scholarly journals A lack of linguistic evidence for domesticated sunflower in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (30) ◽  
pp. E47-E47 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Domesticated Sunflower

Scales and Units

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. de Luna
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
First Case ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Approaches

This chapter uses two case studies to explore how historians study language movement and change through comparative historical linguistics. The first case study stands as a short chapter in the larger history of the expansion of Bantu languages across eastern, central, and southern Africa. It focuses on the expansion of proto-Kafue, ca. 950–1250, from a linguistic homeland in the middle Kafue River region to lands beyond the Lukanga swamps to the north and the Zambezi River to the south. This expansion was made possible by a dramatic reconfiguration of ties of kinship. The second case study explores linguistic evidence for ridicule along the Lozi-Botatwe frontier in the mid- to late 19th century. Significantly, the units and scales of language movement and change in precolonial periods rendered visible through comparative historical linguistics bring to our attention alternative approaches to language change and movement in contemporary Africa.

Indo-Europeans

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Craig Melchert
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Second Millennium Bce

This article presents an overview of the arrival and florescence of the Indo-European languages in Anatolia, the most famous of which is Hittite. The weight of current linguistic evidence supports the traditional view that Indo-European speakers are intrusive to Asia Minor, coming from somewhere in eastern Europe. There is a growing consensus that the differentiation among the Indo-European Anatolian languages begins at least by the mid-second millennium BCE and possibly earlier. It is likely, but not strictly provable, that this differentiation correlates with the entry of the Indo-European speakers into Anatolia and their subsequent dispersal. Nothing definitive can be said about the route by which the Indo-European entry took place.

Multilingualism in eastern Indonesia: linguistic evidence of a shift from symmetric to asymmetric multilingualism

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110231
Author(s):  
Francesca Romana Moro
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Modelling Language ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Eastern Indonesia ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Bilingual Communities

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The Alorese in eastern Indonesia are an Austronesian community who have inhabited two Papuan-speaking islands for approximately 600 years. Their language presents a paradox: contact with the neighbouring Papuan languages has led to both complexification and simplification. This article argues that these opposite outcomes of contact result from two distinct scenarios, and formulates a hypothesis about a shift in multilingual patterns in Alorese history. Design/Methodology/Approach: To formulate a hypothesis about the discontinuity of multilingual patterns, this article first sketches the past and present multilingual patterns of the Alorese by modelling language contact outcomes in terms of bilingual optimisation strategies. This is followed by a comparison of the two scenarios to pinpoint similarities and differences. Data and Analysis: Previous research shows that two types of contact phenomena are attested in Alorese: (a) complexification arising from grammatical borrowings from Papuan languages, and (b) morphological simplification. The first change is associated with prolonged child bilingualism and is the result of Papuan-oriented bilingual strategies, while the latter change is associated with adult second language (L2) learning and is the result of universal communicative strategies. Findings/Conclusions Complexification and simplification are the results of two different layers of contact. Alorese was first used in small-scale bilingual communities, with widespread symmetric multilingualism. Later, multilingualism became more asymmetric, and the language started to undergo a simplification process due to the considerable number of L2 speakers. Originality: This article is innovative in providing a clear case study showing discontinuity of multilingual patterns, supported by linguistic and non-linguistic evidence. Significance/Implications: This article provides a plausible explanation for the apparent paradox found in Alorese, by showing that different outcomes of contact in the same language are due to different patterns of acquisition and socialisation. This discontinuity should be taken into account by models of language contact.

scholarly journals Population collapse in Congo rainforest from 400 CE urges reassessment of the Bantu Expansion

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. eabd8352
Author(s):  
Dirk Seidensticker ◽  
Wannes Hubau ◽  
Dirk Verschuren ◽  
Cesar Fortes-Lima ◽  
Pierre de Maret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Expansion Phase ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Population Collapse ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Spread Model ◽  
Migration Event

The present-day distribution of Bantu languages is commonly thought to reflect the early stages of the Bantu Expansion, the greatest migration event in African prehistory. Using 1149 radiocarbon dates linked to 115 pottery styles recovered from 726 sites throughout the Congo rainforest and adjacent areas, we show that this is not the case. Two periods of more intense human activity, each consisting of an expansion phase with widespread pottery styles and a regionalization phase with many more local pottery styles, are separated by a widespread population collapse between 400 and 600 CE followed by major resettlement centuries later. Coinciding with wetter climatic conditions, the collapse was possibly promoted by a prolonged epidemic. Comparison of our data with genetic and linguistic evidence further supports a spread-over-spread model for the dispersal of Bantu speakers and their languages.

Linguistic Evidence for ‘Romanization’: Continuity and Change in Romano-British Onomastics: A Study of the Epigraphic Record with Particular Reference to Bath

Britannia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 35-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Online Database ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Introductory Section ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Shed Light

Based on a new online database of Celtic personal names, this research demonstrates how the study of Romano-British onomastics can shed light on the complexities of linguistic and cultural contacts, complementing archaeological material and literary sources. After an introductory section on methodology, Part One analyses naming formulae and expressions of filiation as evidence for both continuity and change dependent on social and geographical factors. Confusion and contamination between the Latin and Celtic systems proved much less common than on the Continent, where earlier contact with Roman culture and the written tradition for Continental Celtic occasionally facilitated an unusual form of syncretism. Part Two examines the naming formulae attested at Roman Bath and the mechanisms by which Celts adopted Latin names. The case-study of Bath relates continuity and change in both naming formulae and nomenclature to an acceptance of, or resistance to, ‘Romanization’ in Britain.

Some Early Authorities Cited by Tājika Authors

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Gansten
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractIn comparison with the spread of Perso-Arabic astrological traditions into medieval Europe, the Indian reception of the same knowledge systems, known in Sanskrit as tājika-śāstra, has received little scholarly attention. The present article attempts to shed some light on the history of the transmission of tājika-śāstra by examining the statements of Sanskrit authors about their earliest non-Indian sources. In particular, the identities of five traditionally cited authorities—Yavana, Khindhi, Hillāja, Khattakhutta and Romaka—are discussed on the basis of text-internal, historical and linguistic evidence.

Constructing a Second Language

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 111-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick C. Ellis ◽  
Teresa Cadierno
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Functional Interpretation ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Principles ◽  
Conceptual Transfer ◽  
Language Meaning

This Special Section brings together researchers who adopt a constructional approach to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as informed by Cognitive and Corpus Linguistics, approaches which fall under the general umbrella of Usage-based Linguistics. The articles present psycholinguistic and corpus linguistic evidence for L2 constructions and for the inseparability of lexis and grammar. They consider the psycholinguistics of language learning following general cognitive principles of category learning, with schematic constructions emerging from usage. They analyze how learning is driven by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within construction, the salience of their form, the significance of their functional interpretation, the match of their meaning to the construction prototype, and the reliability of their mappings. They explore conceptual transfer and the acquisition of second language meaning. They consider the implications of these phenomena for L2 instruction.

Linguistic Evidence for the Northern Origin of Selected Psalms

1992 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Pardee ◽  
Gary A. Rendsburg
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Evidence

The Gulf of Guinea Creoles

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tjerk Hagemeijer
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Genetic Relation ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
The Town ◽  
Rule Out

Especially since Ferraz (1974, 1975, 1979), it has been generally accepted that the four Gulf of Guinea creoles (GGCs) — Santome (ST), Angolar (ANG), Lung’ie (LU), and Fa d’Ambô (FA)2 — are closely related languages based on historical and linguistic data. Ferraz shares his view on the type of genetic relation between these creoles in the following quote: To take the GG [Gulf of Guinea] case, it would not be plausible to assume that the contact language which developed in the town of São Tomé and the surrounding areas was the same as that which gave rise to Ang[olar], Pr[incipense], and Pag[alu]4. There are enough differences between each of these languages to rule out such a possibility. It would be closer to the truth to say that the four contact languages show many resemblances because, to a large extent, they grew up together, with slaves and settlers introduced through the central administration in São Tomé. (…). Hence different languages developed in the archipelago rather than dialects of one contact language. (Ferraz 1987: 348) This paper will reassess the linguistic relation between the GGCs and the typological contribution of the African strata. It will be argued that there is substantial linguistic evidence that the GGCs are to a significant extent the result of a common ancestor, which throughout the paper will be labelled the proto-Gulf of Guinea creole (proto-GGC), and that this common ancestor derived most of its features from its Nigerian substrate rather than from western Bantu.

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