Sociolinguistic Remarks on the Indo-Iranian *-ka-Suffix: A Marker of Colloquial Register

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 311-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie W. Jamison
Keyword(s):  
Women's Speech ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Varied Distribution ◽  
Ancient Texts

AbstractThe widespread Indo-Iranian *-ka suffix (also widely distributed elsewhere in Indo-European) is generally characterized as a diminutive or deprecatory marker, shading into pleonastic meaninglessness. However, it is easier to account for its extremely varied distribution and diverse functions by interpreting it as a sociolinguistic marker of colloquial or informal speech. The explosive growth of the suffix in the "middle" period languages of both Iranian and Indo-Aryan results in part from the greater representation of vernacular speech in those languages, but also from the convenience of the suffix as a means of staving off word-final phonological erosion. The suffix is also associated with speech by and about women from the ancient period (Vedic Sanskrit and Avestan) onwards. is association results from the fact that women are typed as colloquial speakers throughout these texts, lacking access to high-register grammatical forms and styles, and therefore paying attention to women's speech in ancient texts may give us a window on the colloquial register that is otherwise unavailable to us in these elite products.

A Critical Study of Violent Asphyxial Deaths with Ancient Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalpana Denge ◽  
Rupali Gatfane
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Ancient Texts

Asphyxia is most commonly appearing as a major cause of unnatural deaths. Scattered references can be reviewed in ancient literature regarding asphyxial death. Description of various signs of asphyxial death is given briefly in ancient texts and it is worthwhile to study them with the help of modern science. In ancient literature these asphyxial deaths are described briefly as Kanthapeedan, Dhoomopahat and Udakahat. In modern literature asphyxial deaths are described as hanging, strangulation, suffocation and drowning which occur in homicidal or suicidal purpose or accidental. Viewing these references, asphyxial deaths are studied comprehensively with the object of highlighting it with the help of modern knowledge. Thus present article deals with exploration of ancient references of asphyxial death with the help of contemporary science.

Islam: The Arabic and Persian Traditions, Eleventh–Fifteenth Centuries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Hirschler
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Abbasid Caliphate ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Early Islamic

This chapter deals with how the Islamic historical writing of the Middle Period developed directly from the early Islamic tradition, and its legacy remained deeply inscribed into the ways history was written and represented between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. However, as historians started to develop new styles and new genres, they turned to previously neglected aspects of the past, their social profile changed, and the writing of history became a more self-conscious, and to some degree self-confident, cultural practice. Most importantly, those issues that had motivated earlier historians, such as the legitimacy of the Abbasid Caliphate, declined in significance and historians of the Middle Period turned to new and more diverse subjects.

Plato’s Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 574-604
Author(s):  
Christopher Bobonich
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Private Property ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Plato's Political Philosophy ◽  
Status Of Women

The dialogues that are most obviously important for Plato’s political philosophy include: the Apology, the Crito, the Gorgias, the Laws, the Republic, and the Statesman. Further, there are many questions of political philosophy that Plato discusses in his dialogues. These topics include, among others: (1) the ultimate ends of the city’s laws and institutions; (2) who should rule, the forms of constitution, and their ranking; (3) what institutions and offices there should be; (4) the nature and extent of citizens’ obligation to obey the laws; (5) the proper criterion of citizenship; (6) the political and social status of women; (7) the purposes of punishment; (8) private property; and (9) slavery. This chapter attempts to provide an overall picture of Plato’s political philosophy, focusing on three moments: the “Socratic” dialogues, including the Apology and the Crito; the great middle-period work, the Republic, along with the Phaedo; and finally, two works from Plato’s last period, the Statesman and the Laws.

Marcatori conclusivi del discorso diretto in italiano antico

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Davide Mastrantonio
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Old French ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Text Segmentation ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Specific Subset ◽  
Ancient Texts

Abstract In this paper we deal with a specific subset of direct speech markers, to which little or no attention has been given so far: the expressions which codify the ending of the direct speech (“marcatori conclusivi del discorso diretto”). We analyse these markers in Old Italian texts, comparing them with their Latin and, in some cases, Old French equivalents. In the introduction (§1), we take into account various general issues related to ancient texts, namely the practice of spoken-word reading and the lack of systematic punctuation marking that helps text segmentation. After that (§2), we classify the different strategies ancient writers had at their disposal to signal that a direct speech is over, hence that what follows has to be interpreted as the narrator voice; the markers are organized in a range from most explicit to most implicit (disse > quando ebbe detto > a queste parole > allora > [Ø]). Thereafter (§3), we focus on two specific markers, the participial marker (detto questo) and the “connector + finite tense” marker (quando ebbe detto questo) in a corpus of nine texts. Though these two markers are roughly synonymic, their occurrence is not uniform among the analysed texts. The explanation of their unequal distribution is that they belong to different discourse traditions (Diskurstraditionen): “quando + finite tense” is a typical expression attested in Romance narrations (the so-called “quand-Satz”), whereas detto questo appears to be dependent on Latin tradition.

The Audacity of a Middle Period: An Introduction

CLA Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-398
Author(s):  
Michael Hill ◽  
Jessica Welburn Paige ◽  
Deborah Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Middle Period

La part d’Henri Weil dans l’édition du De la musique attribué à Plutarque (Paris, E. Leroux, 1900)

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-265
Author(s):  
Laurent Calvié
Keyword(s):  
Original Condition ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
First Time ◽  
Ancient Texts

The Weil-Reinach edition of the De musica attributed to Plutarch is the result of a close collaboration of two among the best philologists and specialists of ancient Greek music active in France between the 19th and the 20th centuries : H. Weil and his pupil Th. Reinach. The latter (who personally provided the collation of the manuscripts, some of the exegetical notes and the index) put together the material, but it was Weil who should be regarded as primarily responsible for the work, whose overall organization and component parts are perfectly consistent with the principles and methods that he had already applied to his previous editions : the subordination of the criticism of the texts, founded on the recension of manuscripts, to their history and interpretation. The interventionism typical of this publication derives from the extremely ambitious target that Weil imposed on all his ecdotic works : the reconstruction not of the corrupt archetype of the extant Byzantine and Humanist manuscripts, but of the original condition of the ancient texts. Viewed in this light, the Weil-Reinach edition of the De musica is a treasure of erudition and intelligence, in which the textual problems of a text, which had been deeply altered since antiquity, are raised for the first time.

Scribal elites in Sultanate and Mughal Bengal

2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumkum Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Social Geography ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Bengali Literature ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Middle Period

This article studies the importance of scribal skills in sustaining political regimes and the function of scribal careers in shaping and creating social and ritual status with particular reference to Bengal from the thirteenth till the eighteenth centuries. Based on histories of landed families, middle period Bengali literature and the large genealogical corpus (kulagranthas) of this region, the article surveys the social geography of literate–scribal communities and their long association with a number of Indo–Islamic regimes which ruled over Bengal during these centuries. The article explores the social and cultural implications of scribal careers as well as the educational and linguistic proficiencies which undergirded them. Finally, the article notes the role played by polities in regulating jati hierarchies and boundaries and comments on its implications for the period studied here as also for the colonial/modern period.

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