LINGUIST List 13.797

Mon Mar 25 2002

Books: Austro-Asiatic Languages: Santali

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

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, Santali by Lukas Neukom

Santali
LUKAS NEUKOM
Universitat Zurich 

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. 
250pp. USD 76.40 / EUR 77.70 / � 46.70. (2nd printing)
 
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