LINGUIST List 6.103

Wed 25 Jan 1995

Qs: Sycophant, Chickens, /w/ in one, Articles on socioling.

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1. , 'Sign Of The Fig'
2. "Dr R.M. Blench", Chickens in Central Asia
3. Lars Anders Kulbrandstad, +0100
4. Rocio Jimenez, Query:articles on topics on sociolinguistics

Dear Linguists,
Does anyone 'know' the basis of the etymology of the word, "sycophant"? It is
reportedly based on an accuser making the 'sign of the fig' at an accused. I
am curious to learn what is the 'sign of the fig' and its relation to the
evolution of the meaning of the word. Thank you.

Richard Blucher
blucherumbc2.umbc.edu

This may seem a slightly bizarre query, but we have recently been
pursuing the history of the chicken. Recent archaeology has shown that
the earliest domestic chickens were in china (6,000 B.C.) not India, as
many textbooks have it. It is now thought that they made their way across
Central Asia to participate in the European Neolithic. However, there
isn't much evidence for this, archaeologically. However, there might be
linguistic evidence.

Being Africanists, we are neither very familiar with
the sources, scripts and orthographic conventions of the languages of the
former Soviet Union. So could we have some assistance with words for
chicken in as many languages as possible (any phylum) in an IPA
like-transcription that could be cross-compared. The words we are looking
for are;

chicken/hen
cock/rooster
chick

Of course, if someone has compiled these somewhere, we would like the
reference.

Countries under consideration are Western China, former Soviet Union and
any immediate neighbouring areas.

Thanks in advance.

Roger Blench and Kay Williamson.

P.S. Does anyone know if the Linguistic Survey of Burma which is
mentioned several times in Grierson's LSA was ever published? If not, why
not?

RMB5cam.ac.uk

 Kulbrandstad)

A colleague who does not yet have access to the net, has asked me to post
the the following query: Why is the word "one" in modern English pronounced
with an initial /w/?

Thanks in advance.

Lars Anders Kulbrandstad
Hoegskolen i Hedmark, Norway
lakhamarlh.no

Dear Linguists,
I am going to be the T.A. for an introductory course on Linguistics (LIN
215), called "Languages of the World". The course has 2 parts: the first
one is related to the classification of languages according to genetic
and structural criteria, and the second one is focused on language in
social contexts. It is in relation to this second part that I direct my
query. Could anybody,please, refer me to articles, journals, books,that I
could use for discussion in my recitation sections on the following topics:
-pidgin and creole languages
-bilingualism
-language and social class
-language and gender
-language and ethnicity
-language and region
-language and speech style
-language policy?

Thank you in advance,
My best regards,
Rocio.

Rocio Jimenez. Syracuse University. N.Y.Emai: rjimenezmailbox.syr.edu