Kabardian

(East Circassian)

John Colarusso
McMaster University

Kabardian, the eastern form of Circassian, is a member of the Northwest Caucasian language family, which includes the Western Circassian or Adighé dialects, the transitional Besleney Circassian, the distinct Abkhaz and its closely related, Abaza, and Ubykh, transitional between Circassian and Abkhaz-Abaza. It is native to the northwestern portion of the Caucasus where it is spoken by roughly 360,000 people. It is the household language of a large portion of the 4.5 million Circassian of the diaspora (Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Israel, with a few communities in Europe and the United States). The languages of this family are notable for their extreme complexity at all levels of grammar. While Kabadian is quite rich syntactically, morphologically, and phonologically, it is the simplest member of the family phonetically, with only 49 consonants, where Ubykh 81 for a maximum. The grammar includes chapters on Phonetics, Phonology, Inflectional Morphology, Derivational Morphology, Discourse, and a sample text.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

0. Introduction
0.1. Social setting
0.2. Linguistic typology

1. Phonetics
1.1. Inventory
1.2. Consonants
1.3. Vowels
1.4. Syllable canon
1.5. Vowel coloring

2. Phonology
2.1. Stress
2.2. Schwa
2.3. Assimilation of vowels to syllable rhyme (Auslaut)
2.4. Stressed (or reducing) /a/ (/ee/)
2.5. Recursive reduction of /a/
2.6. Stable /a/
2.7 Consonantal phonology
2.8. Reduction of plural suffix before predicative complementizer

3. Inflectional Morphology
3.1. Nominal inflection
3.2. Pronominal inflection
3.3. Possession
3.4. Adjectives
3.5. Postpositions
3.6. Verbal inflection

4. Derivational Morphology
4.1. Noun formation
4.2. Verb formation
4.3. Adjective formation
4.4. Counting and Quantification

5. Syntax
5.1. Ergativity
5.1.1. Case-marking and word order
5.1.2. Symmetry Breaking
5.1.3. PTF, the priority of transitive fulfillment
5.1.4. Animacy hierarchy
5.1.5. Switch reference
5.1.6. Passives
5.1.7. Di-transitives
5.1.8. Anti-ergatives
5.1.9. Causatives
5.1.10. Transitivity reduction of a “strong” di-transitive
5.1.11. Subject demotion in aversive forms
5.1.12. Oblique (logical) subjects
5.2. Split anaphors
5.2.1. Reflexives (ergative)
5.2.2. Reciprocals (anti-ergative)
5.3. Relative clauses
5.3.1. Restrictive relatives
5.3.2. Non-restrictive relatives clause
5.3.3. Headless relatives
5.3.4. Relative clauses and the overlap of control categories
(cross-over violations) 5.4. Embedded clauses
5.4.1. Embedded clauses
5.5. Verb-chaining with generic object
5.5.1. Copying of [+generic] of the absolutive onto the verb
5.5.2. Plural copying of the absolutive onto the verb
5.6. Rightward movement

6. Discourse
6.1. Causal sequences
6.2. Conjunction
6.3. Tense-suppression in linked verbs

Text sample

Bibliography

ISBN 9783895862458. Languages of the World/Materials 200. 122pp. 2006.

Irish

Aidan Doyle
University of Gdansk

This book offers a concise presentation of the main features of Modern Irish. The first chapter contains a brief historical survey of the language, and discusses the present sociolinguistic situation. The next three chapters are concerned with the sound-system of Irish, its morphology, and its syntax, and the book concludes with two sample texts, accompanied by a phonetic transcription and interlinear translation.

In the chapter on phonology, the question of morphophonological alternations is discussed in detail: these include variation in the quality and quantity of vowels, shifts in stress, and initial mutations. In the chapter on morphology, particular attention is paid to the morphosyntactic use of initial mutations, numerous paradigms being provided of the effect exerted by various particles on the major lexical categories of Irish. One section is devoted to derivational morphology, an aspect of the language which has been neglected in past studies.

The approach to syntax is novel. Rather than merely cataloguing the various traditional sentence patterns found in Irish, the author focusses on those aspects which are of relevance to current syntactic research in general. All three chapters contain a comprehensive and up-to-date range of references for further reading.

This study will be of interest both to general linguists with no previous knowledge of Irish, and also to lecturers and students of Celtic studies interested in language.

The author, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Gdansk, has written on various aspects of the Irish language. Other publications include a handbook and a reverse dictionary of Modern Irish, and a number of articles concerned with morphology and syntax.

ISBN 9783895862595. Languages of the World/Materials 201. 100pp. 2001.

Ket

Edward J. Vajda
Western Washington University

Ket is the only surviving member of the formerly widespread Yeniseic family and one of the world's more intriguing language isolates. Its phonology, vocabulary, and grammar differ strikingly from the surrounding families. A system of five phonemic tones, apparently derived from simplified consonant articulations, mark the beginning of each phonological word. Agreement-related inflections reflect a tripartite noun-class division based on animacy and gender. The polysynthetic verb contains ten position classes and involves a variety of distinct agreement patterns: active/inactive, ergative/absolutive, nominative/accusative, and two that employ redundant subject markers. Each stem selects one of these strategies as part of its lexical makeup. The co-indexed subject and object NPs are zero-marked regardless of the verb's agreement type. Incorporation affects certain intransitive subjects, as well as objects, instruments, and directional adverbs. Important derivational categories include event number (punctual vs. iterative) and transitivity, with transitive and intransitive stems normally differing in some formal way. Causatives, inceptives, and even infinitives are distinct lexemes rather than grammatical forms of another stem. The only verbal inflectional categories are tense (past/non-past), mood (indicative /imperative), and agreement in person, class, and number with at most two grammatical terms. Particles convey other temporal and modal nuances. Most morphemes are roots or grammatical inflections. With so few derivational affixes, compounding is the most prevalent technique of lexeme creation. Redundant inflections also play a role in stem formation. This is manifested most obviously in the verb, but occurs in the noun too.
Despite its isolate status, Ket shares certain areal features with its Uralic, Turkic, and Tungusic neighbors. These include a nominal paradigm containing a dozen cases and a propensity to use postpositions or case suffixes as clausal subordinators.
Ket is spoken today by a few hundred of the 1,200 Ket people, mainly in remote areas near the Yenisei River in the Turukhansk District of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Province. Most speakers are adults who know Russian fluently too.
This book contains the first full-length description of Ket to appear in English. It covers all aspects of the phonology, morphology and syntax of Southern Ket (the dialect with the most speakers), and briefly discusses the traditional culture and its characteristic vocabulary. Also included is a previously unpublished folktale with interlinear morpheme glosses and an English translation.

ISBN 9783895862212. Languages of the World/Materials 204. 109pp. 2004.

Damana

Maria Trillos Amaya
Centro Colombiano de Estudios de Lenguas Aborigenes, Bogota

Los wiwas o arzarios constituyen uno de los cuatro grupos originarios de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, macizo montanoso ubicado al norte, en la region caribe colombiana, America del Sur. El damana [d'm'na], es su lengua materna, perteneciente a la familia linguistica chibcha y por lo tanto emparentada con las otras tres lenguas de la Sierra como son el ika, el koguian y el kakatukua, lenguas de los ikas, koguis y kankuamos respectivamente. Los wiwas conforman un grupo de unos 3.000 individuos, de acuerdo con el censo elaborado por ellos mismos, y ocupan la vertiente nororiental de la Sierra.

En el presente trabajo se hace un esbozo gramatical del damana, introducido por un bosquejo sobre los wiwas y su lengua y por un resumen de los principales rasgos fonologicos, para entrar luego en los aspectos gramaticales: en primer lugar se describen los procedimientos que permiten a los hablantes configurar el sentido en formas; complementariamente, se presentan los procedimientos que permiten a las formas constituirse en diversos tipos de unidades. Seguidamente se describen las categorias gramaticales, que corresponden a las partes del discurso de las gramaticas morfologicas. Puede decirse que este estudio se particulariza en cuanto a que: 1. A partir de una marca gramatical se introduce la operacion conceptual que define la categoria. 2.Se reagrupan en una misma categoria partes del discurso que la gramatica tradicional presenta en forma dispersa. 3. Cada una de las categorias tratadas se presenta de la misma manera: a partir de aspectos genericos se hace la presentacion de las marcas y las formas que constituyen los medios de expresion, para continuar con una descripcion de las particularidades semanticas, lo que remite al valor fundamental del sentido que estructura la categoria.

ISBN 9783895862670. Languages of the World/Materials 207. 160pp. 1999.

Embera

Daniel Aguirre Licht
Centro Colombiano de Estudios de Lenguas Aborigenes, Bogota

En este trabajo se muestran los mecanismos morfofonologicos y morfosintacticos utilizados por los hablantes de la variante Chami del idioma Embera, el que junto con el Waunan conforman la Familia Linguistica Choco, con mayor presencia en Colombia.

Es el Embera una lengua aglutinante, rica en lexemas y gramemas mono y disilabicos, que conforman palabras fonologicas alrededor de una silaba con acento primario. En su mayoria son palabras verbales, que se van sucediendo en el discurso con pausas e insertas dentro de curvas entonacionales particulares, atravesadas por el suprasegmento de la entonacion. Es ademas, una lengua Ergativa, con privilegio de la vision del paciente -con respecto a la del agente- o del argumento que hace de objeto del verbo, en una oracion transitiva, ya que su expresion nominal es la mas corriente.

El texto se organiza en cinco secciones. En una primera, a manera de Introduccion, se da una breve informacion sobre el trabajo llevado a cabo, sobre la etnia embera y sobre su lengua. En la misma seccion se da una vision global de las caracteristicas fonologicas de la lengua y de los fenomenos morfofonologicos mas sobresalientes. Sigue el Capitulo 1, con una presentacion y vision general de la estructura de los predicados -en enunciados simples-, de los mecanismos morfosintacticos y morfo-fonologicos con que se construyen las oraciones que incluyen estos predicados y de sus partes. Continua con el Capitulo 2, donde se da una vision detallada de las caracteristicas y el funcionamiento del Sintagma Nominal, asi como de sus componentes. El Capitulo 3, aborda el Sintagma Verbal, igualmente en detalle, sus caracteristicas y funcionamiento y sus componentes. Se concluye con una presentacion mas amplia de la sintaxis de la oracion, simple y compuesta, de sus elementos constitutivos (centrales y perifericos), y de la manera como se organizan los predicados en oraciones complejas, en los enunciados tanto simples como complejos, en el Capitulo 4.

ISBN 9783895862687. Languages of the World/Materials 208. 160pp. 1999.

Hiligaynon / Ilonggo

Walter L. Spitz
Rice University

Hiligaynon, also known as Ilonggo, is a North-Central Visayan language closely related to Cebuano. It is spoken by over two million people, mostly on Negros Occidental and Panay. Hiligaynon lacks a lexical noun/verb distinction; a given root can acquire either nominal and verbal characteristics from its interaction with particular affixes. The propositional nucleus often presents a VSO configuration, the S marking motile and the O, inert, participants. A rich assortment of voice/aspect affixes typifies the verbal components. Aspect is realis/irrealis, while voice selects either of the two nuclear participants for focus. The two nuclear roles acquire greater definition from voice. Voice selects a specific phase (e.g. incept, middle, limit) of a given event for focus by the nominalizing determiners. The determiners mark given items as being relatively focussed (particularized) or unfocussed. The focussed particulars may be participants or entire events (cf. headless relative clauses). Discourse continuity is reflected via word order, with discontinuous elements occurring preverbally, and continuous ones, in immediate post-verbal position, a distinction recognized morph-ologically by the pronouns. The grammatical emphasis on verbal event semantics (e.g. of voice over role) challenges the vaunted universality of such oppositions as subject/ object, transitive/intransitive, and active/passive and, in the process, numerous current theories of language.

ISBN 9783895862588. Languages of the World/Materials 209. 60pp. 2001.

Udmurt

Eberhard Winkler
University of Munich

Udmurt (Votyak) is spoken by approx. 70 % of the 750.000 Udmurt as mother tongue (according to the 1989 census). The Udmurt are living mainly in their own Autonomous Republic in the European part of Russia (Vjatka-Kama-Region), where they constitute less than one third of the population. Udmurt belongs to the Permic branch of theFinno-Ugric Languages, which form together with Samojed languages the Uralic language family. In former times Turkic languages (Chuvash and Tatar) had a strong influence on the grammar of Udmurt, whereas the younger Russian influence is restricted to the lexicon. Nevertheless the grammar is typical Finno-Ugric and shows a lot of common features with the nearly related more archaic Komi language. The monograph is based on the Literary language and will contain chapters on phonology, morphology and syntax. Emphasis will be given to morphology, with special attention to the verbal inflectional system and the functions of these categories. The sketch includes a short Udmurt text with interlinear translation.

ISBN 9783895862724. Languages of the World/Materials 212. 88pp. 2001.

Ancient Greek

Silvia Luraghi, Anna Pompei and Stavros Skopeteas
Università degli Studi di Pavia, Terza Università di Roma, Universität Potsdam

Ancient Greek provides us with a vivid picture of dialectal variation, which is quite unusual for the highly standardized literary languages of the antiquity. The richness of literary and non-literary sources makes it possible to give an in-depth description of diachronic and diatopic variation. Besides, peculiarities especially in the verbal system as well as in clause linkage and subordination make ancient Greek extremly interesting from a typological point of view.

While the standard handbooks of Ancient Greek provide us with highly reliable descriptions, many of its typological peculiarities have hardly been brought to the attention of students of linguistic typology who are not specialized in Classics. In this grammatical sketch the author will give a description of the standard Classical language (V century BC), trying to highlight aspects of general interest; data on dialectal variation and on historically different periods will be given in the discussion.

Topics discussed in the book include: (1) the socio-linguistic situation of Ancient Greece and of the Aegean area; (2) historical and dialectal classification of literary and non-literary sources; (3) phonology; (4) morphology: word formation; parts of speech system; inflectional morphology; (5) syntax of the simple sentence: word order within the sentence and the noun phrase; use of cases; verbal voice; TAM system; clitics; (6) parataxis and hypotaxis; use of the nominal forms of the verb; types of subordinate clauses; (7) late syntactic developments in the koiné (from IV century BC onwards).

ISBN 9783895862397. Languages of the World/Materials 213. 106pp. 2005.

Latvian

Nicole Nau
Universität Kiel

Latvian is the official language of the Republic of Latvia, where about 1.4 million people speak it as a native language, and an increasing number of mainly Russian speaking persons use it as a second language. This sketch con-centrates on morphology and syntax, with a short introduction to Latvian phonology. The sample text, as well as most of the examples that illustrate grammatical points, are taken from autobiographical narratives collected by the Latvian Archive for Oral History.

Compared to Lithuanian, the only other living Baltic language, Latvian has further diverged from its Indo-European heritage in that it has abandoned certain inflectional forms and categories and developed new ones. The fact that, for centuries, speakers of Latvian have been in close contact with speakers of Baltofinnic, Germanic and Slavic languages has certainly been an important factor for innovations in all parts of the grammar. However, Latvian still resembles the well known old Indo-European languages in certain respects more closely than Standard Average European languages do.

Latvian is a fusional language with some traits of agglutination. The morphology is strikingly regular, especially with nominals. Nominal inflectional categories are gender, number, case, and definiteness, which is marked on adjectives. The five morphological cases have clear syntactic and/or semantic functions. Particularly noteworthy in the verbal inflectional paradimg are evidentiality and the debitive mood, a Latvian innovation. Characteristic features of the syntax are non-verbal predicates and converb constructions.

ISBN 9783895862281. Languages of the World/Materials 217. 74pp. 1996.

Ura

Terry Crowley
The University of Waikato

Ura is a moribund language, spoken fluently by only about half a dozen elderly people on the island of Erromango in southern Vanuatu. One of its closest relatives - Utaha - became extinct in 1954, though the remaining language of Erromango - Sye - is still universally spoken by a total of about 1400 people. Like the other languages of the southern islands of Vanuatu, Ura is a member of a fairly distinct grouping of structurally somewhat aberrant languages within the much larger Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian languages.

This description is a salvage study of the grammar of this otherwise sketchly known language. The area of greatest complexity is the verb morphology, where extensive patterns of root mutation result in verb roots appearing in quite different guises in a range of morphosyntactic environments. The language also has a set of inflectional categories of verbs that is unusually large, as well as morphological marking that is morphotactically unusually complex for an Oceanic language. However, while this description focuses to a considerable extent on moprhology, the major syntactic patterns are also presented.

ISBN 9783895865107. Languages of the World/ Materials 240. 60 pp. 1998.