Language in South Asia

Language in South Asia PDF Author: Braj B. Kachru
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521781418
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 633

Get Book Here

Book Description
An overview of the language in South Asia within a linguistic, historical and sociolinguistic context, comprising authoritative contributions from international scholars within the field of language and linguistics. It is an accessible interdisciplinary book for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language planning and South Asian studies.

Language in South Asia

Language in South Asia PDF Author: Braj B. Kachru
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521781418
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 633

Get Book Here

Book Description
An overview of the language in South Asia within a linguistic, historical and sociolinguistic context, comprising authoritative contributions from international scholars within the field of language and linguistics. It is an accessible interdisciplinary book for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language planning and South Asian studies.

Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia

Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia PDF Author: Anju Saxena
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110197782
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
The increasing globalization and centralization in the world is threatening the existence of a large number of smaller languages. In South Asia some locally dominant languages (e.g., Hindi, Urdu, Nepali) are gaining ground beside English at the expense of the lesser-known languages. Despite a long history of stable multilingualism, language death is not uncommon in the South Asian context. We do not know how the language situation in South Asia will be affected by modern information and communication technologies: Will cultural and linguistic diversity be strengthened or weakened as they become increasingly prevalent in all walks of life? This volume brings together areas of research that so far do not interact to any significant extent: traditional South Asian descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics, documentary linguistics, issues of intellectual and cultural property and fieldwork ethics, and language technology. Researchers working in the areas of documentary linguistics and language technology have become aware of each other in the last few years, and of how work in the other area could be potentially useful in furthering their own aims. Similarly, the insights of documentary linguistics are making their way into descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics. However, the potential for synergy among these areas of research is almost limitless. This volume provides the reader, not so much with a do-it-yourself recipe for applying modern technology to the problem of language shift in South Asia today, but rather with some basic knowledge about the problems involved and some directions from which solutions could be forthcoming, a toolbox rather than a blueprint, for helping to shape the linguistic future of South Asia.

Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia

Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia PDF Author: Jeffrey P. Williams
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135196772X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia explores the intricacies of the grammars of several of the languages of the South Asian subcontinent. Specifically, the contributors to this volume examine grammatical resources for shaping elaborative, rhyming, and alliterative expressions, conveying the emotions, states, conditions and perceptions of speakers. These forms, often referred to expressives, remain relatively undocumented, until now. It is clear from the evidence on contextualized language use that the grammatically artistic usage of these forms enriches and enlivens both every day and ritualized genres of discourse. The contributors to this volume provide grammatical and sociolinguistic documentation through a typological introduction to the diversity of expressive forms in the languages of South Asia. This book is suitable for students and researchers in South Asian Languages, and language families of the following; Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic.

The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia

The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia PDF Author: Hans Henrich Hock
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110423383
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 964

Get Book Here

Book Description
With nearly a quarter of the world’s population, members of at least five major language families plus several putative language isolates, South Asia is a fascinating arena for linguistic investigations, whether comparative-historical linguistics, studies of language contact and multilingualism, or general linguistic theory. This volume provides a state-of-the-art survey of linguistic research on the languages of South Asia, with contributions by well-known experts. Focus is both on what has been accomplished so far and on what remains unresolved or controversial and hence offers challenges for future research. In addition to covering the languages, their histories, and their genetic classification, as well as phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistics, the volume provides special coverage of contact and convergence, indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions, applications of modern technology to South Asian languages, and South Asian writing systems. An appendix offers a classified listing of major sources and resources, both digital/online and printed.

Negotiating Languages

Negotiating Languages PDF Author: Walter N. Hakala
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231542127
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
Prior to the nineteenth century, South Asian dictionaries, glossaries, and vocabularies reflected a hierarchical vision of nature and human society. By the turn of the twentieth century, the modern dictionary had democratized and politicized language. Compiled "scientifically" through "historical principles," the modern dictionary became a concrete symbol of a nation's arrival on the world stage. Following this phenomenon from the late seventeenth century to the present, Negotiating Languages casts lexicographers as key figures in the political realignment of South Asia under British rule and in the years after independence. Their dictionaries document how a single, mutually intelligible language evolved into two competing registers—Urdu and Hindi—and became associated with contrasting religious and nationalist goals. Each chapter in this volume focuses on a key lexicographical work and its fateful political consequences. Recovering texts by overlooked and even denigrated authors, Negotiating Languages provides insight into the forces that turned intimate speech into a potent nationalist politics, intensifying the passions that partitioned the Indian subcontinent.

The Major Languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa

The Major Languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa PDF Author: Bernard Comrie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113493257X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on the much-praised The World's Major Languages, this is the first comprehensive guide in paperback to describe the development, grammar sound and writing system, and sociological factors of the major language families in these areas.

Languages of South Asia

Languages of South Asia PDF Author: G. A. Zograph
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000831590
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1982, Languages of South Asia covers all important languages and language groups of the so-called Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan). It concentrates on the more southern languages, that is the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda groups; a brief survey of Tibeto-Burman languages is also included. As well as giving a description of the current status and character of each language, Dr. Zograph goes into a detailed structural analysis of its phonology, morphology and syntax. The problems of the historical background of the modern languages, and their classification, are also discussed. The book is supplemented by two language maps, tables showing the main alphabets, a bibliography of reliable works on the subject and an index of 350 language names used in the text. This book will be of interest to students of language, linguistics and South Asian studies.

South Asian Languages

South Asian Languages PDF Author: Kārumūri V. Subbārāo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521861489
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores the similarities and differences of about forty South Asian languages from the four different language families.

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108758401
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehensive survey of the history and core systems and subsystems of the languages of this fascinating region. Drawing on his depth of expertise in mainland Southeast Asia, Enfield includes more than a thousand data examples from over a hundred languages from Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, bringing together a wealth of data and analysis that has not previously been available in one place. Chapters cover the many ways in which these languages both resemble each other, and differ from each other, and the diversity of the area's languages is highlighted, with a special emphasis on minority languages, which outnumber the national languages by nearly a hundred to one. The result is an authoritative treatment of a fascinating and important linguistic area.

Linguistic Theory and South Asian Languages

Linguistic Theory and South Asian Languages PDF Author: Josef Bayer
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233660
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
The South Asian languages, mainly Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, have become a focus of interest in the formal study of language as a natural consequence of the research program of the Principle and Parameters approach and an enforced interest in exploring the parametrical space of human language. The contributions to the present volume combine theoretical reasoning in syntax and phonology with a comparative research agenda in which South Asian languages figure prominently. The topics range from issues of clause structure, serial verb constructions, cleft- and question formation, to the question of what the proper syntactic format of modification should be, issues of binding theory and raising, and issues of complementation, the clausal periphery and clausal typing. The collection of articles concludes with two chapters on Dravidian and comparative phonology and a chapter on the shaping of phonological awareness by different writing systems. The authors and the editors devote this piece of work to Professor K.A. Jayaseelan, one of present-day India s most influential linguists.