Existence, location, possession, and copula in Malabar Indo-Portuguese

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57
Author(s):  
Ana Krajinović
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
The Way

Abstract This paper offers a diachronic and a contact-based analysis of existential, locative, possessive, and copulative constructions in Malabar Indo-Portuguese creole (MIP). The existential, locative, and possessive predicates are all expressed with the copulative verb tæ, and nominal and property-denoting predicates can either have the copula tæ or zero copula. I analyze these copulative constructions by establishing their sources in the Portuguese lexifier and Malayalam substrate/adstrate. I show that although the Portuguese verbs ter ‘have’ and estar ‘be’ have paved the way to the semantics of tæ, Malayalam had a strong impact on the morphosyntax and semantics of existential, locative, possessive, and copulative constructions in MIP. This influence is most notable in the case of possessives, which take dative subjects. These findings are compared to the relevant structures in other South Asian languages and show that the existence of locative possession is a strong areal feature of South Asia. I also show that the variability of copula usage in nominal and property-denoting predicates can be explained by variable input from Portuguese and Malayalam copulative constructions. One of the most salient features influenced by Malayalam is the choice of what are etymologically Portuguese nouns instead of adjectives in property-denoting predicates.

scholarly journals Jews and Muslims in South Asia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia Egorova
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
First Century ◽  
Common Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
The Way

In the European imaginary Jews and Muslims have shared a common space reserved for the ultimate other and have been constructed in opposition to each other. This book examines the way Jewish and Muslim communities encounter each other in South Asia and interact in ways that do not easily fit conventional Western tropes of Jews-Muslim relations. In doing so, the book explores how, in the history of the subcontinent, globalized discourses about Jewishness and Islam intersect and acquire different dimensions in varying sociopolitical contexts in ways that cast analytical light on the notions of race, religion, and minorities. Moving on to the contemporary period, the book demonstrates how South Asian Jewish experiences have been turned into a rhetorical tool to negate the discrimination of Muslims and argues that the ostensible celebration of Jewishness in the discourse of the Hindu and, analogously, European right masks not only anti-Muslim but also anti-Jewish prejudice. It also interrogates both those accounts that inscribe Jews and Muslims as each other’s enemies and those that imagine them as linked by a commonality of theologies, rituals, and narratives, and suggests that rather than being considered as a category of analysis, Jewish-Muslim relations would be best thematized as a construct produced by the very processes of minoritization, stigmatization, and othering that have been applied to Jews and Muslims in Europe and then globalized at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Globalization, Democratization, Liberal Peace, and Human Security in South Asia

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-76
Author(s):  
Shibashis Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Liberal Peace ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Way

The chapter deals with three transformative theses and their possible impact and consequences in South Asia. The author examines the impacts of globalization, democratic peace, and human security to find whether these have changed elite mindsets in the subcontinent. He finds that none of these alleged changes have impacted on the way Indian and South Asian elites imagine their neighbourhood. First, globalization has divided the subcontinent along economic lines that complicate India’s neighbourhood policies further. Second, the dynamic of globalization has unfolded within the given geopolitical parameters of South Asia and, therefore, no liberal order has grown within the region. This episode brings out the disjuncture of economic and political dynamics in this region despite two decades of globalization. Third, democratic peace has no credibility in South Asia given the intense geopolitical competition between India and Pakistan that also affects the foreign policies of smaller states. The state in South Asia has dominated the agenda of non-traditional security and defined it. South Asian states continue to suffer from fears and tensions since most of these insecurities stem from within and are the products of the state.

Retroflex consonant harmony: An areal feature in South Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Arsenault
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
The South ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Consonant Harmony ◽  
Northern Half ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Asian Languages

AbstractRetroflexion is a well-known areal feature of South Asia. Most South Asian languages, regardless of their genetic affiliation, contrast retroflex consonants with their non-retroflex dental counterparts. However, South Asian languages differ in the phonotactic restrictions that they place on retroflex consonants. This paper presents evidence that a large number of South Asian languages have developed a co-occurrence restriction on coronal obstruents that can be described as retroflex consonant harmony. In these languages, roots containing two non-adjacent coronal stops are primarily limited to those with two dentals (T…T) or two retroflexes (Ṭ…Ṭ), while those containing a combination of dental and retroflex stops are avoided (*T…Ṭ, *Ṭ…T). Historical-comparative evidence indicates that long-distance retroflex assimilation has contributed to the development of this phonotactic pattern (T…Ṭ → Ṭ…Ṭ). In addition, the paper demonstrates that the distribution of languages with and without retroflex consonant harmony is geographic in nature, not genetic. Retroflex consonant harmony is characteristic of most languages in the northern half of the South Asian subcontinent, regardless of whether they are Indo-Aryan, Dravidian or Munda (but not Tibeto-Burman). It is not characteristic of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages in the south. Thus, retroflex consonant harmony constitutes an areal feature within South Asia.

South Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 542-573
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Shokoohy ◽  
Natalie H. Shokoohy
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
South India ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Historic Sites ◽  
North And South ◽  
The Way

In South Asian archaeology, Buddhist and Hindu sites and monuments dominate, while Muslim ones, with the exception of a few grand edifices, have never been given the priority they deserve. In India, there has been little significant excavation of any Muslim sites, but during the British period the major ones were gradually identified, some of the better-preserved monuments were restored, while the ruins, if regarded as significant, were cleared of debris and rudimentary efforts made to preserve the standing remains. After Partition, the Archaeological Survey of India continued to maintain Muslim sites such as those in Delhi; the forts and monuments of Bidar, Bijapur, Daulatabad, and Gulbarga in the Deccan; scattered remains in Gaur and Pandua (the site of Laknautī, the Muslim capital of Bengal); and the monuments in Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Sasaram in Bihar. The monuments of Ahmadabad and some other towns of Gujarat have been more extensively studied. Whatever has been undertaken in the way of fresh exploration in North and South India has been mainly by independent scholars and experts. In Pakistan, some excavation has been carried out in the early Muslim sites, including at Banbhore, the site of the ancient port of Daibul, and at Brahmanābād, the site of al-Manṣūra, the seat of the Arab governor of Sind, both dating from the first and second century of the Hijra. In Bangladesh, the historic sites already restored before Partition have been maintained, but funds and resources to carry out fresh excavations or restoration are lacking. Much is left for present and future archaeologists to explore.

Roland J.-L. Breton, Atlas of the languages and ethnic communities of South Asia. Walnut Creek, London & New Delhi: Altamira Press, 1997. Pp. 231. Hb $65.00.

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-332
Author(s):  
Harold Schiffman
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
English Version ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
Language Classification

This is an English version of the author's French work, Atlas géographique des langues et des ethnies de l'Inde et du Subcontinent, (Les Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec, 1976.) Since it was originally based on data from the 1971 (or even earlier) censuses of India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (and since Bangladesh was part of Pakistan in 1971, and Bhutan data were not reliable earlier), it has been updated to include data from various regional census sources, mostly those conducted in 1981 and 1991. One notes that there are various censuses of Nepal (1952/54, 1971, 1981, 1991) cited, but that Sri Lanka does not seem to have done one since 1953. The cartographic techniques have also benefited from this updating, with new methods of representation not previously available. This makes it possible to compare various increases of speakers and languages in various parts of the subcontinent, in tables added for this purpose. This version also includes a very useful bibliography of sources – not only various censuses, but also other studies of language distribution, language classification, ethnicity, and language issues. There are also a language classification and plate index, a subject and author index, and material on the diffusion of South Asian languages and scripts outside the subcontinent proper.

scholarly journals Historical Technological Impacts on the Visual Representation of Language with Reference to South-Asian Typeforms

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-468
Author(s):  
Fiona Ross
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Technological Constraints ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
Linguistic Communities

Abstract The scripts of South Asia, which mainly derive from the Brahmi script, afford a visible voice to the numerous linguistic communities that form over one fifth of the world’s population. However, the transition of these visually diverse scripts from chirographic to typographic form has been determined by historical processes that were rarely conducive to accurately rendering non-Latin scripts. This essay provides a critical evaluation of the historical technological impacts on typographic textual composition in South-Asian languages. It draws on resources from relevant archival collections to consider within a historical context the technological constraints that have been crucial in determining the textural appearance of South-Asian typography. In so doing, it seeks to elucidate design decisions that either purposely or unwittingly shaped subsequent and current typographic practice and questions the validity of the continued legacy of historical technological impacts for contemporary vernacular communication.

A bird’s-eye view on South Asian languages through LSI

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-185
Author(s):  
Lars Borin ◽  
Anju Saxena ◽  
Bernard Comrie ◽  
Shafqat Mumtaz Virk
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Computational Data ◽  
Visualization Tools ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
East West

Abstract We present initial exploratory work on illuminating the long-standing question of areal versus genealogical connections in South Asia using computational data visualization tools. With respect to genealogy, we focus on the subclassification of Indo-Aryan, the most ubiquitous language family of South Asia. The intent here is methodological: we explore computational methods for visualizing large datasets of linguistic features, in our case 63 features from 200 languages representing four language families of South Asia, coming out of a digitized version of Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India. To this dataset we apply phylogenetic software originally developed in the context of computational biology for clustering the languages and displaying the clusters in the form of networks. We further explore multiple correspondence analysis as a way of illustrating how linguistic feature bundles correlate with extrinsically defined groupings of languages (genealogical and geographical). Finally, map visualization of combinations of linguistic features and language genealogy is suggested as an aid in distinguishing genealogical and areal features. On the whole, our results are in line with the conclusions of earlier studies: Areality and genealogy are strongly intertwined in South Asia, the traditional lower-level subclassification of Indo-Aryan is largely upheld, and there is a clearly discernible areal east–west divide cutting across language families.

Verb Concatenation in Asian Linguistics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Slade
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Historical Relation ◽  
Asian Languages

Across a large part of Asia are found a variety of verb-verb collocations, a prominent subset of which involves collocations typically displaying completive or resultative semantics. Such collocations are found in Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages of South Asia, Turkic and Iranian languages of Central Asia, and in Chinese languages. In South and Central Asian languages, verb-verb collocations usually involve some added aspectual/Aktionsart element of meaning, frequently (though not exclusively) indicating completion of an event and sometimes involving speaker evaluation of the event (e.g., surprise, regret). Thus Hindi Rām-ne kitāb paṛh diyā, literally “John read-gave the book,” with the sense “John read the book out.” In Chinese languages, many verb-verb collocations involve a resultative sense, similar to English “Kim ran herself/her shoes ragged.” However, earlier Chinese verb-verb collocations were agent-oriented, for example, She-sha Ling Gong“(Someone) shot and killed Duke Ling,” where she is “shoot” and sha is “kill.” In Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, and Central Asian languages, we find verb-verb collocations that evolve from idiomaticization and grammaticalization of constructions involving converbs, for example, a collocation meaning “he, having eaten food, left” acquires the meaning “he ate food (completely).” Similarly, the Chinese verb-verb resultatives derive from earlier verb-verb “co-ordinate” constructions (originally with an overt morpheme er: ji er sha zhi “struck and killed him”), which functionally is similar to the role of converbs in South and Central Asian languages. While these Asian verb-verb collocations are strikingly similar in broad strokes, there are significant differences in the lexical, semantic, and morphosyntactic properties of these constructions in different languages. This is true even in closely related languages in the same language family, such as in Hindi and Nepali. The historical relation between verb-verb collocations in different Asian languages is unclear. Even in geographically proximate language families such as Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, there is evidence of independent development of verb-verb collocations, with possible later convergence. Central Asian verb-verb collocations being very similar in morphosyntactic structure to South Asian verb-verb collocations, it is tempting to suppose that for these there is some contact-based cause, particularly since such collocations are much less prominent in Turkic and Iranian languages outside of Central Asia. The relation between South and Central Asian verb-verb collocations and Chinese verb-verb collocations is even more opaque, and there are greater linguistic differences here. In this connection, further study of verb-verb collocations in Asian languages geographically intermediate to Central and South Asia, including Thai, Vietnamese, and Burmese, is required.

Heritage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Shaikh ◽  
Stefano Bonino
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Online Video ◽  
The South ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Community Heritage ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
The Way

The Colourful Heritage Project (CHP) is the first community heritage focused charitable initiative in Scotland aiming to preserve and to celebrate the contributions of early South Asian and Muslim migrants to Scotland. It has successfully collated a considerable number of oral stories to create an online video archive, providing first-hand accounts of the personal journeys and emotions of the arrival of the earliest generation of these migrants in Scotland and highlighting the inspiring lessons that can be learnt from them. The CHP’s aims are first to capture these stories, second to celebrate the community’s achievements, and third to inspire present and future South Asian, Muslim and Scottish generations. It is a community-led charitable project that has been actively documenting a collection of inspirational stories and personal accounts, uniquely told by the protagonists themselves, describing at first hand their stories and adventures. These range all the way from the time of partition itself to resettling in Pakistan, and then to their final accounts of arriving in Scotland. The video footage enables the public to see their facial expressions, feel their emotions and hear their voices, creating poignant memories of these great men and women, and helping to gain a better understanding of the South Asian and Muslim community’s earliest days in Scotland.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document