From N270053 at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Fri Dec 6 22:45:34 1996 From: N270053 at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Michael Montgomery) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 17:45:34 EST Subject: Max Muller Query Message-ID: The following quotation is from a short essay "Ulster Modes of Speech" by William Cowan that was published in _Chambers's Journal_ in 1912. I am trying to discover what publication, if any, of Max Muller's the author may be referring to: " ... it may be well to note that Professor Max Muller some years ago drew attention to the interest which attaches to Belfast vernacular partly derived from those English colonists who followed the Chichesters into Ireland, thus `linking Belfast idioms with the English of Chaucer and Shakespeare'." Any suggestions on where I might find what Muller may have written on the English language as spoken in Ireland would be greatly appreciated. Michael Montgomery Department of English University of South Carolina Columbia SC 29208 email: n270053 at vm.sc.edu From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Sat Dec 7 14:59:28 1996 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 09:59:28 EST Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, This is to let you know that I'll be away from my computer (i.e. out of town) December 9-17. Any messages you post to HISTLING before Monday 10 a.m. EST (= GMT -5) will be forwarded to the list. However, if your message arrives after that time, it won't be posted until December 17. I hope that this will not cause you too great an inconvenience. Dorothy Disterheft From fcosws at prairienet.org Sun Dec 22 23:51:39 1996 From: fcosws at prairienet.org (Steven Schaufele) Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:51:39 -0600 Subject: presence/absence of /a/ in PIE (fwd) Message-ID: (I'm posting this query in LINGUIST and the Indo-European lists as well. Apologies for duplication) Has anything been published since Lubotsky's 1989 paper on whether Proto-Indo-European had a low vowel (/a/)? I've just recently become concerned about this issue, but not being a phoneticist/phonologist have probably missed something. Best, Steven --------------------- Dr. Steven Schaufele 712 West Washington Urbana, IL 61801 217-344-8240 fcosws at prairienet.org http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html **** O syntagmata linguarum liberemini humanarum! *** *** Nihil vestris privari nisi obicibus potestis! *** From nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at Mon Dec 23 17:29:15 1996 From: nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at (Niki Ritt) Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 17:29:15 +0000 Subject: Workshop Announcement, Call for Contributions Message-ID: -------------------------------------------------------- Announcement of a Workshop to be held at ESSE/4 DEBRECEN September 30, 1996 -------------------------------------------------------- APPLYING HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS The Study of Historical English and Contemporary Society Converners: Olga Fischer, Amsterdam, Nikolaus Ritt, Vienna Theme and Aim of the Workshop The workshop is intended for colleagues engaged in the study and teaching of the history of the English language who are interested in reflecting on the current status of their discipline within the E uropean academic community. It seems to us that such reflection is necessitated by the fact that after a century or so during which historical linguistics represented one of the back bones of English studies, it has during the last two decades tended to become increasingly marginalised both within the English research community, and, maybe more radically, within university curricula. Part of the reason for this may be that, while the value of the historical enterprise is normally taken more or less for granted by those of us engaged in it, we are not used to making explicit what exactly it is that we think we are contributing both to the larger academic community we are part of and, in particular, to the education of our students. In that respect we tend to differ from colleagues in su ch neighbouring disciplines as socio-linguistics, discourse analysis or applied linguistics, for example, who have had to argue their way into the university curriculum in more recent years. Since we think that the historical discipline does have more to offer than is generally acknowledged, we feel it is time to raise, first of all, our own awareness in that respect. The workshop at ESSE 4 is intended to represent a first step in that direction and to deal with problems like the following: * Can the methods employed and/or the insights gained in the study of the history of the English language make genuine contributions to neighbouring disciplines whose social relevance is more immediately obvious? * Can knowledge about the history of dialectal variety and standardisation in English deepen our understanding of the role and social status of standard and non-standard varieties of present-day English, and our understanding of the nature of these varieties? * Do the factors underlying language change throw light on the way languages are acquired? More generally, what is the relationship between the theory of grammar and language change (or the theory of change)? Is the one subservient to the other, or should they be considered different disciplines? Should the same methodology be used for both? * To what degree is knowledge about past stages of English necessary for understanding the English cultural and particularly literary heritage? * Are there any particular cognitive skills that the study of historical linguistics helps to refine, and of what value would these skills be to students in their post-academic lives as, for example, teachers of English? All those problems relate - quite generally speaking - to the nature and justification of our discipline and should be discussed in the light of one central question: How might historical linguistics best be integrated in contemporary university curricula and what are the best methods for teaching the subject within a typical English Studies course? Structure of the Workshop and Modes of Participation Due to the time limit of 2 hours the workshop can only be productive if the discussion is already well under way by the time we get together. In our opinion this does not only preclude the reading of actual papers, but it also makes it rather unlikely that we'll get anywhere even by only discussing papers distributed among participants in advance. The workshop can only succeed, we think, if we u se it for summarising and rounding up a discussion that is more or less finished (and we mean: FINISHED!!) when we meet. - In order to make this possible we think the following procedure will be mos t adequate. First, every potential participant should decide if s/he wants to actively partake in the workshop or prefers just to listen. We greatly hope that for most of you the former will be the c ase - after all we are planning a workshop. Potential active participants should then send us abstracts for papers focusing on a topic related to the problem area outlined above. We shall then screen the abstracts and select a small number - i.e. nor more than ten - to be elaborated into short 'target papers'. The selection will not exclusively be made on grounds of quality but also in order to provide a range of 'target papers' which is representative with regard to both topics and different European backgrounds. 'Target papers' will then be distributed to all participants, and colleagues with abstracts on related topics will be asked to elaborate those into comments on and replies to the 'target papers'. These peer commentaries will again be distributed to all participants before the workshop. Thus, all participants will get a survey of open questions and controversial issues, as well as a chance to form their own opinions on them. At the actual workshop we can then try to settl e open questions and to resolve disagreements. In the (unlikely?) case that we all agree on everything and that all questions are solved by September, we can use the meeting to celebrate our consensu s and to pat each others' backs. Registration Colleagues wishing to participate in the workshop must register for ESSE/4 using the appropiate form supplied in The European English Messenger V/2 1996 and also availabe on eMail request from the convenors. Registration for the workshop itself can be informal and addressed to the convenors. Deadlines Colleagues should express their wish to participate in the workshop before the end of February, and indicate if they would like to write a target paper/commentary. Only participants thus registered will receive further circulars, the programme as well as the papers. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is March 31st. The deadline for the submission of target papers is June 10th. Commentaries should reach us before the end of July and will be distributed to all participants at the beginning of August. Contacts Olga Fischer Engels Seminarium / Universiteit van Amsterdam Spuistraat 210 / 1012 VT Amsterdam Holland phone: 020-5252825 eMail: Olga.Fischer at let.uva.nl Nikolaus Ritt English Department / University of Vienna Universitaetsstra=DFe 7 A-1010 Vienna AUSTRIA Phone: int. 43 1 40103 2064 Fax: int. 43 1 40 60 444 e-mail: nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at From dnurse at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Fri Dec 27 14:04:46 1996 From: dnurse at morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Derek Nurse) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 10:34:46 -0330 Subject: Workshop Announcement, Call for Contributions In-Reply-To: <199612231629.RAA33734@mailbox.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: A fine idea, examining the position of English histling in the late C20. But would you not consider expanding it? All of us who function as historical linguists, whether within English or not, must have been struck by the general decline in interest and role of historical linguistics in general. That would also be well worth while as a topic of duscussion: why, and what can we do? Derek Nurse From N270053 at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Fri Dec 6 22:45:34 1996 From: N270053 at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Michael Montgomery) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 17:45:34 EST Subject: Max Muller Query Message-ID: The following quotation is from a short essay "Ulster Modes of Speech" by William Cowan that was published in _Chambers's Journal_ in 1912. I am trying to discover what publication, if any, of Max Muller's the author may be referring to: " ... it may be well to note that Professor Max Muller some years ago drew attention to the interest which attaches to Belfast vernacular partly derived from those English colonists who followed the Chichesters into Ireland, thus `linking Belfast idioms with the English of Chaucer and Shakespeare'." Any suggestions on where I might find what Muller may have written on the English language as spoken in Ireland would be greatly appreciated. Michael Montgomery Department of English University of South Carolina Columbia SC 29208 email: n270053 at vm.sc.edu From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Sat Dec 7 14:59:28 1996 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 09:59:28 EST Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, This is to let you know that I'll be away from my computer (i.e. out of town) December 9-17. Any messages you post to HISTLING before Monday 10 a.m. EST (= GMT -5) will be forwarded to the list. However, if your message arrives after that time, it won't be posted until December 17. I hope that this will not cause you too great an inconvenience. Dorothy Disterheft From fcosws at prairienet.org Sun Dec 22 23:51:39 1996 From: fcosws at prairienet.org (Steven Schaufele) Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:51:39 -0600 Subject: presence/absence of /a/ in PIE (fwd) Message-ID: (I'm posting this query in LINGUIST and the Indo-European lists as well. Apologies for duplication) Has anything been published since Lubotsky's 1989 paper on whether Proto-Indo-European had a low vowel (/a/)? I've just recently become concerned about this issue, but not being a phoneticist/phonologist have probably missed something. Best, Steven --------------------- Dr. Steven Schaufele 712 West Washington Urbana, IL 61801 217-344-8240 fcosws at prairienet.org http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html **** O syntagmata linguarum liberemini humanarum! *** *** Nihil vestris privari nisi obicibus potestis! *** From nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at Mon Dec 23 17:29:15 1996 From: nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at (Niki Ritt) Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 17:29:15 +0000 Subject: Workshop Announcement, Call for Contributions Message-ID: -------------------------------------------------------- Announcement of a Workshop to be held at ESSE/4 DEBRECEN September 30, 1996 -------------------------------------------------------- APPLYING HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS The Study of Historical English and Contemporary Society Converners: Olga Fischer, Amsterdam, Nikolaus Ritt, Vienna Theme and Aim of the Workshop The workshop is intended for colleagues engaged in the study and teaching of the history of the English language who are interested in reflecting on the current status of their discipline within the E uropean academic community. It seems to us that such reflection is necessitated by the fact that after a century or so during which historical linguistics represented one of the back bones of English studies, it has during the last two decades tended to become increasingly marginalised both within the English research community, and, maybe more radically, within university curricula. Part of the reason for this may be that, while the value of the historical enterprise is normally taken more or less for granted by those of us engaged in it, we are not used to making explicit what exactly it is that we think we are contributing both to the larger academic community we are part of and, in particular, to the education of our students. In that respect we tend to differ from colleagues in su ch neighbouring disciplines as socio-linguistics, discourse analysis or applied linguistics, for example, who have had to argue their way into the university curriculum in more recent years. Since we think that the historical discipline does have more to offer than is generally acknowledged, we feel it is time to raise, first of all, our own awareness in that respect. The workshop at ESSE 4 is intended to represent a first step in that direction and to deal with problems like the following: * Can the methods employed and/or the insights gained in the study of the history of the English language make genuine contributions to neighbouring disciplines whose social relevance is more immediately obvious? * Can knowledge about the history of dialectal variety and standardisation in English deepen our understanding of the role and social status of standard and non-standard varieties of present-day English, and our understanding of the nature of these varieties? * Do the factors underlying language change throw light on the way languages are acquired? More generally, what is the relationship between the theory of grammar and language change (or the theory of change)? Is the one subservient to the other, or should they be considered different disciplines? Should the same methodology be used for both? * To what degree is knowledge about past stages of English necessary for understanding the English cultural and particularly literary heritage? * Are there any particular cognitive skills that the study of historical linguistics helps to refine, and of what value would these skills be to students in their post-academic lives as, for example, teachers of English? All those problems relate - quite generally speaking - to the nature and justification of our discipline and should be discussed in the light of one central question: How might historical linguistics best be integrated in contemporary university curricula and what are the best methods for teaching the subject within a typical English Studies course? Structure of the Workshop and Modes of Participation Due to the time limit of 2 hours the workshop can only be productive if the discussion is already well under way by the time we get together. In our opinion this does not only preclude the reading of actual papers, but it also makes it rather unlikely that we'll get anywhere even by only discussing papers distributed among participants in advance. The workshop can only succeed, we think, if we u se it for summarising and rounding up a discussion that is more or less finished (and we mean: FINISHED!!) when we meet. - In order to make this possible we think the following procedure will be mos t adequate. First, every potential participant should decide if s/he wants to actively partake in the workshop or prefers just to listen. We greatly hope that for most of you the former will be the c ase - after all we are planning a workshop. Potential active participants should then send us abstracts for papers focusing on a topic related to the problem area outlined above. We shall then screen the abstracts and select a small number - i.e. nor more than ten - to be elaborated into short 'target papers'. The selection will not exclusively be made on grounds of quality but also in order to provide a range of 'target papers' which is representative with regard to both topics and different European backgrounds. 'Target papers' will then be distributed to all participants, and colleagues with abstracts on related topics will be asked to elaborate those into comments on and replies to the 'target papers'. These peer commentaries will again be distributed to all participants before the workshop. Thus, all participants will get a survey of open questions and controversial issues, as well as a chance to form their own opinions on them. At the actual workshop we can then try to settl e open questions and to resolve disagreements. In the (unlikely?) case that we all agree on everything and that all questions are solved by September, we can use the meeting to celebrate our consensu s and to pat each others' backs. Registration Colleagues wishing to participate in the workshop must register for ESSE/4 using the appropiate form supplied in The European English Messenger V/2 1996 and also availabe on eMail request from the convenors. Registration for the workshop itself can be informal and addressed to the convenors. Deadlines Colleagues should express their wish to participate in the workshop before the end of February, and indicate if they would like to write a target paper/commentary. Only participants thus registered will receive further circulars, the programme as well as the papers. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is March 31st. The deadline for the submission of target papers is June 10th. Commentaries should reach us before the end of July and will be distributed to all participants at the beginning of August. Contacts Olga Fischer Engels Seminarium / Universiteit van Amsterdam Spuistraat 210 / 1012 VT Amsterdam Holland phone: 020-5252825 eMail: Olga.Fischer at let.uva.nl Nikolaus Ritt English Department / University of Vienna Universitaetsstra=DFe 7 A-1010 Vienna AUSTRIA Phone: int. 43 1 40103 2064 Fax: int. 43 1 40 60 444 e-mail: nikolaus.ritt at univie.ac.at From dnurse at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Fri Dec 27 14:04:46 1996 From: dnurse at morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Derek Nurse) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 10:34:46 -0330 Subject: Workshop Announcement, Call for Contributions In-Reply-To: <199612231629.RAA33734@mailbox.univie.ac.at> Message-ID: A fine idea, examining the position of English histling in the late C20. But would you not consider expanding it? All of us who function as historical linguists, whether within English or not, must have been struck by the general decline in interest and role of historical linguistics in general. That would also be well worth while as a topic of duscussion: why, and what can we do? Derek Nurse