LINGUIST List 2.791

Fri 15 Nov 1991

Misc: Sinhalese, Do what, Mac Chinese, Spanish

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1. , Re: Sinhalese
2. Jules D. Gliesche, Do what, Chinese on a Mac
3. Alfredo Arnaiz, Query on Spanish

Broadwell George Aaron asks whether Sinhala is Indo-Aryan or Dravidian, having
read that scholarly opinion is divided.
Scholarly opinion is in fact unanimous that Sinhala is Indo-Aryan. It HAS
undergone Dravidian influence, but the extent and mechanisms of such influence
are sometimes difficult to pin down. Jim Gair (JWGCORNELLA) would be the best
 one to address more detailed queries to. See also the following two papers of
 his:
1978. The verb in Sinhala, with some preliminary remarks on Dravidianization.
 International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 5:2, 259-273.
1985 How Dravidianized was Sinhala phonology? in For Gordon M Fairbanks
 (Oceanic Linguistics special publication no. 20) ed. by Veneeta Acson &
 Richard Leed, 37-55. U of Hawaii Press
For more on the position of Sinhala in I-A, see:
Karunatillake, W.S. 1977 The position of Sinhala among the Indo-Aryan Languages
 Indian Journal of Linguistics 4:1-6.
Ian Smith
York University

2.790 Queries
Re: Do What?
Mark,
I've heard and used "do what?" for "what?" all my life. I regret
that I don't have any detailed data, but it's certainly used in
central Florida (cracker) dialects, and I've heard it in other
Southern states such as Georgia, Tennessee, and North
Carolina. I've heard it in Texas as well.
Not much, but it's a start.....
JG
(PS - I'm a native Floridan - but grad school and jobs have
taken me around the South.)
Re: Chinese on a Mac
John,
This information is somewhat dated, but it might help (it's
from the May '89 MacUser).
They review three programs for Chinese word processing on
the Mac:
Kaihin Brushwriter from Pacific Rim Connections
(415) 697-0911
Feima from Wu Corporation (203) 677-1528
Mishu from Xanatech (617) 492-7463
Mishu gets the highest rating, followed by Feima and
then Kaihin Brushwriter. Being a Germanicist I'm not in
a position to judge them, but you might want to either
find the issue of MacUser in a library or give them a call.
Hope this helps
Jules D. Gliesche
glieschelonestar.utsa.edu

Check Heles Contreras paper in Probus and references cited there:
Contreras, H. (1989) "Closed Domains", Probus 1.2 .,163-180.
This is a GB paper that deals with the phenomenon you mention.
Alfredo Arnaiz.