LINGUIST List 13.2562

Tue Oct 8 2002

Books: Language Description: Harrison & Anderson

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM.EUROPA, Language Description: Harrison & Anderson

Series Title: Languages of the World/ Dictionary 14
Publication Year: 2002
Publisher: Lincom Europa
 http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/
 
Author: Gregory D Anderson 
Author: Kevin David Harrison 

Hardback: ISBN: 3895865281, Pages: 176, Price: USD 58 / EUR 58 / 
 GBP 38.50
			
Abstract:
			
This dictionary consists of approximately 5-6,000 basic vocabulary
itens of Tuvan, a Turkic language of south central Siberia. The
lexicon of Tuvan is charcterized by a larger number of Mongolianloans
than in other Turkic languages of southern Siberia. Modern Tuvan has
also borrowed extensively from Russian, though less than neighboring
Altai-Sa yan Turkic languages. There are also a number of loans in
Tuvan from Chinese, Tibetan, and even Sanskrit, though usually through
a Mongolian intermediary; these words are predominantly in the
religious or political spheres, or refer to cultural items diffused
from those areas. Finally there are a small number of words in Tuvan
from other, now extinct (and in part assimilated to Tuvan
linguistically), languages belonging to the Yeniseian and Samoyed
families. Thus, the lexicon of Tuvan reflects the diverse and complex
history of socio-cultural contacts of the Tuvan people.

Tuvan (aka Tuvan/Tuvinian) is spoken by 150-200,000 people in the
Republic of Tuva in south centra Siberia. Tuvan (along with the
closely related Tofalar) stand out among the Turkic languages in
several ways. Tuvan has three sets of phonemic vowels: plain, long,
and creaky voice. Word-initially obstruents exhibit a contrast between
unaspirated/aspirated or voiced/voiceless, depending on the
speaker. There is also a phonemically marginal series of long
nasalized vowels. Tuvan has only one inflectional series for verbs,
prefering enclitic pronominals in most forms (in main clauses).

Large numbers of Mongolisms and Mongolian derivational affixes are
found, the latter often appearing with Turkic roots. Russian loans
are also numerous, and in the speech of certain younger residents of
Kyzyl, contact-induced restructuring can be observed.


Books available o) alphabetically arranged by series o) alphabetically
arranged by author o) listed by ISBN. Go to
http://www.lincom-europa.com.
			
Lingfield(s): Language Description, 
			 
Subject Language(s): Tuvin (Language Code: TUN)

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)