The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia
The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia

Author: Geoffrey Haig

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-12-03

Total Pages: 1183

ISBN-13: 3110421747

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The languages of Western Asia belong to a variety of language families, including Indo-European, Kartvelian, Semitic, and Turkic, but share numerous features on account of being in areal contact over many centuries. This volume presents descriptions of the modern languages, contributed by leading specialists, and evaluates similarities across the languages that may have arisen by areal contact. It begins with an introductory chapter presenting an overview of the various genetic groupings in the region and summarizing some of the significant features and issues relating to language contact. In the core of the volume the presentation of the languages is divided into five contact areas, which include (i) eastern Anatolia and northwestern Iran, (ii) northern Iraq, (iii) western Iran, (iv) the Caspian region and south Azerbaijan, and (v) the Caucasian rim and southern Black Sea coast. Each section contains chapters devoted to the languages of the area preceded by an introductory section that highlights significant contact phenomena. The volume is rounded off by an appendix with basic lexical items across a selection of the languages. The handbook features contributions by Erik Anonby, Denise Bailey, Christiane Bulut, David Erschler, Geoffrey Haig, Geoffrey Khan, Rene Lacroix, Parvin Mahmoudveysi, Hrach Martirosyan, Ludwig Paul, Stephan Procházka, Laurentia Schreiber, Don Stilo, Mortaza Taheri-Ardali, Christina van der Wal Anonby.

Western Languages
Western Languages

Author: Philippe Wolff

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 9781842122761

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A brilliant historical survey of the development of language in the West, translated from the French by Frances Partridge. When did men stop speaking Latin? How did the actions of society or religion influence vocabulary? What effect did the conquest of the Anglo-Saxon countries by William the Conqueror and his French-speaking knights have on language? Speech and writing play a fundamental part in man's activities. Social life is inconceivable without some system of signs enabling us to communicate with each other, and language is chief among these signs. From Cicero to Gutenberg, WESTERN LANGUAGES AD 100 - 1500 shows how it is impossible to claim any real understanding of the development of the West without knowing about the development of its languages.

The Major Languages of Western Europe
The Major Languages of Western Europe

Author: Bernard Comrie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-24

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1136897755

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Based on Bernard Comrie's The World's Major Languages, this is a key guide to one of the major language families. The areas covered include Germanic languages, English, and Romance languages.

The Power of Babel
The Power of Babel

Author: Ali A. Mazrui

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1998-08-03

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780226514284

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Linguists estimate that there are currently nearly 2,000 languages in Africa, a staggering figure that is belied by the relatively few national languages. While African national politics, economics, and law are all conducted primarily in the colonial languages, the cultural life of the majority of citizens is conducted in a bewildering Babel of local and regional dialects, making language itself the center of debates over multiculturalism, gender studies, and social theory. In The Power of Babel, the noted Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui and linguist Alamin Mazrui explore this vast territory of African language. The Power of Babel is one of the first comprehensive studies of the complex linguistic constellations of Africa. It draws on Ali Mazrui's earlier work in its examination of the "triple heritage" of African culture, in which indigenous, Islamic, and Western traditions compete for influence. In bringing the idea of the triple heritage to language, the Mazruis unravel issues of power, culture, and modernity as they are embedded in African linguistic life. The first section of the book takes a global perspective, exploring such issues as the Eurocentrism of much linguistic scholarship on Africa; part two takes an African perspective on a variety of issues from the linguistically disadvantaged position of women in Africa to the relation of language policy and democratic development; the third section presents a set of regional studies, centering on the Swahili language's exemplification of the triple heritage.The Power of Babel unites empirical information with theories of nationalism and pluralism—among others—to offer the richest contextual account of African languages to date.

Endangered Languages
Endangered Languages

Author: Lenore A. Grenoble

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1998-03-26

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9780521597128

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This book provides an overview of the issues surrounding language loss. It brings together work by theoretical linguists, field linguists, and non-linguist members of minority communities to provide an integrated view of how language is lost, from sociological and economic as well as from linguistic perspectives. The contributions to the volume fall into four categories. The chapters by Dorian and Grenoble and Whaley provide an overview of language endangerment. Grinevald, England, Jacobs, and Nora and Richard Dauenhauer describe the situation confronting threatened languages from both a linguistic and sociological perspective. The understudied issue of what (beyond a linguistic system) can be lost as a language ceases to be spoken is addressed by Mithun, Hale, Jocks, and Woodbury. In the last section, Kapanga, Myers-Scotton, and Vakhtin consider the linguistic processes which underlie language attrition.

The Languages of West Africa
The Languages of West Africa

Author: Diedrich Westermann

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-22

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1351600508

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This volume, originally published in 1970, presents a survey of the languages spoken in an area extending from the Atlantic coast at the Sengal River eastward to the Lake Chad region. The area covered by this volume is mainly a goegraphical one, so it follows that not all the languages included are related to one another, though a certain degree of homogeneity appears.

Fusion of Critical Horizons in Chinese and Western Language, Poetics, Aesthetics
Fusion of Critical Horizons in Chinese and Western Language, Poetics, Aesthetics

Author: Ming Dong Gu

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-07-07

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 3030737306

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This book begins with a reflection on dichotomies in comparative studies of Chinese and Western literature and aesthetics. Critiquing an oppositional paradigm, Ming Dong Gu argues that despite linguistic and cultural differences, the two traditions share much common ground in critical theory, aesthetic thought, metaphysical conception, and reasoning. Focusing on issues of language, writing, and linguistics; metaphor, metonymy, and poetics; mimesis and representation; and lyricism, expressionism, creativity, and aesthetics, Gu demonstrates that though ways of conception and modes of expression may differ, the two traditions have cultivated similar aesthetic feelings and critical ideas capable of fusing critical and aesthetic horizons. With a two-way dialogue, this book covers a broad spectrum of critical discourses and uncovers fascinating connections among a wide range of thinkers, theorists, scholars, and aestheticians, thereby making a significant contribution to bridging the aesthetic divide and envisioning world theory and global aesthetics.

Language
Language

Author: Guanlian Qian

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-18

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 1000335798

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Heidegger characterizes the relationship between language and Being as "language is the house of Being", negating the idea that language is merely a tool ready to be used at hand. Drawing on this idea, as well as ideas from anthropology, pragmatics, and folklore studies, the author argues that "language is the last homestead of human beings", meaning that mankind lives within language, has to live within language, and lives in formulaic speech events. The author takes Western classic works on the philosophy of language and his own insights of language use, rooted in traditional Chinese culture, in order to develop his own localized theory. In this title, the author explores the philosophical aspect of man’s survival by presenting day-to-day exchange routines such as weddings and fortune-telling dialogues in the Chinese context. Awarded the first prize for Academic Excellence in Philosophy and Social Sciences in Guangdong Province, and second prize in the second Xu Guozhang Award for Foreign Language Studies, this is a must-read for researchers interested in philosophy of language and pragmatics.