Non-Dominant Language Wikipedias: Experiences from the "Russian Knot"
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North Caucasian Languages
The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication - TOJDAC April 2017 Special Edition COMPARISON OF VARIOUS QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF PROXIMITY OF LANGUAGES: NORTH CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES Galeev Timur Ildarovich Kazan federal university (KFU), Kazan, Russia [email protected] Solovyev Valery Dmitrievich Kazan federal university (KFU), Kazan, Russia ABSTRACT A comparison of North Caucasian languages is performed in the article according to various measures of proximity constructed using grammatical, lexical and genetic databases. Statistical methods are applied to the study of correlations among these proximity measures, and also between them and both geographical proximity and genealogical kinship. A full correlation has been found among language kinship, geographic situation and genetic kinship of peoples. Also, a high correlation was found between each of them and lexical similarity. In general these correlations persist at different levels – starting at the whole set of studied languages until the level of the smallest groups of related languages. It is shown that a significant factor in the analysis of geographical situation is the existence of a common boundary between the regions of distribution of languages. Keywords: Various Quantitative Measures, geographical situation common boundary, Creativity, languages 1. INTRODUCTION The classification of languages by genetic kinship, developed in the last two centuries within the framework of historical linguistics applying the comparative historical method, offers a qualitative characteristic of language proximity by including them into macrofamilies, families, branches, groups, etc. Glottochronology provides a quantitative measure of proximity that, in particular, allows assessing the age of families and other language groups. Unfortunately, in many cases there is no consensus among experts about languages kinship; it must be said also that lexicostatistical data are controversial. -
Contact-Induced Usages of Volitive Moods in East Caucasian Languages 1
Nina Dobrushina State University Higher School of Economics Contact-induced usages of volitive moods 1 in East Caucasian languages 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to test a hypothesis of the influence of Azerbaijani on East Caucasian languages. It was noticed that most (if not all) Turkic languages widely use forms of imperatives and / or optatives for the main predicate of subordinate clauses of certain types, in particular purpose clauses and complement clauses of verbs of wish. I suppose that some East Caucasian languages had acquired these constructions under the influence of Azerbaijani. To support this hypothesis, I will consider the data of 13 East Caucasian languages and one Turkic language spoken in Dagestan. The structure of the article is as follows. Section 2 provides a preliminary discussion of Turkic Dagestanian contacts (2.1), justifies the choice of the languages in the sample (2.2), provides information on the contact situation for each of the languages (2.3), gives an overview of the imperative / optative forms in each language (2.4), argues that the subordinate usages of imperatives / optatives is a structural feature of Turkic languages (2.5), and introduces the constructions which will be diagnostic for the study (2.6). Languages which use volitional forms both in purpose clauses and in wish complement clauses are considered in Section 3, languages which have volitional forms only in purpose clauses are considered in Section 4, while Section 5 lists the languages which do not use volitional forms in subordinate clauses. Section 6 summarizes the discussion. 2.1. Turkic Dagestanian contacts According to the 2002 census, Turkic peoples constitute 20 percent of the population of Dagestan, while the speakers of East Caucasian languages are almost 75 %. -
The Biabsolutive Construction in Lak and Tsez
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Lingua 150 (2014) 137--170 www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua The biabsolutive construction in Lak and Tsez Annie Gagliardi a, Michael Goncalves a, Maria Polinsky a,*, Nina Radkevich b a Harvard University, USA b University of York, United Kingdom Received 12 November 2013; received in revised form 4 July 2014; accepted 8 July 2014 Available online Abstract In ergative constructions, the agent of a transitive verb is in the ergative case and the theme is in the absolutive case. By contrast, in biabsolutive constructions, both the agent and theme of a transitive verb appear in the absolutive case. This paper presents and analyzes the biabsolutive construction in two Nakh-Dagestanian languages, Lak and Tsez. Despite many surface similarities, the biabsolutive constructions in Lak and Tsez call for different syntactic analyses. We argue that the biabsolutive construction in Lak is an instance of restructuring in the presence of an aspectual head bearing a progressive (imperfective) feature. Tsez biabsolutive constructions, on the other hand, are biclausal; we argue that the theme and the lexical verb are contained in a PP complement selected by a light verb. Related languages may be classified as ‘‘Lak-type’’ or ‘‘Tsez-type’’ based on the behavior of their biabsolutives. The existence of two underlying structures for one surface pattern in Nakh-Dagestanian poses a learnability problem for a child acquiring a language with biabsolutive constructions. We outline a set of strategies used by a learner who must compare the available input data with a set of structural hypotheses. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. -
Elevation As a Category of Grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and Beyond Received May 11, 2018; Revised August 20, 2018
Linguistic Typology 2019; 23(1): 59–106 Diana Forker Elevation as a category of grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and beyond https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2019-0001 Received May 11, 2018; revised August 20, 2018 Abstract: Nakh-Daghestanian languages have encountered growing interest from typologists and linguists from other subdiscplines, and more and more languages from the Nakh-Daghestanian language family are being studied. This paper provides a grammatical overview of the hitherto undescribed Sanzhi Dargwa language, followed by a detailed analysis of the grammaticalized expression of spatial elevation in Sanzhi. Spatial elevation, a topic that has not received substantial attention in Caucasian linguistics, manifests itself across different parts of speech in Sanzhi Dargwa and related languages. In Sanzhi, elevation is a deictic category in partial opposition with participant- oriented deixis/horizontally-oriented directional deixis. This paper treats the spatial uses of demonstratives, spatial preverbs and spatial cases that express elevation as well as the semantic extension of this spatial category into other, non-spatial domains. It further compares the Sanzhi data to other Caucasian and non-Caucasian languages and makes suggestions for investigating elevation as a subcategory within a broader category of topographical deixis. Keywords: Sanzhi Dargwa, Nakh-Daghestanian languages, elevation, deixis, demonstratives, spatial cases, spatial preverbs 1 Introduction Interest in Nakh-Daghestanian languages in typology and in other linguistic subdisciplines has grown rapidly in recent years, with an active community of linguists from Russia and other countries. The goal of the present paper is to pour more oil into this fire and perhaps to entice new generations of scholars to join the throng. -
The Present and the Future Within the Lezgic Tense and Aspect Systems∗
TIMUR MAISAK (Institute of Linguistics, Moscow) The Present and the Future within the Lezgic tense and ∗ aspect systems In this paper those finite verbal forms of the Lezgic languages are discussed whose main function is to express the present or the future time reference. As a rule, such forms are built on imperfective non-finite forms and include a present copula. The following source patterns which usually give rise to Presents and Futures in these languages are analysed in detail: the Infinitive Pattern (“Infinitive + Copula”), the Locative Pattern (“Imperfective Converb + Locative Copula”), the Imperfective Converb Pattern (“Imperfective Converb + Copula”), and the Participle Pattern (“Imperfective Participle + Copula”). Grammaticalization paths of these patterns show much in common, in particular the ‘present’ to ‘future’ semantic evolution. Introduction Tense and aspect systems of languages belonging to the Lezgic group of the Nakh-Daghestanian (East Caucasian) family share the following important features — some of which are certainly not restricted to this particular group, but can be viewed as defining the typological profile of the family as a whole: • most finite indicative verbal forms are analytical, at least historically, and have more or less transparent structure: although at the present stage they can be morphologically rather tight (and, strictly speaking, synthetic), their original periphrastic structure is very often quite evident; • such analytical forms are most often made of one of three independently existing non-finite forms (a participle, a converb, or an infinitive) and a copula (a defective stative verb meaning ‘be, exist’ or ‘be inside’); • non-finite forms (at least participles and converbs) are regularly marked for either perfective or imperfective aspect, and as a rule are derived from the corresponding verbal stems: this constitutes what may be called the “perfective” vs. -
Republic of Tatarstan 15 I
1 CONTENTS ABOUT AUTHORS 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 INTRODUCTION 10 THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN 15 I. POLITICAL ELITE 15 1. Vertical power structure 19 2. Governance model during the period of the President M. Shaimiev 20 3. Governance model during the period of the President R. Minnikhanov 22 4. Security forces as part of a consolidated project 27 5. Export of elites 28 II. PRESERVATION OF ETHNO-CULTURAL IDENTITY 30 1.The Tatar national movement 30 2. The Russian national movement 34 3. Language policy in Tatarstan 37 4. Results of post-Soviet language policy 47 5. Conclusion 50 THE REPUBLIC OF DAGESTAN 51 I. DAGESTAN ELITES AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 51 1. Birth of «clans» 53 2. Adaptation to the growing influence of Moscow 56 3. Mukhu Aliev: attempt to be equidistant from clans 58 4. Elite and the Caucasus Emirate 62 5. Return of the «levashintsy» and attempt at a civil dialogue 64 6. First attempt to eliminate clans 66 II. «EXTERNAL GOVERNANCE» 70 III. PRESERVATION OF ETHNO-CULTURAL IDENTITY 79 1. National movements and conflicts 79 2. Preservation of national languages 82 3. Conclusion 91 FINAL CONCLUSIONS 93 2 ABOUT AUTHORS Dr. Ekaterina SOKIRIANSKAIA is the founder and director at Conflict analysis and prevention center. From 2011 to 2017, she served as International Crisis Group’s Russia/North Caucasus Project Director, supervising the organisation’s research and advocacy in the region. From 2008-2011, Sokirianskaia established and supervised the work of Human rights Center Memorial’s regional offices in Kabardino-Balkariya and Dagestan. Before that, from 2003-2008 Sokirianskaia was permanently based in Ingushetia and Chechnya and worked as a researcher and projects director for Memorial and as an assistant professor at Grozny State University. -
Long-Distance Reflexivization and Logophoricity in the Dargin Language Muminat Kerimova Florida International University
Florida International University FIU Digital Commons MA in Linguistics Final Projects College of Arts, Sciences & Education 2017 Long-Distance Reflexivization and Logophoricity in the Dargin Language Muminat Kerimova Florida International University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/linguistics_ma Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Kerimova, Muminat, "Long-Distance Reflexivization and Logophoricity in the Dargin Language" (2017). MA in Linguistics Final Projects. 3. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/linguistics_ma/3 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in MA in Linguistics Final Projects by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida LONG-DISTANCE REFLEXIVIZATION AND LOGOPHORICITY IN THE DARGIN LANGUAGE A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in LINGUISTICS by Muminat Kerimova 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS LONG-DISTANCE REFLEXIVIZATION AND LOGOPHORICITY IN THE DARGIN LANGUAGE by Muminat Kerimova Florida International University, 2017 Miami, Florida Professor Ellen Thompson, Major Professor The study of anaphora challenges us to determine the conditions under which the pronouns of a language are associated with possible antecedents. One of the theoretical questions is whether the distribution of pronominal forms is best explained by a syntactic, semantic or discourse level analysis. A more practical question is how we distinguish between anaphoric elements, e.g. what are the borders between the notions of pronouns, locally bound reflexives and long-distance reflexives? The study analyzes the anaphora device saj in Dargin that is traditionally considered to be a long-distance reflexivization language. -
Multilingual Facilitation
Multilingual Facilitation Honoring the career of Jack Rueter Mika Hämäläinen, Niko Partanen and Khalid Alnajjar (eds.) Multilingual Facilitation This book has been authored for Jack Rueter in honor of his 60th birthday. Mika Hämäläinen, Niko Partanen and Khalid Alnajjar (eds.) All papers accepted to appear in this book have undergone a rigorous peer review to ensure high scientific quality. The call for papers has been open to anyone interested. We have accepted submissions in any language that Jack Rueter speaks. Hämäläinen, M., Partanen N., & Alnajjar K. (eds.) (2021) Multilingual Facilitation. University of Helsinki Library. ISBN (print) 979-871-33-6227-0 (Independently published) ISBN (electronic) 978-951-51-5025-7 (University of Helsinki Library) DOI: https://doi.org/10.31885/9789515150257 The contents of this book have been published under the CC BY 4.0 license1. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Tabula Gratulatoria Jack Rueter has been in an important figure in our academic lives and we would like to congratulate him on his 60th birthday. Mika Hämäläinen, University of Helsinki Niko Partanen, University of Helsinki Khalid Alnajjar, University of Helsinki Alexandra Kellner, Valtioneuvoston kanslia Anssi Yli-Jyrä, University of Helsinki Cornelius Hasselblatt Elena Skribnik, LMU München Eric & Joel Rueter Heidi Jauhiainen, University of Helsinki Helene Sterr Henry Ivan Rueter Irma Reijonen, Kansalliskirjasto Janne Saarikivi, Helsingin yliopisto Jeremy Bradley, University of Vienna Jörg Tiedemann, University of Helsinki Joshua Wilbur, Tartu Ülikool Juha Kuokkala, Helsingin yliopisto Jukka Mettovaara, Oulun yliopisto Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen, Kansalliskirjasto Jussi Ylikoski, University of Oulu Kaisla Kaheinen, Helsingin yliopisto Karina Lukin, University of Helsinki Larry Rueter LI Līvõd institūt Lotta Jalava, Kotimaisten kielten keskus Mans Hulden, University of Colorado Marcus & Jackie James Mari Siiroinen, Helsingin yliopisto Marja Lappalainen, M. -
Contact-Driven Multilingual Practices (Helsinki, 1‒2 June 2017) Book of Abstracts
Contact-Driven Multilingual Practices (Helsinki, 1‒2 June 2017) Book of abstracts Evgeniya Aleshinskaya ..................................................................................................................... 2 Jenni Alisaari, Leena Maria Heikkola, Emmanuel Opoku Acquah ..................................................... 3 Djegdjiga Amazouz, Martine Adda-Decker ........................................................................................ 4 Timofey Arkhangelskiy, Maria Usacheva .......................................................................................... 6 Hiwa Asadpour ................................................................................................................................. 7 Victor Bayda ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Ingeborg Birnie ................................................................................................................................. 8 Urjani Chakravarty ............................................................................................................................ 9 Svetlana Edygarova ........................................................................................................................ 10 Martin Ehala ................................................................................................................................... 11 M. M. Jocelyne Fernandez-Vest .................................................................................................... -
Kazakhstan by Bhavna Dave
Kazakhstan by Bhavna Dave Capital: Astana Population: 16.6 million GNI/capita, PPP: US$11,250 Source: The data above are drawn from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators 2013. Nations in Transit Ratings and Averaged Scores 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Electoral Process 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 Civil Society 5.50 5.50 5.75 5.75 5.50 5.50 5.75 5.75 6.00 6.25 Independent Media 6.50 6.50 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.50 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 Governance* 6.25 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a National Democratic Governance n/a 6.50 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 Local Democratic Governance n/a 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.50 6.50 Judicial Framework and Independence 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.25 6.00 6.25 6.25 6.50 6.50 Corruption 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.50 Democracy Score 6.25 6.29 6.39 6.39 6.39 6.32 6.43 6.43 6.54 6.57 * Starting with the 2005 edition, Freedom House introduced separate analysis and ratings for national democratic governance and local democratic governance to provide readers with more detailed and nuanced analysis of these two important subjects. -
Erzya E-Learning Course, Grammatical Description
ERZYA E-LEARNING COURSE, GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION Sirkka Saarinen The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Sirkka Saarinen E-learning course: Erzya THE MORDVINS Moksha Mordvin girls Flag of the Mordvin Republic Erzya Mordvin women Mordvins = Erzyas and Mokshas The Mordvins are divided into two ethnic groups, Erzyas and Mokshas. The Mordvins reside in their own republic which is part of the Russian Federation (25,266 km2), in the territory between the Volga tributaries, the Oka and the Sura. Only 27% of the Mordvins dwell in the titular republic; the majority live in scattered enclaves over a very extensive area to the north and south of the borders of the republic as well as widely in the zone reaching to the Ural Mountains. According to the last Soviet census (1989) there were 1,154,000 Mordvins, although of these only 67% spoke their mother tongue Erzya or Moksha. The second Russian census (2010) estimated the number of Mordvins to have decreased by over 30 %, that is, to 806,000. About two-thirds of the Mordvins speak Erzya and one-third Moksha, which to some extent are mutually understandable. Literary languages for both groups were developed in the 1920s. The Mordvin languages belong to the Volgaic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. The Russians began converting the Mordvins to the Orthodox faith as early as the 15th century. -
31.05.-ინგლისური-–-SIMPOZIUMI-V-Masalebi-ვებ
The Georgian National Academy of Sciences Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Arn. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics The Institute of Caucasology at the Faculty of Humanities SHOTA RUSTAVELI NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION OF GEORGIA V International Symposium of Linguist-Caucasologists (Abstracts and Presentations) The Problems of Parts of Speech in Ibero-Caucasian Languages Dedicated to the 120th Birth Anniversary of Academician Arnold Chikobava Proceedings The project is financed by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (The Grant Project of the Georgian Studies Conference GEC-18-148) Tbilisi 2018 2 Editorial Board: M. Abalaki, R. Abashia, A. Arabuli, N. Ardoteli, L. Azmaiparashvili (Scientific Secretary), Ts. Baramidze, I. Chantladze, M. Chukhua, M. Glonti, G. Gogolashvili, R. Jaiani, N. Jorbenadze, G. Kvaratskhelia, R. Lolua, N. Machavariani, R. Pareulidze, E. Sabanadze, V. Shengelia (Editor-in-chief), M. Sukhishvili, M. Tetradze, T. Vashakidze. © Arn. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics at TSU ISBN 978-9941-13-767-9 3 A. B a b a l i y e v a (Paris), A. R o s t o v t s e v - P o p i e l (Paris) IMMOCAL: A Corpora-Based Approach to the Typology of Verbal Categories This talk introduces IMMOCAL (Eng. Imperfective Modalities in Caucasian Languages, Fr. Modalités imperfectives dans les langues du Caucase), an ongoing multifaceted project supported by the ANR (Fr. L’Agence nationale de recherche), hosted by the Collège de France, Paris, and supervised by Gilles Authier. The project aims to provide a typologically-oriented description of TAME systems in a number of (less sufficiently studied) languages spoken in the Caucasus (including Daghestanian: Tsakhur, Southern Lezgi, Southern Rutul, Kryz, Kaytag Dargi; Kartvelian: all the languages, with a predominant focus on Megrelian; and Indo-European: Eastern Armenian, Muslim Tat, Northern Talyshi), with a special emphasis on the expression of imperfective aspectual semantics.