Pima Bajo

Zarina Estrada Fernández
University of Sonora México

Pima Bajo is a Uto-Aztecan language from the Tepiman branch spoken by no more than 500 persons. The Pima Bajo country is located in the Southeastern part of Sonora Mexico, and also in the Central Western part of Chihuahua in Mexico. The study is based mainly on the unpublished data collected in Yepáchic Chihuahua which in comparison with the Pima Bajo spoken in Sonora is less innovative. References to Névome, an older Piman variety from a document written between 1621 and 1672, are made.

The volume contains: A sociolinguistic setting of the ethnic group. A brief description of the phonemic inventory, the phonological processes, the stress and the syllable. An outline of the morphology of the language. The syntax part discusses clause structure and the syntax of arguments for independent and dependent constructions. Emphasis is given to pronouns and the way they are used as arguments of a predicate.

ISBN 9783895860089. Languages of the World/Materials 71. 60 pp. 1996.

Abruzzese

Rainer Bigalke
Universität Osnabrück

L'Abruzzo è una regione italiana nella parte centrale dello stivale. Comprende 10794 km quadrati con ca. 1,2 milione di abitanti. L' Abruzzese fa parte dei dialetti centro-meridionali e conserva alcuni relitti fossili del Latino, grazie alla sua posizione nell' interno dell' Appennino fuori della grande rete stradale. I fatti più caratteristici sono sul campo del vocalismo la conservazione del dittongo latino AU, sul campo del consonantismo la conservazione dei gruppi di consonante più L e sul campo della morfologia per il condizionale residui che risalgono al piuccheperfetto latino. Lo schizzo prenderà in considerazione il vocalismo e il consonatismo, la morfologia, la sintassi e alcuni aspetti caratteristici del lessico abruzzese. Alcuni fatti linguistici troveranno una spiegazione storica ed extra-linguistica: lo stato pontificio p.e. ha esercitato un certo influsso sull' articolazione linguistica dei dialetti centro-meridionali in generale e dell' Abruzzese in particolare. Alla fine il lettore troverà un testo abruzzese con la relativa traduzione italiana, alcune carte che illustrano i fatti descritti e una bibliografia dettagliata e aggiornata relativa ai dialetti abruzzesi. Altri fatti salienti come la costruzione impersonale, la geminazione iniziale a Scanno quando si tratta di concetti collettivi, oppure la palatalizzazione della á tonica in sillaba chiusa danno all' Abruzzese un profilo tutto particolare nell ambito dei dialetti centro-meridionali.

ISBN 9783895860775. Languages of the World/Materials 74. 70 pp. 1996.

A Concise Grammar of Guyanese Creole (Creolese)

Hubert Devonish & Dahlia Thompson
The University of the West Indies

Guyanese Creole is a language with a high level of variability, induced by ongoing contact with English, the language from which it historically borrowed the bulk of its vocabulary. This variation has been described as representing a continuum between ‘basilectal’ GC at one end and ‘acrolectal’ Standard Guyanese English (SGE) at the other. The position taken here is that this so-called continuum is made up of a restricted number of varieties produced by a constrained mixing of features from the ‘acrolect’ and ‘basilect’. There are, as well, features peculiar to the intermediate level referred to as the ‘mesolect’, This description will focus on those language varieties referred to by speakers as ‘Creolese’, i.e. those varieties closest to the ‘basilect’.

The language situation and a brief socio-historical survey of GC will be presented. This will be followed by a phonological overview of the language. The Morphology and Syntax of the language will be treated in individual sections. The work will use varieties, which are considered to be the least influenced by the structures of Standard Guyanese English (SGE). Reference will however, be made to the intermediate varieties, where this would shed additional light on the structures of ‘basilectal’ SGE being analysed. The overall thrust of the description is to represent the language from the perspective of a naive native speaker. Linguistic universals and notions of grammaticalisation are employed as tools, which seek to capture this language internal perspective. This should be a grammar which is useful both to the linguist seeking a description which is insightful and backed by supporting evidence, as well as by native speakers who have an interest in their own language.

ISBN 9783929075922. Languages of the World/Materials 80. 146pp. 2010.

Literary Old Babylonian

Shlomo Izre'el (Tel-Aviv University) & Eran Cohen (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

Akkadian is a cover term for the Semitic languages of ancient Mesopotamia, constituting the eastern branch of the Semitic family. Akkadian, the most ancient Semitic linguistic continuum attested, was written in the cuneiform script, mainly on clay tablets. It is attested from the third millennium B.C. to the third century A.D. Linguistic research of Akkadian has been relatively scanty, and grammatical descriptions of any of the attested languages and dialects were aimed primarily for didactic purposes. Research has concentrated on phonology, and especially on morphology, which is typically Semitic. Syntactic structures and the TMA system have remained largely unexplored.

The grammatical description offered in LW/M is based on the language of narrative texts with mythological context of the Old Babylonian period (the first half of the second millennium B.C.). Considering the state of the art and the frame and goals of this series, the authors have confined themselves to a brief model of the language and to defining the basic linguistic strategies of Akkadian. As such, it may also serve as a guide to Semitic grammatical concepts.

All levels of the grammar of this language are treated together for the first time: graphonology, morphology, micro- and macro-syntax (characterizing different textemes). Some attention is given to linguistic variation, acknowledging the (albeit small) diversity within the time-space continuum of the texts which constitute this corpus. A short description of the cuneiform script will aim at giving some hint of the problems in adducing linguistic data.

This grammatical description is written with a systemic, structural perception of language in mind, which yields novel concepts in modern presentation. It is intended first and foremost for linguists for whom the language is inaccessible for various reasons and for Semitists whose expertise is not in Akkadian. However, Assyriologists will benefit from it as well, as this description is unique in its linguistic presentation, revealing important details unknown heretofore.

ISBN 9783895867385. Languages of the World/Materials 81. 133pp. 2005.

Canaano-Akkadian

Shlomo Izre'el
Tel Aviv University

During the second millenium BCE, Akkadian served as the lingua franca of the ancient Near East. An extensive body of epistolographic texts written in this language was discovered at Tell el-Amarna, the modern name for the ancient seat of government of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophis IV (Akhenaton). The majority of the Amarna letters were sent to Egypt by the rulers of Canaanite cities which, at the time, were part of the Egyptian empire.

While the conventional language of correspondence was nominally Akkadian, by the Amarna period, i.e., the 14th century BCE, the Canaanite administration had developed a kind of mixed language. This language, or rather, linguistic continuum comprising many varieties, was based upon the lexicon of Akkadian, with serious structural interference from the scribes' primary languages, i.e., the spectrum of West Semitic dialects spoken in Canaan. As a result of this language contact, all levels of the linguistic structure were affected, especially in the domains of syntax and morphology, creating a marked similarity between this mixed Canaano-Akkadian diplomatic language and the indigenous West Semitic Canaanite dialects.

Since we do not possess any substantial written record of the Canaanite dialects prior to the first millennium BCE, the Amarna letters from Canaan are our only source of knowledge regarding the linguistic structure of the dialects spoken in Canaan in the second millenium BCE. The Amarna letters yield linguistic, sociolinguistic and linguistic-cultural material that predates both Phoenician and Hebrew as we know them from the written records of the first millenium BCE.

The survey offered in LW/M, which sketches a concise model of the linguistic system embodied by this corpus, lays special stress on the interference between Akkadian and the West Semitic languages, which resulted in the Canaano-Akkadian mixed languages and linguistic varieties.

ISBN 9783895861260. Languages of the World/Materials 82. 92 pp. 1998. Second printing, with minor corrections, 2005.

Papiamentu

Silvia Kouwenberg and Eric Murray
University of the West Indies, Kingston

Papiamentu is a creole language spoken natively by about 250,000 people, the majority of them in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), some 30,000 in the Netherlands. Dutch is the official language in the islands and most of the population consider themselves polyglots, with some competence also in Dutch, Spanish and English.

The sketch will contain sections on phonology, morphology and syntax of Papiamentu, based in part on intuitions provided by native speakers of Curaçoan and Aruban Papiamentu. Emphasis will be given to those properties of Papiamentu that are most interesting from a typological perspective in the area of morphology. Papiamentu is unusual among creole languages in having a well-developed derivational component, verbal inflection and a morphologically marked passive construction. In the area of phonology, research by the authors has revealed interaction between the tonal accent system of Papiamentu and a limited form of quantity sensitivity. Among its interesting syntactic characteristics which count as a-typical properties of creole languages are a clearly defined class of adjectives, extensive use of complex prepositional phrases, and processes of subject-auxiliary inversion and stylistic inversion of subject and predicate.

ISBN 9783929075441. Languages of the World/Materials 83. 58 pp. 1994.

Nyulnyul

William McGregor
University of Melbourne

Nyulnyul, the traditional language of Beagle Bay (towards the northern tip of the Dampier Land peninsular, West Kimberley, Western Australia) and environs, is a moribund state, with a single full speaker, and ten or so part speakers. It is a non­Pama­Nyungan language, one of approximately a dozen members of the Nyulnyulan family. Phonologically it is reasonably typical of an Australian language, distinguishing seventeen consonants and three vowels, each with contrastive length. Like all other non­Pam­Nyungan languages of the region, Nyulnyul has two types of verbal construction: simple and compound. Simple verbs consist of an inflecting verb root which carries pronominal prefixes cross­referencing the subject and indicating tense; aspectual suffixes and pronominal enclitics cross­reference the object and indirect object. Compound verbs consist of an invariant preverb followed by an inflecting simple verb. Around fifty nominals, mainly terms for parts of the body, take prefixes indicating the inalienable possessor of the part.

The sketch is based primarily on material gathered by the author over the past eight years from Mary Carmel Charles, the last remaining speaker.

ISBN 9783895860003. Languages of the World/Materials 88. 68pp. 1996.

Warrwa

William McGregor
University of Melbourne

Warrwa, traditionally spoken in the Derby region of West Kimberley, Western Australia, is an endangered language, with just two full speakers. It is a non­Pama­Nyungan language, one of approximately a dozen members of the Nyulnyulan family; it belongs to the western branch. Phonologically it is typical of an Australian language, distinguishing seventeen consonants and three vowels, each with contrastive length. Two types of verbal construction are distinguished, simple and compound. Simple verbs consist of an inflecting verb root which carries pronominal prefixes cross­referencing the subject and indicating tense, and various aspectual suffixes and pronominal enclitics cross­reference the object and indirect object. Compound verbs consist of an invariant preverb followed by an inflecting simple verb. Noun classes are not distinguished in Warrwa (or in any other Nyulnyulan language), and case­relations are marked by postpositions. In the ideolect of one of the remaining speakers a few body part nominals take pronominal prefixes cross­referencing the possessor of the body part; for the other speaker this system has been lost entirely. As in other Nyulnyulan languages, free pronouns distinguish four persons, 1, 1+2, 2, and 3 and two numbers, minimal and augmented.

The sketch is based primilarily on elicited and textual material gathered by the author during his 1992 field trip. William McGregor is the author of A functional Grammar of Gooniyandi (Amsterdam: John Bejamins, 1990), and a number of journal articles on that language; he is also author of Gunin/Kwini, volume 11 in this series. He currently holds an Australian Research Council fellowship in linguistics at the University of Melbourne.

ISBN 9783929075519. Languages of the World/Materials 89. 64 pp. 1994.

A Grammar of Icari Dargwa

Nina R. Sumbatova & Rasul O. Mutalov
Russian State University of Humanities, Moscow, Daghestanian State University

Dargwa is a language (or a cluster of closely related languages) belonging to the Nakh-Daghestanian language group. Most of its speakers live in the Republic of Daghestan in the North Caucasus (Russian Federation). Icari is the variety of Dargwa spoken by the people of the village of Icari and by its former inhabitants who have moved to other places within Daghestan.

Many structural properties of Icari are typical of the Nakh-Daghestanian group: a rich consonant system, several series of locative cases, class agreement, morphological ergativity, a complex verb system with a whole range of tense/aspect/mood paradigms and numerous nonfinite derivations (participles, converbs and verbal nouns). Unlike most languages of the group, Dargwa has personal agreement of the verb, which in Icari follows the hierarchy 2 > 1 > 3.

This work places particular emphasis on the structure of the verb and the tense/aspect/mood system of Icari. It also includes data on the semantics of different nominal and verbal forms. This sketch of the language's grammar is accompanied by a glossed text, a list of verbal roots, a list of basic nominal lexemes and an index of grammatical morphemes.

ISBN9783895860140. Languages of the World/Materials 92. 250pp.

Daur

Chaolu Wu (Üjiyedin Chuluu)


Daur belongs to the Mongolic branch of Altaic languages and is spoken by a small number of people, approximately 94,014, in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Heilongjiang, and the Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.

The present monograph begins with an introduction to a brief sociolinguistic background of Daur and its contact situation with neighbouring languages, including the Manchu-Tungusic languages and the Mongolian languages. This is followed by an outline of Daur phonology and a more detailed discussion of Morphology. Daur provides an interesting data to the Morphological studies. It has both complex nominal morphological features and verbal marking systems. In particular, its case marking and verbal marking systems will be presented with an emphasis on their sentence functions and morphological variants. The sketch also includes a brief discussion of the syntactical properties of Daur in relevance to noun phrase and clause structure.

Finally, the sketch includes a bibliography of the selected works on Daur and a sample text with interlinear transcription and translation.

ISBN 9783895860157. Languages of the World/Materials 93. 60pp. 1996.