The Origin and Evolution of Word Order
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Language in the USA
This page intentionally left blank Language in the USA This textbook provides a comprehensive survey of current language issues in the USA. Through a series of specially commissioned chapters by lead- ing scholars, it explores the nature of language variation in the United States and its social, historical, and political significance. Part 1, “American English,” explores the history and distinctiveness of American English, as well as looking at regional and social varieties, African American Vernacular English, and the Dictionary of American Regional English. Part 2, “Other language varieties,” looks at Creole and Native American languages, Spanish, American Sign Language, Asian American varieties, multilingualism, linguistic diversity, and English acquisition. Part 3, “The sociolinguistic situation,” includes chapters on attitudes to language, ideology and prejudice, language and education, adolescent language, slang, Hip Hop Nation Language, the language of cyberspace, doctor–patient communication, language and identity in liter- ature, and how language relates to gender and sexuality. It also explores recent issues such as the Ebonics controversy, the Bilingual Education debate, and the English-Only movement. Clear, accessible, and broad in its coverage, Language in the USA will be welcomed by students across the disciplines of English, Linguistics, Communication Studies, American Studies and Popular Culture, as well as anyone interested more generally in language and related issues. edward finegan is Professor of Linguistics and Law at the Uni- versity of Southern California. He has published articles in a variety of journals, and his previous books include Attitudes toward English Usage (1980), Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register (co-edited with Douglas Biber, 1994), and Language: Its Structure and Use, 4th edn. -
A Nthropology N Ew Sletter
Special theme: Languages and Linguistics at an Ethnological Museum National Museum of Language is a window into the human mind and reflects human activities, Ethnology while linguistics is an academic field where languages are analyzed from a scientific view-point. As an ethnological museum, Minpaku has a strong focus Osaka on fieldwork, which is necessary for linguists and ethnologists to study languages and learn about human beings and their diversity. Essays in this Number 39 issue present glimpses of the thoughts of linguists at Minpaku who combine linguistic fieldwork and later analysis at their desks. What is unique to December 2014 researchers at Minpaku, however, is that we are also involved with exhibitions for the public and have everyday communication with Anthropology Newsletter anthropologists in other fields. Languages do not exist without humans and humans do not exist without language. We believe that linguistic research is a good starting point on the path to a better understanding of who we are. MINPAKU Yak and Pig, Glacier and Sea Noboru Yoshioka National Museum of Ethnology Why do many Japanese-language dictionaries contain the word yaku [jakɯ] ‘yak’? When I was in the field, this question all of a sudden struck me. To make sure that my facts were correct, I checked the desktop dictionaries that I was carrying — a pocket-size dictionary published in 1979, a student dictionary published in 1996, and one Contents published in 2008 — and confirmed that all of these actually contained Languages and Linguistics the word as I had thought. Living in at an Ethnological Museum Japan, it is hard to see real yaks. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Language Futures From
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Language Futures from Uprooted Pasts: Emergent Language Activism in the Mayan Diaspora of the United States A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Anthropology by Sonya Rao 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Language Futures from Uprooted Pasts: Emergent Language Activism in the Mayan Diaspora of the United States by Sonya Rao Master of Arts in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Paul V. Kroskrity, Committee Chair The thesis observes the role of life experiences with language in the production of new political orientations among diaspora of Mayans from the Highlands of Guatemala. This is accomplished through the analysis of life histories of Mayan interpreters that focus on how experiences of language have directed their life courses and careers. Interpreters’ narratives of these life paths reveal moments of insight in which they transform their identities, political orientations, and methods of advancing their communities. Such resonant moments draw attention to the personal in the formation of a more general indigenous diasporic political horizon. ii The thesis of Sonya Rao is approved. Jessica R. Cattelino Norma Mendoza-Denton Paul V. Kroskrity, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iii The thesis is dedicated to the participants in this project. The interpreters whose stories are described were greatly generous with their stories of their lives with language, which continued to make me laugh, smile, -
Dictionary of the Chuj (Mayan) Language
A DICTIONARY OF THE CHUJ (MAYAN) LANGUAGE As Spoken in San Mateo Ixtatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala ca. 1964-65 CHUJ – ENGLISH WITH SOME SPANISH GLOSSES Nicholas A. Hopkins, Ph. D. © Jaguar Tours 2012 3007 Windy Hill Lane Tallahassee, Florida 32308 [email protected] i A DICTIONARY OF THE CHUJ (MAYAN) LANGUAGE: INTRODUCTION Nicholas A. Hopkins The lexical data reported in this Chuj-English dictionary were gathered during my dissertation field work in 1964-65. My first exposure to the Chuj language was in 1962, when I went to Huehuetenango with Norman A. McQuown and Brent Berlin to gather data on the languages of the Cuchumatanes (Berlin et al. 1969). At the time I was a graduate student at the University of Texas, employed as a research assistant on the University of Chicago's Chiapas Study Projects, directed by McQuown (McQuown and Pitt-Rivers 1970). Working through the Maryknoll priests who were then the Catholic clergy in the indigenous areas of Huehuetenango and elsewhere in Guatemala, we recorded material, usually in the form of 100-word Swadesh lists (for glottochronology), from several languages. The sample included two speakers of the Chuj variety of San Mateo Ixtatán (including the man who was later to become my major informant). In the Spring of 1962, as field work for the project wound down, I returned to Austin to finish drafting my Master's thesis, and then went on to Chicago to begin graduate studies in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, with McQuown as my major professor. I continued to work on Chiapas project materials in McQuown's archives, and in 1963 he assigned me the Chuj language as the topic of my upcoming doctoral dissertation. -
Comparative-Historical Linguistics and Lexicostatistics
COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND LEXICOSTATISTICS Sergei Starostin COMPARATIVE-HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND LEXICOSTATISTICS [This is a translation, done by I. Peiros and N. Evans, of my paper "Sravnitel'no-istoričeskoe jazykoznanie i leksikostatistika", in "Lingvističeskaja rekonstrukcija i drevnejšaja istorija Vostoka", Moscow 1989. I have introduced, however, a number of modifications into the final English text — basically rewritten it again, since the English version needs English examples and etymologies, not Russian ones.] The last two decades have witnessed a fundamental advance in the techniques of comparative linguistic research. A prolonged period of comparative work with a wide range of language families has laid the foundation for the study of genetic relationships between remotely related languages or language groups. The first step in this direction was taken by V.M. Illich-Svitych in his seminal work 'Towards a comparison of the Nostratic languages' in which, with a combination of rigorous methods and intuitive flare, he begins to demonstrate the relatedness of a number of languages of the Old World. This new level of comparative studies appears completely legitimate. In fact, if we take the theory of language divergence as axiomatic, we have to concede the fact that from around the sixth millenium B.C. to the first millenium B.C. there was quite a number of different reconstructable proto-languages throughout the world. Once the level of reconstruction of various proto-languages is improved, the question inevitably arises: are any of these proto-languages genetically related and, if so, can we prove this relationship? To the first part of this question we must now answer in the affirmative. -
Indo-European Linguistics: an Introduction Indo-European Linguistics an Introduction
This page intentionally left blank Indo-European Linguistics The Indo-European language family comprises several hun- dred languages and dialects, including most of those spoken in Europe, and south, south-west and central Asia. Spoken by an estimated 3 billion people, it has the largest number of native speakers in the world today. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of the Indo-European proto-language. It clearly sets out the methods for relating the languages to one another, presents an engaging discussion of the current debates and controversies concerning their clas- sification, and offers sample problems and suggestions for how to solve them. Complete with a comprehensive glossary, almost 100 tables in which language data and examples are clearly laid out, suggestions for further reading, discussion points and a range of exercises, this text will be an essential toolkit for all those studying historical linguistics, language typology and the Indo-European proto-language for the first time. james clackson is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and is Fellow and Direc- tor of Studies, Jesus College, University of Cambridge. His previous books include The Linguistic Relationship between Armenian and Greek (1994) and Indo-European Word For- mation (co-edited with Birgit Anette Olson, 2004). CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS General editors: p. austin, j. bresnan, b. comrie, s. crain, w. dressler, c. ewen, r. lass, d. lightfoot, k. rice, i. roberts, s. romaine, n. v. smith Indo-European Linguistics An Introduction In this series: j. allwood, l.-g. anderson and o.¨ dahl Logic in Linguistics d. -
Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala
University of Kentucky UKnowledge Linguistics Faculty Publications Linguistics 3-2016 Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala Rusty Barrett University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits oy u. Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/lin_facpub Part of the Communication Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, and the Linguistics Commons Repository Citation Barrett, Rusty, "Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala" (2016). Linguistics Faculty Publications. 72. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/lin_facpub/72 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala Notes/Citation Information Published in Language & Communication, v. 47, p. 144-153. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The document available for download is the authors' post-peer-review final draft of the ra ticle. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2015.08.005 This article is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/lin_facpub/72 Mayan language revitalization, hip hop, and ethnic identity in Guatemala Rusty Barrett, University of Kentucky to appear, Language & Communiction (46) Abstract: This paper analyzes the language ideologies and linguistic practices of Mayan-language hip hop in Guatemala, focusing on the work of the group B’alam Ajpu. -
Native American Languages, Indigenous Languages of the Native Peoples of North, Middle, and South America
Native American Languages, indigenous languages of the native peoples of North, Middle, and South America. The precise number of languages originally spoken cannot be known, since many disappeared before they were documented. In North America, around 300 distinct, mutually unintelligible languages were spoken when Europeans arrived. Of those, 187 survive today, but few will continue far into the 21st century, since children are no longer learning the vast majority of these. In Middle America (Mexico and Central America) about 300 languages have been identified, of which about 140 are still spoken. South American languages have been the least studied. Around 1500 languages are known to have been spoken, but only about 350 are still in use. These, too are disappearing rapidly. Classification A major task facing scholars of Native American languages is their classification into language families. (A language family consists of all languages that have evolved from a single ancestral language, as English, German, French, Russian, Greek, Armenian, Hindi, and others have all evolved from Proto-Indo-European.) Because of the vast number of languages spoken in the Americas, and the gaps in our information about many of them, the task of classifying these languages is a challenging one. In 1891, Major John Wesley Powell proposed that the languages of North America constituted 58 independent families, mainly on the basis of superficial vocabulary resemblances. At the same time Daniel Brinton posited 80 families for South America. These two schemes form the basis of subsequent classifications. In 1929 Edward Sapir tentatively proposed grouping these families into superstocks, 6 in North America and 15 in Middle America. -
Recent Developments in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Five Teaching Modules at Addis Ababa University, March 10–14, 2014 1
Recent developments in Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics Five teaching modules at Addis Ababa University, March 10–14, 2014 1. Why is a broader Afroasiatic perspective useful for the study of Semitic March 10, 2014 Lutz Edzard, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and University of Oslo 1 Introductory remarks: internal classification Even though the topic of this introductory chapter is not genealogical sub- grouping per se, it may be useful to briefly consider both the inner structure of Semitic, which, at least from a synchronic perspective, is by now more or less uncontroversial, and the wider structure of the Afroasiatic1 macro-family, whose inner structure continues to be under discussion. Leaving aside the question of a Semitic Urheimat, which is still highly controversial, one has sug- gested models based on shared innovations or isoglosses such as the one on the following page. Faber (1997: 6), taking up and developing proposals inter alia by Hetzron (1976), Goldenberg (1977), and Huehnergard (1990), provides a model based on the following list of basic isoglosses: – East Semitic is characterized by the development of an adjectival ending -ūt (pl. m.) and by the dative suffixes -kum and -šum; – West Semitic is characterized by the suffix conjugation denoting past tense (as opposed to the Akkadian stative) and a prohibitive negator ʾal; – “Central Semitic” is characterized by a series of pharyngealized consonants, a prefix conjugation without gemination of the second root consonant and the leveling of prefix vowels in this conjugation, -
Implications of Macro-Areal Linguistics
DOI: 10.11649/sm.2015.004 Slavia Meridionalis 15, 2015 Instytut Slawistyki PAN Corinna Leschber Institute for Linguistic and CrossCultural Studies in Berlin Implications of Macro-Areal Linguistics While working on difficult etymologies of Balkan words, a repeating pat tern can be observed regarding the geographical occurrence of formally and semantically similar words. Archaic terminology in the Balkans shows roots bearing widespread and deeplevel connections with an intensive time depth. We have tried to show this by means of the example of the widespread root *mand-, as in mandra, as pointed out by Leschber (2011), which has cognates in Romance and Iberian languages, in German languages, in the Balkan languages, in Greek and Turkish, and in Sanskrit. See the Nostratic root *mand- in Dolgopolsky (2008, pp. 1338–1339, No. 1318) *mAǹ(V) “herd, herd animals”, further attested in the HamitoSemitic, Ugric and Altaic languages, and in Dravidian languages as manda, mandi, mande “herd, flock of sheep or goats, cattle herd, herd of buffaloes”. Bomhard (2008, p. 48) agrees with the findings on this reconstructed root. *mokor- The Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Languages (Трубачев, 1992, pp. 115–119) proposes an interrelationship between the Slavic *mogyla, “tumulus”, The work has been prepared at author’s own expense. Competing interests: no competing interests have been declared. Publisher: Institute of Slavic Studies PAS. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 PL License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/pl/), which permits redistribution, commercial and non commercial, provided that the article is properly cited. -
"Evolution of Human Languages": Current State of Affairs
«Evolution of Human Languages»: current state of affairs (03.2014) Contents: I. Currently active members of the project . 2 II. Linguistic experts associated with the project . 4 III. General description of EHL's goals and major lines of research . 6 IV. Up-to-date results / achievements of EHL research . 9 V. A concise list of actual problems and tasks for future resolution. 18 VI. EHL resources and links . 20 2 I. Currently active members of the project. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Center for Comparative Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow). Web info: http://ivka.rsuh.ru/article.html?id=80197 George Publications: http://rggu.academia.edu/GeorgeStarostin Starostin Research interests: Methodology of historical linguistics; long- vs. short-range linguistic comparison; history and classification of African languages; history of the Chinese language; comparative and historical linguistics of various language families (Indo-European, Altaic, Yeniseian, Dravidian, etc.). Primary affiliation: Visiting researcher, Santa Fe Institute. Formerly, professor of linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Ilia Publications: http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n97-4759 Research interests: Genetic and areal language relationships in Southeast Asia; Peiros history and classification of Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austroasiatic languages; macro- and micro-families of the Americas; methodology of historical linguistics. Primary affiliation: Senior researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow / Novosibirsk). Web info / publications list (in Russian): Sergei http://www.inslav.ru/index.php?option- Nikolayev =com_content&view=article&id=358:2010-06-09-18-14-01 Research interests: Comparative Indo-European and Slavic studies; internal and external genetic relations of North Caucasian languages; internal and external genetic relations of North American languages (Na-Dene; Algic; Mosan). -
Support for Linguistic Macrofamilies from Weighted Sequence Alignment
Support for linguistic macrofamilies from weighted sequence alignment Gerhard Jäger1 Department of Linguistics, University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany Edited by Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, and approved August 25, 2015 (received for review January 7, 2015) Computational phylogenetics is in the process of revolutionizing more than 6,000 languages and dialects, covering more than historical linguistics. Recent applications have shed new light two-thirds of the world’s living languages. Each entry is given in on controversial issues, such as the location and time depth of a uniform phonetic transcription. language families and the dynamics of their spread. So far, these In this study, I zoomed in on the 1,161 doculects (languages and approaches have been limited to single-language families because dialects) from the Eurasian continent (including neighboring is- they rely on a large body of expert cognacy judgments or grammat- lands but excluding the predominantly African Afro-Asiatic family ical classifications, which is currently unavailable for most language and the predominantly American Eskimo-Aleut family, as well as families. The present study pursues a different approach. Starting the non-Asian parts of Austronesian) contained in the ASJP da- from raw phonetic transcription of core vocabulary items from very tabase. In a first step, pairwise similarities between individual diverse languages, it applies weighted string alignment to track both words (i.e., phonetic strings) were computed using sequence phonetic and lexical change. Applied to a collection of ∼1,000 Eur- alignment. In a second step, these string alignments were used to asian languages and dialects, this method, combined with phyloge- determine pairwise dissimilarities between doculects.