LINGUIST List 12.1247

Sat May 5 2001

Books: Maori language, Austro-Asiatic languages

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Maori language: Maori by Ray Harlow
2. LINCOM EUROPA, Austro-Asiatic languages: Santali by Lukas Neukom

Maori

RAY HARLOW
University of Waikato

Maori, a member of the Eastern Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian
language family, is the indigenous language of New Zealand. It is
spoken by some 30,000 people, though a much greater number of people,
perhaps as many as 200,000 have some knowledge of the
language. Recently, Maori has been the subject of intense efforts to
ensure its survival and development. In its phonology, morphology and
syntax, it is very representative of its subgroup. It has little in
the way of inflexional morphology, most morphosyntactic categories
such as case, tense, even number being expressed at the level of
phrase, not the word. Like other Polynesian languages, its pronoun
system distinguishes three numbers, singular, dual and plural, and
exclusive vs. inclusive first person.
	
This sketch of grammar of Maori provides an account of the basic VSX
sentence type and of the variants of this which express
discourse-related emphases. The sample text is drawn from the writings
of a 19th-century elder, who has left voluminous manuscripts in Maori
on a variety of areas of traditional knowledge and thought.


ISBN 3 89585 120 0. 
Languages of the World/Materials 20. 
60 pp. USD 32.50 / DM 51.80 / � 19.90. 
2nd printing!
 
Please ask for course discounts!

New: A Students' and course discount of 40% is offered to the above
 title. 

Free copies of LINCOM's newsflashes 24 and 25 are now
available from LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany;
FAX +49 89 62269404;
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

Santali
LUKAS NEUKOM
Universit�t Z�rich 

Santali belongs to the North-Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic
language family. It is the largest Munda language, spoken by 5.8
million people, who live scattered over the Indian states of Bihar,
West-Bengal and Orissa. Most of them are bilingual in Santali and in
the local dominant Indo-Aryan language. The Santali phonemic system
includes a series of retroflex consonants, voiced and voiceless
aspirated stops and glottalized stops in word-final position,
alternating with the voiced series. Some harmony rules underly the
vocalism. Nouns can be marked for number (singular, dual, plural),
class (�animate), case (seven in number), possessor and focus or
topic. The demonstrative system has four dimensions: distance (near /
far / far away), �emphatic, �animate, and number. Santali has a very
elaborate verb morphology. Besides various types of argument marking
(subject, object, concerned object) the verb is inflected for seven
TAM categories the markers of which have two shapes, one for active
and one for middle voice. In addition, several derivational processes
apply to the stem, such as the marking of reciprocal or
intensive. Verbs in series are very common. Santali is known to have
a weak distinction between nouns and verbs, many stems are used both
in argument and predicate function. The analysis is mainly based on
data collected by Bodding, especially on his text collection
(published in 1925) and on his huge dictionary (1929-36). Critical
portions of the grammar have been discussed with a native speaker.

ISBN 3 89586 610 5. 
Languages of the World/Materials 323. 
Ca. 250pp. USD 72 / DM 138 / � 44.

New: A Students' and course discount of 40% is offered to the above
 title. 

Free copies of LINCOM's newsflashes 24 and 25 are now
available from LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany;
FAX +49 89 62269404;
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.