10.1836, Books: Australian, Omotic, & Tasmanian Langs

Wed Dec 1 06:43:47 UTC 1999

LINGUIST List:  Vol-10-1836. Wed Dec 1 1999. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 10.1836, Books: Australian, Omotic, & Tasmanian Langs

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Andrew Carnie: U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Associate Editors:  Martin Jacobsen <marty at linguistlist.org>
                    Ljuba Veselinova <ljuba at linguistlist.org>
		    Scott Fults <scott at linguistlist.org>
		    Jody Huellmantel <jody at linguistlist.org>
		    Karen Milligan <karen at linguistlist.org>

Assistant Editors:  Lydia Grebenyova <lydia at linguistlist.org>
		    Naomi Ogasawara <naomi at linguistlist.org>
		    James Yuells <james at linguistlist.org>

Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
                      Chris Brown <chris at linguistlist.org>
                      Qian Liao <qian at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scott at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================

Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers are
available at the end of this issue.

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:20:07 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Australian Lang: The Grammatical Structure of Worora, J.R.B. Love

2)
Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:39:58 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Langs, M. L. Bender

3)
Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:45:23 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  A Narrow Survey of the Language and Dialects of the Extinct Tasmanians

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:20:07 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Australian Lang: The Grammatical Structure of Worora, J.R.B. Love

THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORORA LANGUAGE FROM NORTH-WESTERN
AUSTRALIA

J.R.B. LOVE

This detailed grammar of Worora was written in 1932 by Rev J.R.B. Love,
a pioneer missionary in the rugged Kimberley country of north Western
Australia and has never before been published. Worora is a polysynthetic
language with overarching concord, reminiscent of that in Bantu
languages.

Love provides an insightful description of the four numbers in pronouns,
and the system of four noun classes, whose membership is based partly on
phonological and partly on semantic characteristics. He provides
detailed paradigms of intransitive and transitive verbs as these vary
for tense, mood, voice and polarity.

The Introduction places Worora within its linguistic context, detailing
contact with neighbouring languages. There are then chapters on The
Pronoun, The Noun, The Adjective, The Postposition, The Conjunction, The
Adverb, The Interjection, The Intransitive Verb, The Transitive Verb,
The Verb 'do. say or tell', and Miscellaneous Notes. An Appendix has
comparative vocabulary with other languages. There is also a specimen of
Worora narrative with detailed analysis. Reflecting the spirit of the
age in which he lived, Love concludes the Introduction with a summary of
the manifold complexities of the language and then opines: 'So the
present investigator has come to the conclusion that, crude and naked
savages as they are, the mental culture of the Worora is not so
contemptible.'

Edited by R M W Dixon, Australian National University.

ISBN 3 89586 652 0.
LINCOM Studies in Australian Languages 04
Ca. 90pp. USD 48 / EUR 36.81

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.
A free copy of LINCOM's millenium catalogue 'project line 10' is now
available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA
Paul-Preuss-Str. 25
D-80995 Muenchen, Germany

FAX +4989 3148909
http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:39:58 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Langs, M. L. Bender

COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF THE OMOTIC LANGUAGES
M. Lionel Bender, University of  Southern Illinois-Carbondale

Omotic is the least-known family in the Afrasian (=Afroasiatic or
"Hamito-Semitic") phylum. No book-length synthesis of the family has
appeared previously and it is not generally known that Omotic is a
highly agglutinative family with many obvious Afrasian characteristics.
Omotic is located entirely within southwest and west Ethiopia, on both
sides of the Omo River, from which it takes its name. Some still consder
Omotic not to be an independent family, but rather West Cushitic.
In this monograph, the author covers all nine Omotic families in
descriptive chapters as follows: 1. Northwest Ometo, 2. Southeast Ometo
and C'ara, 4. Gimira-Yem (Janjero)-Kefoid, 6. Dizoid, 7. Aroid, 8. Mao.
Chs. 3 and 5 are analytic chapters covering preceding chapters and Ch. 9
is an overall analysis, summary, and conclusions. All varieties having
sufficient documentation (about 30 in number) are covered, along with
notes on others.

Sources are all available published sources which contain significant
linguistic material, many of them obscure and difficult to obtain, plus
extensive unpublished fieldnotes of the author and others. All are fully
referenced.

Each descriptive chapter has an introduction featuring nomenclature,
locations, demographic estimates, and a listing of main sources. There
follows a brief phonological sketch divided into consonants, vowels, and
suprasegmentals and phonotactics. Morphological categories are then
taken up in the order: pronouns, including independents, possessives,
verbal affixes, gender, number, and case; demonstratives;
interrogatives; nouns, including species and the  categories applying to
pronouns; verbal TMA (tense-mode-aspect) system; copulas and connecters;
nominal and verbal derivations. In the comparative analysis, the author
surveys grammatical formatives by family and indicates potential
proto-forms where possible. Conclusions include remarks on the
sub-classification  of Omotic and the position of Omotic in the Afrasian
phylum.

The book contains about 250 pages including Notes, References, Map. It
is to be followed by a second volume on Omotic phonology and lexicon.

ISBN 3895862517
LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 19.
Ca. 250 pp. EUR 70.56 / USD 94

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.
A free copy of LINCOM's millenium catalogue 'project line 10' is now
available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA
Paul-Preuss-Str. 25
D-80995 Muenchen, Germany

FAX +4989 3148909
http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:45:23 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  A Narrow Survey of the Language and Dialects of the Extinct Tasmanians

A Narrow Survey of the Language and
Dialects of the Extinct Tasmanians

ATTILA FLINK

Tasmania was discovered by the Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman. He sighted
the land first in 1642 and named the country in the honour of Anthony
Van Dieman, Governor General of Batavia.  The next seafarer arrived more
than a century later: the French navigator, Marion Du Fresne, in 1772.
Captain Cook arrived in 1777 and the first settlement was established in
1804.  In the 19th century the country became Tasmania named after its
first discoverer.  Scientists believe Tasmania was originally part of
the Australian mainland but due to the rise of sea level approximately
10,000-12,000 years ago it became separated from the mainland.  In
reality there is no evidence that the Tasmanian natives were long
distance seafarers therefore with these geophysical changes the then
existing population also became isolated from the rest of the world.  At
the time of discovery a dark race was found to be living there in a
pre-industrial civilisation and a century later in 1877 the last of the
full-blood Tasmanians died.

The Tasmanians' origin and language has become a much debated issue
amongst academics ever since.  During the long isolation the language
was intact from outside influence.  Part of their language was recorded
by early French visitors. Then from the time of Captain Cook's landing
further recordings were made from the natives' language, from all parts
of Tasmania.  Because there was no uniform writing system the Tasmanian
natives' language was preserved in various phonetic transcriptions
therefore each manuscript requires a separate study to find the right
articulation of the intended sound.  Fortunately a good deal of their
language became recorded which makes its study possible by language
comparison.

In the attempt to identify the language origin the following major
questions are to be answered:
1) was the Tasmanian native tongue a unique language on its own and with
the death of the last Tasmanian speaker did it pass into oblivion
leaving no connection with the outside world whatsoever?
2) how many languages were spoken there as inclusive dialects or were
there just dialects deriving from the source of a single tongue.
3) the language was not known to the newcomer therefore can the
suggested language boundaries be taken seriously?
4) what is the guarantee that the translations are correct? when asking
meanings from the native was the reply always what was to be expected or
was it only a comment relevant to the question being put?

Languages of the World/11-1.
3 89586 913 9.
20pp. EUR 8.69 / USD 9.50

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.
A free copy of LINCOM's millenium catalogue 'project line 10' is now
available from LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA
Paul-Preuss-Str. 25
D-80995 Muenchen, Germany

FAX +4989 3148909
http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 If you buy one of these books, please tell the publisher or author
 that you saw it on LINGUIST.

 The following publishers contribute to the support of The LINGUIST List:

 MAJOR SUPPORTERS

         Arnold Publishers
                  http://www.arnoldpublishers.com

         Blackwell Publishers
                  http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/

         Cambridge UP -USA
                  http://www.cup.org

         Cascadilla Press
                  http://www.cascadilla.com/

         Elsevier Science Ltd.
                  http://www.elsevier.nl/

         Holland Academic Graphics
                  http://www.hagpub.com/

         John Benjamins
                  http://www.benjamins.com/

         Kluwer Academic Publishers
                  http://www.wkap.nl/

         Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
                  http://www.erlbaum.com/

         Lincom Europa
                  http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA

         MIT Press (Books)
                  http://mitpress.mit.edu/books-legacy.tcl

         Mouton deGruyter
                  http://www.deGruyter.de/hling.html

         Multilingual Matters
                  http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

         Oxford UP
                  http://www.oup-usa.org/

         Pearson Education
                  http://www.awl-he.com/linguistics/

         Routledge
                  http://www.routledge.com/

         Summer Institute of Linguistics
                  http://www.sil.org/acpub/

 OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS

         Anthropological Linguistics
                  http://www.indiana.edu/~anthling/

         Athelstan Publications
                  www.athel.com

         Finno-Ugrian Society
                  www.helsinki.fi/jarj/sus/

         International Pragmatics Assoc.
                  http://ipra-www.uia.ac.be/ipra/

         IULC Publications
                  http://php.indiana.edu/~iulc/

         Linguistique Africaine

         Vaxjo: Acta Wexionesia

         Virittaja
		  http://www.helsinki.fi/jarj/kks/virittaja.html---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-10-1836