Gregory D. S. Anderson Livres

The Munda Verb is a unique book on the typology of the verb in the Munda language family, and the first of its kind on any language family of the Indian subcontinent. The author painstakingly works out nearly all the details of the morphology of the verb in each modern Munda language and offers a description of the typology of the Munda verbal systems both individually and collectively. The author uses a large amount of data from modern Munda languages, as well as an extensive cross-linguistic corpus offering comparisons from genetically unrelated languages such as Fox, Amele, Kinyarwanda, Luyia, Takelma, Tonkawa, Burushaski, or Tangut where relevant. Points of note include the unusual incorporation system of South Munda Sora and the elaborate and complex system of verb agreement attested in the Kherwarian Munda languages. Further, the author discusses models for a Proto-Munda verbal system and problems in its reconstruction at various points throughout. This book is of great interest to specialists working on the Munda languages, South Asian linguistics, language typology, historical linguistics and to scholars of both morphology as well as syntax.

The volume offers a description of the history and linguistic consequences of Russian-Turkic contacts in two adjacent republics in the Altai-Sayan region of south central Siberia, viz. Khakasia and Tuva. First an overview of Russian-Turkic contacts is offered. Next follows a lengthy outline of the standardized form of Khakas to serve as a basis of comparison for the data discussed in subsequent chapters. The complex linguistic history of Abakan, the capital of Khakasia is addressed, in particular what indigenous sources have contributed to the modern urban vernacular. This is in large part the result of intense mixing and amalgamation of the diverse dialects of Khakas. Further the role that Russian has played in shaping the modern speech variety attested in the capital city is examined in detail. Finally, Abakan Khakas data is compared with that of Kyzyl Tuvan, spoken in the capital city of the significantly less Russianized Republic of Tuva. The volume also includes a brief general discussion of the dynamics of language contact and structural change in languages under conditions of contact.

Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Altai-Sayan Turkic is a comprehensive survey of the rich system of auxiliary verbs found in the Altai-Sayan Turkic languages spoken in south central Siberia. This includes a discussion of the range of patterns of inflection in the auxiliary verb constructions, the development of various verbal affixes that were originally auxiliary verbs, and the wide array of functions that auxiliary verb constructions have in this group of languages. These latter include the usual tense, mood, and aspect categories that are commonly associated with auxiliary verbs across the languages of the world. In addition, auxiliary verb constructions have several less typical functions in the Altai-Sayan Turkic languages. These include both unusual modal or aspectual categories like unexpected action or ‘pretend to’ forms and categories relating to so-called verbal ‘orientation’ or ‘direction’ and ‘version’. In the former instance, the forms mark motion toward or away from the subject, topic, or discourse locus, while the latter formations indicate whether a subject or a nonsubject is the participant primarily affected by the action of the verb.

Tyvan (aka Tuvan/Tuvinian) is spoken by 150-200,000 people in the Republic of Tyva in south centra Siberia. Tyvan (along with the closely related Tofalar) stand out among the Turkic languages in several ways. Tyvan has three sets of phonemic plain, long, and creaky voice. Word-initially obstruents exhibit a contrast between unaspirated/aspirated or voiced/voiceless, depending on the speaker. There is also a phonemically marginal series of long nasalized vowels. Tyvan has only one inflectional series for verbs, prefering enclitic pronominals in most forms (in main clauses). Large numbers of Mongolisms and Mongolian derivational affixes are found, the latter often appearing with Turkic roots. Russian loans are also numerous, and in the speech of certain younger residents of Kyzyl, contact-induced restructuring can be observed. This study is a description of present day Tyvan, particularly as used in the capital city of Kyzyl. This is the first field-based study of Tyvan available in English and the first description of Kyzyl Tyvan in any language.

Xakas is a Turkic language spoken by 70,000 people in south central Siberia. Xakas is a cover term created in the early 20th century to cover the related dialect clusters of the region; the terms positively viewed by some members of the ethnolinguistic group and negatively by others. Xakas is one of the only Turkic languages to preserve nine short vowels. Morphologically, Xakas shows an unusually high number of affixally realized verbal categories, as well as a complicated AUX verb system. In the imperative Xakas has preserved a dual inclusive. Xakas has a very high number of cases for a Turkic language (9), a number more typical of central and eastern Siberian languages. Due to the centuries-long contact with speakers of Russian, Xakas not only has a large number of Russian loans but it also shows a great-degree of contact-induced restructuring, some examples of which have even found their way into the standardized literary language. The present study is an analysis of the standardized register of Xakas, and constitutes the first description of Xakas in English.