LINGUIST List 17.3025
Sun Oct 15 2006
Diss: Lang Description/Socioling: Munshi: 'Jammu and Kashmir Burush...'
Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales
<hannahlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Sadaf
Munshi,
Jammu and Kashmir Burushaski: Language, language contact, and change
Message 1: Jammu and Kashmir Burushaski: Language, language contact, and change
Date: 14-Oct-2006
From: Sadaf Munshi <sadafmunshimail.utexas.edu>
Subject: Jammu and Kashmir Burushaski: Language, language contact, and change
Institution: University of Texas at Austin
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006
Author: Sadaf Munshi
Dissertation Title: Jammu and Kashmir Burushaski: Language, language contact, and change
Linguistic Field(s):
Language Description
Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): Burushaski (bsk)
Dissertation Director:
Megan J Crowhurst
Ian F Hancock
Patrick J Olivelle
Samuel Keith Walters
Anthony C Woodbury
Dissertation Abstract:
The region stretching along the Kashmir province of the state of Jammu &Kashmir in India and the Northern Areas region of Pakistan is home to greatethno-linguistic diversity. The impetus for conducting a study on theBurushaski language in the valley of Kashmir came from the realization thatthe community, although invisible (roughly 300 speakers) within the broadKashmiri society (over 4 million speakers), has succeeded in maintaining aseparate identity -- social and linguistic. Having lived in Srinagar forover a century, Jammu & Kashmir Burushos have very well stood the pressuresof linguistic assimilation and language loss. No study has been carried onthe language of the Jammu & Kashmir Burushos so far.
This study provides a structural description of Jammu & Kashmir Burushaski- an undocumented variety of Burushaski, and analyzes the various forms oflinguistic interference since its split from the parent dialects inPakistan. It covers the various linguistic consequences of contact such as:borrowing, innovation, and simplification of linguistic featurescharacterizing Jammu & Kashmir Burushaski. Changes are studied at lexical,phonological, and morpho-syntactic levels. My synchronic description of thegrammar is concerned with the structural properties of the language.Grammatical description is preceded by an introduction of various speechforms in context which emphasizes the importance of a discourse-centeredapproach followed in this study. My approach to the study ofcontact-induced change is based on an analytical framework followingThomason & Kaufman (1988) and Thomason (2001). The study also discussessome theoretical implications of the research outcomes. It presents aunique situation in which linguistic outcomes of contact are reflected viaa complex interplay of various factors involving simultaneous contact withtwo languages viz., Kashmiri and Urdu, each affecting the language in aspecific way - lexical borrowing from Urdu and structural borrowing fromKashmiri. This is explained in terms of two important factors: (i) languageideology in terms of a "native language" versus an "extra-native MATRIX",and (ii) within the non-native matrix, a hierarchy of social prestigeassociated with each of the two non-native languages.
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