LINGUIST List 12.2003

Thu Aug 9 2001

Books: Caucasian Linguistics, Celtic Linguistics

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

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Caucasian linguistics: Nomen und nominales Syntagma im Lasischen
2. LINCOM EUROPA, Celtic Linguistics: Scottish Gaelic

Nomen und nominales Syntagma im Lasischen
Eine deskriptive Analyse des Dialekts von Ardesen 

Silvia Kutscher, Universitaet Koeln

Das Lasische gehoert neben dem Mingrelischen und Georgischen zum
Georgisch-Zanischen Zweig der Suedkaukasischen Sprachfamilie (auch:
Kartvelsprachen). Anders als seine Schwestersprachen ist das Lasische
mehrheitlich au�erhalb Georgiens an der nordoestlichen
Schwarzmeerkueste der Tuerkei beheimatet. Aufgrund seiner
soziopolitischen Situation mu� das Lasische als eine bedrohte Sprache
eingestuft werden. Waehrend die AElteren mehrheitlich zweisprachig
Lasisch/Tuerkisch sind, erwerben nur noch wenige der unter
30-jaehrigen das Lasische als ihre Muttersprache. Das Lasische ist
eine im Bereich des Praedikats kopfmarkierende Sprache (head marking
language) mit polypersonaler Verbmorphologie (auch: cross-referencing
language, language with bound pronoun affixes), reichhaltigem Tempus,
Aspekt, Modus- System, Praeverbien und dem fuer die suedkaukasischen
Sprachen charakteristischen System der Applikativ- und
Diathesemarkierungen am Verb (Versionsvokal, Charakter-vokal). Im
Bereich des Nomens verfuegt das Lasische ueber ein transnumerales
Numerussystem mit sekundaerem Plural und einem in den einzelnen
Varietaeten unterschiedlich gestaltetetem Kasussystem. Die in der
Tuerkei gesprochenen Varietaeten des Lasischen sind alle linguistisch
wenig untersucht, der Dialekt, dem die Aufmerksamkeit der vorliegenden
Arbeit gilt, ist bisher noch keine eigenstaendige Erforschung zuteil
geworden. Dieses Buch bietet daher erstmalig einen UEberblick ueber
die Morphosyntax des nominalen Syntagmas und eine ausfuehrliche
Analyse der Charakterstika der Wortart Nomen und der Funktionen der
nominalen Kategorien Numerus und Kasus in dieser Varietaet des
Lasischen. Ein Teil des fuer diese Arbeit verwendeten Korpus' ist bei
Lincom Europa in der Reihe Languages of the World/Text Collections als
Band 14 unter dem Titel Ardesen narrates - Ardeseni na isinapinenpe
veroeffentlicht.

ISBN 3 89586 333 5 
LINCOM Studies in Caucasian Linguistics 17. 
260pp. USD 65 / DM 130 / � 42.


NEW: LINCOM electronic n.e.w.s.l.e.t.t.e.r. Monthly up-dates. 
Go to http://www.lincom-europa.com

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


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

Scottish Gaelic

WILLIAM LAMB 
University of Edinburgh 
and Colaisde Bheinn na Faoghla

Scottish Gaelic (ScG), along with Irish and Manx, is a member of the
Goidelic branch of the Celtic family of Indo-European languages. At
its peak of influence around 1000AD, it was undoubtedly the national
language of Scotland, but ever since, its fate has been one of gradual
decline. Today, the Gaidhealtachd or Gaelic-speaking region is
confined to the islands off the west coast of the country, aside from
small pockets dotted throughout the northern and western
Highlands. Although now spoken by only slightly more than 1% (65,978)
of the country's population, it has had a rich influence on Scotland's
history, toponymy, art, literature and national folklore. Scottish
Gaelic has received much prior linguistic attention for its complex
phonology (one dialect distinguishing at least 5 different lateral
approximates), its system of consonant mutations, and its rich
dialectal variation. However, relatively little has been published on
its syntax. It is a dependent-marking, nominative-accusative VSO
language . The verbal system tends to be agglutinating while the
nominal system is somewhat fusional. Pronominal forms are especially
notable in this regard, with a large proliferation of
'prepositional-pronouns' evincing different forms according to person,
number, and gender. There are two genders (M&F), three numbers
(Sing., Pl., and dual) and four cases extant in the language. Stem
modification and suppletion are common morphological
processes. Distinctions of mood, aspect, and voice tend to be made
periphrastically, employing a combination of verbal particles,
auxiliaries and 'verbal-nouns' that can function differently depending
upon their syntactic status. Finally, the grammar ends with sections
on discourse phenomena, interjections and exclamations, the influence
of English, and a full oral folktale with interlinear translation.
 
This new grammar is the most up-to-date one available on the language.
It includes many topics that have never, or only rarely, been dealt
with in the available literature, for example information structure,
complex clause formation, and descriptions of various types of
discourse-related constructions. It has been informed by an ongoing
corpus-based study of register variation in the language, highlighting
some of the initial differences that have been found in this data set.
It is fully-referenced throughout for further information on Gaelic
grammar and sociolinguistics. Useful for the language learner, it
also includes a glossary of the Gaelic words in the text and a
statistically-derived list of the 100 most frequent words in the
language with definitions.

ISBN 3 89586 408 0. 
Languages of the World/Materials 401. 
Ca. 100pp. USD 40 / DM 64 / � 22.00. Sept. 2001.
 

NEW: LINCOM electronic n.e.w.s.l.e.t.t.e.r. Monthly up-dates. 
Go to http://www.lincom-europa.com

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


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