From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Tue Nov 5 16:58:05 1996 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 11:58:05 EST Subject: ICHL Circular Message-ID: The XIII International Conference on Historical Linguistics Dieter Stein, President, Int'l Society of Historical Linguistics Duesseldorf, Germany, August 10-17 1997 -SECOND CIRCULAR- Preparations for ICHL 1997 are now well in hand and it is time to give participants more information about the structure and pragmatics of the event. The third circular with more detailed information will be sent out in June 1997. Final program and abstracts volume will be available for registered conference participants at the registration desk. We are looking forward to greeting all of the conference participants in person, and we will continue to do everything possible to make the XIII ICHL in Duesseldorf a successful and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Best wishes, THE ORGANIZATION STAFF Jennifer Austin, Christine Gunia, Robert Rennecke, Monika Schmid, Dieter Stein, Michaela Zitzen CONTENTS OF THE SECOND CIRCULAR 1 ABSTRACTS 2 COMMUNICATION 3 SCHEDULE OF CONFERENCE EVENTS 4 INVITED SPEAKERS 5 WORKSHOPS 5.1 Typological change: Causes and courses 5.2 Functional categories and morphosyntactic change 5.3 Stability and variation in word-order patterns over time 6 EXCURSIONS 6.1 Wednesday excursion (1/2 day) 6.2 Saturday excursion (full day) 7 ACCOMMODATIONS 7.1 Sorat Hotel 7.2 Hotel Aida 7.3 Grand Hotel 7.4 Hotel Manhattan 8 STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS 9 EATING AND DRINKING 10 TRAVEL INFORMATION: GETTING TO DUESSELDORF 11 A NOTE ON CREDIT CARDS AND PERSONAL CHECKS 12 ABOUT OUR WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE 13 CONFERENCE FEES 13.1 Types of fees 13.2 Amount when prepaid 13.3 Amount when paid on-site 13.4 Payment Methods 13.5 Deadline for prepayment Appendix: REGISTRATION FORM -------------------1 ABSTRACTS------------------- Participants who have submitted an abstract will be notified about acceptance at the beginning of January. Participants should prepare for a deadline of 15 September 1997 for submitting the written versions of their papers. -------------------2 COMMUNICATION-------------------- We have been able to successfully communicate with most of you through the medium of email, and this will and should continue to be the unmarked mode of communication with the conference organizers. When contacting us for any reason, please be sure to use the email address, fax, etc. listed below: EMAIL ADDRESS: ICHL1997 at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de MAILING ADDRESS: Prof. Dieter Stein Anglistik III - Englische Sprachwissenschaft ICHL 1997 Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf Universitaetsstr. 1 D-40225 Duesseldorf Germany PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-811263 within Duesseldorf: 811263 Note: a special conference hotline will be installed during the conference at the registration desk. FAX: (+49) (0) 211- 8113026 -----------3 SCHEDULE OF CONFERENCE EVENTS----------- SUNDAY, 10 August Conference check-in and on-site registration from 2:00 PM until 9:00 PM at the Sorat Hotel (see 7.1 below for address) with an informal, cash bar gathering. On-site registration, check-in for latecomers, and conference office will be at the university from Monday 11 August onwards. MONDAY, 11 August Conference opening. From 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM full conference program. Reception by city and university in the evening. TUESDAY, 12 August Full conference program. Informal gathering in the evening. WEDNESDAY, 13 August Full conference program in the morning. First excursion begins after lunch at the university, a guided tour of Duesseldorf and boat ride on the Rhine to the attractive historical district of Kaiserswerth, an old Roman trading town. THURSDAY, 14 August Full conference program. Evening free for enjoying Duessel- dorf's world class shopping (stores are open later on Thur.). FRIDAY, 15 August Full conference program in the morning. Business meeting in the afternoon, followed by the conference dinner. SATURDAY, 16 August Full day excursion. An afternoon of big city fun in Cologne, including a visit to the awe-inspiring Cathedral, will follow a morning castle tour in the scenic countryside to the east of Duesseldorf. ------------------4 INVITED SPEAKERS------------------ Sylvia Adamson (Cambridge) Henning Andersen (UCLA) Kate Burridge (Melbourne) Wallace Chafe (Santa Barbara) Konrad Ehlich (Munich) Marvin Herzog (Columbia) Dieter Kastovsky (Vienna) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Marianne Mithun (Santa Barbara) Salikoko Mufwene (Chicago) David Olson (Toronto) Suzanne Romaine (Oxford) Brigitte Schlieben-Lange (Tuebingen) --------------------5 WORKSHOPS------------------- In addition to the regular program, which will also be partly structured along topical areas, three workshops will be held. All inquiries regarding these workshops should be made by CONTACTING THE WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS DIRECTLY. Also note that workshop participants are considered regular participants of ICHL, and that registration for the conference and payment of the basic costs (registration fee and conference fee) are required. 5.1 TYPOLOGICAL CHANGE: CAUSES AND COURSE Organizer: Raymond Hickey (Essen) EMAIL: r.hickey at uni-essen.de FAX: (+49) 201-183 3437 ADDRESS: Raymond Hickey Universitaet-GH Essen FB3 - Anglistik Universitaetsstr. 12 45117 Essen Germany 5.2 FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC CHANGE Organizer: Ans van Kemenade (Amsterdam) EMAIL: kemenade at wim.let.vu.nl FAX: (+31) (0) 204446500 ADDRESS: Dr. Ans van Kemenade Vrije Universiteit, Vakgroep Taalkunde/Engels De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam Netherlands 5.3 STABILITY AND VARIATION IN WORD-ORDER PATTERNS OVER TIME Organizer: Rosanna Sornicola (Naples) EMAIL: SORNICOL at cds.unina.it FAX: (+39) 81-55-26511 ADDRESS: Prof. Rosanna Sornicola Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Dipartimento di Filologia Moderna Via Porta di Massa 1 I-80133 NAPOLI ITALY --------------------6 EXCURSIONS------------------- 6.1 WEDNESDAY EXCURSION (1/2 Day): Cost: 25 DM or 17 USD (payment in USD only possible in advance!) After lunch at the university we will meet for a short bus ride to the Altstadt ("Old Town") for a guided tour of Duesseldorf. A boat ride on the Rhine brings us to Kaiserswerth, an old Roman trading town (now part of Greater Duesseldorf). Explore the well-preserved historical dis- trict and the Kaiserpfalz, old castle ruins. The remainder of the excursion will be more informal. Participants can meet in the Burghof to enjoy a glass of Altbier, a Duesseldorf beer specialty, and make dinner plans, choosing from the many attractive options in Kaiserswerth. Return time will be left open, as participants can swiftly and safely return to the heart of Duesseldorf by tram. Cost includes bus from university to city center, guided tour of Duesseldorf, and boat ride to Kaiserswerth. 6.2 SATURDAY EXCURSION (full day): Cost: 65 DM or 43 USD (payment in USD only possible in advance!) A taste of delightful countryside and dynamic city life, each with a rich historical tradition, is in store for you on this excursion. First stop is a guided tour of the well-preserved Schlossburg ("Burg Castle"). Enjoy the impressive views from the castle and from the suspended railcar as you ride down the steep hillside to the historical village of Unterburg, where lunch will be served. The second half of the tour starts at the world famous Cologne cathedral, after which there will be a few hours for exploring one of Cologne's numerous attractions (German-Roman Museum, Wallraff-Richartz Museum, and The Chocolate Museum are three of the many possibilities) before meeting for the return bus trip to Duesseldorf. Cost includes all mentioned means of transportation, guided tour of castle, entrance to Cathedral, and lunch. NOT included is the activity of your choice in Cologne, since this will vary from individual to individual. -------------------7 ACCOMMODATIONS------------------ Blocks of rooms at special rates have been set aside for conference participants at four major Duesseldorf hotels. ALL of the hotels: -are located conveniently between the city center and the university, which is at the southern end of the city, very close to the Rhine. -are able to be reached by public transportation in less than 15 minutes from the university AND the city center (including the world-famous Koenigsallee and the Altstadt). -have full breakfast buffet and en-suite facilities included in the rate. VERY IMPORTANT: the rates have been specially negotiated for the conference participants and are less than half of the normal charges. Since contingents are restricted for each hotel, please book your room directly with the hotel at the earliest possible time to make sure you get this rate. You MUST request the "ICHL 1997" rate. Participants make their own arrangments with the hotels. Book room by fax or letter only, include credit card information. CANCELLATION POLICY FOR HOTELS: Full refund until 15 May. After that date hotels are entitled to retain 80%. 7.1 SORAT HOTEL DUESSELDORF A modern, friendly, and stylish hotel. Business services and relaxation facilities such as sauna, work-out room, and solarium are available. All rooms have cable TV, radio, mini-bar, direct dial phones, hairdryers and make-up mirrors. ADDRESS: Volmerswerther Str. 35 40221 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-30220 within Duesseldorf: 30220 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-30225-55 RATES: 98 DM/single 126 DM/double 7.2 HOTEL AIDA The Aida, much like the Sorat in character, is modern, elegant, and family-owned. Sauna and solarium. All rooms equipped with a hairdryer, radio, cable TV and direct dial phone. ADDRESS: Ubierstrasse 36 40223 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-15990 within Duesseldorf: 15990 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-1599103 RATES: 128 DM/single 159 DM/double 7.3 GRAND HOTEL DUESSELDORF An elegant four star hotel. All rooms with direct-dial phones, mini-bar, cable TV with remote control, marble bathrooms. South Seas-style sauna area, secure parking. ADDRESS: Varnhagenstrasse 37 40225 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211 310800 within Duesseldorf: 310800 FAX: (+49) (0) 211 316667 RATES: 99 DM/single 120 DM/double 7.4 HOTEL MANHATTAN The mid-town atmosphere and absolutely central location of this quality hotel will appeal to the hip and young at heart. All doubles and most singles equipped with cable TV. All rooms have a radio and telephone. ADDRESS: Graf-Adolf-Strasse 39 40210 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-370244 within Duesseldorf: 370244 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-370247 RATES: 65 DM/single 110 DM/double ---------------8 STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS------------- A very limited number of student hostel rooms without break- fast for DM 290 (Sunday to Sunday) may be available on a first come first served basis for bona fide students. Must be pre-booked, non-refundable. Please contact us directly. ---------------9 EATING AND DRINKING----------------- BREAKFAST: At your hotel (included in room price, except in student hostel) LUNCH: WILL BE INCLUDED IN CONFERENCE FEE. Two menus will be offered daily (vegetarian and non-vegetarian). Participants may make their choice of menu on-the-spot. A beverage is also included. DINNER: will be on-your-own. A restaurant guide will be provided upon arrival. Do note that there will be a reception on Monday night and that you may choose to attend the conference dinner on Friday night. COFFEE BREAKS: included in conference fee. Cookies will be served along with coffee or tea from REAL cups (no plastic). SNACKS: a snack bar near to the conference rooms will be open, and there is a small convenience store on campus. -------10 TRAVEL INFORMATION: GETTING TO DUESSELDORF------- Explicit directions to the places you need to get to upon arrival will be included in the next circular, for general orientation purposes, you may find the links in our WWW home page to be very helpful. Lufthansa will be the official airline for the XIII ICHL. Their comprehensive global network links most major cities throughout the world to Frankfurt and/or Duesseldorf. Special airfares are available to registered conference participants and their accompanying persons. Please contact your nearest Lufthansa office, and kindly present your official registration and refer to code GGAIRLHKONG.600 The international airport in Duesseldorf is linked to an excellent and comprehensive public transportation system covering the whole city. The main train station can be reached in less than 15 minutes from the airport by a suburban railway line. It is safe and efficient. The main train station of Duesseldorf (Duesseldorf Hauptbahnhof) is well connected to both the German and European train network, not to mention the exten- sive local transportation network. ----11 A NOTE ON CREDIT CARDS AND PERSONAL CHECKS----- No personal checks (except Euro-cheques) are accepted anywhere in Germany. It is also advisable to carry more than one credit card. Any hotel or bank will cash trav- ellers cheques. Acceptance of credit cards is not quite as widespread as in the USA. ---------12 ABOUT OUR WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE--------- ADDRESS: http:// www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/ICHL1997/ichl1997.html All circulars will be available on our home page. Please understand that these pages are under construction. --------------------13 CONFERENCE FEES------------------- 13.1 TYPES OF FEES REGISTRATION FEE: is non-refundable, includes membership in the International Society for Historical Linguistics. CONFERENCE FEE: covers conference expenses, abstracts volume, and includes coffee breaks and lunches. The con- ference fee is not prorateable. On-site registration will add 40 DM to your total. A full refund will be possible until 1 August, after that 50 % will be refundable. BASIC COST: simply the combined total of the registration fee plus the conference fee. EXCURSION FEES: two excursions are planned, see "EXCURSIONS" for details. They may be paid for and reserved separately. Prepayment is not necessary for the excursions, but is highly recommended as the number of spaces will be limited. First come first served. CONFERENCE DINNER: to take place in an elevated location and in an elevated mood! Sign-up and payment for the conference dinner upon check-in (no prepayment). STUDENT RATES: A discount on the basic cost will be available for bona fide students, who will be required to present a valid student ID at check-in. As for all participants, prepayment will be financially advantageous. SPECIAL NOTE FOR PARTICIPANTS AFFILIATED WITH UNI- VERSITIES IN THE FORMER EAST BLOC NATIONS: The discounted student rate on the registration fee/ conference fee package will also be available to our colleagues affiliated with Eastern European universities. 13.2 AMOUNT WHEN PREPAID (DM = German marks, USD = US dollars) Please return your registration on the form attached at the very bottom of this message, indicating the package of your choice. The packages are described below, each showing regular and student amounts in both DM and USD. The basic cost (220 DM or 147 USD in advance) is simply the total of the registration fee (40 DM or 27 USD) plus the conference fee (180 DM or 120 USD in advance). Which excursions (if any) you choose to go on affects the price of the packages. PAYMENT IN USD IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN ADVANCE. PACKAGE ONE (basic cost, no excursions) until 1 May: 220 DM (regular), 120 DM (student) until 1 May: 147 USD (regular), 81 USD (student) PACKAGE TWO (basic cost and Wednesday excursion) until 1 May: 245 DM (regular), 145 DM (student) until 1 May: 164 USD (regular), 98 USD (student) PACKAGE THREE (basic cost and Saturday excursion) until 1 May 285 DM (regular), 185 DM (student) until 1 May 190 USD (regular), 124 USD (student) PACKAGE FOUR (basic cost, both Wed. and Sat. excursions) until 1 May 310 DM (regular), 210 DM (student) until 1 May 207 USD (regular), 141 USD (student) 13.3 AMOUNT WHEN PAID ON-SITE When paid on-site, the amount of the basic cost will be 40 DM more than the prepayment cost. The cost of the excursions is the same for pre-payment and on-site payment, pre-registering for the excursions insures you a place. PAYMENT IN USD IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN ADVANCE. PACKAGE ONE (basic cost, no excursions) after 1 May: (DM only): 260 DM (regular), 160 DM (student) PACKAGE TWO (basic cost and Wednesday excursion) after 1 May: (DM only) 285 DM (regular), 185 DM (student) PACKAGE THREE (basic cost, Saturday excursion) after 1 May: (DM only) 325 DM (regular), 250 DM (student) PACKAGE FOUR (basic cost, both Wed. and Sat. excursions) after 1 May: (DM only) 350 DM (regular), 250 DM (student) 13.4 PAYMENT METHODS We regret that we will not be able to accept ANY credit cards. The acceptable methods of payment are listed below. PAYING IN ADVANCE (prepayment): There are two ways of paying in advance, depending on whether you pay in USD or DM. Payment must be received by 1 May in order to receive the discount. After that date, on-site prices apply in all cases. PAYING IN ADVANCE IN USD (US dollars): write a personal check drawn on a US bank (must have both your name and account number printed on it by the bank) made out to "DIETER STEIN" (conference director). (See section 2 above for address) PAYING IN ADVANCE IN DM: transfer the appropriate sum in DM to the following account: Bank name: Deutsche Bank Duesseldorf Bank number (BLZ): 300 700 10 Account holder: Dieter Stein Account number: 817252001 PAYING ON-SITE: The basic cost when paying on site at the conference will be 40 DM more, as has already been mentioned, and will be CASH ONLY IN GERMAN MARKS (DM) ONLY. No credit cards or cheques of any kind (except Euro-cheques) will be accepted. Hotels will be happy to cash travellers cheques. 13.5 DEADLINE Payment must be received before 1 May for the pre- payment prices to apply. After that date, on-site amounts apply in all cases. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ REGISTRATION FORM To register: 1) Transfer (DM only) OR send by check (USD only) the sum corresponding to your package selection (see CONFERENCE COST/METHODS section above). 2) Make reservation with the hotel of your choice. This is entirely your responsibility (see ACCOMMODATIONS section above). 3) Complete the rest of this form by filling in the appropriate blanks and marking an "x" in the appropriate place below and return it to: ICHL1997 at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de The easiest way to accomplish this task may vary with your email program. A standard option is to use your "reply" function, fill in the blanks/mark the x's, and then send. You become officially registered and will receive notice of this fact upon receipt of payment. The name of your hotel is for our information in case we need to locate you during the conference, you are responsible for making reservations with the hotel. NAME: (fill in here, no titles, please) AFFILIATION: (fill in here) EMAIL: (fill in here) FAX: (fill in here) CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS: (fill in here) PACKAGE SELECTION: (mark an "x" next to choice) PACKAGE ONE, regular PACKAGE ONE, student PACKAGE TWO, regular PACKAGE TWO, student PACKAGE THREE, regular PACKAGE THREE, student PACKAGE FOUR, regular PACKAGE FOUR, student USD SENT BY CHECK: (fill in amount here) or DM TRANSFERRED TO DEUTSCHE BANK: (fill in amount here) I HAVE MADE RESERVATIONS IN THIS HOTEL: (fill in here) Thank you! _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ From pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk Wed Nov 6 11:50:12 1996 From: pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk (Penny Carter) Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 11:50:12 +0000 Subject: English Language and Linguistics Message-ID: Dear David Yes, we have at last mirrored on our NY site! I'm sure this sort of publicity for the journal is very worthwhile. Thank you. Regards, Penny At 9:42 am 6/11/96, David Denison wrote: >The new journal ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS (first issue May >1997) will have an important contribution to make in both present-day >English studies and English historical linguistics. Full details can >be found on our revised WWW pages, available at sites in the USA and >UK. Try either of the following > >(Europe) http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/Journals/JNLSCAT/ell/ell.html >(N. America) http://www.cup.org/Journals/JNLSCAT/ell/ell.html > >for a statement of policy and the names of editors and editorial >board members. There are instructions for contributors (including >style sheet), information for potential subscribers, and a new link >to an up-to-date list of forthcoming articles. > >Bas Aarts, David Denison and Richard Hogg > >Editorial e-mail address: ell at ucl.ac.uk > >_____________________________________________________________________ >David Denison | e-mail: d.denison at man.ac.uk >Dept of English and American Studies | tel: +44 (0)161-275 3154 >University of Manchester | fax: +44 (0)161-275 3256 >Manchester M13 9PL ______________| >UK. | http://www.art.man.ac.uk/english/davidd.html Penny Carter Journals Deputy Director pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk tel.+44(0)1223 325821 (direct) From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Sat Nov 9 17:01:10 1996 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 17:01:10 +0000 Subject: Expressive forms (long) Message-ID: The following message I have recently posted to the Nostratic list, as part of the discussion of the proper methodology for comparing languages which has been taking place on that list. But it occurs to me that the point raised here may be of more general interest to historical linguists. I would be interested to find out to what degree expressive forms of the type chiefly discussed below occur in other languages, and what problems they pose in historical work. **************************************************************** There has been some skepticism expressed on this list (and elsewhere) about the reality of what I have called "expressive forms" and about the validity of my policy of excluding such forms from any possible comparison with other languages when trying to establish a genetic link in the first place. In this posting, I'll try to explain what I mean by this term and show why I take the position I do. Everyone is familiar with words of purely onomatopoeic origin, such as English CLINK, BUZZ, MEOW, QUACK, WHOOSH, BOOM, TINKLE, HEE-HAW, COCK-A-DOODLE-DO, and few people would dream of trying to use such items as comparanda -- or so I hope. These names for noises are the most obvious type of what we might call "expressive forms", but they're not really what I have in mind. Somewhat more interesting are items which were originally coined as onomatopoeias but have acquired transferred senses. Among these are the numerous words in the world's languages of the form BER(BER), which were coined as imitations of the sound of boiling water but have been transferred to senses like `hot', `burn', `fire' and `cook'. At the very least, such items cannot be given full weight in comparisons, because they are treacherous, and it is for this reason that I have objected to the use of Basque BERO `hot' in remote comparisons. Another possible example is English OOMPH, which some scholars think may have originated as an imitation of the bellow of a mating bull. More certain is Basque TU `spit, saliva', whose origin as an onomatopoeia for the sound of spitting is surely too obvious to need pointing out. This too has been compared with similar words in other languages, entirely improperly, since all such words doubtless have the same origin. Also certain is the English verb SLURP, derived from a name for the sound. More interesting again are words obtained by some kind of playful alteration of existing words. This process does not appear to be prominent in English, but consider French. Spoken French uses a large number of playful alterations: AMERICAN becomes AMERLO, APERITIF becomes APERO, LES INVALIDES becomes LES INVALOCHES, NUDISTE becomes NUNU, SAC is inverted to KEUS, FEMME is inverted to MEUF, and so on. Some of these remain confined to vernacular styles, while others, like APERO, almost seem to have driven their source words out of the language. The French formations, being recent, present no problems to etymologists, but ancient examples of the same type may be more difficult to identify. Basque provides an excellent example. As a general rule, word-forming prefixes are absolutely wanting in Basque. But we find a curious little group of words which exist in two very different forms. Here are some examples: UDARI `pear', MADARI `pear' GAKO `hook', MAKO `hook' HEGAL `wing', MAGAL `wing' It is clear that, at some time in the distant past, there was in Basque a process by which the morph MA- could be attached to the beginning of a word to produce some kind of playful or expressive variant. The process is long dead, and we can no longer recover the original function of MA-addition, but we may be confident that the forms with initial MA- are secondary, and hence that they are unavailable for comparison. Since Pre-Basque had no phoneme /m/ in lexical items, it may well be that the very rarity of this consonant favored its use in expressive variants. The detection of this ancient process has a further consequence: *any* Basque word with initial MA- for which no secure etymology is available should be treated with suspicion, since it might well be in origin just such an expressive variant of an earlier word now lost. Yet those whose work I have criticized do not hesitate to adduce such words as comparanda, and indeed MAGAL itself has been invoked in a comparison -- though in this case, compounding error with error, the word was cited as `belly', a meaning it does not have, apparently resulting from a misinterpretation of the Spanish gloss meaning `lap' (the development of the sense is roughly `wing' > `edge' > `hem' > `lap'). But the most dramatic and interesting cases of expressive forms are words which appear to have been coined more or less out of thin air because of their appealing sound. English does this much less frequently than some other languages, but we none the less have examples like PIZAZZ, GUNGE, GOO, ZAP, SHAM, WHAMMY, BLOB, WHIFF, and of course the celebrated BLURB. A particularly interesting set is represented by Middle English TINE, which was converted by the Great Vowel Shift into TINY, which has more recently been joined by the expressive coinages TEENY, TEENSY and TEENSY-WEENSY. The embarrassment of lexicographers and etymologists with these words is patent, and they sometimes prefer wild guesses to an admission of defeat, as with SHAM, sometimes linked to SHAME on the basis of zero evidence. A few of these may have some kind of vague source, such as GLOB, thought to have something to do with GLOBE and BLOB. Many other languages do this far more frequently than does English, and Basque is a language in which such formations have clearly been very frequent indeed, probably throughout the history and prehistory of the language. And these are precisely the expressive forms I usually have in mind in dismissing a proposed comparison as immediately untenable on the Basque side. In English, such expressive items often have forms which are not conspicuously different from the forms of ordinary lexical items, though they do often tend to have meanings in particular semantic areas, such as `mucky stuff' and `devastating action'. In Basque, however, in which we generally lack the kind of historical testimony available for English, we are fortunate that such expressive forms tend strongly to have highly distinctive phonological forms, quite different from those of ordinary lexical items, while they too tend to have meanings in certain semantic domains. Thus, even in the absence of explicit records, we can *usually* manage to identify such formations with some confidence -- and such formations clearly have no business being included in a remote comparison. Here are some of the characteristics of expressive forms in Basque. No single word shows all of them, or even most of them, but I wouldn't normally venture to class a word as an expressive form unless it showed several of them. 1. Frequency of /m/, both initially and medially. 2. The specific form /mVPV(-)/, where V is any vowel and P is any voiceless plosive, or /mVSPV(-)/, where S is any sibilant. 3. Frequency of palatal consonants, especially TX and X and especially in initial position. 4. Initial (and sometimes final) voiceless plosives. 4a. The specific form PVPV(-), where both consonants are voiceless plosives. 5. Unusual clusters. 6. Initial clusters. 7. Unusual length (four or more syllables). 8. Reduplication (partial or total) (very often with initial /m/ in the second occurrence). 9. Unusual variation in form (not parallel to the variation observed in ordinary lexical items). 10. Unusual range of seemingly unrelated meanings. 11. One of several identifiable semantic domains: Physical and moral defects; Noises and noise-making objects; Varieties of movement or activity; Conspicuous meteorological phenomena; Small creatures (creepy-crawlies, insects, fish, birds, other arthropods, small reptiles and mammals); Sexual terms; Names of unpleasant substances; Words for projections and extremities. (This last is perhaps a little more unexpected than the others, but there appear to be a number of examples.) 12. Confinement to one area of the country. 13. Notable regional preference for particular shapes. Now these phonological properties are simply not exhibited by ordinary indigenous lexical items, even when they fall into a relevant semantic domain, and hence words exhibiting them are almost certainly of expressive origin, providing we can rule out other sources, such as borrowing. Not all these features are equally significant. In particular, properties (2) and (4a) are, even on their own, virtually decisive, since ordinary indigenous words absolutely never have such a shape. Now consider a case like PINPIRIN `butterfly'. This word has not only been cited in remote comparisons, it has even been cited by Bengtson and Ruhlen as continuing their putative "Proto-World" root *PAR `fly' (verb). But this word exhibits very many of my features. It has property (4) (initial voiceless plosive), property (5) (strange cluster /np/, not found in ordinary lexical items), property (9) (unusual variation in form: PINPIRIN(A), PINPILIN, PINPILINPAUXA, and others, not comparable to ordinary words), property (10) (unusual range of meanings, including `butterfly', `garfish', `bud'), property (11) (insect name), property 12 (entirely confined to one small corner of the country, all other regions having quite distinct words for `butterfly', often also expressive), and property (13) (this region strongly favors expressive formations in PIN- and PAN-, which are rare elsewhere). We may therefore safely conclude that this is an expressive formation, especially since initial /p/ is categorically absent in indigenous lexical items. Or consider POTORRO `vulva', also adduced in long-range comparisons. This at once shows both initial /p/ and the decisive property (4a), the PVPV(-) shape. It cannot possibly be indigenous. Moreover, this is a sexual term (property 11), and it exhibits an almost astronomical number of variant forms differing in ways not paralleled by ordinary words: POTORRA, POTORRO, POTOTA, POTTOTTA, POTOTINA, POTTA, POTTOA, POTTORRA, POTTOTINA, POTTOTTA, POTTOTTO, POTXA, POTXIN, POTXOLA, POTXOLINA, POTXONA, POTXOR, POTXOTXA, POXPOLINA, and probably others. This is an expressive formation, and it can't be invoked in comparisons. Another word which has been cited in comparisons is MUTUR `snout, extremity'. This is one of the `extremity' words mentioned above, and it has the shape MVPV(-), which, outside of loan words, points categorically to an expressive origin. Moreover, it has a variant MUSTUR, and such variation in form is typical of expressive forms but absolutely unknown in ordinary words: Basque ZATI `segment' does not have a variant *ZAZTI, nor does BAZTER `edge' have a variant *BATER. Unless it's a loan word (which is possible), this is an expressive form; in any case, it has no business being adduced in comparisons. Also adduced in comparisons are KUKUR and TUTUR, both `crest' (on a bird or animal). But these are categorically identified as expressive forms by their shape PVPV(-); they appear to be reduplicated; they are `extremity' words; they may even be the same item in origin, in which case they show a type of variation unknown in indigenous words. The great majority of expressive formations in Basque are easy to recognize by these criteria. Such words as ZIRIMIRI `drizzle', ZURRUMURRU `whisper, rumor, gossip', KARRAMARRO `crab', ARMIARMA (and many variants) `spider', TRIKI-TRAKA `toddling', TXIKILI-TXAKALA `coitus', MARA-MARA `steadily, continuously, smoothly', MAKAR `the crud you rub out of your eyes in the morning', TXISTMIST (and several variants) `lightning', ZARRAMARRA `trash', KOKO `larva infesting maize', AIKOMAIKO `pretext, excuse', and many hundreds of others are so obviously expressive formations that there is nothing to discuss. Basque has one particularly interesting class of expressive forms with especially distinctive properties. This is the class of adjectives denoting physical or moral defects. They all begin with the expressive consonant /m/, and they are usually two syllables long (sometimes three). Here are just a few examples of what is a rather large group: MOTEL `weak, insipid', MATZER ~ MATXAR `deformed, twisted, defective', MAZKELO `clumsy', MAZKARO `blackened, dirty', MAKAL ~ MAZKAL ~ MASKAL `weak, feeble, sick', MOKOR `perverse', MOZKOR ~ MOXKOR `squat, stout, fat; drunk', MUTZULU `wild, savage, unsociable', MIXKIRI `envious', MOTROTX `stocky, plump', MOTZOR `crude', MUKER `unsociable, arrogant', MUKUR `clumsy, crude', MUTXIN `angry', MALMUTZ `fat, obese; tricky, shrewd', MAKUR `twisted, crooked', MIRRIN `shriveled, scraggly', MALTZUR `dishonest'. Any given word is usually confined to a certain part of the country, but every region has a number of these formations. These words have no source, and it appears that this pattern has long been available for coining new words in the relevant semantic domain. Such words cannot be invoked in comparisons, and that is the end of it. Naturally, not every case is beyond dispute. The three words for `hail', BABAZUZA, KAZKABAR and TXINGOR, illustrate the defining features less well than my other examples, but on balance they are more likely to be expressive forms than not. The word for `ant', INHURRI ~ TXINGURRI ~ TXINAURRI (and other variants) cannot with certainty be regarded as an expressive form, but the bizarre regional variation in form nevertheless points strongly to an expressive origin. Loan words may accidently present many of my features. For example, MUKU ~ MUKI `mucus' and MIKA `magpie' qualify rather well as expressive forms, but we can nonetheless be sure they are loans from the synonymous Latin MUCU and PICA. Particularly interesting is KIRIKIN~O `hedgehog'. This looks for all the world like an expressive form, but it seems impossible to separate this word from the synonymous Latin ERICINEU, which might readily have been borrowed as *IRIKIN~O, and it rather looks as if the Basques borrowed the word and then added an initial /k/ in order to make the word look more like a typical expressive form. The point of all this is that Basque possesses an exceedingly large number of words of purely expressive origin, words that have been coined more or less out of thin air because of their appealing sound. In most cases, these items can be securely identified by appealing to the criteria I have listed, some of which are almost totally decisive. Such words have absolutely no business being adduced in comparisons. Therefore, when I reject a comparison involving one of these words, as I very often do, I am not just pig-headedly flinging the label `expressive form' around as a kind of magical curse to get rid of impressive-looking matches that offend my determination to keep Basque isolated: I have very good reasons for rejecting the comparison. Surely nobody would dream of trying to use English TEENSY in a remote comparison, and Basque cannot be an exception to the ordinary standards of good practice in comparative work. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From mcv at pi.net Mon Nov 11 09:59:43 1996 From: mcv at pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 01:59:43 PST Subject: Expressive forms Message-ID: An excellent overview of what constitute "expressive forms" in Basque, but no doubt applicable to any other language as well, "mutatis mutandis" of course. As further examples of expressive formations in Basque, involving mainly reduplication and m- (criterion 8), the following list was compiled by my University Basque teacher in Leiden, Rudolf P.G. de Rijk (the Basque is Gipuzkoan dialect, any English translation errors are mine): duda "doubt" duda-mudak "doubts" ixilka "quietly" ixilka-mixilka "whispering, secretly" zearka "sideways" zearka-mearka "round-about" tarteka "with intervals" tarteka-marteka "in spare moments, now & then" zeatz "precisely" zeatz-meatz "with all detail" esan "to say" esamesak "chit-chat, gossip" zoro "crazy" zoro-moro "like crazy" kako "hook" kako-makoak "clevernesses, sophisms" zalantza "doubt" zalantza-malantzean "in case of doubt" asi "to start" asi-masiak "first principles" zirika "stinging" zirika-mirika "giving little pushes" iritzi "opinion" iritzi-miritzi (ari) "to criticize" txiri "curl" txiri-miri "bagatelle" autu "conversation, fable" autu-mautuak "tales, stories" inguratu "to walk around" ingura-mingura "beating about the bush" ondar "dregs, deposit" ondar-mondarrak "rests, remains" cases where there is no simplex form (some already given by Larry): zirimiri "drizzle" zurrumurru "rumour" txutxumutxu "whispering" txirrimirri "odd job; busybody" zirkimirki "slightly angry" izkimizki "gossip, slander" urkumurku "having bad intent" >Basque has one particularly interesting class of expressive forms with >especially distinctive properties. This is the class of adjectives >denoting physical or moral defects. They all begin with the >expressive consonant /m/, and they are usually two syllables long >(sometimes three). Here are just a few examples of what is a rather >large group: MOTEL `weak, insipid', [etc.] What about MUTIL, MOTEL `boy, young man'? Is it the same word? ------------------------------------- Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv at pi.net ------------------------------------- From glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Tue Nov 12 03:45:35 1996 From: glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu (GLAC) Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 19:45:35 -0800 Subject: GLAC-3 announcement #2 Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS PLEASE POST The Department of Germanic Languages of The University of California, Los Angeles is pleased to announce GERMANIC LINGUISTICS: THE THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE The Conference of the Society for Germanic Philology APRIL 25 - 27, 1997 Abstracts are hereby invited for thirty-minute papers in all areas of linguistics dealing with any Germanic language, past and present, and especially those in: sign based approaches cognitive approaches approaches dealing with generative grammar a new philology indo-european linguistics. All abstracts will be evaluated anonymously, by a panel of reviewers. This submission procedure may be supplemented, but not replaced, by electronic mail submission. Please send: -- Five hard copies of a one-page abstract (font size no smaller than 10), double-spaced; on 8.5x11 inch or A4 paper. On the abstract include the title of the proposed paper but DO NOT include the author's name. -- A three-by-five inch index card with the following information: the title of the paper; author(s) name(s), title(s), academic affiliation(s), and preferred form of address; contact address(es) postal service and electronic mail, if available; telephone and fax numbers. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 1 DECEMBER 1996 Organizers: C.M. Stevens (310) 206-4948 and R.S. Kirsner (310) 206-4111, Germanic Languages, UCLA SEND MATERIALS TO: GLAC3 Conference Committee Department of Germanic Languages 2326 Murphy Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1539 E-MAIL: GLAC3 at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU From lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Mon Nov 18 19:09:04 1996 From: lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Lora Lee) Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 15:39:04 -0330 Subject: RUKI Rule Message-ID: I am investigating the conditioning environment which triggered the shift of PIE alveolar /s/ to palatal, retroflex or velar /s/ in Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic. That is - following either an /r/, /u/, /k/ or /i/. I am interested in both the diachronic shift and the synchronic morpho-phonemic variation occuring in Sanskrit. I am looking for any examples of similar diachronic shifts or synchronic variants in a NON-Indoeuropean Language. Any help would be appreciated. Linda Longerich Memorial University of Newfoundland lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Lora Lee *********************************************************** "I say guilt and innocence are a matter of degree and what is justice to you might not be justice to me" -Ani Difranco *********************************************************** From glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Mon Nov 25 05:34:39 1996 From: glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu (GLAC) Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 21:34:39 -0800 Subject: GLAC-3 Extended Deadline for Conference Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS PLEASE POST ~~~~~~~~~~ DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 20 DECEMBER 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Department of Germanic Languages of The University of California, Los Angeles is pleased to announce GERMANIC LINGUISTICS: THE THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE The Conference of the Society for Germanic Philology APRIL 25 - 27, 1997 Guest speakers: Wolfgang Dressler, the Univ. of Vienna Heinz Giegerich, the Univ. of Edinburgh Jan-Wouter Zwart, the Univ. of Groningen Abstracts are hereby invited for thirty-minute papers in all areas of linguistics dealing with any Germanic language, past and present, and especially those in: sign based approaches cognitive approaches approaches dealing with generative grammar a new philology indo-european linguistics. All abstracts will be evaluated anonymously, by a panel of reviewers. This submission procedure may be supplemented, but not replaced, by electronic mail submission. Please send: Five hard copies of a one-page abstract (font size no smaller than 10), double-spaced; on 8.5x11 inch or A4 paper. On the abstract include the title of the proposed paper but *do not* include the author's name. A three-by-five inch index card with the following information: the title of the paper; author(s) name(s), title(s), academic affiliation(s), and preferred form of address; contact address(es) postal service and electronic mail, if available; telephone and fax numbers. ********** SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 20 DECEMBER 1996 ************ Organizers: C.M. Stevens (310) 206-4948 and R.S. Kirsner (310) 206-4111, Germanic Languages, UCLA SEND MATERIALS TO: GLAC3 Conference Committee Department of Germanic Languages 2326 Murphy Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1539 E-MAIL: GLAC3 at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU ........................................................................ glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Electronic mailbox for the 3rd annual Germanic Linguistic in America Conference From ibirks at pratique.fr Mon Nov 25 12:55:47 1996 From: ibirks at pratique.fr (Ivan BIRKS) Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:55:47 +0100 Subject: PIE *kap/*ghabh Message-ID: Proto-Indoeuropean specialists differ on the origins of germanic and romance haben/habere. Whilst many claim that English HAVE and Latin habere are cognate, some (eg Watkins, Pokorny) suggest that HAVE comes from a perfective form of the PIE form *KAP (grasp) whereas HABERE comes from *GHABH (give or receive). Does anyone where I could find out more about: - the conventional wisdom/ debate on this distinction (and others like it)? - what significance this distinction might have in terms of our understanding of the modern forms? - what significance it might have in terms of our understanding of proto-language 'reconstruction'? My main interest is as follows- given that HAVE and Romance AVOIR, HABER, AVERE, etc. maintain certain characteristics of the proto-form (although some might dispute the nature/ direction of the causal relationship), what differences in their modern usage might be attributed to a difference in their root forms. Thanks in advance, Ivan BIRKS Universit=E9 de Paris III From mcv at pi.net Tue Nov 26 10:36:43 1996 From: mcv at pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 02:36:43 PST Subject: Some half baked ideas Message-ID: Dear historical linguists, The following are three (slightly edited) articles of mine, posted in the last few weeks on sci.lang and/or sci.archaeology. I think some of the ideas are at least original, although I unfortunately have had neither the time nor the means to look for references or do a more solid investigation. I thought it would be interesting to try these ideas out on HISTLING, to see what your reactions are. Dead ends? Worth investigating further? References? Any comments would be most welcome. ======================================= The Etruscan-Phoenician Pyrgi Bilingual ======================================= [discussion on Woudhuizen's "decipherment" of the Lemnos stele] I'm not convinced of the translation given by Woudhuizen in "Lost languages", but I have no alternatives to offer. I really don't understand the Lemnos stele too well. In the same book, Woudhuizen also tackles the Pyrgi bilingual, three golden plaques from Pyrgi (Caere), one bearing an inscription in Phoenician, two in Etruscan. The Pyrgi bilingue I know better. The Phoenician text says something like: "To the lady Astarte. This is the holy place that Thefarie Velianas, king of Caere has made and given, in the month of offerings to the Sun, as his private gift (consisting of) the temple and its [enclosure?]. Because Astarte has favoured her faithful in the three years of his kingship, in the month of Dances [KRR], on the day of the funeral of the Goddess. And may the years of the statue in her temple be the years of the stars here." Woudhuizen translates the Etruscan as: A. This temple and this statue, Thefarie Velianas, legislator of the senate (and) people, has built (it) for the Lady Astarte and has given the temple-complex(?) to her during (the month) Cluvenia on account of two obligations: because she has favoured (him) on land: in the third year (of his reign), (during the month) KRR, on the day of the funeral of the Goddess, (and) because she has favoured (him) at sea: during the praetorship of Artanes (and) the sultanate of Achasveros (=Xerxes). And may whatever (number) of stars yield to (whatever number) of years for this statue. B. Thefarie Velianas has built the precinct for the Goddess Athena (and) has offered (it) as a sacrifice during the month of offering(s) to the Sun. May whatever (number) of stars be sporadic as compared to whatever (number) of years for this temple." This is what I make of the Etruscan: A. ita tmia this temple ica-c heramasva and this statue vatieche have been dedicated unialastres to Uni-Astre themiasa "caring for" (= curator, "curating"?) mech thuta res publica Thefariei Velianas Thefarie Velianas sal Sol?? cluvenias offerfeast ? (cleva=gift, offering [see B]) turuce he gave munistas thuvas of his own gift (thuv- = own [*]) tameresca temple building? (tam-eresca ~ tm-ia, cf. IE *dom-?) ilacve as well as ? tulerase enclosure? (tular=border) nac ci avil as three years churvar Churvar (month) (cf. Phoenician KRR) tes'iameitale ? she favours him ? ilacve as well as ? als'ase ? nac as atranes ? zilacal of the "zilac" (= praetor) seleitala ? of the goddess ? acnasvers funeral? cremation? (verse=fire) itani-m and so heramve avil the statue('s) year(s) eniaca just-like pulum-chva the star-count (-chva is collective suff.) II. nac so thefarie veliiunas Thefarie Velianas thamuce cleva made a gift etanal on the idus ? masan Masa (a month) tiur month unias to Uni s'elace he dedicated vacal (his) offering ? tmial of the temple avil-chval of? the year-count amuce may it be? (-ce = aorist imperative?) pulum-chva star-count snuiaph great-er (-aph=comparative)? I'm not claiming this is a full translation of the Pyrgi texts, and the middle part of A is still very obscure, but I'm afraid dragging in Xerxes and his uncle doesn't help much. I think A and the Phoenician plaque *are* bilinguals, although it's obviously not a word-for-word translation of one into the other. B seems like a "reader's digest". [*] Woudhuizen translates thuvas as "two", just like Zacharie Mayani in his hilarious book "The Etruscans Begin to Speak" (Etruscan=Albanian!). Woudhuizen should know better: "thu" is "1". Pity of IE *dwo:, but that's just the way it is. But why "his own"? The following funerary inscription (TLE 619) should explain: "cehen suthi hinthiu thues' sians' etve thaure lautnes'cle caresri aules' larthial precathuras'i larthialisvle cestnal clenaras'i ..." Beekes translates: "This subterranean tomb for the first father [etve?] for the family grave has been built by Aule and Larth of the Precu family, sons of Larth and Cestnei ..." "The first father" (thues' sians') makes no sense (neither would Woudhuizen's "second" father). "Their own father (pater suus)" fits much better, like it fits to translate "munistas thuvas" as "own (private) gift" in the Pyrgi inscription (for "munistas" cf. Latin munus, muneris (*munes-) "service, tax, gift"). ================================================================= Further comments: I have no Phoenician at all, so I'm relying on the two (different) translations given by Beekes "De Etrusken spreken", 1991, and Best/Woudhuizen "Lost Languages from the Mediterranean", 1989. I'm none too sure about the Italicisms "sal" and "munistas" and the Phoenicism "churvar", but they just fell into their slots by treating the text as a real bilingual (as in: the Phoenician says SH-M-SH, so where is it in Etruscan?) ================================================================= =================== Armenian plural -k` =================== [discussion of IE numerals, Armenian c`ork` "4"] The real mystery is that in Armenian, initial s-, medial -s- and final -s normally drop (there are a few cases of initial h- derived from s-, which suggest that /h/ was the intermediary stage). A good example is the word *snusos "daughter-in-law", which becomes in Armenian, genitive (*snusosio > *(h)nu(h)o(h)i(o)). The final -s of the nominative sg. and the genitive sg. has been lost. But the plural -s (also in verbal endings -mk` (*-mos) , -yk` (*-tes)) remains as -k` (i.e. aspirated /k/). Why? Many explanations have been offered: the -k` is a (non-IE?) suffix quite unrelated to -s, the -k` is a "reinforcement" of final -h under grammatical pressure to maintain the distinction between sg. and plural, etc. None of it too convincing. [Reference: C. de Lamberterie BSL 74, 1979]. The only solution I can think of is that final -s after (long) -u- (in the u:-stems and the o-stems [*o:s> us]) became labialized *sw, and spread from there to the other nouns. We know that all labialized voiceless consonants (*sw, *tw, *kw) merged into *kw in Armenian, and give k` [or palatalized c`] (e.g. k`oyr < *swesor "sister", k`un < *swopnos "sleep"; k`an < *kwam "than", c`ork` < *ketwores; k`ez < *twe-ghe "you (acc.)"). It is interesting to note that a /k/ (unaspirated k, usually corresponding to PIE *g) appears before suffixed -n in some nouns such as jukn /dzukn/ "fish" (*ghdhu:s), mukn "mouse" (*mu:s), armukn "elbow" (*arHm-us?) unkn "ear" (*(a)us-, pl. akanj^k` < *), cf. akn "eye" (*okw-: one would expect *ak`-n). Other u(:)-stems appear as pluralia tanta (mawruk` "beard" (*smakru-), srunk` "shin" (*kru:s)). Finally, there are some cases of -s > -r in Armenian (vb. 2sg. pret. -ir, -er, certain -u stems like asr "fleece", t`anjr "thin"), maybe through *zw > *dw. We know that initial *dw in Armenian develops to (e)rk-, as in the word *dwo: > erku, which is another mystery in itself. ========================================================================= Further comments: I need to take another look the nouns and adjectives in -r (n-stem pl. in -unk` I seem to recall?). Unfortunately, I don't have a Classical Armenian grammar handy at the moment. Can somebody explain what Pokorny means when he says "arm. (mit expressiver Geminata) , Gen. ,Auge etc.' "? Any basis for that assumption? ========================================================================== =========================== Emesal a Sumerian Prakrit? =========================== piotrm at umich.edu (Piotr Michalowski) wrote: >For non-Sumerologists I would like to note that these discussions often have >referenec to eme-sal, a supposed "dialect" of Sumerian. There are >syllabically spelled eme-sal ("thin language") words found in certain myths in >which women speak, and in liturgical texts that belonged to the repertoire of >the gala priest (lamentation). It is not clear, for technical reasons, if >certain texts are to be read all in es or only partially, There is no >indication that this was ever a spoken natural dialect, and appears to be a >specific way of pronouncing words in ritual. It is attested relatively late, >primarily in the later part of the Old Babylonian period in texts from >northern Babylonia, that is after Sumerian was long dead and mostly, but not >only, in an area in which it probably had never been spoken. In the past it >was considered a woman's language, but that was because the sal reading of the >WOMAN sign was not properly distinguished from the munus reading. sal is an >adjective that means "thin." emesal is not a good basis for the >reconstruction of early Sumerian, as opposed to the "standard" language >emegir, which means "native tongue." Both should be taken into account, if possible... Whether Emesal is a dialect, a sociolect, a religiolect or a sexolect is interesting in itself, but the point is: it's not a mere invention, and certainly not a Babylonian one. The "sound laws" are too complex, partly reflecting hesitations that also occur in Emegir (n ~ l, g~ ~ m, g ~ b) partly unique (AFAIK) to Emesal (n ~ sh, de,di > ze,zi). If all n-'s would become sh-'s, well and good, but that is not the case. Or if it only affected "cultic" words, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Nor is it just another case of palatalization (cf. nundum ~ shumdum "lip"). I'm not sure what Emesal was either, "a literary dialect" would be the safest term. It's not more archaic than Emegir, except maybe in its treatment of Emegir "n" (=n, l or sh). The palatalizations (udu > eze "sheep", etc.) certainly look like innovations. It is very interesting to compare with Sanskrit/Prakrit, in the 5th. century AD. Quoting from Michael Coulson's introduction to "Teach Yourself Sanskrit": "By now Sanskrit was not a mother tongue but a language to be studied and consciously mastered. This transformation had come about through a gradual process, the beginnings of which are no doubt earlier than Pa:n.ini himself. Something of the true position must be reflected in the drama, where not merely the characters of low social status but also the women and young children speak some variety of Prakrit." The Prakrit of the plays is an artificial "dialect" itself, only loosely based on the local vernaculars. Still, it reflects most of the phonological developments of Middle Indo-Aryan, while at the same time standing closer to pre-Pa:n.inian Vedic than Sanskrit itself in some respects (e.g. the l ~ r variations). We even have a religious connection, given that Pa:li Prakrit was chosen by the Buddhist and Jainist religious reformers as their lithurgical language over Sanskrit. Maybe Emesal is a "tempolect" as well, a stylized vernacular "spoken" by female literary characters and chanted by "folk-religion" priests, at a time when the literary dialect was already a dead language. The difference with Prakrit would be that the vernacular was dead too (or at least dying). ========================================================== Further comments: some closer study of the role of Prakrit in Sanskrit drama would be necessary to see if the analogy with Emesal holds. A preliminary (phonetic) study of Emesal is given below. ========================================================== ====================================================== Appendix: Analysis of the Emesal vocabulary in Thomsen ====================================================== The following is an analysis of Emesal phonetics in relation to the main dialect (Emegir), based on the Emesal wordlist in Marie Louise Thomsen's "The Sumerian language", pp. 285-294: Emegir Emesal English [Words appear to have different roots] (en umun) "lord" (guza ash.te) "throne" (g~itlam mu.udna) "spouse" (nig2 ag~2) "thing" (nitadam mu.udna) "spouse" (tum2/de6 ga) "to bring" [Phonetic alternations] a.gar3 a.da.ar "field" alim e.lum "aurochs" a.nir a.she.er "lament" arad e.ri "slave" dag~al da.ma.al "wide" dig~ir dim3.me.er "god" dish di.id, di.ta "one" dug3 ze2.eb "sweet", "knee" dugud ze2.bi.da "heavy" dumu du5.mu "child, son" en3..tar ash...tar "to ask" engar mu.un.gar/.g~ar "farmer" En.ki Am.anki "Enki" En.lil2 Mu.ul.lil2 "Enlil" e2.g~ar8 a2.mar, e2.mar "figure" ga- da- "verbal prefix" -gin7 di.im3 "like" g~a2-e ma(-e) "I" g~al2 ma.al "to be" g~ar, g~a2.g~a2 mar, ma.ma "to place" g~ar.za mar.za "rite" G~a2.tum3.dug3 Ma.ze2.eb.zib "the goddess Gatumdug" g~eshtin mu.tin "wine" g~eshtug2 mu.ush.tug2 "ear" g~eme2 gi4.in "slave girl" g~ish mu(.ush) "tree" g~idru mu.du.ru "scepter" g~ir2 me.er "dagger" g~iri3 me.ri "foot" ha- da- "verbal prefix" ha.lam gel.le.eg~3 "to destroy" i3 u5 "grease" igi i.bi2 "eye" inim e.ne.eg~3 "word" kalam ka.na.ag~2 "land" lu2 mu.lu "man" mer me.er "anger" munus nu.nus "woman" nam na.ag~2 "-hood ?" nag~a na.ma "soap" nig2.bun2.na she.en.bun2.na "tortoise" nig~ir li.bi.ir "herald" nin shen, ga.sha.an "lady" nir she.er "prince ?" nirah she.ra.ah "the snake-god Nirah" nir.g~al2 she.er.ma.al "prince" nu.gig mu.gi4.ib "hierodule" nundum shu.um.du.um "lip" sag~ she.en "head" sipa su8.ba "shepherd" sig4 she.eb "brick" si.g~ar si.mar "bolt" sum ze2.eg~3 "to give" sha3.g sha3.ab "heart" tud2 ze2.ed "to hit" udu e.ze2 "sheep" unu3, utul mu.nu10, nu12 "shepherd" Not counting the words that are apparently based on different roots, we get the following "phonological rules". Note that Thomsen is trying to show the _differences_ between Emesal and Emegir, so that there is probably a bias against "zero alternations" (no change). REF# RULE (# of cases) EXAMPLES B0 b > b (1) nigbunna > shenbunna P0 p > p (0) -- P1 p > b (1) sipa > subu D0 d > d (8) dig~ir > dimer D1 d > z (4) dug > zeb, udu > eze D2 d > - (0/1) arad (ir?) > eri T0 t > t (3) tar T1 t > z (1) tud > zed G0 g > g (2/3) nugig > mugib, g~eshtug > mushtug G1 g > g~ (0/1) engar > mungar/mung~ar G2 g > n (1) nigbunna > shenbunna G3 g > d (3) agar > adar, -gin > -dim, ga- > da- G4 g > b (7) dug > zeb K0 k > k (2) kalam > kanag~ M0 m > m (4) dumu > dumu M1 m > n (2) munus > nunus, g~eme > gin M2 m > g~ (5) inim > eneg~ N0 n > n (10) inim > eneg~ N1 n > sh (9) nin > shen N2 n > m (3) nugig > mugib, nundum > shumdum,-gin > -dim N3 n > l (1) nig~ir > libir G~0 g~ > g~ (0) -- G~1 g~ > m (20) dig~ir > dimmer G~2 g~ > n (1) sag~ > shen G~3 g~ > b (1) nig~ir > libir G~4 g~ > g (1) g~eme > gin S0 s > s (3) sipa > suba S1 s > sh (2) sag~ > shen, sig > sheb S2 s > z (1) sum > zeg~ SH0 sh > sh (2/3) shag > shab SH1 sh > d/t (1) dish > did, dita SH2 sh > - (1/2) gish > mu Z0 z > z (1) g~arza > marza H0 h > h (1) Nirah > Sherah H1 h > g (1) halam > geleg~ H2 h > d (1) ha- > da- L0 l > l (8) g~al > mal L1 l > n (1) kalam > kanag~ R0 r > r (19) dig~ir > dimmer COMMENTS: P1: p/b confusion common in Emegir as well. D2: dropping final consonant common in Emegir as well. G1/G2: these look like g/g~ confusions. G4: occurs sporadically in Emegir as well. M1: nunus < g~unus?; gin: -m > -n is common in Emegir as well. N2: nu.gig ( < lu.gig ), Emesal probably has mu.lu-gib > mugib; -gin/-gim also in Emegir. N3: n/l confusion common in Emegir as well. G~2: -m > -n is common in Emegir as well. G~3/G~4: these look like g/g~ confusions. SH1: Emegir also has dili, probably just different suffixes. SH2: dropping final consonant common in Emegir as well. H1/H2: g-/h- confusion occurs sporadically in Emegir as well (cf. ga- /ha- prefixes). L1: l/n confusion common in Emegir as well. This leaves the following "sound laws", which can be considered as typical of the Emesal dialect: Palatalizations: D1 d > z (4) dug > zeb, udu > eze T1 t > z (1) tud > zed S1 s > sh (2) sag~ > shen, sig > sheb Unclear: S2 s > z (1) sum > zeg~ G3 g > d (3) agar > adar, -gin > -dim, ga- > da- H1 h > g (1) halam > geleg~ Possible reflexes of distinct Proto-Sumerian phonemes?: A: [*w, *ngw ?] M2 m > g~ (5) inim > eneg~ G~1 g~ > m (20) dig~ir > dimmer B: [*gw ?] G4 g > b (7) dug > zeb, igi > ibi C: [*L (Welsh "ll") ?, cf. n ~ l] N1 n > sh (9) nin > shen, nundum > shumdum Additionally, there are some interesting hesitations in Emegir (Thomsen, pp. 44-46) as well: h ~ r rush(u) ~ hush(u) "red" g ~ b (see G4 above) buru4 ~ gu.ru "raven", abrig ~ agrig "steward" h ~ g (see H1, H2 above) ha- ~ ga- "vb. prefix", HA=ku6 "fish" n ~ l (see L1, N3 above) nu ~ lu2 "man", nu- ~ la- "not", limmu "4" ~ nimin "40". ------------------------------------- Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv at pi.net ------------------------------------- From DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU Tue Nov 5 16:58:05 1996 From: DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU (Dorothy Disterheft) Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 11:58:05 EST Subject: ICHL Circular Message-ID: The XIII International Conference on Historical Linguistics Dieter Stein, President, Int'l Society of Historical Linguistics Duesseldorf, Germany, August 10-17 1997 -SECOND CIRCULAR- Preparations for ICHL 1997 are now well in hand and it is time to give participants more information about the structure and pragmatics of the event. The third circular with more detailed information will be sent out in June 1997. Final program and abstracts volume will be available for registered conference participants at the registration desk. We are looking forward to greeting all of the conference participants in person, and we will continue to do everything possible to make the XIII ICHL in Duesseldorf a successful and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Best wishes, THE ORGANIZATION STAFF Jennifer Austin, Christine Gunia, Robert Rennecke, Monika Schmid, Dieter Stein, Michaela Zitzen CONTENTS OF THE SECOND CIRCULAR 1 ABSTRACTS 2 COMMUNICATION 3 SCHEDULE OF CONFERENCE EVENTS 4 INVITED SPEAKERS 5 WORKSHOPS 5.1 Typological change: Causes and courses 5.2 Functional categories and morphosyntactic change 5.3 Stability and variation in word-order patterns over time 6 EXCURSIONS 6.1 Wednesday excursion (1/2 day) 6.2 Saturday excursion (full day) 7 ACCOMMODATIONS 7.1 Sorat Hotel 7.2 Hotel Aida 7.3 Grand Hotel 7.4 Hotel Manhattan 8 STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS 9 EATING AND DRINKING 10 TRAVEL INFORMATION: GETTING TO DUESSELDORF 11 A NOTE ON CREDIT CARDS AND PERSONAL CHECKS 12 ABOUT OUR WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE 13 CONFERENCE FEES 13.1 Types of fees 13.2 Amount when prepaid 13.3 Amount when paid on-site 13.4 Payment Methods 13.5 Deadline for prepayment Appendix: REGISTRATION FORM -------------------1 ABSTRACTS------------------- Participants who have submitted an abstract will be notified about acceptance at the beginning of January. Participants should prepare for a deadline of 15 September 1997 for submitting the written versions of their papers. -------------------2 COMMUNICATION-------------------- We have been able to successfully communicate with most of you through the medium of email, and this will and should continue to be the unmarked mode of communication with the conference organizers. When contacting us for any reason, please be sure to use the email address, fax, etc. listed below: EMAIL ADDRESS: ICHL1997 at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de MAILING ADDRESS: Prof. Dieter Stein Anglistik III - Englische Sprachwissenschaft ICHL 1997 Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf Universitaetsstr. 1 D-40225 Duesseldorf Germany PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-811263 within Duesseldorf: 811263 Note: a special conference hotline will be installed during the conference at the registration desk. FAX: (+49) (0) 211- 8113026 -----------3 SCHEDULE OF CONFERENCE EVENTS----------- SUNDAY, 10 August Conference check-in and on-site registration from 2:00 PM until 9:00 PM at the Sorat Hotel (see 7.1 below for address) with an informal, cash bar gathering. On-site registration, check-in for latecomers, and conference office will be at the university from Monday 11 August onwards. MONDAY, 11 August Conference opening. From 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM full conference program. Reception by city and university in the evening. TUESDAY, 12 August Full conference program. Informal gathering in the evening. WEDNESDAY, 13 August Full conference program in the morning. First excursion begins after lunch at the university, a guided tour of Duesseldorf and boat ride on the Rhine to the attractive historical district of Kaiserswerth, an old Roman trading town. THURSDAY, 14 August Full conference program. Evening free for enjoying Duessel- dorf's world class shopping (stores are open later on Thur.). FRIDAY, 15 August Full conference program in the morning. Business meeting in the afternoon, followed by the conference dinner. SATURDAY, 16 August Full day excursion. An afternoon of big city fun in Cologne, including a visit to the awe-inspiring Cathedral, will follow a morning castle tour in the scenic countryside to the east of Duesseldorf. ------------------4 INVITED SPEAKERS------------------ Sylvia Adamson (Cambridge) Henning Andersen (UCLA) Kate Burridge (Melbourne) Wallace Chafe (Santa Barbara) Konrad Ehlich (Munich) Marvin Herzog (Columbia) Dieter Kastovsky (Vienna) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Marianne Mithun (Santa Barbara) Salikoko Mufwene (Chicago) David Olson (Toronto) Suzanne Romaine (Oxford) Brigitte Schlieben-Lange (Tuebingen) --------------------5 WORKSHOPS------------------- In addition to the regular program, which will also be partly structured along topical areas, three workshops will be held. All inquiries regarding these workshops should be made by CONTACTING THE WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS DIRECTLY. Also note that workshop participants are considered regular participants of ICHL, and that registration for the conference and payment of the basic costs (registration fee and conference fee) are required. 5.1 TYPOLOGICAL CHANGE: CAUSES AND COURSE Organizer: Raymond Hickey (Essen) EMAIL: r.hickey at uni-essen.de FAX: (+49) 201-183 3437 ADDRESS: Raymond Hickey Universitaet-GH Essen FB3 - Anglistik Universitaetsstr. 12 45117 Essen Germany 5.2 FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC CHANGE Organizer: Ans van Kemenade (Amsterdam) EMAIL: kemenade at wim.let.vu.nl FAX: (+31) (0) 204446500 ADDRESS: Dr. Ans van Kemenade Vrije Universiteit, Vakgroep Taalkunde/Engels De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam Netherlands 5.3 STABILITY AND VARIATION IN WORD-ORDER PATTERNS OVER TIME Organizer: Rosanna Sornicola (Naples) EMAIL: SORNICOL at cds.unina.it FAX: (+39) 81-55-26511 ADDRESS: Prof. Rosanna Sornicola Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Dipartimento di Filologia Moderna Via Porta di Massa 1 I-80133 NAPOLI ITALY --------------------6 EXCURSIONS------------------- 6.1 WEDNESDAY EXCURSION (1/2 Day): Cost: 25 DM or 17 USD (payment in USD only possible in advance!) After lunch at the university we will meet for a short bus ride to the Altstadt ("Old Town") for a guided tour of Duesseldorf. A boat ride on the Rhine brings us to Kaiserswerth, an old Roman trading town (now part of Greater Duesseldorf). Explore the well-preserved historical dis- trict and the Kaiserpfalz, old castle ruins. The remainder of the excursion will be more informal. Participants can meet in the Burghof to enjoy a glass of Altbier, a Duesseldorf beer specialty, and make dinner plans, choosing from the many attractive options in Kaiserswerth. Return time will be left open, as participants can swiftly and safely return to the heart of Duesseldorf by tram. Cost includes bus from university to city center, guided tour of Duesseldorf, and boat ride to Kaiserswerth. 6.2 SATURDAY EXCURSION (full day): Cost: 65 DM or 43 USD (payment in USD only possible in advance!) A taste of delightful countryside and dynamic city life, each with a rich historical tradition, is in store for you on this excursion. First stop is a guided tour of the well-preserved Schlossburg ("Burg Castle"). Enjoy the impressive views from the castle and from the suspended railcar as you ride down the steep hillside to the historical village of Unterburg, where lunch will be served. The second half of the tour starts at the world famous Cologne cathedral, after which there will be a few hours for exploring one of Cologne's numerous attractions (German-Roman Museum, Wallraff-Richartz Museum, and The Chocolate Museum are three of the many possibilities) before meeting for the return bus trip to Duesseldorf. Cost includes all mentioned means of transportation, guided tour of castle, entrance to Cathedral, and lunch. NOT included is the activity of your choice in Cologne, since this will vary from individual to individual. -------------------7 ACCOMMODATIONS------------------ Blocks of rooms at special rates have been set aside for conference participants at four major Duesseldorf hotels. ALL of the hotels: -are located conveniently between the city center and the university, which is at the southern end of the city, very close to the Rhine. -are able to be reached by public transportation in less than 15 minutes from the university AND the city center (including the world-famous Koenigsallee and the Altstadt). -have full breakfast buffet and en-suite facilities included in the rate. VERY IMPORTANT: the rates have been specially negotiated for the conference participants and are less than half of the normal charges. Since contingents are restricted for each hotel, please book your room directly with the hotel at the earliest possible time to make sure you get this rate. You MUST request the "ICHL 1997" rate. Participants make their own arrangments with the hotels. Book room by fax or letter only, include credit card information. CANCELLATION POLICY FOR HOTELS: Full refund until 15 May. After that date hotels are entitled to retain 80%. 7.1 SORAT HOTEL DUESSELDORF A modern, friendly, and stylish hotel. Business services and relaxation facilities such as sauna, work-out room, and solarium are available. All rooms have cable TV, radio, mini-bar, direct dial phones, hairdryers and make-up mirrors. ADDRESS: Volmerswerther Str. 35 40221 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-30220 within Duesseldorf: 30220 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-30225-55 RATES: 98 DM/single 126 DM/double 7.2 HOTEL AIDA The Aida, much like the Sorat in character, is modern, elegant, and family-owned. Sauna and solarium. All rooms equipped with a hairdryer, radio, cable TV and direct dial phone. ADDRESS: Ubierstrasse 36 40223 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-15990 within Duesseldorf: 15990 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-1599103 RATES: 128 DM/single 159 DM/double 7.3 GRAND HOTEL DUESSELDORF An elegant four star hotel. All rooms with direct-dial phones, mini-bar, cable TV with remote control, marble bathrooms. South Seas-style sauna area, secure parking. ADDRESS: Varnhagenstrasse 37 40225 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211 310800 within Duesseldorf: 310800 FAX: (+49) (0) 211 316667 RATES: 99 DM/single 120 DM/double 7.4 HOTEL MANHATTAN The mid-town atmosphere and absolutely central location of this quality hotel will appeal to the hip and young at heart. All doubles and most singles equipped with cable TV. All rooms have a radio and telephone. ADDRESS: Graf-Adolf-Strasse 39 40210 Duesseldorf PHONE: (+49) (0) 211-370244 within Duesseldorf: 370244 FAX: (+49) (0) 211-370247 RATES: 65 DM/single 110 DM/double ---------------8 STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS------------- A very limited number of student hostel rooms without break- fast for DM 290 (Sunday to Sunday) may be available on a first come first served basis for bona fide students. Must be pre-booked, non-refundable. Please contact us directly. ---------------9 EATING AND DRINKING----------------- BREAKFAST: At your hotel (included in room price, except in student hostel) LUNCH: WILL BE INCLUDED IN CONFERENCE FEE. Two menus will be offered daily (vegetarian and non-vegetarian). Participants may make their choice of menu on-the-spot. A beverage is also included. DINNER: will be on-your-own. A restaurant guide will be provided upon arrival. Do note that there will be a reception on Monday night and that you may choose to attend the conference dinner on Friday night. COFFEE BREAKS: included in conference fee. Cookies will be served along with coffee or tea from REAL cups (no plastic). SNACKS: a snack bar near to the conference rooms will be open, and there is a small convenience store on campus. -------10 TRAVEL INFORMATION: GETTING TO DUESSELDORF------- Explicit directions to the places you need to get to upon arrival will be included in the next circular, for general orientation purposes, you may find the links in our WWW home page to be very helpful. Lufthansa will be the official airline for the XIII ICHL. Their comprehensive global network links most major cities throughout the world to Frankfurt and/or Duesseldorf. Special airfares are available to registered conference participants and their accompanying persons. Please contact your nearest Lufthansa office, and kindly present your official registration and refer to code GGAIRLHKONG.600 The international airport in Duesseldorf is linked to an excellent and comprehensive public transportation system covering the whole city. The main train station can be reached in less than 15 minutes from the airport by a suburban railway line. It is safe and efficient. The main train station of Duesseldorf (Duesseldorf Hauptbahnhof) is well connected to both the German and European train network, not to mention the exten- sive local transportation network. ----11 A NOTE ON CREDIT CARDS AND PERSONAL CHECKS----- No personal checks (except Euro-cheques) are accepted anywhere in Germany. It is also advisable to carry more than one credit card. Any hotel or bank will cash trav- ellers cheques. Acceptance of credit cards is not quite as widespread as in the USA. ---------12 ABOUT OUR WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE--------- ADDRESS: http:// www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/ICHL1997/ichl1997.html All circulars will be available on our home page. Please understand that these pages are under construction. --------------------13 CONFERENCE FEES------------------- 13.1 TYPES OF FEES REGISTRATION FEE: is non-refundable, includes membership in the International Society for Historical Linguistics. CONFERENCE FEE: covers conference expenses, abstracts volume, and includes coffee breaks and lunches. The con- ference fee is not prorateable. On-site registration will add 40 DM to your total. A full refund will be possible until 1 August, after that 50 % will be refundable. BASIC COST: simply the combined total of the registration fee plus the conference fee. EXCURSION FEES: two excursions are planned, see "EXCURSIONS" for details. They may be paid for and reserved separately. Prepayment is not necessary for the excursions, but is highly recommended as the number of spaces will be limited. First come first served. CONFERENCE DINNER: to take place in an elevated location and in an elevated mood! Sign-up and payment for the conference dinner upon check-in (no prepayment). STUDENT RATES: A discount on the basic cost will be available for bona fide students, who will be required to present a valid student ID at check-in. As for all participants, prepayment will be financially advantageous. SPECIAL NOTE FOR PARTICIPANTS AFFILIATED WITH UNI- VERSITIES IN THE FORMER EAST BLOC NATIONS: The discounted student rate on the registration fee/ conference fee package will also be available to our colleagues affiliated with Eastern European universities. 13.2 AMOUNT WHEN PREPAID (DM = German marks, USD = US dollars) Please return your registration on the form attached at the very bottom of this message, indicating the package of your choice. The packages are described below, each showing regular and student amounts in both DM and USD. The basic cost (220 DM or 147 USD in advance) is simply the total of the registration fee (40 DM or 27 USD) plus the conference fee (180 DM or 120 USD in advance). Which excursions (if any) you choose to go on affects the price of the packages. PAYMENT IN USD IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN ADVANCE. PACKAGE ONE (basic cost, no excursions) until 1 May: 220 DM (regular), 120 DM (student) until 1 May: 147 USD (regular), 81 USD (student) PACKAGE TWO (basic cost and Wednesday excursion) until 1 May: 245 DM (regular), 145 DM (student) until 1 May: 164 USD (regular), 98 USD (student) PACKAGE THREE (basic cost and Saturday excursion) until 1 May 285 DM (regular), 185 DM (student) until 1 May 190 USD (regular), 124 USD (student) PACKAGE FOUR (basic cost, both Wed. and Sat. excursions) until 1 May 310 DM (regular), 210 DM (student) until 1 May 207 USD (regular), 141 USD (student) 13.3 AMOUNT WHEN PAID ON-SITE When paid on-site, the amount of the basic cost will be 40 DM more than the prepayment cost. The cost of the excursions is the same for pre-payment and on-site payment, pre-registering for the excursions insures you a place. PAYMENT IN USD IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN ADVANCE. PACKAGE ONE (basic cost, no excursions) after 1 May: (DM only): 260 DM (regular), 160 DM (student) PACKAGE TWO (basic cost and Wednesday excursion) after 1 May: (DM only) 285 DM (regular), 185 DM (student) PACKAGE THREE (basic cost, Saturday excursion) after 1 May: (DM only) 325 DM (regular), 250 DM (student) PACKAGE FOUR (basic cost, both Wed. and Sat. excursions) after 1 May: (DM only) 350 DM (regular), 250 DM (student) 13.4 PAYMENT METHODS We regret that we will not be able to accept ANY credit cards. The acceptable methods of payment are listed below. PAYING IN ADVANCE (prepayment): There are two ways of paying in advance, depending on whether you pay in USD or DM. Payment must be received by 1 May in order to receive the discount. After that date, on-site prices apply in all cases. PAYING IN ADVANCE IN USD (US dollars): write a personal check drawn on a US bank (must have both your name and account number printed on it by the bank) made out to "DIETER STEIN" (conference director). (See section 2 above for address) PAYING IN ADVANCE IN DM: transfer the appropriate sum in DM to the following account: Bank name: Deutsche Bank Duesseldorf Bank number (BLZ): 300 700 10 Account holder: Dieter Stein Account number: 817252001 PAYING ON-SITE: The basic cost when paying on site at the conference will be 40 DM more, as has already been mentioned, and will be CASH ONLY IN GERMAN MARKS (DM) ONLY. No credit cards or cheques of any kind (except Euro-cheques) will be accepted. Hotels will be happy to cash travellers cheques. 13.5 DEADLINE Payment must be received before 1 May for the pre- payment prices to apply. After that date, on-site amounts apply in all cases. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ REGISTRATION FORM To register: 1) Transfer (DM only) OR send by check (USD only) the sum corresponding to your package selection (see CONFERENCE COST/METHODS section above). 2) Make reservation with the hotel of your choice. This is entirely your responsibility (see ACCOMMODATIONS section above). 3) Complete the rest of this form by filling in the appropriate blanks and marking an "x" in the appropriate place below and return it to: ICHL1997 at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de The easiest way to accomplish this task may vary with your email program. A standard option is to use your "reply" function, fill in the blanks/mark the x's, and then send. You become officially registered and will receive notice of this fact upon receipt of payment. The name of your hotel is for our information in case we need to locate you during the conference, you are responsible for making reservations with the hotel. NAME: (fill in here, no titles, please) AFFILIATION: (fill in here) EMAIL: (fill in here) FAX: (fill in here) CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS: (fill in here) PACKAGE SELECTION: (mark an "x" next to choice) PACKAGE ONE, regular PACKAGE ONE, student PACKAGE TWO, regular PACKAGE TWO, student PACKAGE THREE, regular PACKAGE THREE, student PACKAGE FOUR, regular PACKAGE FOUR, student USD SENT BY CHECK: (fill in amount here) or DM TRANSFERRED TO DEUTSCHE BANK: (fill in amount here) I HAVE MADE RESERVATIONS IN THIS HOTEL: (fill in here) Thank you! _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ From pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk Wed Nov 6 11:50:12 1996 From: pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk (Penny Carter) Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 11:50:12 +0000 Subject: English Language and Linguistics Message-ID: Dear David Yes, we have at last mirrored on our NY site! I'm sure this sort of publicity for the journal is very worthwhile. Thank you. Regards, Penny At 9:42 am 6/11/96, David Denison wrote: >The new journal ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS (first issue May >1997) will have an important contribution to make in both present-day >English studies and English historical linguistics. Full details can >be found on our revised WWW pages, available at sites in the USA and >UK. Try either of the following > >(Europe) http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/Journals/JNLSCAT/ell/ell.html >(N. America) http://www.cup.org/Journals/JNLSCAT/ell/ell.html > >for a statement of policy and the names of editors and editorial >board members. There are instructions for contributors (including >style sheet), information for potential subscribers, and a new link >to an up-to-date list of forthcoming articles. > >Bas Aarts, David Denison and Richard Hogg > >Editorial e-mail address: ell at ucl.ac.uk > >_____________________________________________________________________ >David Denison | e-mail: d.denison at man.ac.uk >Dept of English and American Studies | tel: +44 (0)161-275 3154 >University of Manchester | fax: +44 (0)161-275 3256 >Manchester M13 9PL ______________| >UK. | http://www.art.man.ac.uk/english/davidd.html Penny Carter Journals Deputy Director pcarter at cup.cam.ac.uk tel.+44(0)1223 325821 (direct) From larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk Sat Nov 9 17:01:10 1996 From: larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 17:01:10 +0000 Subject: Expressive forms (long) Message-ID: The following message I have recently posted to the Nostratic list, as part of the discussion of the proper methodology for comparing languages which has been taking place on that list. But it occurs to me that the point raised here may be of more general interest to historical linguists. I would be interested to find out to what degree expressive forms of the type chiefly discussed below occur in other languages, and what problems they pose in historical work. **************************************************************** There has been some skepticism expressed on this list (and elsewhere) about the reality of what I have called "expressive forms" and about the validity of my policy of excluding such forms from any possible comparison with other languages when trying to establish a genetic link in the first place. In this posting, I'll try to explain what I mean by this term and show why I take the position I do. Everyone is familiar with words of purely onomatopoeic origin, such as English CLINK, BUZZ, MEOW, QUACK, WHOOSH, BOOM, TINKLE, HEE-HAW, COCK-A-DOODLE-DO, and few people would dream of trying to use such items as comparanda -- or so I hope. These names for noises are the most obvious type of what we might call "expressive forms", but they're not really what I have in mind. Somewhat more interesting are items which were originally coined as onomatopoeias but have acquired transferred senses. Among these are the numerous words in the world's languages of the form BER(BER), which were coined as imitations of the sound of boiling water but have been transferred to senses like `hot', `burn', `fire' and `cook'. At the very least, such items cannot be given full weight in comparisons, because they are treacherous, and it is for this reason that I have objected to the use of Basque BERO `hot' in remote comparisons. Another possible example is English OOMPH, which some scholars think may have originated as an imitation of the bellow of a mating bull. More certain is Basque TU `spit, saliva', whose origin as an onomatopoeia for the sound of spitting is surely too obvious to need pointing out. This too has been compared with similar words in other languages, entirely improperly, since all such words doubtless have the same origin. Also certain is the English verb SLURP, derived from a name for the sound. More interesting again are words obtained by some kind of playful alteration of existing words. This process does not appear to be prominent in English, but consider French. Spoken French uses a large number of playful alterations: AMERICAN becomes AMERLO, APERITIF becomes APERO, LES INVALIDES becomes LES INVALOCHES, NUDISTE becomes NUNU, SAC is inverted to KEUS, FEMME is inverted to MEUF, and so on. Some of these remain confined to vernacular styles, while others, like APERO, almost seem to have driven their source words out of the language. The French formations, being recent, present no problems to etymologists, but ancient examples of the same type may be more difficult to identify. Basque provides an excellent example. As a general rule, word-forming prefixes are absolutely wanting in Basque. But we find a curious little group of words which exist in two very different forms. Here are some examples: UDARI `pear', MADARI `pear' GAKO `hook', MAKO `hook' HEGAL `wing', MAGAL `wing' It is clear that, at some time in the distant past, there was in Basque a process by which the morph MA- could be attached to the beginning of a word to produce some kind of playful or expressive variant. The process is long dead, and we can no longer recover the original function of MA-addition, but we may be confident that the forms with initial MA- are secondary, and hence that they are unavailable for comparison. Since Pre-Basque had no phoneme /m/ in lexical items, it may well be that the very rarity of this consonant favored its use in expressive variants. The detection of this ancient process has a further consequence: *any* Basque word with initial MA- for which no secure etymology is available should be treated with suspicion, since it might well be in origin just such an expressive variant of an earlier word now lost. Yet those whose work I have criticized do not hesitate to adduce such words as comparanda, and indeed MAGAL itself has been invoked in a comparison -- though in this case, compounding error with error, the word was cited as `belly', a meaning it does not have, apparently resulting from a misinterpretation of the Spanish gloss meaning `lap' (the development of the sense is roughly `wing' > `edge' > `hem' > `lap'). But the most dramatic and interesting cases of expressive forms are words which appear to have been coined more or less out of thin air because of their appealing sound. English does this much less frequently than some other languages, but we none the less have examples like PIZAZZ, GUNGE, GOO, ZAP, SHAM, WHAMMY, BLOB, WHIFF, and of course the celebrated BLURB. A particularly interesting set is represented by Middle English TINE, which was converted by the Great Vowel Shift into TINY, which has more recently been joined by the expressive coinages TEENY, TEENSY and TEENSY-WEENSY. The embarrassment of lexicographers and etymologists with these words is patent, and they sometimes prefer wild guesses to an admission of defeat, as with SHAM, sometimes linked to SHAME on the basis of zero evidence. A few of these may have some kind of vague source, such as GLOB, thought to have something to do with GLOBE and BLOB. Many other languages do this far more frequently than does English, and Basque is a language in which such formations have clearly been very frequent indeed, probably throughout the history and prehistory of the language. And these are precisely the expressive forms I usually have in mind in dismissing a proposed comparison as immediately untenable on the Basque side. In English, such expressive items often have forms which are not conspicuously different from the forms of ordinary lexical items, though they do often tend to have meanings in particular semantic areas, such as `mucky stuff' and `devastating action'. In Basque, however, in which we generally lack the kind of historical testimony available for English, we are fortunate that such expressive forms tend strongly to have highly distinctive phonological forms, quite different from those of ordinary lexical items, while they too tend to have meanings in certain semantic domains. Thus, even in the absence of explicit records, we can *usually* manage to identify such formations with some confidence -- and such formations clearly have no business being included in a remote comparison. Here are some of the characteristics of expressive forms in Basque. No single word shows all of them, or even most of them, but I wouldn't normally venture to class a word as an expressive form unless it showed several of them. 1. Frequency of /m/, both initially and medially. 2. The specific form /mVPV(-)/, where V is any vowel and P is any voiceless plosive, or /mVSPV(-)/, where S is any sibilant. 3. Frequency of palatal consonants, especially TX and X and especially in initial position. 4. Initial (and sometimes final) voiceless plosives. 4a. The specific form PVPV(-), where both consonants are voiceless plosives. 5. Unusual clusters. 6. Initial clusters. 7. Unusual length (four or more syllables). 8. Reduplication (partial or total) (very often with initial /m/ in the second occurrence). 9. Unusual variation in form (not parallel to the variation observed in ordinary lexical items). 10. Unusual range of seemingly unrelated meanings. 11. One of several identifiable semantic domains: Physical and moral defects; Noises and noise-making objects; Varieties of movement or activity; Conspicuous meteorological phenomena; Small creatures (creepy-crawlies, insects, fish, birds, other arthropods, small reptiles and mammals); Sexual terms; Names of unpleasant substances; Words for projections and extremities. (This last is perhaps a little more unexpected than the others, but there appear to be a number of examples.) 12. Confinement to one area of the country. 13. Notable regional preference for particular shapes. Now these phonological properties are simply not exhibited by ordinary indigenous lexical items, even when they fall into a relevant semantic domain, and hence words exhibiting them are almost certainly of expressive origin, providing we can rule out other sources, such as borrowing. Not all these features are equally significant. In particular, properties (2) and (4a) are, even on their own, virtually decisive, since ordinary indigenous words absolutely never have such a shape. Now consider a case like PINPIRIN `butterfly'. This word has not only been cited in remote comparisons, it has even been cited by Bengtson and Ruhlen as continuing their putative "Proto-World" root *PAR `fly' (verb). But this word exhibits very many of my features. It has property (4) (initial voiceless plosive), property (5) (strange cluster /np/, not found in ordinary lexical items), property (9) (unusual variation in form: PINPIRIN(A), PINPILIN, PINPILINPAUXA, and others, not comparable to ordinary words), property (10) (unusual range of meanings, including `butterfly', `garfish', `bud'), property (11) (insect name), property 12 (entirely confined to one small corner of the country, all other regions having quite distinct words for `butterfly', often also expressive), and property (13) (this region strongly favors expressive formations in PIN- and PAN-, which are rare elsewhere). We may therefore safely conclude that this is an expressive formation, especially since initial /p/ is categorically absent in indigenous lexical items. Or consider POTORRO `vulva', also adduced in long-range comparisons. This at once shows both initial /p/ and the decisive property (4a), the PVPV(-) shape. It cannot possibly be indigenous. Moreover, this is a sexual term (property 11), and it exhibits an almost astronomical number of variant forms differing in ways not paralleled by ordinary words: POTORRA, POTORRO, POTOTA, POTTOTTA, POTOTINA, POTTA, POTTOA, POTTORRA, POTTOTINA, POTTOTTA, POTTOTTO, POTXA, POTXIN, POTXOLA, POTXOLINA, POTXONA, POTXOR, POTXOTXA, POXPOLINA, and probably others. This is an expressive formation, and it can't be invoked in comparisons. Another word which has been cited in comparisons is MUTUR `snout, extremity'. This is one of the `extremity' words mentioned above, and it has the shape MVPV(-), which, outside of loan words, points categorically to an expressive origin. Moreover, it has a variant MUSTUR, and such variation in form is typical of expressive forms but absolutely unknown in ordinary words: Basque ZATI `segment' does not have a variant *ZAZTI, nor does BAZTER `edge' have a variant *BATER. Unless it's a loan word (which is possible), this is an expressive form; in any case, it has no business being adduced in comparisons. Also adduced in comparisons are KUKUR and TUTUR, both `crest' (on a bird or animal). But these are categorically identified as expressive forms by their shape PVPV(-); they appear to be reduplicated; they are `extremity' words; they may even be the same item in origin, in which case they show a type of variation unknown in indigenous words. The great majority of expressive formations in Basque are easy to recognize by these criteria. Such words as ZIRIMIRI `drizzle', ZURRUMURRU `whisper, rumor, gossip', KARRAMARRO `crab', ARMIARMA (and many variants) `spider', TRIKI-TRAKA `toddling', TXIKILI-TXAKALA `coitus', MARA-MARA `steadily, continuously, smoothly', MAKAR `the crud you rub out of your eyes in the morning', TXISTMIST (and several variants) `lightning', ZARRAMARRA `trash', KOKO `larva infesting maize', AIKOMAIKO `pretext, excuse', and many hundreds of others are so obviously expressive formations that there is nothing to discuss. Basque has one particularly interesting class of expressive forms with especially distinctive properties. This is the class of adjectives denoting physical or moral defects. They all begin with the expressive consonant /m/, and they are usually two syllables long (sometimes three). Here are just a few examples of what is a rather large group: MOTEL `weak, insipid', MATZER ~ MATXAR `deformed, twisted, defective', MAZKELO `clumsy', MAZKARO `blackened, dirty', MAKAL ~ MAZKAL ~ MASKAL `weak, feeble, sick', MOKOR `perverse', MOZKOR ~ MOXKOR `squat, stout, fat; drunk', MUTZULU `wild, savage, unsociable', MIXKIRI `envious', MOTROTX `stocky, plump', MOTZOR `crude', MUKER `unsociable, arrogant', MUKUR `clumsy, crude', MUTXIN `angry', MALMUTZ `fat, obese; tricky, shrewd', MAKUR `twisted, crooked', MIRRIN `shriveled, scraggly', MALTZUR `dishonest'. Any given word is usually confined to a certain part of the country, but every region has a number of these formations. These words have no source, and it appears that this pattern has long been available for coining new words in the relevant semantic domain. Such words cannot be invoked in comparisons, and that is the end of it. Naturally, not every case is beyond dispute. The three words for `hail', BABAZUZA, KAZKABAR and TXINGOR, illustrate the defining features less well than my other examples, but on balance they are more likely to be expressive forms than not. The word for `ant', INHURRI ~ TXINGURRI ~ TXINAURRI (and other variants) cannot with certainty be regarded as an expressive form, but the bizarre regional variation in form nevertheless points strongly to an expressive origin. Loan words may accidently present many of my features. For example, MUKU ~ MUKI `mucus' and MIKA `magpie' qualify rather well as expressive forms, but we can nonetheless be sure they are loans from the synonymous Latin MUCU and PICA. Particularly interesting is KIRIKIN~O `hedgehog'. This looks for all the world like an expressive form, but it seems impossible to separate this word from the synonymous Latin ERICINEU, which might readily have been borrowed as *IRIKIN~O, and it rather looks as if the Basques borrowed the word and then added an initial /k/ in order to make the word look more like a typical expressive form. The point of all this is that Basque possesses an exceedingly large number of words of purely expressive origin, words that have been coined more or less out of thin air because of their appealing sound. In most cases, these items can be securely identified by appealing to the criteria I have listed, some of which are almost totally decisive. Such words have absolutely no business being adduced in comparisons. Therefore, when I reject a comparison involving one of these words, as I very often do, I am not just pig-headedly flinging the label `expressive form' around as a kind of magical curse to get rid of impressive-looking matches that offend my determination to keep Basque isolated: I have very good reasons for rejecting the comparison. Surely nobody would dream of trying to use English TEENSY in a remote comparison, and Basque cannot be an exception to the ordinary standards of good practice in comparative work. Larry Trask COGS University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH UK larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk From mcv at pi.net Mon Nov 11 09:59:43 1996 From: mcv at pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 01:59:43 PST Subject: Expressive forms Message-ID: An excellent overview of what constitute "expressive forms" in Basque, but no doubt applicable to any other language as well, "mutatis mutandis" of course. As further examples of expressive formations in Basque, involving mainly reduplication and m- (criterion 8), the following list was compiled by my University Basque teacher in Leiden, Rudolf P.G. de Rijk (the Basque is Gipuzkoan dialect, any English translation errors are mine): duda "doubt" duda-mudak "doubts" ixilka "quietly" ixilka-mixilka "whispering, secretly" zearka "sideways" zearka-mearka "round-about" tarteka "with intervals" tarteka-marteka "in spare moments, now & then" zeatz "precisely" zeatz-meatz "with all detail" esan "to say" esamesak "chit-chat, gossip" zoro "crazy" zoro-moro "like crazy" kako "hook" kako-makoak "clevernesses, sophisms" zalantza "doubt" zalantza-malantzean "in case of doubt" asi "to start" asi-masiak "first principles" zirika "stinging" zirika-mirika "giving little pushes" iritzi "opinion" iritzi-miritzi (ari) "to criticize" txiri "curl" txiri-miri "bagatelle" autu "conversation, fable" autu-mautuak "tales, stories" inguratu "to walk around" ingura-mingura "beating about the bush" ondar "dregs, deposit" ondar-mondarrak "rests, remains" cases where there is no simplex form (some already given by Larry): zirimiri "drizzle" zurrumurru "rumour" txutxumutxu "whispering" txirrimirri "odd job; busybody" zirkimirki "slightly angry" izkimizki "gossip, slander" urkumurku "having bad intent" >Basque has one particularly interesting class of expressive forms with >especially distinctive properties. This is the class of adjectives >denoting physical or moral defects. They all begin with the >expressive consonant /m/, and they are usually two syllables long >(sometimes three). Here are just a few examples of what is a rather >large group: MOTEL `weak, insipid', [etc.] What about MUTIL, MOTEL `boy, young man'? Is it the same word? ------------------------------------- Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv at pi.net ------------------------------------- From glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Tue Nov 12 03:45:35 1996 From: glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu (GLAC) Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 19:45:35 -0800 Subject: GLAC-3 announcement #2 Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS PLEASE POST The Department of Germanic Languages of The University of California, Los Angeles is pleased to announce GERMANIC LINGUISTICS: THE THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE The Conference of the Society for Germanic Philology APRIL 25 - 27, 1997 Abstracts are hereby invited for thirty-minute papers in all areas of linguistics dealing with any Germanic language, past and present, and especially those in: sign based approaches cognitive approaches approaches dealing with generative grammar a new philology indo-european linguistics. All abstracts will be evaluated anonymously, by a panel of reviewers. This submission procedure may be supplemented, but not replaced, by electronic mail submission. Please send: -- Five hard copies of a one-page abstract (font size no smaller than 10), double-spaced; on 8.5x11 inch or A4 paper. On the abstract include the title of the proposed paper but DO NOT include the author's name. -- A three-by-five inch index card with the following information: the title of the paper; author(s) name(s), title(s), academic affiliation(s), and preferred form of address; contact address(es) postal service and electronic mail, if available; telephone and fax numbers. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 1 DECEMBER 1996 Organizers: C.M. Stevens (310) 206-4948 and R.S. Kirsner (310) 206-4111, Germanic Languages, UCLA SEND MATERIALS TO: GLAC3 Conference Committee Department of Germanic Languages 2326 Murphy Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1539 E-MAIL: GLAC3 at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU From lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Mon Nov 18 19:09:04 1996 From: lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Lora Lee) Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 15:39:04 -0330 Subject: RUKI Rule Message-ID: I am investigating the conditioning environment which triggered the shift of PIE alveolar /s/ to palatal, retroflex or velar /s/ in Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic. That is - following either an /r/, /u/, /k/ or /i/. I am interested in both the diachronic shift and the synchronic morpho-phonemic variation occuring in Sanskrit. I am looking for any examples of similar diachronic shifts or synchronic variants in a NON-Indoeuropean Language. Any help would be appreciated. Linda Longerich Memorial University of Newfoundland lindal at morgan.ucs.mun.ca Lora Lee *********************************************************** "I say guilt and innocence are a matter of degree and what is justice to you might not be justice to me" -Ani Difranco *********************************************************** From glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Mon Nov 25 05:34:39 1996 From: glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu (GLAC) Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 21:34:39 -0800 Subject: GLAC-3 Extended Deadline for Conference Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS PLEASE POST ~~~~~~~~~~ DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 20 DECEMBER 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Department of Germanic Languages of The University of California, Los Angeles is pleased to announce GERMANIC LINGUISTICS: THE THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE The Conference of the Society for Germanic Philology APRIL 25 - 27, 1997 Guest speakers: Wolfgang Dressler, the Univ. of Vienna Heinz Giegerich, the Univ. of Edinburgh Jan-Wouter Zwart, the Univ. of Groningen Abstracts are hereby invited for thirty-minute papers in all areas of linguistics dealing with any Germanic language, past and present, and especially those in: sign based approaches cognitive approaches approaches dealing with generative grammar a new philology indo-european linguistics. All abstracts will be evaluated anonymously, by a panel of reviewers. This submission procedure may be supplemented, but not replaced, by electronic mail submission. Please send: Five hard copies of a one-page abstract (font size no smaller than 10), double-spaced; on 8.5x11 inch or A4 paper. On the abstract include the title of the proposed paper but *do not* include the author's name. A three-by-five inch index card with the following information: the title of the paper; author(s) name(s), title(s), academic affiliation(s), and preferred form of address; contact address(es) postal service and electronic mail, if available; telephone and fax numbers. ********** SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 20 DECEMBER 1996 ************ Organizers: C.M. Stevens (310) 206-4948 and R.S. Kirsner (310) 206-4111, Germanic Languages, UCLA SEND MATERIALS TO: GLAC3 Conference Committee Department of Germanic Languages 2326 Murphy Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095-1539 E-MAIL: GLAC3 at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU ........................................................................ glac3 at humnet.ucla.edu Electronic mailbox for the 3rd annual Germanic Linguistic in America Conference From ibirks at pratique.fr Mon Nov 25 12:55:47 1996 From: ibirks at pratique.fr (Ivan BIRKS) Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:55:47 +0100 Subject: PIE *kap/*ghabh Message-ID: Proto-Indoeuropean specialists differ on the origins of germanic and romance haben/habere. Whilst many claim that English HAVE and Latin habere are cognate, some (eg Watkins, Pokorny) suggest that HAVE comes from a perfective form of the PIE form *KAP (grasp) whereas HABERE comes from *GHABH (give or receive). Does anyone where I could find out more about: - the conventional wisdom/ debate on this distinction (and others like it)? - what significance this distinction might have in terms of our understanding of the modern forms? - what significance it might have in terms of our understanding of proto-language 'reconstruction'? My main interest is as follows- given that HAVE and Romance AVOIR, HABER, AVERE, etc. maintain certain characteristics of the proto-form (although some might dispute the nature/ direction of the causal relationship), what differences in their modern usage might be attributed to a difference in their root forms. Thanks in advance, Ivan BIRKS Universit=E9 de Paris III From mcv at pi.net Tue Nov 26 10:36:43 1996 From: mcv at pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 02:36:43 PST Subject: Some half baked ideas Message-ID: Dear historical linguists, The following are three (slightly edited) articles of mine, posted in the last few weeks on sci.lang and/or sci.archaeology. I think some of the ideas are at least original, although I unfortunately have had neither the time nor the means to look for references or do a more solid investigation. I thought it would be interesting to try these ideas out on HISTLING, to see what your reactions are. Dead ends? Worth investigating further? References? Any comments would be most welcome. ======================================= The Etruscan-Phoenician Pyrgi Bilingual ======================================= [discussion on Woudhuizen's "decipherment" of the Lemnos stele] I'm not convinced of the translation given by Woudhuizen in "Lost languages", but I have no alternatives to offer. I really don't understand the Lemnos stele too well. In the same book, Woudhuizen also tackles the Pyrgi bilingual, three golden plaques from Pyrgi (Caere), one bearing an inscription in Phoenician, two in Etruscan. The Pyrgi bilingue I know better. The Phoenician text says something like: "To the lady Astarte. This is the holy place that Thefarie Velianas, king of Caere has made and given, in the month of offerings to the Sun, as his private gift (consisting of) the temple and its [enclosure?]. Because Astarte has favoured her faithful in the three years of his kingship, in the month of Dances [KRR], on the day of the funeral of the Goddess. And may the years of the statue in her temple be the years of the stars here." Woudhuizen translates the Etruscan as: A. This temple and this statue, Thefarie Velianas, legislator of the senate (and) people, has built (it) for the Lady Astarte and has given the temple-complex(?) to her during (the month) Cluvenia on account of two obligations: because she has favoured (him) on land: in the third year (of his reign), (during the month) KRR, on the day of the funeral of the Goddess, (and) because she has favoured (him) at sea: during the praetorship of Artanes (and) the sultanate of Achasveros (=Xerxes). And may whatever (number) of stars yield to (whatever number) of years for this statue. B. Thefarie Velianas has built the precinct for the Goddess Athena (and) has offered (it) as a sacrifice during the month of offering(s) to the Sun. May whatever (number) of stars be sporadic as compared to whatever (number) of years for this temple." This is what I make of the Etruscan: A. ita tmia this temple ica-c heramasva and this statue vatieche have been dedicated unialastres to Uni-Astre themiasa "caring for" (= curator, "curating"?) mech thuta res publica Thefariei Velianas Thefarie Velianas sal Sol?? cluvenias offerfeast ? (cleva=gift, offering [see B]) turuce he gave munistas thuvas of his own gift (thuv- = own [*]) tameresca temple building? (tam-eresca ~ tm-ia, cf. IE *dom-?) ilacve as well as ? tulerase enclosure? (tular=border) nac ci avil as three years churvar Churvar (month) (cf. Phoenician KRR) tes'iameitale ? she favours him ? ilacve as well as ? als'ase ? nac as atranes ? zilacal of the "zilac" (= praetor) seleitala ? of the goddess ? acnasvers funeral? cremation? (verse=fire) itani-m and so heramve avil the statue('s) year(s) eniaca just-like pulum-chva the star-count (-chva is collective suff.) II. nac so thefarie veliiunas Thefarie Velianas thamuce cleva made a gift etanal on the idus ? masan Masa (a month) tiur month unias to Uni s'elace he dedicated vacal (his) offering ? tmial of the temple avil-chval of? the year-count amuce may it be? (-ce = aorist imperative?) pulum-chva star-count snuiaph great-er (-aph=comparative)? I'm not claiming this is a full translation of the Pyrgi texts, and the middle part of A is still very obscure, but I'm afraid dragging in Xerxes and his uncle doesn't help much. I think A and the Phoenician plaque *are* bilinguals, although it's obviously not a word-for-word translation of one into the other. B seems like a "reader's digest". [*] Woudhuizen translates thuvas as "two", just like Zacharie Mayani in his hilarious book "The Etruscans Begin to Speak" (Etruscan=Albanian!). Woudhuizen should know better: "thu" is "1". Pity of IE *dwo:, but that's just the way it is. But why "his own"? The following funerary inscription (TLE 619) should explain: "cehen suthi hinthiu thues' sians' etve thaure lautnes'cle caresri aules' larthial precathuras'i larthialisvle cestnal clenaras'i ..." Beekes translates: "This subterranean tomb for the first father [etve?] for the family grave has been built by Aule and Larth of the Precu family, sons of Larth and Cestnei ..." "The first father" (thues' sians') makes no sense (neither would Woudhuizen's "second" father). "Their own father (pater suus)" fits much better, like it fits to translate "munistas thuvas" as "own (private) gift" in the Pyrgi inscription (for "munistas" cf. Latin munus, muneris (*munes-) "service, tax, gift"). ================================================================= Further comments: I have no Phoenician at all, so I'm relying on the two (different) translations given by Beekes "De Etrusken spreken", 1991, and Best/Woudhuizen "Lost Languages from the Mediterranean", 1989. I'm none too sure about the Italicisms "sal" and "munistas" and the Phoenicism "churvar", but they just fell into their slots by treating the text as a real bilingual (as in: the Phoenician says SH-M-SH, so where is it in Etruscan?) ================================================================= =================== Armenian plural -k` =================== [discussion of IE numerals, Armenian c`ork` "4"] The real mystery is that in Armenian, initial s-, medial -s- and final -s normally drop (there are a few cases of initial h- derived from s-, which suggest that /h/ was the intermediary stage). A good example is the word *snusos "daughter-in-law", which becomes in Armenian, genitive (*snusosio > *(h)nu(h)o(h)i(o)). The final -s of the nominative sg. and the genitive sg. has been lost. But the plural -s (also in verbal endings -mk` (*-mos) , -yk` (*-tes)) remains as -k` (i.e. aspirated /k/). Why? Many explanations have been offered: the -k` is a (non-IE?) suffix quite unrelated to -s, the -k` is a "reinforcement" of final -h under grammatical pressure to maintain the distinction between sg. and plural, etc. None of it too convincing. [Reference: C. de Lamberterie BSL 74, 1979]. The only solution I can think of is that final -s after (long) -u- (in the u:-stems and the o-stems [*o:s> us]) became labialized *sw, and spread from there to the other nouns. We know that all labialized voiceless consonants (*sw, *tw, *kw) merged into *kw in Armenian, and give k` [or palatalized c`] (e.g. k`oyr < *swesor "sister", k`un < *swopnos "sleep"; k`an < *kwam "than", c`ork` < *ketwores; k`ez < *twe-ghe "you (acc.)"). It is interesting to note that a /k/ (unaspirated k, usually corresponding to PIE *g) appears before suffixed -n in some nouns such as jukn /dzukn/ "fish" (*ghdhu:s), mukn "mouse" (*mu:s), armukn "elbow" (*arHm-us?) unkn "ear" (*(a)us-, pl. akanj^k` < *), cf. akn "eye" (*okw-: one would expect *ak`-n). Other u(:)-stems appear as pluralia tanta (mawruk` "beard" (*smakru-), srunk` "shin" (*kru:s)). Finally, there are some cases of -s > -r in Armenian (vb. 2sg. pret. -ir, -er, certain -u stems like asr "fleece", t`anjr "thin"), maybe through *zw > *dw. We know that initial *dw in Armenian develops to (e)rk-, as in the word *dwo: > erku, which is another mystery in itself. ========================================================================= Further comments: I need to take another look the nouns and adjectives in -r (n-stem pl. in -unk` I seem to recall?). Unfortunately, I don't have a Classical Armenian grammar handy at the moment. Can somebody explain what Pokorny means when he says "arm. (mit expressiver Geminata) , Gen. ,Auge etc.' "? Any basis for that assumption? ========================================================================== =========================== Emesal a Sumerian Prakrit? =========================== piotrm at umich.edu (Piotr Michalowski) wrote: >For non-Sumerologists I would like to note that these discussions often have >referenec to eme-sal, a supposed "dialect" of Sumerian. There are >syllabically spelled eme-sal ("thin language") words found in certain myths in >which women speak, and in liturgical texts that belonged to the repertoire of >the gala priest (lamentation). It is not clear, for technical reasons, if >certain texts are to be read all in es or only partially, There is no >indication that this was ever a spoken natural dialect, and appears to be a >specific way of pronouncing words in ritual. It is attested relatively late, >primarily in the later part of the Old Babylonian period in texts from >northern Babylonia, that is after Sumerian was long dead and mostly, but not >only, in an area in which it probably had never been spoken. In the past it >was considered a woman's language, but that was because the sal reading of the >WOMAN sign was not properly distinguished from the munus reading. sal is an >adjective that means "thin." emesal is not a good basis for the >reconstruction of early Sumerian, as opposed to the "standard" language >emegir, which means "native tongue." Both should be taken into account, if possible... Whether Emesal is a dialect, a sociolect, a religiolect or a sexolect is interesting in itself, but the point is: it's not a mere invention, and certainly not a Babylonian one. The "sound laws" are too complex, partly reflecting hesitations that also occur in Emegir (n ~ l, g~ ~ m, g ~ b) partly unique (AFAIK) to Emesal (n ~ sh, de,di > ze,zi). If all n-'s would become sh-'s, well and good, but that is not the case. Or if it only affected "cultic" words, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Nor is it just another case of palatalization (cf. nundum ~ shumdum "lip"). I'm not sure what Emesal was either, "a literary dialect" would be the safest term. It's not more archaic than Emegir, except maybe in its treatment of Emegir "n" (=n, l or sh). The palatalizations (udu > eze "sheep", etc.) certainly look like innovations. It is very interesting to compare with Sanskrit/Prakrit, in the 5th. century AD. Quoting from Michael Coulson's introduction to "Teach Yourself Sanskrit": "By now Sanskrit was not a mother tongue but a language to be studied and consciously mastered. This transformation had come about through a gradual process, the beginnings of which are no doubt earlier than Pa:n.ini himself. Something of the true position must be reflected in the drama, where not merely the characters of low social status but also the women and young children speak some variety of Prakrit." The Prakrit of the plays is an artificial "dialect" itself, only loosely based on the local vernaculars. Still, it reflects most of the phonological developments of Middle Indo-Aryan, while at the same time standing closer to pre-Pa:n.inian Vedic than Sanskrit itself in some respects (e.g. the l ~ r variations). We even have a religious connection, given that Pa:li Prakrit was chosen by the Buddhist and Jainist religious reformers as their lithurgical language over Sanskrit. Maybe Emesal is a "tempolect" as well, a stylized vernacular "spoken" by female literary characters and chanted by "folk-religion" priests, at a time when the literary dialect was already a dead language. The difference with Prakrit would be that the vernacular was dead too (or at least dying). ========================================================== Further comments: some closer study of the role of Prakrit in Sanskrit drama would be necessary to see if the analogy with Emesal holds. A preliminary (phonetic) study of Emesal is given below. ========================================================== ====================================================== Appendix: Analysis of the Emesal vocabulary in Thomsen ====================================================== The following is an analysis of Emesal phonetics in relation to the main dialect (Emegir), based on the Emesal wordlist in Marie Louise Thomsen's "The Sumerian language", pp. 285-294: Emegir Emesal English [Words appear to have different roots] (en umun) "lord" (guza ash.te) "throne" (g~itlam mu.udna) "spouse" (nig2 ag~2) "thing" (nitadam mu.udna) "spouse" (tum2/de6 ga) "to bring" [Phonetic alternations] a.gar3 a.da.ar "field" alim e.lum "aurochs" a.nir a.she.er "lament" arad e.ri "slave" dag~al da.ma.al "wide" dig~ir dim3.me.er "god" dish di.id, di.ta "one" dug3 ze2.eb "sweet", "knee" dugud ze2.bi.da "heavy" dumu du5.mu "child, son" en3..tar ash...tar "to ask" engar mu.un.gar/.g~ar "farmer" En.ki Am.anki "Enki" En.lil2 Mu.ul.lil2 "Enlil" e2.g~ar8 a2.mar, e2.mar "figure" ga- da- "verbal prefix" -gin7 di.im3 "like" g~a2-e ma(-e) "I" g~al2 ma.al "to be" g~ar, g~a2.g~a2 mar, ma.ma "to place" g~ar.za mar.za "rite" G~a2.tum3.dug3 Ma.ze2.eb.zib "the goddess Gatumdug" g~eshtin mu.tin "wine" g~eshtug2 mu.ush.tug2 "ear" g~eme2 gi4.in "slave girl" g~ish mu(.ush) "tree" g~idru mu.du.ru "scepter" g~ir2 me.er "dagger" g~iri3 me.ri "foot" ha- da- "verbal prefix" ha.lam gel.le.eg~3 "to destroy" i3 u5 "grease" igi i.bi2 "eye" inim e.ne.eg~3 "word" kalam ka.na.ag~2 "land" lu2 mu.lu "man" mer me.er "anger" munus nu.nus "woman" nam na.ag~2 "-hood ?" nag~a na.ma "soap" nig2.bun2.na she.en.bun2.na "tortoise" nig~ir li.bi.ir "herald" nin shen, ga.sha.an "lady" nir she.er "prince ?" nirah she.ra.ah "the snake-god Nirah" nir.g~al2 she.er.ma.al "prince" nu.gig mu.gi4.ib "hierodule" nundum shu.um.du.um "lip" sag~ she.en "head" sipa su8.ba "shepherd" sig4 she.eb "brick" si.g~ar si.mar "bolt" sum ze2.eg~3 "to give" sha3.g sha3.ab "heart" tud2 ze2.ed "to hit" udu e.ze2 "sheep" unu3, utul mu.nu10, nu12 "shepherd" Not counting the words that are apparently based on different roots, we get the following "phonological rules". Note that Thomsen is trying to show the _differences_ between Emesal and Emegir, so that there is probably a bias against "zero alternations" (no change). REF# RULE (# of cases) EXAMPLES B0 b > b (1) nigbunna > shenbunna P0 p > p (0) -- P1 p > b (1) sipa > subu D0 d > d (8) dig~ir > dimer D1 d > z (4) dug > zeb, udu > eze D2 d > - (0/1) arad (ir?) > eri T0 t > t (3) tar T1 t > z (1) tud > zed G0 g > g (2/3) nugig > mugib, g~eshtug > mushtug G1 g > g~ (0/1) engar > mungar/mung~ar G2 g > n (1) nigbunna > shenbunna G3 g > d (3) agar > adar, -gin > -dim, ga- > da- G4 g > b (7) dug > zeb K0 k > k (2) kalam > kanag~ M0 m > m (4) dumu > dumu M1 m > n (2) munus > nunus, g~eme > gin M2 m > g~ (5) inim > eneg~ N0 n > n (10) inim > eneg~ N1 n > sh (9) nin > shen N2 n > m (3) nugig > mugib, nundum > shumdum,-gin > -dim N3 n > l (1) nig~ir > libir G~0 g~ > g~ (0) -- G~1 g~ > m (20) dig~ir > dimmer G~2 g~ > n (1) sag~ > shen G~3 g~ > b (1) nig~ir > libir G~4 g~ > g (1) g~eme > gin S0 s > s (3) sipa > suba S1 s > sh (2) sag~ > shen, sig > sheb S2 s > z (1) sum > zeg~ SH0 sh > sh (2/3) shag > shab SH1 sh > d/t (1) dish > did, dita SH2 sh > - (1/2) gish > mu Z0 z > z (1) g~arza > marza H0 h > h (1) Nirah > Sherah H1 h > g (1) halam > geleg~ H2 h > d (1) ha- > da- L0 l > l (8) g~al > mal L1 l > n (1) kalam > kanag~ R0 r > r (19) dig~ir > dimmer COMMENTS: P1: p/b confusion common in Emegir as well. D2: dropping final consonant common in Emegir as well. G1/G2: these look like g/g~ confusions. G4: occurs sporadically in Emegir as well. M1: nunus < g~unus?; gin: -m > -n is common in Emegir as well. N2: nu.gig ( < lu.gig ), Emesal probably has mu.lu-gib > mugib; -gin/-gim also in Emegir. N3: n/l confusion common in Emegir as well. G~2: -m > -n is common in Emegir as well. G~3/G~4: these look like g/g~ confusions. SH1: Emegir also has dili, probably just different suffixes. SH2: dropping final consonant common in Emegir as well. H1/H2: g-/h- confusion occurs sporadically in Emegir as well (cf. ga- /ha- prefixes). L1: l/n confusion common in Emegir as well. This leaves the following "sound laws", which can be considered as typical of the Emesal dialect: Palatalizations: D1 d > z (4) dug > zeb, udu > eze T1 t > z (1) tud > zed S1 s > sh (2) sag~ > shen, sig > sheb Unclear: S2 s > z (1) sum > zeg~ G3 g > d (3) agar > adar, -gin > -dim, ga- > da- H1 h > g (1) halam > geleg~ Possible reflexes of distinct Proto-Sumerian phonemes?: A: [*w, *ngw ?] M2 m > g~ (5) inim > eneg~ G~1 g~ > m (20) dig~ir > dimmer B: [*gw ?] G4 g > b (7) dug > zeb, igi > ibi C: [*L (Welsh "ll") ?, cf. n ~ l] N1 n > sh (9) nin > shen, nundum > shumdum Additionally, there are some interesting hesitations in Emegir (Thomsen, pp. 44-46) as well: h ~ r rush(u) ~ hush(u) "red" g ~ b (see G4 above) buru4 ~ gu.ru "raven", abrig ~ agrig "steward" h ~ g (see H1, H2 above) ha- ~ ga- "vb. prefix", HA=ku6 "fish" n ~ l (see L1, N3 above) nu ~ lu2 "man", nu- ~ la- "not", limmu "4" ~ nimin "40". ------------------------------------- Miguel Carrasquer Vidal mcv at pi.net -------------------------------------