Although English and German are both Germanic languages, due to various historical changes, many of their cognates are no longer easily recognizable. This study examined whether knowledge of language history can be beneficial to learners when learning English-German cognates. Thirty-five English-speaking second language (L2) learners of…

Despite a century-old narrative as a monolingual country with quaint regional dialects, Thailand is in fact a country of vast linguistic diversity, where a population of approximately 60 million speak more than 70 languages representing five distinct language families (Luangthongkum, 2007; Premsrirat, 2011; Smalley, 1994), the result of a history…

Addresses some of the problems concerning the hierarchical relationship between language typology and genetic linguistics and between typology and universal grammar. (RM)

IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED THAT A LARGE NUMBER OF THE LANGUAGES IN THE LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSIFIED SUB-SAHARAN AREA OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, THE NORTHERN CAMEROONS, AND THE CHAD REPUBLIC, INCLUDING MANY OF THE LANGUAGES OF THE JOS PLATEAU GROUP, CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS A SINGLE LINGUISTIC UNIT--THE CHAD FAMILY. BY USING THE TRADITIONAL…

Author funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Consilium for African Studies of Yale University. Research undertaken with the cooperation of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies of Haile Selassie I University. (VM)

Explores the possible origins of Malacca Creole Portuguese, and compares and contrasts Papia Kristang with other related creoles. (AM)

Attempts to show that the comparison of language structures may be relevant to diachronic linguistics, and in particular to areal linguistics. The article is based on an ongoing comparative study aimed at devising a typology of African languages. (Author/RM)

Examines how the term "Middle Arabic" has been used insufficiently, inappropriately, and in inconsistent manners, and also defines Middle Arabic by historical period and linguistic level. An analysis is made of Middle Arabic's multiglossic complexity and the unique structure of Middle Arabic compared to Old and Modern Arabic. (23 references) (GLR)

The present volume, the second part of a final report on tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal, contains the following papers: "Gurung, Tamang, Thakali, Sherpa, and Chepang Prosodies," by Richard S. Pittman; "Proto-Tamang-Gurung-Thakali," by Pittman and Jessie Glover; "Cognate Counts via the Swadesh List in…

This study compared the vocabulary of the period from 1943 to 1945 to the vocabulary of 1975. In addition to a direct comparison of word use, an indirect comparison was made using Thorndike's word list in the "Teacher's Word Book" (1931). The 1975 vocabulary, based on frequency of word appearance, was derived from 93 speeches made by students in…

Discusses the study of Lisramic, a phylum of six presumably related language groups: Semitic, Egyptian, Cushitic, Omotic, Berber, and Chadic. (AM)

Discusses and compares the syntactic features of free relative clauses found in Castilian and Aragonese dialects of Old Spanish. The role of clitics (nontonic pronominals) and the lexical innovations of the wh-question compound-type clauses are highlighted. (TR)

THIS BOOK, FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1921, IS INTENDED AS A BASIC INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC SCIENCE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE LAYMAN. THE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER DEFINES LANGUAGE AS A CULTURAL FUNCTION AND AS THE POSSIBLE BASIS OF ALL THOUGHT. THE ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE ARE TREATED IN SECTIONS ON PHONETICS, WORDS, GRAMMATICAL CONCEPTS, AND GRAMMATICAL PROCESSES.…

This paper discusses research and developments in the study of Papuan languages, a designation formerly used to group those languages which were geographically close to, but structurally quite different from, the Austronesian languages; the grouping had nothing to do with relationships among the Papuan languages themselves. Increasing knowledge…