Language Isolates. Critical Concepts in Linguistics
This new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together the major works of scholarship con... more This new four-volume collection from Routledge brings together the major works of scholarship concerned with the ‘language isolates’ of the world. ‘Isolated’ languages are languages without any known relatives, languages which are not demonstrably part of any ‘language family’, with Etruscan, Basque, and Ainu being arguably some of the best-known examples of such ‘linguistic orphans’. The language-specific materials collected here are arranged geographically, and each language-chapter is preceded by a short introduction to the linguistic situation of the language(es) involved and, if not given in anthologized works themselves, to the current state of research and past and present scholarly debates. The volumes are preceded by a problem-oriented general introduction, which deals with the basic concepts and methodological principles of language classification, the present state and the nature of ongoing controversies, an epistemiological typology of language families, and, in the light of this, a theoretical justification of the concept of isolates as well as the choice of languages covered in the volumes.
Some of the gathered works are general introductions to their object language (in terms of sociolinguistics, attestation, documentation, history of scholarship, guides to published studies, overviews of linguistic characteristics), others highlight and discuss particularly salient and interesting typological characteristics of an isolate (some of them are breakthrough studies for the understanding of a particular language), and others focus on the very status of the language under discussion as an isolate in the first place. Some isolated languages are still very much alive; at least one of them, Korean, is a major national language. The majority of the languages and small families covered here are endangered, and some will certainly cease to be used during the coming decades. Thus, isolated languages are particularly interesting objects for students of language endangerment, but they are also prime research objects for linguistic descriptionists, for, when they are gone, not only will another of the 6,000 or so human languages have disappeared, but, in those cases, whole linguistic lineages (and their ways of coping with the world) will be gone forever.
A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak), Jan 1, 2007
Linguists and specialists on Siberia are generally familiar with the name Ket, which designates a... more Linguists and specialists on Siberia are generally familiar with the name Ket, which designates a small ethnic group on the Yenisei and their language, widely regarded as a linguistic enigma in many respects. Ket is a severely endangered language with today ...
Der phonematische Status des laryngalen Verschlußlautes ist umstritten und schwierig bestimmbar. ... more Der phonematische Status des laryngalen Verschlußlautes ist umstritten und schwierig bestimmbar. Vgl. Volodin 1976a u. Volodin 1997b. Für seinen Status als segmentales Phonem spricht u.a. auch die Tatsache, daß es allein Morpheme bilden kann (z B den nominalen Plural, vgl. 3.2.1.). 9 Die Notation [t°] steht hier (wie auch bei allen anderen labialisierten Konsonanten) nicht für einen von einem labialen glide gefolgten Konsonanten, sondern für gleichzeitig mit dem Konsonanten auftretende Lippenrundung. 10 D.h. nicht automatisch vor labialen Vokalen.
Mit seiner Mitarbeit an der Fertigstellung und der Publikation von Gerhard Doerfers Alterswerk, d... more Mit seiner Mitarbeit an der Fertigstellung und der Publikation von Gerhard Doerfers Alterswerk, der großen Ausgabe des monumentalen -und vorher bibliographisch äußerst seltenen und dazu lediglich in der Handschrift des Verfassers vorliegenden, somit kaum benutzbaren -Tungus Dictionary (TD) von S. M. Shirokogoroff 1 (Doerfer 2004, EEWTD), die erst nach dem Tode Doerfers erscheinen konnte, hat sich M. Knüppel (M.K.) bedeutende und bleibende Verdienste um die Erforschung der tungusischen (vorwiegend ewenkischen) Varianten des nordöstlichen China erworben. Die dabei zu überwindenden Schwierigkeiten hat Doerfer noch selbst (1999) ausführlich geschildert. Es ist daher hochwillkommen, dass weitere Untersuchungen erscheinen, die das äußerst wertvolle -und in dieser Form heute nicht mehr zu erhebende -Material des bedeutenden Tungusologen und Ethnologen erschließen, ordnen und in vielfältiger Weise nutzbar machen. Eine solche Arbeit legt M. K. in Gestalt der hier anzuzeigenden kurzen Monographie vor. Seit ihrer Veröffentlichung 2012 hat M.K. bereits eine Fortsetzung ("Nachschrift", Knüppel 2013) erscheinen lassen, die hier mitberücksichtigt wird. Die Monographie setzt sich zum Ziel, über sprachliche Tabuisierungen, d.h. (S. 11) "die sprachliche Meidung oder gar das Verbot bestimmter Begriffe, direkter (bisweilen auch indirekter) Benennung bestimmter Handlungen oder Sachverhalte" anhand des im Titel klar bezeichneten und damit begrenzten lexikalischen Korpus zu informieren. Nach einführenden Bemerkungen zum Begriff des Tabus im allgemeinen und sprachlicher Tabus im besonderen sowie biographischen Informationen zu S.M. Shirokogoroff 2 folgt, als Kern der Arbeit, (S.
Der hier zu besprechende Band ist gewissermaßen selbst eine Rezension, genauer eine Sammlung krit... more Der hier zu besprechende Band ist gewissermaßen selbst eine Rezension, genauer eine Sammlung kritischer Beiträge, die Stellungnahmen zu einer Reihe von Ansichten Theo VENNEMANNs (V.). sind. Sein Titel ist nur durch das Fragezeichen von dem eines Bandes unterschieden (VENNEMANN 2003), in dem 27 Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1984 bis 2000 zu dem hier besprochenen Themenkomplex versammelt sind und der das gemeinsame Thema aller Beiträge ist.
This short note serves the purpose of setting the record of the decipherment of the Mongolian Khü... more This short note serves the purpose of setting the record of the decipherment of the Mongolian Khüis Tolgoi and Bugut inscriptions straight. Until recently, the Brāhmī inscriptions on the Khüis Tolgoi and Bugut stelae in Mongolia remained undeciphered, and any knowledge concerning the language in which they were written had been lost centuries ago. Finally, in the 2000s, Dieter Maue, an epigraphist and a leading specialist on the Brāhmī script, made a new reading of the inscriptions, allowing, for the first time, the question concerning the underlying language to be approached in a meaningful way. Then, the French historian Étienne de La Vaissière invited Alexander Vovin, during the latter's visit to Paris, to have a look at Maue's reading of the Khüis Tolgoi inscription. Vovin recognized the language as Mongolic, but there were still too many unidentifiable words and grammatical forms to allow for a complete translation. In 2014, an international team consisting of Dieter Maue (Germany), Alexander Vovin (USA, then already permanently working in France), Mehmet Ölmez (Turkey), and Étienne de La Vaissière (France) was formed, and the group travelled to Mongolia, accompanied by two specialists in 3D photography with the relevant instruments for taking 3D pictures. The principal objective was to document the inscriptions as completely as possible. The team surveyed the inscriptions and took 3D pictures of the Khüis Tolgoi I and Brāhmī Bugut inscriptions, but could not do the same with Khüis Tolgoi II due to circumstances beyond the team's control. For more details on the team's travel to Mongolia, see Ölmez (2018). After the survey, Dieter Maue revised his epigraphic analysis and Alexander Vovin offered a first linguistic analysis and interpretation of the texts. The results were reported at the
T. Osada/A. Vovin (edd.): 日本語の系統論えの展望 Perspectives on the
Origins of the Japanese Language, Kyot... more T. Osada/A. Vovin (edd.): 日本語の系統論えの展望 Perspectives on the
Origins of the Japanese Language, Kyoto: Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyu
Senta/ International Center for Japanese Studies
An old paper. A really old and youthful paper. I removed it from this site some years ago, when its very existence (or, then, mine) sparked an amount of open contempt, even hatred, which I couldn't expect even in the hotly polemic field of "Altaic" linguistics. And, yes, it contains (at least) one mistake - according to a particularly prolific poster (poseur?) on academia.edu nothing less than the one major sin of the whole discipline ever since 1836 or so. Unforgivable, and reason enough to try to whatever might be humanly possible to expel its perpetrator from this field (and, congrats, with full success!). It is a really big, a really abominable blunder. See if you can spot it (because I forgot, but it sure is there, still after all these years, it must be). And, of course (as if this would have to be underlined, but alas, it has!) every bit of this comes from my own ailing head, including, of course, every slip, and every blunder.
L'A. revient dans cette etude critique sur le dernier ouvrage de Joseph H. Greenberg, Indo-Eu... more L'A. revient dans cette etude critique sur le dernier ouvrage de Joseph H. Greenberg, Indo-European and its closest relatives : The Eurasiatic language family (2000), ou ce dernier tente de rassembler dans une meme famille linguistique plus importante (a savoir le groupe eurasiatique) les langues indo-europeennes, 'altaiques' et autres familles de langues du vieux monde. Les principales critiques adressees a Greenberg concernent sa methode de comparaison de masses des langues en question, son traitement des donnees, qui consiste en une comparaison 'multilaterale' de la similarite de surface, portant peu d'importance a la regularite phonologique. L'A. analyse plus particulierement les parametres morphologiques pris en compte par Greenberg pour sa classification.
Thoughts and Observations in the Margin of Paradigm Change. In the Transeurasian languages and Be... more Thoughts and Observations in the Margin of Paradigm Change. In the Transeurasian languages and Beyond (Robbeets and Bisang, eds.
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Books by Stefan Georg
Some of the gathered works are general introductions to their object language (in terms of sociolinguistics, attestation, documentation, history of scholarship, guides to published studies, overviews of linguistic characteristics), others highlight and discuss particularly salient and interesting typological characteristics of an isolate (some of them are breakthrough studies for the understanding of a particular language), and others focus on the very status of the language under discussion as an isolate in the first place. Some isolated languages are still very much alive; at least one of them, Korean, is a major national language. The majority of the languages and small families covered here are endangered, and some will certainly cease to be used during the coming decades. Thus, isolated languages are particularly interesting objects for students of language endangerment, but they are also prime research objects for linguistic descriptionists, for, when they are gone, not only will another of the 6,000 or so human languages have disappeared, but, in those cases, whole linguistic lineages (and their ways of coping with the world) will be gone forever.
Papers by Stefan Georg
Origins of the Japanese Language, Kyoto: Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyu
Senta/ International Center for Japanese Studies
An old paper. A really old and youthful paper. I removed it from this site some years ago, when its very existence (or, then, mine) sparked an amount of open contempt, even hatred, which I couldn't expect even in the hotly polemic field of "Altaic" linguistics. And, yes, it contains (at least) one mistake - according to a particularly prolific poster (poseur?) on academia.edu nothing less than the one major sin of the whole discipline ever since 1836 or so. Unforgivable, and reason enough to try to whatever might be humanly possible to expel its perpetrator from this field (and, congrats, with full success!). It is a really big, a really abominable blunder. See if you can spot it (because I forgot, but it sure is there, still after all these years, it must be). And, of course (as if this would have to be underlined, but alas, it has!) every bit of this comes from my own ailing head, including, of course, every slip, and every blunder.