Diagnosing Contact Processes from Their Outcomes: the Importance of Life Stages
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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 -
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. -
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 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). -
The East Papuan Languages: a Preliminary Typological Appraisal
7KH(DVW3DSXDQ/DQJXDJHV$3UHOLPLQDU\7\SRORJLFDO 0LFKDHO'XQQ*HU35HHVLQN$QJHOD7HUULOO$SSUDLVDO Oceanic Linguistics, Volume 41, Number 1, June 2002, pp. 28-62 (Article) 3XEOLVKHGE\8QLYHUVLW\RI+DZDL L3UHVV DOI: 10.1353/ol.2002.0019 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ol/summary/v041/41.1dunn.html Access provided by Max Planck Digital Library (18 Feb 2016 13:04 GMT) The East Papuan Languages: A Preliminary Typological Appraisal Michael Dunn max planck institute for psycholinguistics, nijmegen Ger Reesink university of leiden and max planck institute for psycholinguistics, nijmegen Angela Terrill australia national university This paper examines the Papuan languages of Island Melanesia, with a view to considering their typological similarities and differences. The East Papuan lan- guages are thought to be the descendants of the languages spoken by the original inhabitants of Island Melanesia, who arrived in the area up to 50,000 years ago. The Oceanic Austronesian languages are thought to have come into the area with the Lapita peoples 3,500 years ago. With this historical backdrop in view, our paper seeks to investigate the linguistic relationships between the scattered Papuan lan- guages of Island Melanesia. To do this, we survey various structural features, including syntactic patterns such as constituent order in clauses and noun phrases and other features of clause structure, paradigmatic structures of pronouns, and the structure of verbal morphology. In particular, we seek to discern similarities between the languages that might call for closer investigation, with a view to estab- lishing genetic relatedness between some or all of the languages. In addition, in examining structural relationships between languages, we aim to discover whether it is possible to distinguish between original Papuan elements and diffused Austro- nesian elements of these languages. -
The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic the Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society
The lexicon of Proto Oceanic The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society 2 The physical environment Pacific Linguistics 545 Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, southeast and south Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise, who are usually not members of the editorial board. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bowden, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon (Managing Editors), I Wayan Arka, David Nash, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell, Jane Simpson EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Karen Adams, Arizona State University Lillian Huang, National Taiwan Normal Alexander Adelaar, University of Melbourne University Peter Austin, School of Oriental and African Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Atma Studies Jaya Byron Bender, University of Hawai‘i Marian Klamer, Universiteit Leiden Walter Bisang, Johannes Gutenberg- Harold Koch, The Australian National Universität Mainz University Robert Blust, University of Hawai‘i Frantisek Lichtenberk, University of David Bradley, La Trobe University Auckland Lyle Campbell, University of Utah John Lynch, University of the South Pacific James Collins, Universiti Kebangsaan Patrick McConvell, Australian Institute of Malaysia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Studies Evolutionary Anthropology William McGregor, Aarhus Universitet Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, Universitas Atma Ulrike Mosel, Christian-Albrechts- Jaya Universität zu Kiel Matthew Dryer, State University of New York Claire Moyse-Faurie, Centre National de la at Buffalo Recherche Scientifique Jerold A. -
The Morphosyntactic Typology of Oceanic Languages*
LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 5.2:491-541, 2004 2004-0-005-002-000082-1 The Morphosyntactic Typology of Oceanic Languages* Malcolm D. Ross The Australian National University The main goal of this paper is to describe some morphosyntactic characteristics that are common to a majority of Oceanic languages. Amidst the typological variety of Oceanic languages, the author defines a canonic language type, i.e., a type widely represented both genealogically and geographically. This type is SVO and has prepositions. Subjects are coreferenced by a prefix or proclitic to the verb, objects by a suffix or enclitic. Verbs often fall into morphologically related pairs with a transitive and an intransitive member. In some languages these verb pairs in turn fall into two classes. With A-verbs, the subject of both members is the Actor. With U-verbs, the subject of the intransitive is the Undergoer, which is to say, it corresponds to the object of the transitive. Against this background the (de-)transitivising morphology of Oceanic languages is described. Possession in the canonic language type takes two forms, direct and indirect. The direct construction encodes inalienable possession, the indirect (which entails a possessive classifier) encodes alienable possession. The paper finishes with a discussion of interclausal relationships in canonic languages. Adverbial and complement clauses display little desententialisation. It is also suggested that subjects in canonic languages generally have only a semantic function, not a reference-tracking function. Key words: Oceanic languages, canonic type, typology, morphosyntax, verbal marking of subject, verbal marking of object, (de-)transitivising morphology, possession, interclausal relations, function of subject 1. -
Language Complexity and Interlinguistic Difficulty
Language complexity and interlinguistic difficulty Eva Lindström Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University [email protected] Abstract This paper explores the related but distinct issues of linguistic complexity and difficulty, as from the viewpoint of an adult learner. Language complexity is seen as an objective property of a system, which could in principle be computed mathematically, while difficulty is grounded in the particular person who experiences the difficulty, involving factors such as the linguistic categories present and the nature of their marking in the learner’s own language. This reasoning will be illustrated with one non- Austronesian language, Kuot, and its three Austronesian neighbours, Nalik, Notsi and Madak, of north-central New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. 1. Background Kuot is spoken in the linguistically most diverse region on earth: the country of Papua New Guinea has 5 million inhabitants and around 800 languages. In the islands and on the coast of the main island of New Guinea there are over 100 languages belonging to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family, a relative new-comer to the region at about 3,500 years ago. Remaining languages are subsumed under the label “Papuan”, which, however, is a negatively defined category, implying only that these languages are non-Austronesian and spoken in this region. They dominate in the interior of New Guinea, and around 25 such languages are scattered across northern Island Melanesia. They are assumed, in the main, to derive from languages spoken by the first settlers of the region who arrived more than 40,000 years ago (and presumably in some subsequent waves; Spriggs, 1997). -
The Internal History of the Alor-Pantar Language Family Gary Holton & Laura C
Chapter 2 The internal history of the Alor-Pantar language family Gary Holton & Laura C. Robinson This chapter demonstrates that the languages of Alor and Pantar share acommon origin by applying the comparative method to primary lexical data from twelve languages sampled across the islands of the Alor-Pantar archipelago. More than one hundred proto-Alor-Pantar lexical items are reconstructed. An internal sub- grouping based on shared phonological innovations is proposed and is compared to that derived using computational phylogenetic methods. It is argued that the Alor-Pantar group originally came from the region of the Pantar Strait. 1 Introduction In this chapter we review the reconstruction of proto-Alor-Pantar (pAP) based on the comparative method. We then examine the internal relationships of the Alor-Pantar family and discuss several approaches to subgrouping. In the liter- ature, the Alor-Pantar languages are usually considered to belong to the larger Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) group, which includes the Papuan languages of neigh- boring Timor and Kisar. The Alor-Pantar languages form a well-defined sub- group within TAP and share a common history independent of the Timor lan- guages. The relationship between Alor-Pantar and the Timor languages is dis- cussed in the following chapter; the wider historical relationships with languages beyond Timor-Alor-Pantar are discussed in chapter 4. The AP languages form one of only two large pockets of non-Austronesian lan- guages in East Nusantara outside New Guinea (the other being North Halmahera, to which AP languages are not related—see chapter 4). In contrast to neighbor- ing Timor, all but one of the two dozen or so indigenous languages of the Alor- Holton, Gary & Laura C. -
Omission of Object Verbal Markers in Amele: Difference in Data Between Haia and Huar Dialects
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Prometheus-Academic Collections Omission of object verbal markers in Amele: Difference in data between Haia and Huar dialects Masahiko NOSE (Shiga University) [email protected] 1. Introduction Amele is a Trans-New Guinea language, spoken in the suburban area of Madang, Papua New Guinea. Amele consists of four dialects, Haia (the most prestigious); Amele; Huar; and Jagahala (Figure 1). This study concerns the grammatical differences between the Haia and Huar dialects of Amele. Previously, Roberts (1987) described the grammar of Amele, mainly based on the Haia dialect. The author visited an Amele village named Sein1, where the Huar Figure 1. Amele speaking area dialect is spoken, and began fieldwork in 2006. The author found that the grammar of Huar differs slightly from the Haia dialect. These phonological and morphological differences have been previously noted by Roberts (1987:10) and Capell (1969:103). However, these differences are not described in detail, and moreover, the area in which Amele is spoken is not large (approximately within an area of 20–30 km), and its speakers are a few (5300 speakers, according to SIL (1987)2). This study examines structures in the Haia and Huar dialects and summarizes the resulting data. Section 2 outlines the basic structures of Amele, and section 3 discusses the sentence examples (in particular, transitive sentences) of the two dialects. In section 4, this study tries to explain their differences. Section 5 is the conclusion. 2. Basic overview of Amele This section introduces the basic grammatical structure of Amele. -
Baring the Bones: the Lexico-Semantic Association of Bone with Strength In
Linguistic Typology 2021; aop Antoinette Schapper* Baring the bones: the lexico-semantic association of bone with strength in Melanesia and the study of colexification https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2021-2082 Received March 22, 2021; accepted March 3, 2021; published online July 27, 2021 Abstract: In this article I demonstrate that there is a pervasive lexico-semantic association BONES ARE STRENGTH in the languages of Melanesia, but that its linguistic expression is highly varied; languages are scattered along a lexical-to-clausal cline in their expression of the association between bone and strength, with a large number of language-specific idioms based on the association to be observed in Melanesia. I argue that the striking areality of this lexico-semantic association is readily missed in top-down approaches to lexical semantic typology that rely, for instance, on databases of word lists, or on narrow search domains limited to the meanings of simplex lexemes. Keywords: colexification; comparability of languages; Melanesian linguistic area 1 Introduction Over the last 60 years or more, typologists have made great strides in understanding the diversity and uniformity of the world’s languages. For many variables within the This paper was written up under the auspices of a Brill Fellowship at the Scalinger Institute of the Leiden University Library. Research funding came from 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”, the Volkswagen Stiftung DoBeS project “Aru languages documentation”, the INALCO-funded projet scientifique blanc “Merging meanings in Melanesia”, the Australian Research Council project (ARC, DP180100893) “Waves of words”, and the European Research Council “OUTOFPAPUA” project (grant agreement no. -
The Languages of Melanesia: Quantifying the Level of Coverage
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 5 (December 2012) Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century, ed. by Nicholas Evans and Marian Klamer, pp. 13–33 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/sp05/ 2 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4559 The languages of Melanesia: Quantifying the level of coverage Harald Hammarström Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthopology Sebastian Nordhoff Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthopology The present paper assesses the state of grammatical description of the languages of the Melanesian region based on database of semi- automatically annotated aggregated bibliographical references. 150 years of language description in Melanesia has produced at least some grammatical information for almost half of the languages of Melanesia, almost evenly spread among coastal/non-coastal, Austronesian/non- Austronesian and isolates/large families. Nevertheless, only 15.4% of these languages have a grammar and another 18.7% have a grammar sketch. Compared to Eurasia, Africa and the Americas, the Papua- Austronesian region is the region with the largest number of poorly documented languages and the largest proportion of poorly documented languages. We conclude with some dicussion and remarks on the documentational challenge and its future prospects. 1. INTRODUCTION. We will take Melanesia to be the sub-region of Oceania extending from the Arafura Sea and Western Pacific in the west to Fiji in the east – see the map in figure 1.1 This region is home to no fewer than 1347 (1315 living + 32 recently extinct) attested indigenous languages as per the language/dialect divisions of Lewis (2009), with small adjustments and adding attested extinct languages given in table 1.