LINGUIST List 8.1324

Sun Sep 21 1997

Qs: IE language, Link-words, English vowels

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Niloofar Haeri, Query/ Emile Benveniste
2. DECLOITRE PHILIPPE, Link-words, articles and non-predicative words
3. Michael M. T. Henderson, English vowels

Does anyone know whether the work Benveniste did in his "Indo-European
Language and Society" (he looked at IE vocabulary in domains such as law,
exchange, kinship, etc.) has been followed up by anyone else? Also in this
book Benveniste says that he will not discuss the external history of these
institutions. Are there books that can be read parallel to this work that
would provide that history?

I would appreciate any references that you might know of. Please send them
to haerijhu.edu
In case there is further interest, I will post all references received.
Thank you.
Niloofar Haeri

Dept. of Anthropology
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Baltimore, MD 21218

I have always been very much interested in the articles that deal with 
the "deeper" meaning of so-called link-words, articles and other non 
predicative words, but I always wonder where it is possible to get an 
idea of their historical origine. Does anyone know of a book that 
contains that sort of data (i.e. that tells you that "This" comes from 
"at" + "*so")
Thank you.

I'm looking for references to studies on (generally) to vowel systems of
young Americans and (specifically) any mergers anyone has noticed. I've
been struck with the extreme closeness, if not merger, of the vowels in
'best' and 'bust'. Last week, given an IPA transcription t - superscript
h - inverted v - engma, two 20-something females in my phonetics class
decoded it as 'ten'. (Of course, 28 other students didn't.)

Michael M. T. Henderson
Linguistics Department
University of Kansas
Lawrence KS 66045-2140
mmthukans.edu