxi Hmong Njua Brokpake Nisi Khamti Nung Large Flowery Miao Nyenkha Chalikha Sartang Lisu Nung Lisu Southern Pumi Kalaktang Monpa Apatani Khamti Ta se N a ga Wusa Nasu Adap Tshangla Nocte Naga Ayi Nung Khengkha Rawang Gongduk Tshangla Sherdukpen Nocte Naga Lisu Large Flowery Miao Northern Dong Khamti Lipo Wusa NasuWhite Miao Nepali Nepali Lhao Vo Deori Luopohe Miao Ge Southern Pumi White Miao Nepali Konyak Naga Nusu Gelao GelaoNorthern Guiyang MiaoLuopohe Miao Bodo Kachari White Miao Khamti Lipo Lipo Northern Qiandong Miao White Miao Gelao Hmong Njua Eastern Qiandong Miao Phom Naga Khamti Zauzou Lipo Large Flowery Miao Ge Northern Rengma Naga Chang Naga Wusa Nasu Wunai Bunu Assamese Southern Guiyang Miao Southern Rengma Naga Khamti Ta i N u a Wusa Nasu Northern Huishui -
The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu
The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu Derek Nurse Memorial University of Newfoundland “One can speculate that the perfective versus imperfective distinction was, historically, the fundamental distinction in the language, and that a complex tense system is in process of being superimposed on this basic aspectual distinction … there are many signs that the tense system is still evolving.” (Parker 1991: 185, talking of the Grassfields language Mundani). 1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose Examination of a set of non-Bantu Niger-Congo languages shows that most are aspect-prominent languages, that is, they either do not encode tense —the majority case— or, as the quotation indicates, there is reason to think that some have added tense to an original aspectual base. Comparative consideration of tense-aspect categories and morphology suggests that early and Proto-Niger-Congo were aspect-prominent. In contrast, all Bantu languages today encode both aspect and tense. The conclusion therefore is that, along with but independently of a few other Niger-Congo families, Bantu innovated tense at an early point in its development. While it has been known for some time that individual aspects turn into tenses, and not vice versa, it is being proposed here is that a whole aspect- based system added tense distinctions and become a tense-aspect system. 1.2. Definitions Readers will be familiar with the concept of tense. I follow Comrie’s (1985: 9) by now well known definition of tense: “Tense is grammaticalised expression of location in time”. That is, it is an inflectional category that locates a situation (action, state, event, process) relative to some other point in time, to a deictic centre.