16.3477, Review: Lang Description/Lexicography: Zoller (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3477. Tue Dec 06 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3477, Review: Lang Description/Lexicography: Zoller (2005)

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1)
Date: 02-Dec-2005
From: Jan Heegård Petersen < janhp at hum.ku.dk >
Subject: A Grammar and Dictionary of Indus Kohistani 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:36:50
From: Jan Heegård Petersen < janhp at hum.ku.dk >
Subject: A Grammar and Dictionary of Indus Kohistani 
 

AUTHOR: Zoller, Claus Peter
TITLE: A Grammar and Dictionary of Indus Kohistani
SUBTITLE: Volume I: Dictionary
SERIES: Trends in Linguistics. Documentation 21.1
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2086.html 

Jan Heegård, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Section 
for Linguistics, University of Copenhagen. 

SUMMARY OF THE BOOK'S CONTENTS

This dictionary of the Northwest Indo-Aryan language Indus Kohistani 
(henceforth IK), is the first of two volumes which presents the results 
of the linguist Claus Peter Zoller's field work stretching from 1997 to 
2001. The second volume, A Grammar of Indus Kohistani, is expected 
to appear in 2007.

With this volume IK is included in the exclusive and small group of the 
relatively little studied northwest Indo-Aryan (''Dardic''), Iranian and 
Nuristani languages spoken in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains 
for which we have descriptive grammars and comprehensive 
dictionaries. Zoller's two-volume description of IK will be highly 
relevant for linguists working in the same area and for linguists 
working with languages in the Indian and Iranian language areas. Due 
to the very detailed information about word and morpheme cognates 
and parallels in neighbouring languages and languages outside of the 
Hindu Kush area the present work will also be of high value for 
linguists with interests in language contact phenomena, in particular in 
Central and South Asia. 

Structure of the dictionary
The dictionary consists of a list of contents, acknowledgements, a map 
of the area in Northern Pakistan where IK is spoken, an introduction 
(20 pages), a chapter termed ''Technical aspects of the dictionary'' (23 
pages), references (15 pages), the Indus Kohistani-English dictionary 
(356 pages, about 8000 lemmata), an English - Indus Kohistani index 
(60 pages), an Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) - Indus Kohistani index (20 pages 
with those IK words for which the OIA origin is more or less clear), and 
five appendices containing lists of selected numerals, days of the 
week, months of the year, place names (72) near the Indus, and 
(local) place and clan names. 

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Contents of the Parts of the Dictionary, Introduction
The introductory chapter is a detailed introduction to the language, its 
genetic affiliation, its areal setting, the dialects, place name 
morphology, and the history of research on the language, which goes 
back to Leitner (1893). We are informed that IK is spoken in District 
Kohistan in North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan. There are about 
222.000 speakers (Hallberg 1992) who live on the west bank of the 
Indus river and in westwards side valleys in the southern parts of the 
Hindu Kush mountain range. Speakers are also found in big cities in 
Pakistan and in two enclaves outside of District Kohistan. 

Zoller's description of IK is mainly based on interviews with three 
language consultants and on his work on traditional songs and oral 
stories. It includes studies of the three varieties 
called ''Jijaalii'', ''Gabaar'' (also ''Gowro''), and ''BhaTiise'' 
(also ''BaTera'') [double vowels symbolize long vowels, (non-initial) 
capitol letters symbolize retroflex sounds, JH]. The Jijaalii variety 
provides the main part of the lemmata. 

Zoller devotes considerable space to a discussion of the term 'Dardic' 
and its use as a denominator of the northwest Indo-Aryan languages. 
Contrary to previous assumptions (for example, Morgenstierne 1961), 
Zoller stresses the genetic unity of the Dardic languages by pointing 
out that they all have preserved the distinction between the three OIA 
sibilants 's, sh, S' ['sh' = palatal, 'S' = retroflex]; other New Indo-Aryan 
(NIA) languages have only one or two sibilants. 

Zoller suggests a family tree where ''Proto-Dardic'' have branched 
off ''at a post-OIA stage from the rest of Indic'' (p. 11). The internal 
branching of this proposed 'Dardic family' [my term, JH] is still only 
possible to outline in a very rough way (op.cit.). This is due to the 
many still imperfectly studied Dardic languages, and to the history of 
the Dardic languages, which in Zoller's view are in an ''period of 
equilibrium'' (op.cit.), characterized as a situation where ''the original 
genetic relationships of the family tree diagram will become 
progressively blurred, due to the diffusion of linguistic features'' 
(op.cit., quoting Dixon 1997: 73). 

Zoller sets up a ''central (or progressive)'' Dardic area versus ''a 
peripheral (or conservative) area'' (p. 12), based on a diatopical study 
of the number of stop consonants, ''vowel palatalization'' and the 
expression for certain numerals (p. 12-13). The former group consists 
of ''the Proto-Kohistani languages'', the latter of ''the other proto-
Dardic languages'' (p. 13). This hypothesis differs from Strand's 
(1973) classification usually cited in many works on languages of this 
area. 

Zoller also briefly touches on borrowings and substrata in IK. The 
vocabulary of IK is basically derived from OIA, estimated 15% of the 
vocabulary is Perso-Arabic, and 10% is shared with Burushaski. This 
may be due to either a previous smaller distance between the two 
languages, a common substratum, or influence from other language 
groups (p. 16-17, with references to Tikkanen 1988, and Fussman 
1989). 

The chapter ''Technical aspects of the dictionary'' serves as a good 
and detailed user's guide to the dictionary. The reader is informed 
about the principles behind the well-developed comparative and 
historical information and also about the basic principles and rules for 
the pitch accent system of IK. 

Also explained are the notational principles, the considerations behind 
providing many verbs with full paradigms, and the alphabetical order 
(following the Sanskrit principle, with Roman type letters). The 
notational praxis is subphonemic, ''a middle way between the level of 
phonetic transcription and the abstract systematic levels'' (p. 34). 
Examples of phonemically redundant notations are word final 
aspiration (with exponent h), word final ultrashort vowels (only in few 
cases phonemic), and word final devoicing of voiced segments 
(+ release delay), nasalization between nasal consonants. This practice 
demands extensive use of diacritics which in this reviewer's eyes has 
the disadvantage that the type face occasionally becomes cramped 
and the different symbols difficult to distinguish from each other. But 
the notational praxis also reveals the author's fine sense of phonetic 
accuracy, and it gives the reader important phonetic information 'on 
the spot' so he does not have to look in the phonology part of the 
grammar. 

The introductory chapter ends with a list of abbreviations and a list of 
references that contains a large bulk of the literature written on the 
Dardic languages. 

The Indus Kohistani - English Wordlist: Macrostructure
The about 8000 lemmata are presented in two columns on each page. 
The headword is written in italics, as are usage examples, cross-
references and words from other languages. Verbs for which verbal 
paradigms are provided are written have their headwords in bold face. 
All other information is given in plain type face. 

The lines following the line introduced by the headword are moved to 
the right, which should make it easy to identify the headword. There 
are two exceptions to this principle: (1) conjunct verbs and 
compounds with the headword as the first element (substituted by ''+'') 
are written on line (vertically) with the headword; (2) verbs for which 
finite and participial forms are given, which include most verbs in the 
first third of the dictionary (some verbs have more than 20 different 
forms in their paradigms). For verbs of the remaining part of the 
dictionary mainly the irregular forms are given. This is an impressive 
and very informative piece of work. But due to the graphic 
presentation it disturbs the reader's overview because each verb form 
is introduced by a grammatical abbreviation (in normal type script), on 
line vertically with the headword. Also etymologies and other remarks 
to these verbs or verb forms begin on a new line vertically on line with 
the headword and the verbal forms. The deviation from the graphical 
principle mentioned above makes it difficult to identify where the article 
with the many verb forms ends and a new lemma begins, in spite of 
the fact that only the headwords are in italics, and thus should be 
easier to find. Alternatively, all headwords could have been in bold 
type face and not just verbs with paradigms. Or the verbal paradigms 
could have given in an appendix with a note of reference in the 
dictionary. 

Although it is difficult for this reviewer to give a reliable evaluation of 
the vocabulary it seems that the dictionary covers a lot of ground. 
Besides the basic vocabulary the dictionary contains many words for 
animal and plants, many onomatopoeia and address words, many 
words reflecting rural life, and different kinds of diseases, games and 
weapon types, and many words covering matters of faith, to name but 
a few of the many meaning domains that make up a vocabulary of a 
language. Also the many specific geographical terms show that the 
author is an attentive fieldworker, for example, ''dúr'' 'an area difficult 
to walk along or traverse (for a Kohistani!)' [Zoller's insertion, JH; 
acute accent symbolizes rising pitch, grave accent symbolizes falling 
pitch.] 

The Indus Kohistani - English Wordlist: Microstructure
For all words the header gives information about pronunciation in the 
Gabaar and BhaTiise varieties (if deviant). Nouns are supplied with 
specification about gender and with information about plural forms and 
irregular oblique endings. Adjectives are specified for masculine and 
feminine forms. Verbs are specified for transitivity and their mood 
realization patterns. Again, the reader feels on safe ground due to the 
thoroughness that is reflected by the detailed information. 

In the body of the articles we find the English equivalents to the IK 
words; if there are more meanings these are separated by a 
semicolon. Equivalents are followed by word cognates in other 
languages. If possible, the origin of the IK word is given, whether a 
loanword or indigenous Indo-Aryan. The Indo-Aryan etymologies are 
given with a reference to the word forms and their index number in 
Turner (1966), but the meanings of the OIA word forms are 
unfortunately not given (also not in the OIA - IK index). 

Many words are supplied in a comprehensive fashion with information 
about their internal make up and their cognates in other languages 
and etymons including other scholars' suggestions, as well as Zoller's 
evaluation hereof. The treatment of the cognates to ''maCúu'', 'pupil of 
the eye' (p. 328) does not stand alone in this respect, and it serves in 
all its length as an illustration of the wealth of comparative information 
that the reader is provided with: 
''[Cf.] Kal. ''écani mocík'' 'pupil of the eye'. The Kohistanis say that 
the ''maCúu'' is the place from where light emits that lights up the 
surroundings. < mártyua- (9888) plus ''-Túu'' dimin. suffix, thus lit. 'little 
man (of the eye)' (cf. the different etymological interpretation for Kal. 
suggested by Bashir (2001: 9). Prob. the same meaning 'little man' 
also in Phal. ''maanuSToól'' 'eyeball' (this meaning given by Strand is 
prob. not quite correct) with final syllable < ''*Tulla'' (5470). Cf. the 
meaning 'man of the eye' also in Pers. ''mardumi cashm''.  
[''Kal.'' and ''Phal.'' = Kalasha and Phalula, respectively, two other 
Dardic languages; ''Pers. = Persian; numbers in brackets refer to entry 
numbers in Turner 1966.]

This part of the articles reflects the author's impressing work and 
insight into historical and comparative linguistics, and it is probably the 
most impressive of all the dictionary's merits. 

The English equivalents and in particular the elaborated word 
explanations are also a very strong characteristic (the symbol 
"O" below represents IPA "turned v" -Eds.). The reader 
becomes well-informed about many aspects of the Indus Kohistani 
way of life, whether it has to do with botanics and medical use of 
plants, with gastronomy, with matters of faith, or with cultural-
economic practice, as, for example, with respect to ''qOlàang'' 'a 
seasonal tax paid by Gujars to villagers for use of pastures' (presently 
15 Rs per goat and 20 Rs. per cow or water buffalo''.  Rules of games 
are also explained: ''Tòk-Tokh'' 'name of a children's game: several 
children sit behind each other with outstretched legs, the first puts his 
arms round the trunk of a tree, the second puts his arms around the 
first child, etc. Then a child comes near who is dressed like an adult 
and who ... sings ... . Then the child tears away the last child of the 
row, and the same is repeated' ''. Not only do explanations like this 
show that the author is a careful and vigilant fieldworker and 
lexicographer. They also make the dictionary enjoyable and 
fascinating to study, as, for example, when reading 
about ''maaSmaarìi'': 'the ''rare'' form of bloody vendetta in which only 
men are allowed to be killed (it is not so common because it is said 
that vendettas are usually very tough, implying extreme emotions; 
therefore ''qatlìaam'' is practiced much more frequently'' [''qOtlìaam'' 
is 'the common kind of vendetta in which men, women, children, and 
animal are allowed to be killed', JH]. 

Also definitions of place adverbs reflect careful linguistic investigation 
with differentiation according to parameters such as exact vs. non-
exact position, visible vs. non-visible position, position down vs. up 
from speaker, etc. 

But to turn from very strong features of the dictionary to two aspects 
that are not as developed and detailed: (1) usage examples (i.e., 
examples that illustrate the use of the lemmata in a natural context); 
and (2) information about use of postpositions (or case endings) in 
marking complements or adverbials to predicates (for example, in 
marking direct or indirect, 'dative', objects). One of the few articles that 
I have come upon that contain both of these is the adjective ''paÓn-
váalaa'' 'liked', for which we are given the information that it is ''[c]
onstructed with genitive'', followed by a usage example (with a literal 
translation in English; sometimes the literal translation is in Urdu). This 
valuable information is unfortunately not very frequent throughout the 
dictionary. For 581 lemmata including sub-lemmata starting with ''m'' I 
counted 14 usage examples (2,5%). Of the 581 lemmata there are 83 
verbs and only for one of these (1,2 %) are we given information 
about complement-marking. The scores for lemmata starting with ''t'' 
are similar. Somewhat better are the numbers for the 359 lemmata 
starting with ''a''. Of these 37 (10,3%) have usage examples. Of the 34 
verbs 4 (11,8%) contain information about complement-marking. Of 
course, not all verbs require or allow marking of adverbial or 
complements but by going through the ''m'' and ''t'' words I wondered 
whether or not the 'dative complements' to the following verbs would 
be marked, as they may be in other Dardic languages: 'kill', 'speak/say 
(to someone)', 'remove', 'love someone', 'have a meeting (with 
someone), 'thank (someone)', 'shoot at', 'give instruction (to 
someone)', and 'explain (to someone)'. A remark in the introduction 
about this partially lacking grammatical information would have been 
nice to have. Alternatively, usage examples could have been used to 
clarify this aspect, like in the article ''Cl diyav'' 'to throw or drive 
away, ...' where it appears that an ablative postposition is used to 
mark the source. More usage examples could also have helped in 
clarifying the use of lemmata which are provided with two or more 
word classes. For example, ''aTkCl'' 'adv.; n.m. 'according to one's 
estimate; ...' and ''khún'' 'adv, postp; 'in, inside; at/towards 'the 
mountainside' (of a valley)'. 

These last critical remarks do not, however, in any way reflect my 
general impression of the dictionary. Zoller's dictionary of a hitherto 
poorly described language is stuffed with insightful and important 
information not just about IK but also about IK's relationship to 
neighbouring languages. The dictionary is highly valuable and 
recommendable and not to be missed for scholars with interests in 
languages of that part of the world. 

REFERENCES

Bashir, Elena L. 2001b. Khowar-Wakhi Contact Relationships. In 
Tohfa-e-Dil. Festschrift Helmut Nespital, ed. Dirk W. Lönne, 3-17. 
Reinbek: Dr. Inge Wezler Verlag für Orientalistische 
Fachpublikationen.

Dixon, Robert M.W. 1997. The Rise and Fall of Languages. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fussman, Gérard. 1989. Languages as a source for history. In History 
of Northern Areas of Pakistan, ed. Ahmad Hasan Dani, 43-58. 
Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research.

Hallberg, Daniel G. 1992. The languages of Indus Kohistan. In 
Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan 1: Languages of Kohistan, 
ed. Clare F. O'Leary, 83-141. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan 
Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University, and Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Leitner, G.W. 1985(1893). Dardistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893. 
Karachi: Indus Publications.

Morgenstierne, Georg. 1961. Dardic and Kafir languages. In 
Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. Breill, 138-139.

Strand, Richard F. 1973. Notes on the Nûristânî and Dardic 
Languages. Journal of the American Oriental Society 93:297-305.

Tikkanen, Bertil. 1988. On Burushaski and other ancient substrata in 
Northwestern South Asia. Studia Orientalia 64:303-325.

Turner, Ralph L. 1966. A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan 
Languages. London: Oxford University Press. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

The reviewer is a PhD student at the Department of Nordic Studies of 
Linguistics, Section for Linguistics, University of Copenhagen. Before 
beginning his current research he worked four years as a 
lexicographer. His research on Kalasha, an Indo-Aryan ("Dardic") 
language with about 4000 speakers, is based on fieldwork. His 
publications include studies of the phonetics and grammar of Kalasha. 
His PhD dissertation, a study of the case endings and postpositions in 
Kalasha, will will be finished in mid 2006.





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