Language Isolates
Language Isolates

Author: Lyle Campbell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-03

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1317610911

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Language Isolates explores this fascinating group of languages that surprisingly comprise a third of the world’s languages. Individual chapters written by experts on these languages examine the world's major language isolates and language isolates by geographic regions, with up-to-date descriptions of many, including previously unrecorded language isolates. Each language isolate represents a unique lineage and a unique window on what is possible in human language, making this an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding the diversity of languages and the very nature of human language. Language Isolates is key reading for professionals and students in linguistics and anthropology.

Srinagar Burushaski
Srinagar Burushaski

Author: Sadaf Munshi

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-12-10

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 9004387897

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In Srinagar Burushaski: A Descriptive and Comparative Account with Analyzed Texts Sadaf Munshi offers the structural description of a lesser-known regional variety of Burushaski spoken in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-administered state of Jammu & Kashmir. The description includes a comprehensive and comparative account of the structural features of Srinagar Burushaski in terms of phonology, morphology, lexicon and syntax. The grammar is supported by an extensive digital corpus housed at the University of North Texas Digital Library. Using contemporary spoken language samples from Srinagar, Nagar, Hunza and Yasin varieties of Burushaski as well as data from the available literature, Munshi provides a thorough understanding of the historical development of Srinagar Burushaski, complementing the existing studies on Burushaski dialectology.

Trans-Himalayan Linguistics
Trans-Himalayan Linguistics

Author: Thomas Owen-Smith

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-12-12

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 311031083X

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The Himalaya and surrounding regions are amongst the world's most linguistically diverse places. Of an estimated 600 languages spoken here at Asia's heart, few are researched in depth and many virtually undocumented. Historical developments and relationships between the region's languages also remain poorly understood. This book brings together new work on under-researched Himalayan languages with investigations into the complexities of the area's linguistic history, offering original data and perspectives on the synchrony and diachrony of the Greater Himalayan Region. The volume arises from papers given and topics discussed at the 16th Himalayan Languages Symposium in London in 2010. Most papers focus on Tibeto-Burman languages. These include topics relating to individual - mostly small and endangered - languages, such as Tilung, Shumcho, Rengmitca, Yongning Na and Tshangla; comparative research on the Tibetic, East Bodish and Tamangic language groups; and several papers whose scope covers the whole language family. The remaining paper deals with the origins of Burushaski, whose genetic affiliation remains uncertain. This book will be of special interest to scholars of Tibeto-Burman, and historical as well as general linguists.

First Migrants
First Migrants

Author: Peter Bellwood

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-01-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1118325893

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The first publication to outline the complex global story of human migration and dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory. Utilizing archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence, Peter Bellwood traces the journeys of the earliest hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist migrants as critical elements in the evolution of human lifeways. The first volume to chart global human migration and population dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory, in all regions of the world An archaeological odyssey that details the initial spread of early humans out of Africa approximately two million years ago, through the Ice Ages, and down to the continental and island migrations of agricultural populations within the past 10,000 years Employs archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence to demonstrate how migration has always been a vital and complex element in explaining the evolution of the human species Outlines how significant migrations have affected population diversity in every region of the world Clarifies the importance of the development of agriculture as a migratory imperative in later prehistory Fully referenced with detailed maps throughout

Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
Comparative Indo-European Linguistics

Author: Robert S.P. Beekes

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2011-10-18

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 9027285004

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This book gives a comprehensive introduction to Comparative Indo-European Linguistics. It starts with a presentation of the languages of the family (from English and the other Germanic languages, the Celtic and Slavic languages, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit through Armenian and Albanian) and a discussion of the culture and origin of the Indo-Europeans, the speakers of the Indo-European proto-language.The reader is introduced into the nature of language change and the methods of reconstruction of older language stages, with many examples (from the Indo-European languages). A full description is given of the sound changes, which makes it possible to follow the origin of the different Indo-European languages step by step. This is followed by a discussion of the development of all the morphological categories of Proto-Indo-European. The book presents the latest in scholarly insights, like the laryngeal and glottalic theory, the accentuation, the ablaut patterns, and these are systematically integrated into the treatment. The text of this second edition has been corrected and updated by Michiel de Vaan. Sixty-six new exercises enable the student to practice the reconstruction of PIE phonology and morphology.

Origin of Vedas
Origin of Vedas

Author: K S Krishnan

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2019-08-12

Total Pages: 549

ISBN-13: 164587981X

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This book is primarily about the Rgveda, the avowed source text of all Hindu religious texts. It is a collection of 1028 mostly unrelated hymns. The language in which it is composed is known as ‘Vedic’, from which Sanskrit is believed to have evolved later. About a fifth of the poems are prayers addressed to what could be ‘Nature Gods’. Others cover a motley of subjects. About fifteen of these hymns relates to cosmogony, but differing in essentials. Vedic clearly belongs to the Indo-European language family. Apart from many cognate words that are common in all these languages, many of the stories mentioned in the Rgveda have a strong resemblance to mythologies in the other languages of the family; not just to the Zoroastrian ones, but also to those of Greek, Celtic, Nordic, Slavic, Hittite and others. Origin of Vedas also discusses a wide range of issues related to the origin and expansion of the Indo-European language family. The author has managed to collect together a lot of information about the Rgveda; some of which most would not have heard about earlier. Those interested in these may go through chapter 4 and 9.