LINGUIST List 10.454

Sat Mar 27 1999

Qs: Spanish, Sign Language, Timing

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Heather Bentley, Spanish subjunctive endings -ra/-se
2. Nobukatsu Minoura, Russian Sign Language
3. Andries Coetzee, Syllable-timed and stress-timed

In the following Spanish sentence two forms are possible: "Deseaba que
llegara/llegase Juan" This translates roughly to "I hoped for Juan to
arrive" Most of the grammars I have consulted simply explain the two
forms as depending upon the whim of the speaker, but I am wondering
what grammatical/discourse conditions might be responsible. Any
thoughts or references would be helpful.

Heather Bentley
h2omarkadnc.com

Dear colleagues,

I am a Japanese linguist who is studying Japanese Sign Language. (In
undergraduate, I majored in Russian.)

Does anybody here know if there is anybody who is studying Russian Sign
Language (russkij jazyk nemyx-gluxix) in Russia? (Or any other signed
languages in other Slavic countries?)

I appreciate any pieces of information.

Please write directly to mailto:minourafs.tufs.ac.jp. And I will post a
summary if I receive enough relevant responses.

Sincerely yours,

Nobukatsu Minoura

-----------------------------------------------
Nobukatsu Minoura, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Nishigahara 4-51-21, Kita-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 114-8580
Phone: +81-3-5974-3550 (wk), Fax: +81-3-5974-3637 (c/o Goken)
Phone/fax: +81-3-3377-3275 (hm)
mailto:minourafs.tufs.ac.jp (wk), mailto:nobumgol.com (hm)

Dear Linguists

A colleague and I are working on a project about the rhythmic
differences between English and Tswana, and the influence that this
has on the English of Tswana first language speakers. We strongly
suspect that Tswana should be classified in the group of languages
that tend to be syllable-timed, and that the rhythmic patterns of
Tswana will therefore differ from that of English (which is
stress-timed).

We have done an extensive literature search on the topic of
stress/syllable-timing and found many useful sources. However, most
of the literature that we could locate date from before 1990. We are
convinced that there must be countless more recent sources. We will
appreciate it if you can direct us to any literature that you deem
relevant, both pre and post 1990, but especially post 1990.

Any other comments about the topic in general are also welcome.

I will post a summary to the list.

Thank you in advance

Andries Coetzee

Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education
Potchefstroom, South Africa
E-mail: klsawcpuknet.puk.ac.za