This article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation... Show moreThis article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation of the form of the singular proximal deictics can be understood from a basic form a, which could be expanded by a complementary element d, and, possibly, also by an element Ɂ; (2) that the proximal system of deictics originally had a number difference, even among adnominal deictics; (3) that the Ghadames (Libya) Anaphoric series sg -e, pl -id has clear parallels in other varieties, especially in Kabyle (Algeria), and that, as a consequence, it can be reconstructed for proto-Berber. Show less
It has long been recognized that the Semitic suffix conjugation and the Berber adjectival perfective suffix conjugation have striking similarities in their morphology, which has been correctly... Show moreIt has long been recognized that the Semitic suffix conjugation and the Berber adjectival perfective suffix conjugation have striking similarities in their morphology, which has been correctly attributed to be the result of a shared inheritance from Proto-Afro-Asiatic. Nevertheless, the function of these conjugations in the respective language families is quite distinct. This article argues that ultimately this suffix conjugation is a predicative suffix in the common ancestor of Berber and Semitic, and moreover shows that Semitic and Berber have significant overlap in the stem formations of adjectives. It is argued that these formations must likewise be reconstructed for their common ancestor. Show less
This dissertation investigates the grammaticalization of posture verbs in Dutch and German. Dutch posture verbs have been used as progressive markers since the Middle Dutch period. In the modern... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the grammaticalization of posture verbs in Dutch and German. Dutch posture verbs have been used as progressive markers since the Middle Dutch period. In the modern language, the verbs take a complement verb introduced by an infinitive marker te, whereas in Middle Dutch, they are linked with another verb by the coordinating conjunction ende, resulting in a structure comparable to verbal coordination. This Middle Dutch progressive construction with posture verbs has a parallel in Modern German, namely a pseudo-coordinate construction with posture verbs. The Modern German construction is thought to be in the early stages of grammaticalization, in the sense that it occasionally hints at temporal aspect.Through a quantitative investigation of data extracted from corpora, this study concludes that the two Dutch posture-verb constructions are independent of each other. Therefore, the historical development of the construction can be described as the replacement of the older pseudo-coordinate construction by the new construction, which is functionally superior. The present-day German construction, on the other hand, is generally biclausal and cannot be characterized as a grammaticalized progressive construction. The comparison of the Dutch pseudo-coordinate construction with the German coordinate construction provides insight into the continuum between coordination and pseudo-coordination. Show less
Language contact has presumably had an impact on all of the world’s languages. This Ph.D. dissertation provides a thorough description of the lexical outcomes of the contact between the arguably... Show moreLanguage contact has presumably had an impact on all of the world’s languages. This Ph.D. dissertation provides a thorough description of the lexical outcomes of the contact between the arguably young American Spanish and the youngest variety of Southern Hemisphere Englishes, thus closing a gap in the literature on Spanish and English as contact languages.Situated at the crossroads of toponomastics, lexical semantics, and language attitudes, and embedded within a theoretical framework of contact linguistics, this thesis addresses the contact history of Falkland Islands English with Spanish and examines to what extent such contact played a part in the shaping of the archipelago’s official language. To do so, an innovative mixed-methods approach is used to broaden the analytical depth of the results. Furthermore, a range of sources are used, i.e., archival research, literature reviews, and ethnographic fieldwork.The findings show that (i) Spanish-English contact in the Falklands has left two main linguistic products: loanwords and place names; (ii) even though the Falklands currently host an English-speaking community, the Islands have a long history of Spanish-speaking settlers; (iii) Spanish loanwords are mainly related to horse tack and horse types, and most words are tightly connected to gaucho vernacular but not exclusively with their equestrian duties, and (iv) Falkland Islands English hosts a handful of loanwords that are originally from autochthonous South American languages.This dissertation will be of interest to scholars working on language contact, toponomastics, world Englishes, and ethnolinguistic approaches to data collection. Show less
This dissertation investigates the linguistic contacts between Tocharian A and B and Khotanese and Tumshuqese, four languages once spoken in the Tarim basin, whose manuscripts can be dated from the... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the linguistic contacts between Tocharian A and B and Khotanese and Tumshuqese, four languages once spoken in the Tarim basin, whose manuscripts can be dated from the 5th to the 10th c. CE. It offers the first comprehensive analysis of the Khotanese and Tumshuqese loanwords in Tocharian A and B. One of the conclusions of this dissertation is that the influence of Khotanese and Tumshuqese on Tocharian was much more extensive than previously thought and it spanned over almost two millennia, from the early Iron Age until the extinction of the four languages at the end of the first millennium CE. In fact, it is possible to distinguish this group of loanwords from the loanwords from Old Steppe Iranian, an unidentified Old Iranian language only known from loanwords into Tocharian, by means of precise sound correspondences. Moreover, the relative chronology of the Khotanese and Tumshuqese loanwords in Tocharian allows a unique glimpse into the linguistic prehistory of the two Eastern Middle Iranian languages. Show less
The Dadanitic inscriptions were carved in stone between 600 and 100 BCE in the north-west of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the inscriptions are found in and around the ancient oasis of Dadān,... Show moreThe Dadanitic inscriptions were carved in stone between 600 and 100 BCE in the north-west of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the inscriptions are found in and around the ancient oasis of Dadān, modern-day Al-ʿUlā. The inscriptions display a remarkable amount of variation in both their language and level of execution. This work consists of two parts, part one contains a description and grammatical analysis of the corpus. This part will help contextualize the variation discussed in part two, by giving an overview of common and less common forms of the grammar, but also of the formulaic parts of and writing styles found in the inscriptions. Part two deals exclusively with the variation attested in the corpus, building on the description in part one. It offers a quantitative analysis of the variation in the corpus in an attempt to move beyond impressionistic accounts of its distribution and possible causes. Show less
For nearly a thousand years, the texts of the Hebrew Bible were transmitted both in writing, as consonantal texts lacking much of the information on their pronunciation, and orally, as an... Show moreFor nearly a thousand years, the texts of the Hebrew Bible were transmitted both in writing, as consonantal texts lacking much of the information on their pronunciation, and orally, as an accompanying reading tradition which supplied this information. During this period of oral transmission, sound changes affected the reading tradition. This paper identifies a number of sound changes that took place in the reading tradition by comparing their effects on Biblical Hebrew to those on Biblical Aramaic, the related but distinct language of a small part of the biblical corpus: sound changes that affect both languages equally probably took place in the reading tradition, while those that are limited to one language probably preceded this shared oral transmission. Drawing this distinction allows us to reconstruct the pronunciation of Biblical Aramaic as it was fixed in the reading tradition, highlighting several morphological discrepancies between the dialect underlying it and that of the consonantal texts. Show less
This dissertation provides a thorough review of the words belonging to the oldest layer of Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic and answers the question of how these words were adapted to the Proto... Show moreThis dissertation provides a thorough review of the words belonging to the oldest layer of Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic and answers the question of how these words were adapted to the Proto-Slavic accentual system. The dissertation contains a corpus of 78 words that can be regarded as Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic. The discussion of the etymology of these words is followed by a comprehensive linguistic analysis of the material, focussing on formal clues for establishing the Germanic donor language of the Slavic forms. It was found that, contrary to earlier ideas, West Germanic loanwords are more numerous in Proto-Slavic than Gothic loanwords. It turned out that there is even a small number of loanwords from Low German in Proto-Slavic. Research into the accentuation of the loanwords has resulted in the establishment of a distribution of the words over the three Proto-Slavic accent paradigms (a), (b) and (c). It is concluded that accent paradigm (b) was the “default” accent paradigm for Germanic loanwords when they were adapted to the Proto-Slavic phonological system, as opposed to all earlier theories, which assume that Germanic loanwords regularly joined accent paradigm (a). The only loanwords that did not generally take accent paradigm (b) are loanwords with a long vowel in a stressed heavy syllable, which under certain conditions discussed in the dissertation adopted accent paradigm (a). Show less
This thesis discusses the development in Proto–Indo–European, Latin and Romance of a word–formation pattern which the most adequate terminology in use dubs ‘verbal government compounds with a... Show moreThis thesis discusses the development in Proto–Indo–European, Latin and Romance of a word–formation pattern which the most adequate terminology in use dubs ‘verbal government compounds with a governing first member’; I use the shorthand ‘pickpocket compounds’. The first member of such compounds derives from a verb, while the second mostly represents its direct object: thus English pickpocket. Most English examples are functionally agent–nouns, referring to the agent of the implied verbal act. Nevertheless, they lack a suffix indicating this. By contrast, the more prolific type of compound agent–noun, represented by truck–driver, has the deverbal member second and carries an agentive suffix, ‑er. Pickpocket compounds are attested in early strata of Greek and Indo–Iranian and in medieval strata of Germanic, Slavic and Romance. Latin has around a dozen examples. The scholarly debate, continued in this thesis, has been centred round two issues: (1) the morphological make–up of the type and (2) its historical origin. (1) is preliminarily assessed in chapter 2, reviewing the basics of nominal composition and providing an account of the fundamental difference between pickpocket and truckdriver compounds. It contains a cursory discussion of Homeric Greek, Indo–Iranian and Germanic representatives. This comparative perspective on the morphology of the type is continued in chapters 3–5 on Latin and Romance. An important conclusion, and an answer to one of the most–discussed questions in the debate, is that these compounds cannot be considered univerbated imperative clauses. (2) is likewise assessed preliminarily in chapter 2, offering an outline of the history of the Greek and Indo–Aryan material. Taking the history of the Latin/Romance material up for revision, chapters 3–5 conclude that Latin offers no evidence in support of a Proto–Indo–European type. The Romance type may have an origin in Latin; however, the theoretical considerations laid out in Chapter 2 suggest that given the relevant typological conditions, new compositional types may arise spontaneously. Finally, the medieval Germanic and Slavic types result from Romance adstrate and have no bearing on Proto–Indo–European; see the summary discussion in 6.3. Show less
The study explores the history of the language of a manuscript known as Tönnies Fonne’s Russian-German Phrasebook (Pskov 1607). The phrasebook is not, as many scholars have assumed, the result of... Show moreThe study explores the history of the language of a manuscript known as Tönnies Fonne’s Russian-German Phrasebook (Pskov 1607). The phrasebook is not, as many scholars have assumed, the result of the efforts of a 19-year-old German merchant, who came to Russia to learn the language and who recorded the everyday vernacular in the town of Pskov from the mouths of his informants. Nor is it, as others claim, a mere compilation by him of existing material. Instead, the phrasebook must be regarded as the product of a copying, innovative, meticulous, German-speaking, professional scribe who was acutely aware of regional, stylistic and other differences and nuances in the Russian language around him, and who wanted to deliver an up-to-date phrasebook firmly rooted in an established tradition. Show less
The dissertation assesses the influence of British Celtic on the phonological development of English during and shortly after the Anglo-Saxon settlement period, ca. AD 450–700. By reconstructing... Show moreThe dissertation assesses the influence of British Celtic on the phonological development of English during and shortly after the Anglo-Saxon settlement period, ca. AD 450–700. By reconstructing and then comparing the phonological systems of both British Celtic and English at the time of contact, an independent assessment of the differences and similarities between the sound systems of the two languages is achieved. On this basis, the segments which were most likely to have been susceptible to change in a situation of language contact and language shift are identified. Evidence for change in English resulting from British Celtic influence is then sought in the medieval textual records. Numerous possible examples of phonological and phonetic change resulting from contact are identified in especially northern English dialects. These findings are interpreted in the context of other on-going research from linguistics and other disciplines. Show less
This thesis describes the use of an evolutionary linguistic approach in the study of language change in a series of case studies. The main purpose of this exercise is to get a better insight in the... Show moreThis thesis describes the use of an evolutionary linguistic approach in the study of language change in a series of case studies. The main purpose of this exercise is to get a better insight in the mechanisms that have played a role in the respective cases of change. Human language can be considered an evolutionary system. Speakers transmit linguistic utterances in communication and these utterances can be subject to both mutation and selection. As such, a person’s linguistic knowledge, based on the set of linguistic utterances he or she has encountered, might gradually change over time. In the case studies, computer models are used to simulate and investigate patterns in change, such as the tendency for words to change from lexical to functional meaning instead of vice versa and the one form-one meaning tendency. Another investigated pattern is the development of the Dutch verb ‘krijgen’, which shows a commonly found change from agentive to non-agentive meaning. Finally, a case study is presented in which the historic development of the verb ‘krijgen’ is reconstructed on the basis of synchronic variation in the use of the verb, using phylogenetic reconstruction methods Show less
Hittite was the language of the Hittite Empire that ruled over vast parts of Turkey from 1650 - 1180 BC. It was written in the cuneiform script on clay tablets. Linguistically, it belongs to the... Show moreHittite was the language of the Hittite Empire that ruled over vast parts of Turkey from 1650 - 1180 BC. It was written in the cuneiform script on clay tablets. Linguistically, it belongs to the Anatolian language group, which is one of the twelve branches of the large Indo-European language family. Within the Indo-European language family, Hittite is the oldest attested language. In over 1200 pages this dissertation describes the history of Hittite in the light of its Indo-European origin. It consists of two parts. Part One, 'Towards a Hittite Historical Grammar', contains a description of the Hittite phoneme inventory and a discussion of the sound laws and morphological changes that have taken place between the Proto-Indo-European and the Hittite language stage. Part Two, 'An Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon', contains etymological treatments of all Hittite words of Indo-European origin. One of the most important conclusions of this dissertation is that the Anatolian language group was the first one to split off from Proto-Indo-European and that all other Indo-European branches have undergone a period of common innovations. Therewith Anatolian, and especially Hittite, occupies a very important position within comparative Indo-European linguistics as it sometimes has retained linguistic information that has been lost in all other Indo-European languages Show less
