DOCSLIB.ORG

Book Reviews / Рецензии

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Book Reviews / Рецензии Book reviews / Рецензии Kirill Babaev Russian State University for the Humanities In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory. Essays in the four fields of anthropology. In honor of Harold Crane Fleming. By John D. Bengtson (ed.) Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2008. XXIV + 476 pp. The volume under discussion was published in hon- Genetics and genogeography have recently become our of Harold Crane Fleming, a distinguished veteran an important part of prehistoric studies, and pioneer- anthropologist with deep specialisation in linguistics ing experiments of L. Cavalli-Sforza (1991) and his and language prehistory. His particular passion in this followers to link genetic data with cultures, ethnicities domain have been African languages, on which he and languages are gaining substantial popularity. One published a great number of significant papers fol- of them is carried out in Shomarka Omar Keita’s arti- lowing his long term trips to Ethiopia, working cle “Geography, selected Afro-Asiatic families, and Y- mostly, though not exclusively, with Chadic, Omotic chromosome lineage variation: an exploration in lin- and Cushitic languages. Through his studies, Harold guistics and phylogeography”. The author deals with Fleming has always emphasised that only a complex Y-chromosome genetic data of various ethnic groups interdisciplinary approach can lead us to uncover the of Afro-Asiatic (or Afrasian) language speakers. As it prehistory of humankind — a task he has always been turns out, many of the ones that are located in Africa working upon in person. belong to the same haplogroups — which, therefore, The book is a solid attempt to vindicate this very may confirm their common origins. The author claims approach. It contains a collection of articles written by to find the same traces in Semitic data to back the the- specialists in various fields of anthropological studies ory of the African origins of Afrasians; however, this — including genetics, archaeology, linguistics, cul- does not seem evident. There are further doubts re- tural studies and human biology. The lifetime idea of garding links with Berber genetic data, which, ac- Harold Fleming, therefore, is well reflected here: to cording to earlier discoveries, lies closer to Eurasian bring together people who can answer questions on stocks than to African ones. deep human past multiplying knowledge of several The article by Christy Turner named “A dental an- interconnected disciplines and creating a synergy to thropological hypothesis relating to the ethnogenesis, boost the progress. A great endeavour, indeed. origin, and antiquity of the Afro-Asiatic language The collected papers are divided into five major family: peopling of the Eurasian-S.Asian triangle IV” blocks in an attempt to follow the disciplinary princi- considers traits of dental morphology of Homo ple: African Peoples; African Languages (synchronic sapiens fossils to resolve the same problem: the origi- studies); African Languages (classification and pre- nal homeland of Afrasian language speakers. Con- history); Languages of Eurasia, Oceania, and the trary to the previous author, the author supports the Americas; and Human and Language Origins. How- idea of Near Eastern origins of Afrasians, namely the ever, some inconsistencies may be noticed: papers on Natuf archaeological culture of the region. In the light genetics are placed into the first and final sections, of the latest reports (Militarev 2009), this relation while issues of mythology are discussed in parts I and seems promising. Sadly, the author’s phrase ‘the hy- IV. This is probably done on purpose, to strengthen pothesis of non-African origins of Afro-Asiatic finds the impression that all humanities are interrelated and support in the fact that the Semitic branch ... is the cannot be easily classified. most important in terms of number of speakers’ (p. 18) We will go through the materials one by one in the does not withstand serious criticism. order they are presented, focusing more on linguistic Daniel McCall describes the phenomenon of the studies as the present Journal implies. calendar 7-day week in the culture of ancient civilisa- Journal of Language Relationship • Вопросы языкового родства • 2 (2009) • Pp. 139–174 Book reviews / Рецензии tions in his “African weeks”. He turns to a well- Unfortunately, no examples are presented to support known parallel between the 7-day week in the ancient the reconstructions, which are mostly taken from ear- Mediterranean, originating from Babylon, and the lier works of the author. The author concludes that same tradition among the Akan people of Ghana. An there was a common phonetic innovation in East and amazing migration of the cultural custom is suggested South Cushitic, and another one common for Beja and by the author to have emerged due to the gold cara- South Cushitic. The latter, according to the author, van trade across Sahara which lasted for thousands of may suggest a Beja-South Cushitic node in the internal years between the Mediterranean and the ‘Gold classification of the family. Coast’, the homeland of the Akan. The author analy- The issues of phonetic and morphological devel- ses possible correspondences in the names of the opment in Chadic languages are discussed in Herr- weekdays between European cultures and this remote mann Jungraithmayr’s “Erosion in Chadic”. He de- African one. scribes a very intriguing, but still poorly studied, issue “Gender distinction and affirmative copula clauses of the difference in development speed between vari- in Zargulla” by Azeb Amha is the first article of Part II ous languages of the same stock. Indeed, some lan- of the book. It provides an insight into the problem of guages of the group / family always seem more pro- gender marking in one of the Omotic languages: sur- gressive, while others are rather conservative. The prisingly, the old opposition of masculine and femi- process of language change and proto-language sys- nine is reinterpreted as neutral / emotional shading of tem destruction is called erosion by the author, who the copula. Typologically, this kind of development is then analyses it for Chadic. Based on this criterion, he a rare case, worth being studied on a wider range of proposes to divide the languages of the family into data, and a nice example of how the Afrasian gender three basic groups: ‘Old Chadic’, preserving much of system has eroded in Omotic. Proto-Chadic in its phonetics and morphology; ‘Mid- Another synchronic study is contained in “Riddling dle Chadic’, showing significant shifts; and ‘New in Gidole” by Paul Black, who finds and classifies Chadic’, the most progressive and innovative lan- rules of building popular riddles in two East Cushitic guages which have reduced or dropped much of their languages of Ethiopia: Gidole and Konso. prehistoric shape. It is interesting to see that some The longest paper of the volume, “A lexicostatisti- languages may be archaic in preserving vowels and cal comparison of Omotic languages”, is written by progressive in consonantism, or vice versa. The issue Václav Blažek; it opens the third part of the book. This clearly deserves deeper research, with a discussion of is a serious and detailed analysis of the subject, con- the reasons for different rates of language change taining both a retrospective review of the existing re- which, in our opinion, should include external lan- constructions of Proto-Omotic and the author’s own guage contacts as one of the main drivers of the lan- estimates. Blažek adduces two of the most recently guage change. established and reliable systems of phonetic corre- Philippe Bürgisser (“On Kunama ukunkula “elbow” spondences between the Omotic languages (one by L. and its proposed cognates”) not only addresses the Bender and the other by M. Lamberti & R. Sottile), as etymology of this body part lexeme in one of the Nilo- well as the language tree diagrams of Omotic built by Saharan languages, but also gives some lexical corre- H. Fleming and L. Bender. Based on the Swadesh 100- spondences to strengthen the possible relations be- word lists for fourty Omotic dialects, the author sug- tween Nilo-Saharan and two isolate languages of the gests his own version of the language diffusion chart, region, Shabo and Kadu. Further on, pros and contras which amends Bender’s tree in some details without of the two existing Proto-Nilo-Saharan reconstructions changing the whole picture. A good corpus of recon- (by L. Bender and C. Ehret, respectively) are analysed. structed Proto-Omotic roots for the Swadesh list is en- The author’s view is that Bender’s sound correspon- closed. The author concludes that the breakup of the dences are poorly worked out, and that both versions Proto-Omotic language community took place ca. are not strict enough due to far-fetched semantics, 7,000 years ago. which is entirely true. However, one of the author's Christopher Ehret's contribution to the volume is further statements — ‘I don’t share Ehret’s faith in the entitled “The primary branches of Cushitic: seriating existence of exceptionless sound laws’ — is something the diagnosis sound change rules”. The basis of the that we can hardly accept. Exceptionless sound laws study is the comparison of the reconstructed phone- are not a matter of faith, but rather a basic principle of mic systems of Proto-Cushitic and its core branches: comparative linguistics; observed deviations from a common innovations are considered to reflect the postulated rule are usually due to other rules, some- structure of the proto-language’s dialectal diffusion. times still waiting to be discovered. 140 J. D. BENGTSON (ed.). In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory “The problem of pan-African roots” by Roger given according to their time depth. The author is re- Blench is a collection of lexical comparisons between luctant to admit Altaic as a family of languages, but the four language macrofamilies of the continent mentions that some arguments in favour of the made by the author in the recent years.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Download Essay (PDF)
    Languages and Early Migration “Language Resources,” Cambridge University Press website Prologue This introduction to languages and early migration is reproduced from the online Language Resources that I created, linked to the website for my book, A History of Humanity. The main essay provides basic definitions on language, then summarizes language-group distribution, history, and debates, concluding with language spreadsheets and references. An example of phylum-level details is shown for Amerind, the original languages of North ands South America. Essay The purpose of this online resource collection is to interpret the place of language in human history. In a simplified presentation of a complex issue, this Introduction begins with concise definitions and descriptions. It traces the logical order of language divergence and displays the major phyla or families going back more than 15,000 years. After summarizing the history of language divergence and movement in six periods, we turn to the problems and debates in language history. These include the effects of “language overlays” as one replaces another, efforts to define “macro-phyla” for very early times, and early maritime migrations. The accompanying files for 14 individual phyla provide descriptions of each Homeland, language migrations over time, maps (which are also available as separate image files), concise spreadsheets showing major subgroups in each phylum, and citations of works on each phylum. In a separate Excel file, the 14 individual sheets each give a restatement of the concise spreadsheet at top and, below, a full spreadsheet showing many of the languages in each phylum. Definitions The elements of language, as understood by linguists, include lexicon (the meanings of words), morphology (the pieces of words and how they are fit together), phonology (the sounds made in any language), and syntax (the organization of lexicon, morphology, and phonology into meaningful sentences).
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeolinguistics As a Way to Overcome the Impasse in Comparative Linguistics Wolodymyr H
    Archaeolinguistics As A Way To Overcome The Impasse In Comparative Linguistics Wolodymyr H. Kozyrski1, *, Alexander V. Malovichko2 1The International Physical Encyclopedia Bureau, Mathematical Modeling Laboratory at The Bogolubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine 2Physics Laboratory, The Lyceum at The National Technical University “KPI”, Kiev, Ukraine [email protected] ABSTRACT The paper exposes some essential points of our one and a half decade research results within new approach to study prehistoric stages of human language development mainly in times of ergaster-erectus domination and reflects our reaction to the protracted conceptual crisis in the comparative linguistics. As a result of fundamentally incorrectly stated goals, most of the researchers artificially limited themselves both by the defined scope of the problems to solve and by the methods used. Becoming tightly tied knot of up to now unsolved intrinsic contradictions, today comparative linguistics needs radical change. We have developed a synthetic approach that has proved its effectiveness. Our model is well aligned with prehistoric data of auxiliary historical disciplines and even IBM Genographic project. The results offer further opportunities for interesting studies. Indexing terms/Keywords : Archaeolinguistics, Comparativistics, Ergaster-Erectus, Language Families, Vocabulary Enrichment Subject Classification : Comparative Linguistics Language : English Date of Submission : 2017-12-23 Date of Acceptance : 2018-01-06 Date of Publication : 2018-02-28 ISSN : 2348-3024 Volume : 09 Issue : 01 Journal : Journal Of Advances In Linguistics Publisher : CIRWORLD Website : https://cirworld.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 1313 1 INTRODUCTION Exclusively complicated and probably completely inexplicable phenomenon, human language origin still excites thought and imagination of today researchers.
    [Show full text]
  • An Amerind Etymological Dictionary
    An Amerind Etymological Dictionary c 2007 by Merritt Ruhlen ! Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Greenberg, Joseph H. Ruhlen, Merritt An Amerind Etymological Dictionary Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Amerind Languages—Etymology—Classification. I. Title. P000.G0 2007 000!.012 00-00000 ISBN 0-0000-0000-0 (alk. paper) This book is dedicated to the Amerind people, the first Americans Preface The present volume is a revison, extension, and refinement of the ev- idence for the Amerind linguistic family that was initially offered in Greenberg (1987). This revision entails (1) the correction of a num- ber of forms, and the elimination of others, on the basis of criticism by specialists in various Amerind languages; (2) the consolidation of certain Amerind subgroup etymologies (given in Greenberg 1987) into Amerind etymologies; (3) the addition of many reconstructions from different levels of Amerind, based on a comprehensive database of all known reconstructions for Amerind subfamilies; and, finally, (4) the addition of a number of new Amerind etymologies presented here for the first time. I believe the present work represents an advance over the original, but it is at the same time simply one step forward on a project that will never be finished. M. R. September 2007 Contents Introduction 1 Dictionary 11 Maps 272 Classification of Amerind Languages 274 References 283 Semantic Index 296 Introduction This volume presents the lexical and grammatical evidence that defines the Amerind linguistic family. The evidence is presented in terms of 913 etymolo- gies, arranged alphabetically according to the English gloss.
    [Show full text]
  • The Proto-Sapiens Prohibitive/Negative Particle *Ma
    THE PROTO-SAPIENS PROHIBITIVE/NEGATIVE PARTICLE *MA PIERRE J. BANCEL, ALAIN MATTHEY DE L’ETANG ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY (CAMBRIDGE, MA); ASSOCIATION D’ETUDES LINGUISTIQUES ET ANTHROPOLOGIQUES PREHISTORIQUES (PARIS, FRANCE); AND JOHN D. BENGTSON ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY (CAMBRIDGE, MA); EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LANGUAGE PROJECT (SANTA FE INSTITUTE, NM) We report here on a lexical root, very widespread in diverse languages worldwide, includ- ing more than 50 ancient languages, long-isolated languages, and proto-languages. Most of these rely on uncontroversial reconstructions, while others, from Proto-Nilo-Saharan to Proto-Trans-New Guinea through Proto-Austric and Proto-Amerind, go back to far more than 10,000 years ago and cover all continents. We argue that this lexical root may only have been part of the ancestral language common to all modern humans. 1. INTRODUCTION We will document here an ancestral word root, which is found in such a huge number of language families across all continents that it can only be a common inheritance from the original lexicon of our remote Sapiens ancestors. Following the common linguistic custom of naming the ancestral language of a family by the name of this family with the prefix Proto- (Proto-Germanic, Proto- Algonquian, Proto-Bantu, etc.), we call the ancestral language of our species Proto-Sapiens. Proto-Sapiens is not a newcomer in historical linguistics: building upon the pioneering work of Trombetti (1905), about three dozen Proto-Sapiens words have recently been identified (Bengtson & Ruhlen 1994), making use of the massive linguistic materials and comparative works that have accumulated during the 20th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Indo-European Laryngeals in Afroasiatic Perspective1
    Václav Blažek Masaryk University, Brno 1 Indo-European laryngeals in Afroasiatic perspective The paper represents an attempt to verify the reconstruction of laryngeal consonants in Proto-Indo-European through external comparison with Afro-Asiatic languages. Working from a standpoint of genetic relatedness between Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic, the author has assembled a set of 80 binary comparisons that contain laryngeals both in their Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic constituents. Analysis of the evidence leads to the conclu- sion that (a) Indo-European *H1 generally corresponds to Afro-Asiatic *; (b) Indo-European *H2 and *H3 correspond to all the other Afro-Asiatic laryngeals, with the much rarer *H3 pos- sibly representing just a positional variant of *H2 . Keywords: Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Nostratic, long-range comparison, laryngeal theory. Dedicated to the memory of Hermann Møller (1850–1923) The authorship of the Laryngeal Theory has been ascribed to Ferdinand de Saussure, who pre- sented his ideas in the book Mémoires sur le systéme primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo- européennes. The monograph was published in Leipzig 1879, when he was 22, and a year be- fore the end of his study at Leipzig University. He proposed that the traditionally recon- structed *ē and *ā should represent a sequence *eA (but without any explanation of the condi- tions differentiating between *ē and *ā) and that the long vowel *ō had to reflect *eO (sic). Already in the following year the Danish scholar Hermann Møller (in his review of the study on Germanic conjugation published in Englische Studien III, 1879[80], 151), introduced the third coefficient sonantique — the term used for the first time by de Saussure — namely *E, causing *eE → *ē, as opposed to *eA → *ā.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Etymologies and Alfredo Trombetti
    MOTHER TONGUE Journal of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory • Issue XVIII • 2013 50th Anniversary of J.H. Greenberg’s The Languages of Africa (1963) Global Etymologies and Alfredo Trombetti Shamil Nafiqoff Russian Academy of Sciences A b s t r a c t The article offered presents a brief outline of the contribution the famous Italian macro- comparativist Alfredo Trombetti has made in the field of the so-called Global etyma, being among the first who studied and practiced this approach at the turn of the XIX-XXth centuries. A number of comparanda are demonstrated to be research subjects of the subsequent long-range linguistic scholars with particular instances presented. Foreword. It is common knowledge that the great Italian comparativist A. Trombetti is often referred to as ‘father’ of long-range research, and of the so-called ‘global etymologies’ in particular. He was a predecessor or precursor of such noted long-range linguists as Vladislav Illich-Svitych, Morris Swadesh, Aharon Dolgopolsky, Joseph Greenberg, John Bengtson, Merritt Ruhlen, Vitaly Shevoroshkin, Sergei Starostin, to name but a few. Many of the above mentioned scholars have cited Trombetti in their sources or references. This is the case with Illich-Svitych 1971, Swadesh 1960, Bengtson and Ruhlen 1994 and in other works. A. Dolgopolsky for one had employed the technique of certain lexical and/or grammatical types as Trombetti had used starting with his earliest published works. The purpose of the present rather sketchy review is to acquaint readers of the Mother Tongue commemorative issue with global etymologies present in such publications as [Trombetti 1902, 1903; 1905, 1920, 1923, 1925] that have become rarities, despite such modern digitized versions as [Trombetti 1905] by the Google company.1 In his famous long-range studies, mostly in his native Italian, our scholar was wont to use such terms as voci universale, tipi diffusi/diffusissimi but not anything containing the term ‘global’.
    [Show full text]
  • Tocharian Studies
    Tocharian Studies Works 1 This book was kindly reviewed by Ronald Kim & Melanie Malzahn Václav Blažek Tocharian Studies Works 1 Edited by Michal Schwarz Masaryk University Brno 2011 IV This book was published under patronage of the Centre for the Interdiscipli- nar Research of Ancient Languages and Older Stages of Modern Languages (project code: MSM 0021622435) at Masaryk University in Brno and thanks to the grants GAAV No. IAA901640805 & MUNI/21/BLA/2011. All articles are reprinted with kind permission from following journals (in alphabetical order): Archív orientální Historische Sprachforschung Indogermanische Forschungen Journal of Indo-European Studies Lingua Posnaniensis Linguistica Baltica Linguistica Brunensia Tocharian and Indo-European Studies © 2011 Václav Blažek © 2011 Masarykova univerzita ISBN 978-80-210-7645-7 (online : pdf) ISBN 978-80-210-5600-8 (brožovaná vazba) ISBN 978-80-210-5599-5 (Box Set) DOI: 10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-5600-2011 V Content Preface (Melanie Malzahn) VIII Introduction and Plan of the Works of Václav Blažek X Chronological list of all Tocharian articles of Václav Blažek XII with editorial notes I. Etymology 1 Tocharian Linguistics During the Last 25 Years. Archív Ori- 2 entální 56 (1988), 77-81. Slavic-Tocharian Isoglosses I. Sl. *kъpъ : Toch. *kwip- 10 “shame”. Tocharian and Indo-European Studies 5 (1991), 123-128. Slavic-Tocharian Isoglosses II. Sl. *čьlnъ : Toch. *kolmo- 15 “ship”. Tocharian and Indo-European Studies 5 (1991), 129- 133. Slavic-Tocharian Isoglosses III. Linguistica Baltica 4 (1995), 19 233-238. Tocharian-Anatolian isoglosses (1-4). Tocharian and Indo-Eu- 25 ropean Studies 7 (1997), 229-233. It is possible to restore Tocharian A ku//// “nave, hub”? Tocha- 30 rian and Indo-European Studies 7 (1997), 234-235.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of the Burushos
    Symposium on Bronze and Iron Age Mummies of Central Asia (U. Penn., April 1996) EVIDENCE FOR PREHISTORIC LINKS BETWEEN THE CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA : THE CASE OF THE BURUSHOS.1 Kevin Tuite The Tarim Basin, site of the desiccated human remains which are the principal focus of this volume, is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Tian Shan range to the north, the Kunlun Shan to the southwest, and the Altun Shan to the southeast. Just beyond the western rim of the basin are the Pamir, Hindu-Kush and Karakorum mountains, a region noted for both its rugged terrain and the diversity of ethnic groups which have settled its valleys. One such group in particular has fascinated linguists and historians for nearly a century: the Burushos of northern Pakistan. While I know of no strong evidence that the ancestors of the Burushos ever inhabited the vast depression 200 km northeast of their current homeland, I believe the study of Burusho prehistory to be of relevance for understanding the cultural and linguistic context of the western Tarim region in the 2nd millenium BCE, the period to which the oldest mummies have provisionally been dated [Mair 1995]. The Burushos speak a language, Burushaski, that has not been convincingly grouped into any known linguistic family. Its three dialects — Hunza, Nager, and the Yasin Valley (or Werchikwar) dialect — are at present surrounded by Indo-Iranian and Tibetan languages, though it seems a safe assumption that the ancestors of the Burushos were already present in northwestern South Asia when the first speakers of Indo-European languages appeared in the area.2 Two related questions have been frequently asked regarding the Burushos: (1) What territory or territories were occupied by prehistoric Burushaski speakers? (2) Is Burushaski genetically related to any other language(s)? In this paper I will present my thoughts on these two questions.
    [Show full text]
  • Divergence of Altai Macro System Languages and Issues of Their Genetic Relationship O. Sapashev* A. Smailova** B. Zhaksymov
    Türkbilig, 2016/31: 109-126. DIVERGENCE OF ALTAI MACRO SYSTEM LANGUAGES AND ISSUES OF THEIR GENETIC RELATIONSHIP O. SAPASHEV* A. SMAILOVA** B. ZHAKSYMOV*** Abstract: Scientists recognize the difficulties associated with final and perfect solution of the problem of origin of the Altai community. The most important issue according to their opinion is a difficulty in differentiation of elements of a possible genetic commonality, the traces of which can be found in all Altaic languages, from the secondary elements of community, developing in different periods of close contacts of various Altaic peoples for at least of two millennia period. Mutual lexical borrowings of not only from single Altaic languages, but also borrowings from non-Altaic languages (the phenomenon of the substrate or super stratum) led to a significant lexical generality of secondary order and gave the reasons for establishment of various kinds of correspondences not relating to common Altaic protolanguage heritage that creates a large difficult to apply comparative- historical method. Keywords: Altaic, macro-system, genetic kinship, language typology, the rudiments Altay Makro Sistemi Dillerinin Farklılıkları ve Onların Genetik İlişkilerine Dair Konular Özet: Altayistik çalışan araştırmacıları, Altay toplumun kökeni sorununun nihai ve mükemmel bir çözümüyle ilişkili olan zorluklar bekler. Araştırmacıların görüşüne göre en önemli konu, olası genetik ortaklık unsurlarının ve Altay dillerinde bulunabilecek izlerin farklılaşması zorluğudur. Bu zorluklar, toplumun ikincil unsurlarından kaynaklanır ve farklı zamanlarda çeşitli Altay topluluklarının en az iki bin yıllık yakın ilişkiler sonucu gelişmiştir. Sadece Altay dilleri ve Altay dilleri dışındaki dillerden karşılıklı sözcük alışverişi (altkatman ve üstkatman olgusu) ikincil seviyede önemli sözcüksel genellemeler ortaya çıkardı ve tarihi-karşılaştırmalı metodun uygulanmasını zorlaştıran ortak proto Altay dil mirasıyla ilgili olmayan bir yapının oluşmasına neden oldu.
    [Show full text]
  • Genetic Relationship Among Languages: an Overview Ghayeth Ersheidat1* and Hafsa Tahir2 1Department of Translation, Faculty of Arts, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordon
    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS (IJLEAL) ISSN: 2289-7208 e-ISSN: 2289-9294 VOL. 10, ISSUE 1, 17 – 27 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15282/ijleal.v10.3320 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Genetic Relationship among Languages: An Overview Ghayeth Ersheidat1* and Hafsa Tahir2 1Department of Translation, Faculty of Arts, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordon. 2Department of Biology, Faculty of Scence and Technology, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, Pakistan. ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT – This paper reviews the basic concepts of historical linguistics and the comparative Revised: 4 March 2020 techniques used by various linguists who studied Indo-European and American languages to Accepted: 9 March 2020 determine a shared ancestry among languages. This paper also evaluates the major concepts of historical linguistics and the well-grounded theories and classifications that have guided and KEYWORDS shaped the modern linguistic classification practices. For over one and a half century, historical Historical comparative-method linguists have been deducing the origins of different languages. Genetic classifications have been Historical linguistics proposed for languages from all parts of the world and thus far, 142 language-families have been Indo-European languages identified. Although all of these classification schemes are controversial in terms of their validity Language family and reliability but with the progress in the field of bioinformatics, the problems in linguistic Linguistic-tree Proto-language reconstruction have been greatly resolved. Therefore, the historical classification schemes that have been proposed earlier are being radically revised as further progress is made. It is suggested that, to develop further understanding of the typical pattern of language diversification and genetic classification of languages, more recent studies based on sophisticated bioinformatics and statistical techniques for linguistic data analysis should be reviewed.
    [Show full text]
  • Mother Tongue 24 Must Be Put Out, After All! the Key Findings Will Simply Be Numbered- No Special Order
    MOTHER CONTENTS ASLIP Business plus Important Announcements TONGUE 4 Obituaries: John Swing Rittershofer (1941-1994) 6 Reviews of Cavalli-Sforza et al's History and Geography of Human Genes. Reviewed by: Rebecca L. Cann, Frank B. Livingstone, and NEWSLETIER OF Hal Fleming THE ASSOCIATION 30 The "Sogenannten" Ethiopian Pygmoids: Hal Fleming FOR THE STUDY OF 34 Long-Range Linguistic Relations: Cultural Transmission or Consan­ lANGUAGE IN guinity?: Igor M Diakonoff 41 Statistics and Historical Linguistics: Some Comments PREHISTORY Sheila Embleton 46 A Few Remarks on Embleton's Comments: Hal Fleming 50 On the Nature of the Algonquian Evidence for Global Etymologies Marc Picard 55 Greenberg Comments on Campbell and Fleming Joseph H. Greenberg 56 A Few Delayed Final Remarks on Campbell's African Section Hal Fleming 57 Some Questions and Theses for the American Indian Language Classification Debate (ad Campbell, 1994): John D. Bengtson 60 A Note on Amerind Pronouns: Merritt Ruhlen 62 Regarding Native American Pronouns: Ives Goddard 65 Two Aspects of Massive Comparisons: Hal Fleming 69 Proto-Amerind *qets' 'left (hand)': Merritt Ruhlen 71 Arapaho, Blackfoot, and Basque: A "Snow" Job: Marc Picard 73 World Archaeological Congress 3. Summary by: Roger Blench 76 Comment on Roger Blench's Report on World Archaeological Congress: Hal Fleming 77 Announcement: Seventh Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference 78 Announcement: 11th Annual Meeting of the Language Origins Society 79 Quick Notes 86 A Valediction of Sorts: Age Groups, Jingoists, and Stuff Hal Fleming Issue 24, March 1995 MOTHER TONGUE Issue 24, March 1995 OFFICERS OF ASLIP (Address appropriate correspondence to each.) President: Harold C.
    [Show full text]
  • Lexical Matches Between Sumerian and Hurro-Urartian: Possible Historical Scenarios
    Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2014:4 <http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2014/cdlj2014_4.html> © Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative ISSN 1540-8779 Version: 3 December 2014 Lexical Matches between Sumerian and Hurro-Urartian: Possible Historical Scenarios Alexei Kassian Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Th e paper deals with lexical matches between two ancient Near Eastern languages: Sumerian and Hurrian (Hurro-Urartian); namely, several basic terms (like ‘hand,’ ‘rain,’ etc.), that demonstrate phonetical similarities in both languages, are discussed. Four possible scenarios are evaluated from the typological, etymological and statistical points of view: (1) chance coincidences; (2) lexi- cal borrowings from Sumerian into Hurro-Urartian or vice versa; (3) genetic relationship between Sumerian and Hurro-Urartian; (4) prehistoric language shift : adoption by a Hurro-Urartian (or closely related) group of the Sumerian language or vice versa. Out of these four, two scenarios—lexical borrowings and genetic relationship—are typologically unlikely. Th e statistical probability of chance coincidences is low, although formally this explanation cannot be excluded. Th e fourth scenario—language shift —fi ts linguistic evidence and does not contradict archaeological data. Keywords: Hurrian, Sumerian, Ancient Near East, language contacts, language shift , loanwords, lexicostatistics §1. Introduction a language of the Urartian empire (present-day Armenia §1.1. Th e languages and neighboring areas).2 For the preliterate period, it is §1.1.1. Sumerian is a language spoken in southern Mes- natural to associate the HU people with the Kura-Araxes opotamia (modern Iraq). Its earliest cuneiform attesta- (Early Trans-Caucasian) archaeological culture (Kassian tions date from the late 4th or early 3rd millennium BC, 2010: 423-428 with further references).
    [Show full text]