This thesis discusses the earliest Iranian loanwords in Tocharian, a branch of two Indo-European languages spoken in Western China during the first millennium of our era, as well as an early... Show moreThis thesis discusses the earliest Iranian loanwords in Tocharian, a branch of two Indo-European languages spoken in Western China during the first millennium of our era, as well as an early stratum of so-called "BMAC" loanwords in Tocharian. Show less
Self-perceived word-finding difficulties are common in aging individuals as well as in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Language and speech deficits are difficult to objectify with neuropsychological... Show moreSelf-perceived word-finding difficulties are common in aging individuals as well as in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Language and speech deficits are difficult to objectify with neuropsychological assessments. We therefore aimed to investigate whether amyloid, an early AD pathological hallmark, is associated with speech-derived semantic complexity. We included 63 individuals with subjective cognitive decline (age 64 ± 8, MMSE 29 ± 1), with amyloid status (positron emission tomography [PET] scans n = 59, or Aβ1-42 cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] n = 4). Spontaneous speech was recorded using three open-ended tasks (description of cookie theft picture, abstract painting and a regular Sunday), transcribed verbatim and subsequently, linguistic parameters were extracted using T-scan computational software, including specific words (content words, frequent, concrete and abstract nouns, and fillers), lexical complexity (lemma frequency, Type-Token-Ratio) and syntactic complexity (Developmental Level scale). Nineteen individuals (30%) had high levels of amyloid burden, and there were no differences between groups on conventional neuropsychological tests. Using multinomial regression with lin- guistic parameters (in tertiles), we found that high amyloid burden is associated with fewer concrete nouns (ORmiddle (95%CI): 7.6 (1.4–41.2), ORlowest: 6.7 (1.2–37.1)) and content words (ORlowest: 6.3 (1.0–38.1). In addition, we found an interaction for education between high amyloid burden and more abstract nouns. In conclusion, high amyloid burden was modestly associated with fewer specific words, but not with syntactic complexity, lexical complexity or conventional neuropsychological tests, suggesting that subtle spontaneous speech deficits might occur in preclinical AD. Show less
De dissertatie analyseert de aard en structuur van een oud-Egyptisch merktekensysteem en onderzoekt de relatie van deze niet-linguïstische vorm van visuele communicatie tot het... Show more De dissertatie analyseert de aard en structuur van een oud-Egyptisch merktekensysteem en onderzoekt de relatie van deze niet-linguïstische vorm van visuele communicatie tot het linguïstische systeem van schrift. Ook worden merktekensystemen als universeel fenomeen, waar in onze eigen maatschappij nog volop gebruik van wordt gemaakt, geanalyseerd. Show less
The Central Chadic languages are a diverse and fascinating collection of languages, spoken in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The phonologies of these languages have intrigued linguists since they were... Show moreThe Central Chadic languages are a diverse and fascinating collection of languages, spoken in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The phonologies of these languages have intrigued linguists since they were first studied, due to their minimal sets of phonemic vowels (sometimes only one), complex systems of vowel harmony, and extensive use of palatalized and labialized consonants. Analysis of these languages led to the proposal of phonemic units referred to as ‘prosodies’, which act on both vowels and consonants, allowing Central Chadic phonologies to be described in a neat and succinct way. This study looks at the diverse phonological systems found within Central Chadic, and reconstructs the phonological system of their ancestor language. This system is itself simple and succinct, and includes one phonemic prosody and just three phonemic vowels. The study describes the phonological processes that led from this system to the many phonological systems that are in use today, shedding light both on the history of the languages, and on issues in the analysis of these languages. Show less
Accent Building is a course book that introduces the vowels and consonants as well the most important stress and intonation patterns of British English. Through small chunks of information and... Show moreAccent Building is a course book that introduces the vowels and consonants as well the most important stress and intonation patterns of British English. Through small chunks of information and short analysis and repetition exercises, students are, in a step-by-step fashion, urged to build their English accent. The target is understandable, natural and educated English. The tips and exercises aim primarily at making learners aware of the nature of sounds, and this course gives them the opportunity to practise their knowledge by listening to and imitating native speakers of English. A website with recordings of words, sentences and texts is part of this course. Furthermore, learners gain access to an online tool which measures the acoustics of their pronunciation and compares it with those of a native speaker model. By the end of the course, students will not only have improved their own pronunciation; they will also be more confident when teaching others English pronunciation at an advanced level. Show less
The Awjila language is a small Berber language spoken in the Libyan oasis of Awjila. It has several features that make the language different from other Berber languages, such as a phonemic accent,... Show moreThe Awjila language is a small Berber language spoken in the Libyan oasis of Awjila. It has several features that make the language different from other Berber languages, such as a phonemic accent, schwa in open syllables and the retention of the Proto-Berber *_ as v. This thesis consists of three parts: the grammar, the texts and the lexicon. The grammar is the main analytical part of this thesis, but could not exist without the in-depth study of the available Awjila texts and the lexicon. Due to the political situation in Libya, it was not possible to conduct fieldwork on the language. This thesis is therefore based on the published sources on the language. The texts and word list by Umberto Paradisi are the most important of these sources. The grammar contains a lengthy discussion on the interpretation and analysis of the transcription and phonology. This part give us many new insights into the interpretation of many factors of the language. Besides the phonology, the grammar also discusses the morphology of the noun and verb, and the syntax of the language. In the appendix all published Awjila texts have been included, provided with a phonemic transcription and a word-by-word analysis. This analysis is essential for the understanding of the language, and it is referenced extensively in the grammar. The lexicon contains all lexical material available to us on the Awjila language, with a new phonemic analysis of the transcriptions, and a full concordance of all the attestations of the words in its different grammatical forms in the available sources. The lexicon also contains some etymological notes, comparing Awjila to the other Berber languages which will aid future research into the linguistic history of Awjila and other Berber languages. Show less
This book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning,... Show moreThis book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning, which do not bear overtly expressed features to indicate grammatical functions. Linguistic tools traditionally used to distinguish between word classes do not work satisfactorily for this language. Certain lexical items and their position in a string of words serve as indicators of relationships between the words and determine the meaning they express. The preference for particular types of constructions and other combinatory abilities serve to limit the number of plausible interpretations and facilitate the determining of meaningful word constructions. The linguistic context and the non-linguistic situation determine the most appropriate interpretation of structures and the meaning they express. Various kinds of constructions are analyzed, described, and illustrated with examples from stories, told by a young Ternate Malay speaker. The word order, different types of possessive constructions, spatial orientation, and other linguistic topics of interest are described and discussed. The grammar aims to complement linguistic descriptions of Malay varieties in general, and particularly those in eastern Indonesia. The Ternate Malay texts and examples display spontaneous and naturally spoken Malay used as the daily language of communication in Ternate. The accompanying CD-rom contains texts with sound files and a Ternate Malay-English wordlist. Show less
Schrijven op berkenbast speelde in de middeleeuwen een wezenlijke rol in de communicatie en sociale organisatie van verschillende Russische steden, met name de stad Novgorod, gelegen ten zuiden van... Show moreSchrijven op berkenbast speelde in de middeleeuwen een wezenlijke rol in de communicatie en sociale organisatie van verschillende Russische steden, met name de stad Novgorod, gelegen ten zuiden van het huidige Sint-Petersburg. Dit boek laat aan de hand van een selectie van overgeleverde berkenbastbrieven zien hoezeer de schrijftraditie geïntegreerd was in het dagelijks leven. De korte mededelingen doen ons vaak denken aan hedendaagse e-mails of sms'jes. Ze waren bedoeld voor alledaagse communicatie over geld en macht, afspraken en conflicten, management en huishouden, ellende en liefde. Stemmen op berkenbast offers a compilation of personal letters written on birchbarck. It is an introduction to medieval communication in Russian Novgorod. BIC HB Show less
The Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic... Show moreThe Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic fundamentalists criticize Khayyæm as an atheist and materialist philosopher who questions God’s creation and the promise of reward or punishment in the hereafter, secularist intellectuals see in him an example of a scientist who scrutinizes the mysteries of the world. Others see a spiritual master, a Sufi, who guides people to the truth. This volume collects eighteen essays on the history of the reception of ‘Umar Khayyæm in various literary traditions, exploring how his philosophy of doubt, carpe diem, hedonism, and in vino veritas has inspired generations of poets, novelists, painters, musicians, calligraphers and film-makers. Show less
Ideas about language in Euripides include, among many others, the claim that “honourable speech is a medicine for man’s fear”; the observation that “no one can judge a case... before having learned... Show moreIdeas about language in Euripides include, among many others, the claim that “honourable speech is a medicine for man’s fear”; the observation that “no one can judge a case... before having learned both sides’ story”; and the notion that “a name may be in many places, but not a body”. It is among the commonplaces of modern Euripidean scholarship that such ideas straddle the chronological gap that separates the remote mythical era in which the dramas take place from the high classical period in which they were produced. As Euripides’ characters speak with sophistication about dissoi logoi, or about onomata and pragmata, they reinforce the image, familiar to us from the ancient biographies, of Euripides as a writer who is less inhibited by tradition than the other tragedians, and more ready than they to confront his audience with novel concepts and ideas. This dissertation seeks to complicate that image, by showing how Euripides uses his characters’ reflections about language to engage more or less critically, as the occasion demanded, with the thought of his intellectual contemporaries, the ‘sophists’, and with the embedding of that thought in Athenian socio-political practice. Show less
The present work, a grammar of Dhimal, fills an important void in the documentation of the vast and ramified Tibeto-Burman language family. Dhimal, a little known and endangered tongue spoken in... Show moreThe present work, a grammar of Dhimal, fills an important void in the documentation of the vast and ramified Tibeto-Burman language family. Dhimal, a little known and endangered tongue spoken in the lowlands of southeastern Nepal by about 20,000 individuals, is described in this detailed work. With data gathered over many years in the village of Āṭhiyābārī, the author crafts a readable description of the western dialect, using over 1000 examples to illustrate usage. Included in this reference work are seventeen texts transcribed from recordings made in Nepal, riddles, songs and a Dhimal-English glossary. This grammar of Dhimal joins other recent ground-breaking linguistic descriptions by researchers from the Himalayan Languages Project at Leiden University and will have lasting scientific value both for future scholars and for the Dhimal community in their efforts at preserving their language. Show less
Sunwar is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in eastern Nepal, in the districts of Okhaldhūgā and Rāmechāp, which are situated in an area called Kirant. The languages spoken in this region, also known... Show moreSunwar is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in eastern Nepal, in the districts of Okhaldhūgā and Rāmechāp, which are situated in an area called Kirant. The languages spoken in this region, also known as Kiranti languages. The language commonly known as Sunwar in English and as Sunuvār in Nepali, is called Koĩc by its native speakers. This description of the Sunwar language is based on data collected during twelve months of field work and contains a chapter with background information on the Sunwar language, its speakers and their culture, followed by chapters on the phonology, the indigenous writing system and the nominal and verbal morphology of Sunwar. Final chapters contain verb paradigms, glossed texts, a Sunwar-English glossary and bibliographical references. Two of the new discoveries depicted in this grammar pertain to the phonology and to the verbal morphology. Sunwar has no implosives anymore, but the language once had at least one implosive // as can be shown by a comparison of phonetic realisa¬tions of the former implosive // in different dialects. At an earlier stage, Sunwar had a biactantial agreement system typical for Kiranti languages. A comparison of the suffix conjugations of modern Sunwar with the older biactantial agreement system shows a regular relationship between the two systems. Show less
A revolution in language heralded the birth of modern science. Latin was replaced by formal languages, such as algebra, born of artificial notations and practical devices like new numerals. Frits... Show moreA revolution in language heralded the birth of modern science. Latin was replaced by formal languages, such as algebra, born of artificial notations and practical devices like new numerals. Frits Staal argues that some of the roots of that revolution lie in Asia. Show less
The present study comprises a classification and analysis of the syntax of the non-verbal clause in Qumran Hebrew, i.e. the linguistic variety (or varieties) found in the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls... Show moreThe present study comprises a classification and analysis of the syntax of the non-verbal clause in Qumran Hebrew, i.e. the linguistic variety (or varieties) found in the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls. The corpus consists of the non-biblical texts written in Hebrew; biblical texts and texts written in Aramaic are excluded. Chapter 1, ‘Introduction’ discusses methodological problems (approach, description) and provides an overview of non-verbal clause patters in variety of Semitic languages. Chapter 2, ‘A survey of previous research’, summarises the results of earlier research into specifically Biblical, Mishnaic and Qumran Hebrew. Chapter 3, ‘The non-verbal clause in Qumran Hebrew’ is the core of the present work, which offers an analysis of the syntax of the non-verbal clause (including the existential clause) in Qumran Hebrew. Chapter 4 contains the conclusions. A bibliography, a Dutch summary and a Curriculum Vitae are appended. Show less
This dissertation describes Thangmi, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in eastern Nepal, primarily in the districts of Dolakha and Sindhupalcok, as well as in Darjeeling district of West Bengal,... Show moreThis dissertation describes Thangmi, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in eastern Nepal, primarily in the districts of Dolakha and Sindhupalcok, as well as in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India. The grammar focuses on the Dolakha (Eastern) dialect of the language, although contrastive examples and specific features of the Sindhupalcok (Western) dialect are also discussed. While the Thangmi ethnic group number around 40,000, speakers of the language do not amount to more than 20,000. In terms of genetic affiliation, Thangmi appears to be closely related to Newar and Baram, which together form the ‘Newaric’ linguistic grouping. Thangmi is also related to the so-called ‘complex pronominalised’ Kiranti languages, which together with Newaric form the Mahakiranti group within Tibeto-Burman. The Thangmi refer to themselves as Thangmi, while shamans who are the sole religious practitioners in the community call themselves Thani. In Nepali the Thangmi community and their language continue to be referred to as Thami. This 862-page book contains a grammatical analysis of the Thangmi language, forty-five analysed texts with interlinear morpheme glosses and translations, a trilingual Thangmi-English-Nepali lexicon, a graphic representation of Thangmi kinship terminology and a comprehensive bibliography. The linguistic description is based on fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004 on a series of trips to Nepal and India. The grammar of Thangmi, which makes up the first third of the book, is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One deals with the changing historical classifications of Thangmi within the Tibeto-Burman language family, and particular attention is paid to lexical correspondences with Newar. Chapter Two offers an introduction to Thangmi culture and society, and addresses earlier research and scholarship on the Thangmi and their language. Thangmi toponyms, ethnonyms, clan names, kinship terms, mythology and history are all discussed in this chapter. Chapter Three deals with the Thangmi sound system and phonology, while Chapter Four addresses morphophonology. The fifth chapter focuses on nominal morphology, word classes and derivation. Thangmi nominals are characterised by a large number of postpositions. There is no grammatical gender in Thangmi and adjectives do not agree with the nominals they modify. A particularly interesting feature of Thangmi is the complexity of the verbal agreement system which is the subject of Chapters Six and Seven. Chapter Six offers a detailed morphological analysis of Thangmi simplex forms which are intransitive, transitive or reflexive verbal strings showing agreement with one or more actants and containing a tense morpheme. Complex verbal forms, including periphrastic constructions, imperative forms and other modals make up Chapter Seven. Gerunds along with the two intransitive verbs which correspond to the English verb ‘to be’ are also discussed in this final chapter. In common with other Tibeto-Burman languages, with the exception of Chinese and Karen, Thangmi exhibits SOV word order. Show less
Le présent travail est consacré à la phraséologie de la langue tchétchène, qui est parmi les thèmes les plus récents et moins étudiés de la linguistique nakh. Le sous-groupe nakh des langues ibero... Show moreLe présent travail est consacré à la phraséologie de la langue tchétchène, qui est parmi les thèmes les plus récents et moins étudiés de la linguistique nakh. Le sous-groupe nakh des langues ibero-caucasiennes comprend le tchétchène, l’ingouche et le bacbitien, parmi lesquelles la langue tchétchène est la plus répandue. Selon les données du recensement de l’année 2002, la République Tchétchène compte 1.031.000 habitants tchétchènes parlant leur langue maternelle. Ce nombre n'inclut pas les centaines de milliers de réfugiés qui vivent dans les régions différentes de la Fédération Russe et dans d'autres pays. Cette thèse de doctorat comprend une introduction et 6 chapitres. À la fin du travail sont donnés la conclusion, la liste de la littérature utilisée des sources écrites avec les unités phraséologiques de la langue tchétchène, ainsi qu'un index alphabétique des unités phraséologiques utilisées (1.569 unités phraséologiques, provenant de 184 oeuvres de 78 auteurs et d'autres matières). Show less
This book is a descriptive grammar of Lepcha, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Sikkim, Darjeeling district in West Bengal in India, in Ilam district in Nepal, and in a few villages of Samtsi... Show moreThis book is a descriptive grammar of Lepcha, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Sikkim, Darjeeling district in West Bengal in India, in Ilam district in Nepal, and in a few villages of Samtsi district in south-western Bhutan. The data for this study were collected during several sojourns amongst the Lepcha people in Kalimpong and Sikkim between 1994 and 1998. The grammar includes chapters on phonology, morphology, derivation and sentence particles, as well as morphologically analysed example sentences and texts, a bilingual glossary and an index. This grammar is the first modern description of the Lepcha language. Lepcha has no elaborate conjugational morphology. Nouns lack a grammatical gender distinction and show no agreement with articles, adjectives or verbs. There is no verbal agreement morphology and actants are not morphologically indexed in the verb. Tense, mood, aspect and other meanings of the verb are expressed by the use of postpositions and auxiliary verbs. Although Lepcha is unmistakably a Tibeto-Burman language, its exact position within Tibeto-Burman is still unclear. Whilst Lepcha may lack the formal complexity of some Himalayan languages, the interest of Lepcha morphology lies in the semantics of the grammatical categories expressed by the Lepcha repertoire of endings and auxiliaries. Show less
This is the first study that connects Septuagint research, mainly the domain of theologians, to insights from Translation Studies. Of the different approaches in TS I consider especially historical... Show moreThis is the first study that connects Septuagint research, mainly the domain of theologians, to insights from Translation Studies. Of the different approaches in TS I consider especially historical TS and the linguistic (or early) TS relevant for the study of the Septuagint. From a survey of views of language and translation in Antiquity it appears that the same differences of opinion existed among Greeks, Romans, Jews and Egyptians. The 'frontlines' between views of language and translation by no means coincided with religious borders. That there would exist 'a Jewish view of translation' prescribing literalness, as is commonly believed, is evidently mistaken. This myth in fact harks back to the anti-Jewish propaganda by the church father Jerome (Hieronymus). Many 'modern' insights in language and translation were common knowledge in Antiquity, albeit less systematic and in a different terminological garb. The chapters 4-6 consist of an analysis of the transformations (or 'shifts', changes in form or content that necessarily or intentionally occur in the process of translation). I analyzed the LXX translations of Genesis 2, Isaiah 1 and Proverbs 6. Before ascribing 'deviations' to the translator's ideology or to a different Hebrew Vorlage, one should of course first exclude the possibility that the deviation arose from translational factors. Every transformation has a cause, and by categorizing the rationales behind the transformations we can trace the translational hierarchy that guided the translator(s), consciously or unconsciously. The conclusions show that both Septuagint Studies and Translation Studies greatly profit from this cross-fertilization. Show less
