What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

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spanick
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by spanick »

Of late, I've been on:
Hocąk Teaching Materials, Volume 1 by Johannes Helmbrecht & Christian Lehman (2010)
Winnebago Grammar by William Lipkind (1945)
Ælfwine
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Ælfwine »

I've just bought The Oxford Gothic Grammar. Even with the discount I had, it wasn't cheap, but I am hoping it'll be worth it. Supposedly, it is the most comprehensive book on the language since the 19th century, and includes very recent findings on the language. I'm hoping it'll help out with my Germlang.
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KaiTheHomoSapien
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by KaiTheHomoSapien »

Look what just arrived in the mail for me today:

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[:D] Can't wait to start reading this.
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spanick
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by spanick »

KaiTheHomoSapien wrote: 18 Aug 2019 02:15 Look what just arrived in the mail for me today:

Image

[:D] Can't wait to start reading this.
I have this. Fantastic book.
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Lambuzhao
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Lambuzhao »

W00T!

Crazy smart fellow, that Dr. Ringe. I had the pleasure of taking a class under him in Ancient Greek Historical Grammar… oh, about 587 Trine ago…
Looks to be a juicy read! [:D]
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KaiTheHomoSapien
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by KaiTheHomoSapien »

A Grammar of the Hittite Language

https://www.academia.edu/13160223/A_GRA ... view-paper

Where was this when I was first working on my hittite-inspired conlang? I think I may need to go back to the drawing board. [:P]
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Xonen
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Xonen »

KaiTheHomoSapien wrote: 19 Jul 2020 18:52 A Grammar of the Hittite Language

https://www.academia.edu/13160223/A_GRA ... view-paper
Neat, thanks for linking this! Not that I expect to have the time to actually read it anytime soon, but hey, Hittite's been waiting for millennia, so what's a few more centuries?
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eldin raigmore
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by eldin raigmore »

http://www.helsinki.fi/esslli/courses/readers/K54.pdf
A working rough draft of a preprint of a paper on
Mathematical Linguistics.
Actually I think the author plans a book.
So far it’s shortish for a book but really long for an article.
I’ve seen occasional multi-part articles in journals before, though.
Spread out over two or three consecutive issues, for example.
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Bob »

Aside from what I mentioned in my other posts, I some of the Yokuts (Native American, California) reference grammar from this book. Here's an article I did on it from July 13.

And then because I was typing up Atlantean, I thought twice about its non-finite verb forms. So I did some more reading in my c 1920s interlinear glossed Biloxi Dictionary and Grammar (Native American, Louisiana, Sioux), Lhota Naga tales c 1920s, and then some other such works I have, notably Cicero's "On Old Age". The major Kutenai (Native American, Montana and Canada, isolate) text collection, too. I refered to some other resources also. I posted some about this to facebook but don't know if I posted it to my Atlantean thread on Zompist Bboard or here.

Now I might gloss the whole mess and so probably have time for non-linguistics reading if I like. Which I think I do, I tired myself out reading World Lexicon of Grammaticalization with special focus on the short glossed samples of Niger-Congo languages. I'm stuck with my in-print library for now and it's okay but it's not what I wish it was. Maybe the future will see it improve.

I'm especially happy to have now overviews of all the Sinitic (Chinese) languages but especially one for "Australian Aboriginal Languages" by Colin Yallop. I should maybe take the opportunity to read as much of that as I can. Though I think I've read a lot of it already. I'm so fortunate I found it. I go to used bookstores and see what's on the shelves. Support local businesses.

An Episode from Herodotus {Ancient Greek}, from Memory (Sister of Pain, in the Theogony {Ancient Greek}) :

The advisor looked out from the mountain across the strait. To the King of Persia, "We should not have the army now build a bridge across that strait. It is too risky." Said the King, "My forefathers would never be king if we did not take risks. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But he who never risks, never wins."

A song:
Take a Chance On Me | ABBA | Lyrics ☾☀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py3vFp4U7Rs

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...

Here's maps of all the Native American languages whos short grammars are included in the 1946 book "Linguisti Structures of America". It's probably free on Internet Archive.

I bought this book a year or two just because there's a huge used bookstore near where I live and they had it. It has the worst-written reference grammars I ever found and totally lacks a glossary of grammatical terms. Everything is notably a big run-on paragraph without any interlinear glossing. And there's other confusing things about it. And I've read tremendous numbers of short and long reference grammars in my life.

This summer I'm mostly surveying all African languages, especially Niger-Congo languages. But I'm also doing some work on various Native American languages that I haven't spent a lot of time on so far.

Languages:

South Greenlandic ESKIMO-ALEUT

Apache NA-DENE > ATHABASKAN

Proto-Algonquian ALGIC > ALGONQUIAN

Delaware ALGIC > ALGONQUIAN

Hopi UTO-AZTECAN

Taos TANOAN > TIWA

Yokuts YOK-UTIAN

Yuma YUMAN

Tonkawa ISOLATE, TEXAS

Chitimacha ISOLATE, LOUISIANA

Tunica ISOLATE, LOUISIANA

Aztec UTO-AZTECAN

Chipewyan NA-DENE > ATHABASKAN > N ATHA.

...
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Omzinesý »

I did, at last, read Li and Thompson's Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.

I think they argue very well for the concept of topic-prominent language, but bundle everything else together in the concept of subject-prominent language. Implicitly English subject seems to be the prototype of subject. They fully ignore "case languages" where any participant can appear in the topic position but still is part of the argument structure unlike in topic-prominent languages. There should be more categories than just the two. Of course the article is an old classic instead of the final truth.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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eldin raigmore
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by eldin raigmore »

Omzinesý wrote: 28 Aug 2020 12:18 I did, at last, read Li and Thompson's Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.

I think they argue very well for the concept of topic-prominent language, but bundle everything else together in the concept of subject-prominent language. Implicitly English subject seems to be the prototype of subject. They fully ignore "case languages" where any participant can appear in the topic position but still is part of the argument structure unlike in topic-prominent languages. There should be more categories than just the two. Of course the article is an old classic instead of the final truth.
As I recall they had four types;
* Subject-prominent but not topic-prominent
* Topic-prominent but not subject-prominent
* Both subject-prominent and topic-prominent
* Neither subject-prominent nor topic-prominent

Pretty sure Tagalog was a “neither”.

I have posted about that book before, but I can’t find my posts.
It would have been sometime this century on CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU or on some iteration of Zompist’s ZBB.
That should really narrow it down.
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Omzinesý »

I found interesting presentation slides "The applicative(-like) function of Nilotic: Introducing themes" (Google if interested)
(There seems to be a chapter in a costly book with the same title, but the free slide show is enough for my purposes.)

I have been developing a side-project with associated motion marking and it seems they can be used as applicatives if they can code associated motion of the object. It can be very useful because I don't want to fill the language's verb with slots.
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Egerius »

Luca Panieri, Fonologia delle lingue germaniche antiche, Pisa University Press, 2021.

This book traces the development of the main Germanic languages of the early/high Middle Ages (Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old High German), beginning with Porto-Indo-European and going through the main sound changes that ended in Proto-Germanic, before devoting individual chapters to the individual languages.

This book has a few nice graphics and charts, but I miss a comprehensive IPA table that summarises the phonetic inventory of each discussed language at the end. Example words, however, are often given an IPA transcription (though IPA is used only in narrow phonetic transcriptions, not phonemic transcriptions).
The languages are discussed in a rather monolithic manner: Although sources from different dialect areas of, let's say, Old English are brought up, few attempts are made at showing dialectal (beyond West Saxon/Non-WS) or diachronic variation. The transcription of the diphthongs displeases me, especially (I am a fan of the height-harmonic diphthongs [:$] ). The author extrapolates sound values from (early) Northumbrian sources for the (classical) West Saxon dialect.
Spoiler:

Code: Select all

<ea> [æɒ̯]   <ēa> [æːɒ̯]
  <eo> [eo̯]   <ēo> [eːo̯]
  <io> [ɪo̯]   <īo> [iːo̯]
  <ie> [ɪɵ̯]   <īe> [iːɵ̯]
Finally, although Old Frisian and Old Saxon (Old Low German) are mentioned and used as examples, they lack their own, dedicated chapters.
Languages of Rodentèrra: Buonavallese, Saselvan Argemontese; Wīlandisċ Taulkeisch; More on the road.
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by WeepingElf »

I am currently reading L. M. West, Indo-European Poetry and Myth, which contains an awful lot of interesting stuff I am going to use for Old Albic poetry and mythology. Wow!
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KaiTheHomoSapien
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by KaiTheHomoSapien »

I want to read this book on Paleohispanic Languages and Epigraphies:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product ... us&lang=en&

But not for $190 :(

Books like these are always so expensive...
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Knox Adjacent
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Knox Adjacent »

Really doesn't help much, but Walmart app'll save you $50.
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Re: What have you been reading lately? (linguistic ed.)

Post by Visions1 »

Currently trying to finish "The Atoms of Language" by Mark Baker. Truthfully, after Salmoneus gave me the slap across the face I needed (seriously, thank you) I've become a lot more skeptical to UG, and it is popsci linguistics, but honestly, I appreciate his perspective, and I also find the book to so far be a good shorthand reference for a couple features (this is more due to how my memory works than the book itself). It was a gift someone gave to me, and a nice one.
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