Language Complexity and Interlinguistic Difficulty
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Plural Words in Austronesian Languages: Typology and History
Plural Words in Austronesian Languages: Typology and History A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Research Master of Arts in Linguistics by Jiang Wu Student ID: s1609785 Supervisor: Prof. dr. M.A.F. Klamer Second reader: Dr. E.I. Crevels Date: 10th January, 2017 Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University Table of contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iv List of tables ................................................................................................................... v List of figures ................................................................................................................ vi List of maps ................................................................................................................. vii List of abbreviations .................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2. Background literature ................................................................................... 3 2.1. Plural words as nominal plurality marking ....................................................... 3 2.2. Plural words in Austronesian languages .......................................................... -
The Legacy of the German Language in Papua New Guinea T
Craig Alan Voll<er The legacy of the German language in Papua New Guinea t. lntroduction' German colonial rule in the western Pacific began formally in 1884 when unbe- known to them, people in north-eastern New Guinea (Ifuiser Wilhelmsland), the archipelago around the Bismarck Sea, and in the next year, almost ali of neigh- boring Micronesia were proclaimed to be under German "protection". This act changed ways of living that had existed for tens of thousands of years and laid the foundation for what eventually became the modern state of Papua New Guinea. This proclamation was made in German, a language that was then unknown to Melanesians and Micronesians. Today the German language is again mostly unknown to most Melanesians and only a few visible traces of any German colonial legacy remain. There are no old colonial buildings, no monuments outside of a few small and almost hidden cemeteries, and no German Clubs or public signs in German. In this century there has not even been a German embassy. But it is impossible to step out in New Ireland (the former "Neu-Mecklenburg"), for example, without being con- fronted by a twenty-first century reality that is in part a creation of German col- onial rule. Species that were introduced by the Germans stiil retain their German name, frorn clover,I(lee in both German and the local Nalik language to pineap- ples (GermanAnanas / Nalik ananas). The best rural road in the country the Bulominski Highway was started by and named after the last German governor of Neu-Mecklenburg and a mountain range is known as the Schleinitz Range. -
Alex Francois
Alex François LACITO-CNRS, Paris ParallelParallel meanings,meanings, divergentdivergent formsforms inin thethe northnorth VanuatuVanuatu SprachbundSprachbund Diffusion or genetic inheritance? 28 September 2007 — ALT7, Paris ArealAreal studiesstudies andand languagelanguage familiesfamilies Linguistic areas “A linguistic area is generally taken to be a geographically delimited area including languages from two or more language families, sharing significant traits.” [Dixon 2001] “The central feature of a linguistic area is the existence of structural similarities shared among languages of a geographical area, where usually some of the languages are genetically unrelated or at least are not all close relatives.” [Campbell 2006] ‣ Most areal studies involve distinct language families: Balkans, Mesoamerica, Ethiopia, SE Asia, India, Siberia... ‣ Another type: Contact situations involving languages which are genetically closely related. e.g. Heeringa et al. 2000 for Germanic lgs; Chappell 2001 for Sinitic lgs… Structural similarities < common ancestor or diffusion? ‣ This case study: the 17 languages of north Vanuatu. 2 Torres Is. Banks Is. Maewo Santo Ambae Pentecost Malekula Efate Tanna Hiw The 17 languages of north Vanuatu Lo- Toga Löyöp Lehali Volow Mwotlap Lemerig Close genetic relationship Mota Austronesian > Oceanic Veraa > North-Central Vanuatu [Clark 1985] Mwesen > North Vanuatu [François 2005] Vurës Sustained language contact and plurilingualism through trade, exogamy, shared cultural events… [Vienne 1984] Nume Little mutual intelligibility -
Asia-Pacific Linguistics a Grammatical Description of Kara-Lemakot
Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access Monographs ____________________________________________________ Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia College of Asia and the Pacific The Australian National University A grammatical description of Kara-Lemakot Matthew S. Dryer A-PL 009 / SLIM 002 This is a grammatical description of the Lemakot dialect of Kara, an Oceanic language in the Lavongai-Nalik subgroup. It is spoken in the northwest part of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, to the southeast of Tigak and to the northwest of Nalik. This description is based on the translation of the New Testament into Kara, not on field work. Matthew S. Dryer is a Professor of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo in the U.S. Apart from his extensive work in word order typology, he has been doing field work in Papua New Guinea since 2001 (in conjunction with Lea Brown) on Walman and Srenge, two languages in the Torricelli family, and on Poko- Rawo, a language in the Skou family. He is also one of the editors of the World Atlas of Language Structures. Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access Monographs ____________________________________________ Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia SLIM EDITORIAL BOARD: Isabelle Bril Bethwyn Evans Alexandre François (founder and Managing Editor) Bill Palmer Published by Asia-Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 2600 Australia Copyright in this edition is vested with the author(s) Released under Creative Commons Licence (Attribution) First published: 2013 URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10703 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Author: Dryer, Matthew S., author. -
In Antoinette SCHAPPER, Ed., Contact and Substrate in the Languages of Wallacea PART 1
Contact and substrate in the languages of Wallacea: Introduction Antoinette SCHAPPER KITLV & University of Cologne 1. What is Wallacea?1 The term “Wallacea” originally refers to a zoogeographical area located between the ancient continents of Sundaland (the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Bali) and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) (Dickerson 1928). Wallacea includes Sulawesi, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, Halmahera, Buru, Seram, and many smaller islands of eastern Indonesia and independent Timor-Leste (Map 1). What characterises this region is its diverse biota drawn from both the Southeast Asian and Australian areas. This volume uses the term Wallacea to refer to a linguistic area (Schapper 2015). In linguistic terms as in biogeography, Wallacea constitutes a transition zone, a region in which we observe the progression attenuation of the Southeast Asian linguistic type to that of a Melanesian linguistic type (Gil 2015). Centred further to the east than Biological Wallacea, Linguistic Wallacea takes in the Papuan and Austronesian languages in the region of eastern Nusantara including the Minor Sundic Islands east of Lombok, Timor-Leste, Maluku, the Bird’s Head and Neck of New Guinea, and Cenderawasih Bay (Map 2). Map 1. Biological Wallacea Map 2. Linguistic Wallacea 1 My editing and research for this issue has been supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research VENI project “The evolution of the lexicon. Explorations in lexical stability, semantic shift and borrowing in a Papuan language family” and by the Volkswagen Stiftung DoBeS project “Aru languages documentation”. Many thanks to Asako Shiohara and Yanti for giving me the opportunity to work with them on editing this NUSA special issue. -
Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea
Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 36, 2018 ISSN: 0023-1959 Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea ISSN: 0023-1959 Vol. 36, 2018 25 www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com www.langlxmelanesia.com Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Vol. 36, 2018 ISSN: 0023-1959 Landscape categorisation in Nalik, an Austronesian language of New Ireland Lidia Mazzitelli, University of Cologne (Germany) [email protected] Abstract This paper presents and analyses the lexical and the grammatical elements used to encode the semantic domain of landscape (the geophysical environment) in Nalik, an Austronesian language spoken in the New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea. The data discussed in the paper are primarily derived from my own fieldwork in New Ireland. The Nalik landscape lexicon is mostly formed by monomorphemic nouns; partonomies are usually derived from the semantic domain of the human body, as in vaat a daanim ‘head of the river’, ie. ‘spring’. The conformation of the New Ireland landscape is reflected in the Nalik directional particles, which encode the position of the speaker and of the object with respect to the sea (‘north-west up the coast’, ‘south-east down the coast’, ‘inland/out on the sea’). In the Nalik territory, toponyms related to human settlements are particularly dense and are often semantically transparent; toponyms referring to landscape features as hills or rivers are less dense and less prominent as reference points. The paper shows that the primary categorisation forces that drive the categorisation of landscape in Nalik are the affordances (ie. the benefits) of the landscape features and the socio-cultural practices of the community. -
AN ANALYSIS of the VITALITY of the WELSH LANGUAGE Daniel M
VOLUME 9 | SPRING 2020 AN ANALYSIS OF THE VITALITY OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE Daniel M. Packer & Romain Rivaux Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters Abstract and English, and the becoming of English as the global language are threatening the vitality of Welsh. This paper discusses the vitality of the Welsh language. English is one major causation for the reduction of Welsh Literature Review speakers in Wales over the past two centuries. Welsh Phonemic Mutation and Syntax Analyses phonetic mutation, which is a cross-linguistic irregularity, has become undesirable, and is thus becoming a linguistic An analysis of the linguistics of the Welsh language feature of the past. Metatypy between English and substantiates the claim that cross-linguistic irregularities Welsh has begun to influence the morphosyntactic and are affecting the vitality. A brief insight into two phonemic features of Welsh. In an effort to revitalize irregularities, which can be credited with playing a role in Welsh, the Welsh government implemented a new the diminishing vitality of Welsh, shows that consonant language policy and plan (LPP) titled “Cymraeg 2050.” mutations and verb topicalization are linguistic features A proposed differential equation model could be used that deviate from English in such a way that society to forecast the success of Cymraeg 2050 by assuming appears to be rendered demotivated with respect to Welsh different social-status values for English and Welsh. language acquisition. Finally, the nine factors developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Cross-linguistically within the Celtic languages, (UNESCO) and the four factors of the Language consonant mutation is regular, but with respect to Endangerment Index (LEI) are calculated to determine English, consonant mutation is an irregularity. -
A Little- Described Language of Solomon Islands
i Grammatical Relations and Syntactic Ergativity in Roviana: A little- described language of Solomon Islands A DISSERATION TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS MAY 2020 by Peter Schuelke Dissertation Committee: William O’Grady, Chairperson Andrea Berez-Kroeker Robert Blust Bradley McDonnell Alexander Mawyer Keywords: Roviana, Ergativity, Language Documentation ii Acknowledgements I would like to start by thanking the Roviana language community for their support and friendship, I could not have done this without you. There are too many people to thank everyone individually, but there are a few people I must mention by name. Frank Tuke was my first Roviana friend and he eventually became my collaborator in linguistics. Glo Oxenham is my teacher and friend and she, along with her friends and family in Wellington NZ, have continually supported this work. I would like to also thank the whole Tuke family, the Tolavae community, Gizo community, Munda community, Rarumana community, and my friends in Honiara. Leana hola koa gamu doduru. I would like to thank my mentor Al Schutz who taught me about academic writing and was even the last proofreader of this very dissertation. Not only that, Al taught me so much about Pacific linguistics, descriptive linguistics, and friendship. I would like to thank my best friend Alex D. Smith. Alex has been my biggest supporter from the very beginning. He proofread my work and provided comments on everything from my writing sample to this dissertation. He is a brilliant linguist, a loyal friend, and courageous human being. -
A History of Metatypy in the Bel Languages
A HISTORY OF METATYPY IN THE BEL LANGUAGES Malcolm Ross The Australian National University 1. Introduction The title of this paper invites two definitions: of ‘metatypy’ and of ‘Bel languages’. Metatypy, as its etymology suggests, denotes a change in (morphosyntactic) type which occurs when speakers are bilingual and restructure the morphosyntactic constructions of one of their languages on the model of constructions from their other language (Ross 2006, 2007a). The Bel languages are a small eight-member group of Oceanic Austronesian languages. Figure 1 shows a Bel genealogy, based on shared phonological and morphological innovations which are very unlikely to have been transmitted by contact (Ross 2007b). One of the Bel languages is Takia, which I have described in various publications, principally Ross (1994) and Ross (2002). The Bel family is part of a larger Oceanic group, the Ngero-Vitiaz network, and the map in Figure 2 shows the locations both of the Bel languages and of other Ngero-Vitiaz languages referred to in this paper (Ross 1988:160-183). The case study of contact-induced change which is briefly described here has arisen out of one of the central concerns of my work, reconstructing the history of Austronesian and Papuan languages. In previous work I have compared Takia with its Karkar Island neighbour, Waskia, a member of the Madang subfamily of the Trans New Guinea family of Papuan languages,1 to show that much of the grammar of Takia can be explained as the outcome of metatypy on the model of a Madang language (Ross 1987, 1996, 2003, 2007a). -
Notes on the Verbal Morphology of Loxodumau, an Oceanic Language of Papua New Guinea
Notes on the verbal morphology of Loxodumau, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea Lidia Federica Mazzitelli, Universität zu Köln In this paper I will present some aspects of the verbal morphology of Loxodumau (Meso-Melanesian, Western Oceanic), a still undescribed language spoken in New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) by approximatively 800 people. In the past, it has been defined as a ‘transitional language’ between Nalik (its southern neighbor) and Kara (its northern neighbor; Volker 1998:3). All data come from my own field notes (2017). As most Western Oceanic languages, Loxodumau has a rich system of pre-verbal particles denoting tense and aspect. The simple past tense is always unmarked, but a special form is dedicated to the near past (‘I have just X’). The present may occasionally be signaled by the particle nga; future reference is obligatorily marked by the particle daa. Loxodumau verbs distinguish an inceptive (valaa), habitual (vuna; morphological reduplication), completive (kaavus) and perfective (asang) aspect. Imperative, prohibitive, desiderative moods are distinguished; there are no native deontic modals, but the verbal particle pu is found, expressing epistemic possibility; directional serial verb constructions are widely used. As for valency-changing operations, in Loxodumau, two valency-increasing (va-, -in) and two valency-decreasing affixes (ra(la)-, - aai) are found. Va- (<POC *paki-; Ross 2004) is a causative prefix that attaches to intransitives (umaan ‘lie’– va-umaan ‘make lie down’); I only have one example of a transitive base: vatangin ‘show’ < tangin ‘find’. The suffix -in (maybe <POC *-i; Ross 2004) is an applicative that attaches to both intransitive and transitive bases: vaaigot ‘ready’ – vaaigotin ‘prepare’, vaabus ‘eat’ – vaabusin ‘eat something with something else’ (vaabusin licenses a comitative adjunct). -
The Coastal Marind Language
This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The coastal marind language Olsson, Bruno 2018 Olsson, B. (2018). The coastal marind language. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73235 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/73235 Downloaded on 01 Oct 2021 11:12:23 SGT THE COASTAL MARIND LANGUAGE BRUNO OLSSON SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES 2017 The Coastal Marind language Bruno Olsson School of Humanities A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 List of abbreviations. Gloss Label Explanation (m) Malay/Indonesian word 1, 2, 3 1st, 2nd 3rd person sg, pl singular, plural 2|3 2nd or 3rd person I, II, III, IV Genders I, II, III and IV Chapter 6 3pl>1 3pl Actor acts on 1st person §8.2.2.2 a Actor §8.2 acpn Accompaniment §12.2 act Actualis §14.3.1 aff Affectionate §14.3.3 all Allative §12.3 apl Associative plural §5.4.2 cont Continuative §13.2.4 ct Contessive §14.4.5 ctft Counterfactual §13.3 dat Dative §8.3 dep Dependent dir Directional Orientation §10.1.4 dist Distal §3.3.2.1 dur Past Durative §13.2.1 ext Extended §13.2.3 frus Frustrative §14.4.1 fut Future §13.2.7 fut2 2nd Future §13.2.7 gen Genitive §8.4 giv Given §14.1 hab Habitual §13.2.6 hort Hortative §17.1.3 slf.int Self-interrogative §14.3.4 imp Imperative §17.1.1 iness Inessive §9.3.2 ingrs Ingressive §16.3.5 int Interrogative §17.3.1 Continued on next page. -
Glocalization, English, and Education in Languages of Lesser Power1)
35 Glocalization, English, and Education in Languages of Lesser Power1) Fred E. Anderson The concept of “glocalization”—the concomitant development of global and lo- cal values and practices—is used in this paper to draw together two seemingly dis- parate areas of research in which the author has been involved. The first is the study of English as a global language; it is shown that the increasing use of English as the lingua franca for international communication has at the same time promoted the development of new, localized varieties of English (beyond the traditional Brit- ish/American dichotomy). The second area is the maintenance, primarily through education, of small languages and cultures—termed “languages of lesser power” (LLP)—which are threatened by the spread of international languages such as Eng- lish. LLPs include both indigenous languages (those which have existed in a particu- lar country or locality over an indefinite period) and immigrant languages (whose use in a given setting is more recent and documentable). An LLP is most often, though not necessarily, a minority language of a country; and while its existence may be endangered in a particular setting it is not necessarily endangered on a world scale. Case studies are cited from the author’s co-edited (nearly completed) book project, Education in languages of lesser power: Asian and Pacific perspectives, to il- lustrate representative educational initiatives for maintaining or revitalizing LLPs in East/Southeast Asia and the Pacific: specifically, the Norf’k language of Norfolk Is- land (from research by Mühlhäusler); Tamil in Singapore (from Shegar and Gopina- than); and Nalik in Papua New Guinea (from Volker).