Protolanguage in the context of historical consciousness

This article examines the capabilities of protolanguage as the object of philosophy. The subject of this research is the protolanguage viewed from different perspectives: as the ideal construct, as retrotopic plot, as key to the golden age, etc. Within the framework of the philosophy of language, protolanguage largely correlates with the Adamic language, which can be considered as disappeared or subtly preserved in national languages. The search for protolanguage in the Middle Ages (and later period) requires the method of philosophical etymology that proves the closeness of the selected language to the historical primary source - the point of the origin of history. The context of protolanguage intersects not only with linguo-philosophical problematic, but also with the problem of historical consciousness. Protolanguage can be perceived as a type of internal language, or inner form of language; therefore the theme of internal form becomes the plotline for searching the language that encompasses antiquity as the criterion of truth and the ideal comprehension, when the disappearing language remains in silence, indicating the very things. The article advances an idea that the genealogical classification of languages, which includes one protolanguage underlying the linguistic family, may have such classification, which is founded not only on the comparative-historical method, but also the peculiarities of historical consciousness suggesting, for example, that for philhellene culture such protolanguage would be considered the Greek language. The question of protolanguage is attributed to not only the sphere of comparative-historical linguistics, but virtually being the question of the origin of history and human, lies in the realm of the philosophy of history, ontology, and gnoseology.

Uniparental Lineages from the Oldest Indigenous Population of Ecuador: The Tsachilas

Together with Cayapas, the Tsachilas constitute the oldest population in the country of Ecuador and, according to some historians, they are the last descendants of the ancient Yumbos. Several anthropological issues underlie the interest towards this peculiar population: the uncertainty of their origin, their belonging to the Barbacoan linguistic family, which is still at the center of an intense linguistic debate, and the relations of their Yumbo ancestors with the Inca invaders who occupied their ancient territory. Our contribution to the knowledge of their complex past was the reconstruction of their genetic maternal and paternal inheritance through the sequencing of 70 entire mitochondrial genomes and the characterization of the non-recombinant region of the Y chromosome in 26 males. For both markers, we built comprehensive datasets of various populations from the surrounding geographical area, northwestern South America, NW, with a known linguistic affiliation, and we could then compare our sample against the overall variability to infer relationships with other Barbacoan people and with other NW natives. We found contrasting patterns of genetic diversity for the two markers, but generally, our results indicated a possible common origin between the Tsachilas, the Chachi, and other Ecuadorian and Colombian Barbacoans and are suggestive of an interesting ancient linkage to the Inca invaders in Yumbo country.

Pathways to split ergativity

This paper reassesses the rise of ergative alignment in Anatolian and Indo-Aryan, two branches of the Indo-European linguistic family. Both of these branches acquire split-ergative morphosyntax in the course of their history but via different grammaticalization paths and with different results. In the Anatolian language Hittite, a denominative derivational suffix develops into an ergative case marker, which is restricted to so-called neuter nouns. In Indo-Aryan, on the other hand, a new ergative category with anterior aspectual semantics emerges in Middle Indo-Aryan originating from a P-oriented resultative construction in Old Indo-Aryan.

Les systèmes numéraux en quechua et en aymara : une histoire de suffixes

The Quechuan and Aymaran numeral systems show strong similarities, e.g., they have a decimal base and thirteen simple lexemes (simple cardinal numerals). In the case of Quechuan, when forming compound cardinal numerals (namely, numerals with two or more simple lexemes), two distinct sets can be identified: in the first, the compound cardinals are the results of the juxtaposition of simple lexemes. In the second, to this juxtaposition are added nominal suffixes: /-yuq/ or /-n/ or /-wan/. This paper is focused on studying these two numeral Quechua sets involving both diachronic and geographical considerations, and puts forward the hypothesis that nominal suffixes presence in one of them is a consequence of its intense contact with the other great Andean linguistic family, the Aymara. Indeed, Aymaran in all its components, as will be described, adds nominal suffixes to its compound cardinals similarly to the Quechua suffixal numeral set.

Traces and Roots: Exploring Lexical Rapport of the Bisayan and Tausug Languages

Languages in a country are considered to share common characteristics and possibly similar features. This can be attributed to many factors, but one holds true, language is essential in keeping a community. Its vitality molds a society’s identity. The more active the language is, the more its culture gets the exposure it needs. This notion goes two ways for culture cannot also stand without the usage of a language. In this study, Bisayan and Tausug lexicons were compared using a Samarin list to identify factors of similarities as well as their relationship in terms of their semantic and ontological categories. The list was subjected to a qualitative-descriptive analysis. The result of the study revealed that both Tausug and Bisayan (Cebuano) cultures have come from the same linguistic family. Both belong to the Philippine VISAYAN LANGUAGES. Of all the Visayan cultures, the TAUSUG is a Muslim dominated culture which makes it the reason why people associate Tausug language as part of the Mindanao language. The study showed that of the 200 lexicons used based on a Samarin list, 72 of those are true cognates and 28 are cognates with few differences and changes in the spelling. The findings also indicate that these similarities can be attributed to different factors like tracing language relationship by means of genetics, the environmental changes, the language sounds and language arbitrariness.

Translingual Affairs of World Literature

This essay explores a number of texts of the exophonic, or non-native literary production, respectively in Italian and German, of translingual authors Jhumpa Lahiri and Yoko Tawada. While the paper looks at how their dominant languages, respectively English and Japanese, continue to play a role in these writers’ non-native production, it focuses on the different approaches the two authors adopt to translingualism and the “linguistic family romance” metaphor, which they equally employ in highly imaginative ways in order to address both their condition of rootlessness and their attitudes to the notion of “mother tongue.” The essay argues that while Lahiri seems to remain a writer that does not contaminate languages (she is a writer in English, a writer in Italian, and a translator of Italian literature into English), Tawada brings German and Japanese together and dwells on the space of contamination between them in her production in German (and Japanese).

Count-mass distinction in Sakurabiat

Acknowledging the fact that not all languages seem to distinguish grammatically between mass nouns and count nouns, this paper aims to provide information on whether or not the count-mass distinction is expressed in the Sakurabiat language, which belongs to the Tuparic branch of the Tupian linguistic family. The paper presents a brief survey of the grammatical properties associated with notional mass and notional count nouns in Sakurabiat. The properties of constructions with nouns and numerals are described and compared to constructions with pluralized nouns and numerals. The question of individual versus event quantification with numerals, and the role played by quantifiers and comparatives are also analyzed. The Sakurabiat data contributes to the investigation about the expression (or non-expression) of a count-mass distinction in underrepresented and understudied languages.

Santa María Ixcatlán y la lengua xjuani

Xula or Ixcatlán is located in the Cañada region and it is a municipality of Teotitlán de Flores Magón, in the state of Oaxaca. There is not much information about this village's origin; however, there is evidence that shows that it was settled before the arrival of the Spaniards. Ixcatlán is an indigenous village with a population of approximately 573 people. In this village there are 6 elders that continue to use the Ixcatec language, but the rest of the townsfolk speak only Spanish; for them the Ixcatec language is no longer a language of communication. The decrease of Ixcatec language speakers has three main causes: the decline of inhabitants during the sixteenth century, the migration away from the village in different decades of the twentieth century, and imposition of the Spanish language by the Mexican rural schools since the 40's. The Ixcatec language is one of four languages of the Popolocan linguistic family of the Otomanguean stock. Ixcatec share certain linguistic characteristics with other Otomanguean languages, for example, it has tones, nasalized vowels and glottalized vowels, and the canonical word order is: verb + subject + object. Due to its endangered status and its linguistic characteristics, this language holds a great interest to government agencies, academic institutions and independent linguistic activists, which, aiming to strengthen the Ixcatec language, have implemented various documentation, teaching and linguistic awareness projects.

Mode of Difference and Resource for Resilience: How Religion Shapes Experiences of Discrimination of the Second Generation in France

There are two sides to cultural practices such as religion: on the one hand, they connect families across generations and space and can embed resources. On the other, as is the case with Muslim immigrants in Europe, they can become markers of difference and create social distance. Drawing on data on the schooling experiences of children of immigrants in France and on information concerning their religious and linguistic family context when growing up, this article maps these two aspects. Although those growing up in Muslim families are significantly more likely to report discrimination than those from Christian or nonreligious families, neither the degree of religiosity nor the presence of parental home-country language was associated with the probability of reporting discrimination. However, for those growing up in Muslim families, a religious family environment seems to protect against negative reactions such as losing interest in academic matters, whereas no such effects are found in Christian families or for home-country language. These findings show that religion is not only a consequential symbolic barrier that Muslims encounter in Europe but also, for those who are religious, a resource to cope with experiences of exclusion — a constellation that may prove consequential for dynamics of integration.