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11. Living Water (Abur): A Possible Lexical Connection between Romanian, Albanian and Basque

Author:
Şerban George Paul Drugaş
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Hiperboreea
Institution:
Balkan History Association
Abstract:
I will analyze in this paper the possibility for a common origin of a word that appears in Romanian as abur "vapor, steam", in Albanian as avull (id.), and in Basque with two forms, as ibar "valley, watered meadow" and ibai "river". Romanian abur and Albanian avull are words of the substratum vocabulary of these languages, with a common origin, the Romanian form being more primitive. If a connection between the Basque ibar / ibai and the PIE root of the previous Albanian and Romanian words could be established, then the three words would have had a common origin.
Topic:
Linguistics and Language
Political Geography:
Romania, Spain, and Albania

12. Suresvara’s View on Knowledge (jñāna)

Author:
Alexander Pereverzev
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Hiperboreea
Institution:
Balkan History Association
Abstract:
The article deals with the soteriologic function of knowledge (jñāna), according to the non-dualist school of Vedānta (with a special reference to its classic author, Surevara) and with its phenomenological and semiotic aspects, in the view of the same school of thought. In its first part, it stresses on the role of knowledge in liberation, both in the system of Advaita Vedānta and in comparison with other schools of Indian philosophy. The second part deals with the great formulations of the salvific knowledge and with the attempts to analyze their meaning. Hence, the study also approaches the semiotics and the epistemology of Advaita Vedānta.
Topic:
Religion, Linguistics, and Philosophy
Political Geography:
India

13. Exiled in Babylon: Refugees and the Politics of Language

Author:
Noga Malkin
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:
In the city of Mardin, the Tower of Babel cliché holds particular relevance. The old city—a beautiful array of historic stone houses stacked on a mountain slope in southeast Turkey—is located at the northern edge of Mesopotamia, once the land of Babylon. More than geography, the linguistic panorama of the area evokes the Genesis Babel story, the myth used to explain the variation of human tongues. Mardin is a microcosm of the Ottoman Empire’s ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity, largely eroded by nationalism’s drive for homogenization. A large Kurdish population lives in Mardin, holding on to their mother tongues despite decades-long Turkish “assimilation” policies. A sizable Arab population lives here too, separated from Arabs in Syria and Iraq after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Linguists classify their language as “Mesopotamian Arabic,” related to bygone Iraqi dialects. Most Mardinites grow up speaking at least two—sometimes three—languages, learning either Kurdish or Arabic at home, the other on the streets, and Turkish at school. Further adding to the linguistic diversity, there remain several hundred neo-Aramaic speaking Assyrians and even fewer Armenians who once made up the majority of the city’s population; despite their now meager numbers, they attract tourists who come for the locally produced Assyrian wine and traditional Armenian and Assyrian silver crafts.
Topic:
Refugees, Research, Linguistics, Language, Kurds, and Arabic
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

14. An Overview of Kurtöp Morphophonemics

Author:
Gwendolyn Hyslop
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Bhutan Studies
Institution:
Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS)
Abstract:
Kurtöp is an East Bodish (Tibeto-Burman) language of Bhutan that is still endangered as people shift from the village to centers of commerce outside of the Kurtöp-speaking region. While it has been described to some extent (e.g. Hyslop 2011) there has not been much attempt made to communicate findings of the language to outside fields. Specifically, this article presents an analysis of morphophonology, or sound changes conditioned by word formation, in Kurtöp. In Linguistics, the term ‘phonology’ refers to the study of sound systems used in language while ‘morphology’ refers to the study of morphemes, or meaningful word units. Taken together, morphophonology is the study of how sounds change in words depending on how the words are composed. For example, in English, the plural suffix -s is pronounced as [s] when following words that end with sounds like [p], [t], and [k], as in gaps, pits and yaks. However, when plural -s follows words that end with sounds like [ʃ] the suffix is pronounced as [əz] as in leashes. It is important to keep in mind that in linguistics we study the way words are pronounced, rather than the way they are written.
Topic:
Linguistics and Language
Political Geography:
South Asia and Bhutan

15. Frequency Counts in South Asian Poetry; Sultan Bahu’s Concept of Mystical Love

Author:
María Isabel Maldonado García
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Word frequency methods have been used by psychologists, linguists (and of these computational linguists), etc. with a variety of purposes. In this study the frequency count method has been applied in order to find out a thematic hierarchy within a group of related texts. The particular texts chosen are a group of 70poems of the XIII century South- Asiatic author Sultan Bahu. Sultan Bahu’s poems contain his interpretation of the Beloved and human’s relationship with Him. The importance of this research lies in the fact that Sultan Bahu’s texts have never been thoroughly analyzed from a linguistic point of view. Through the analysis of the results of the frequency counts a hierarchy of subtopics within the main topic will be revealed. The present research paper attempts to uncover and evaluate Sultan Bahu’s concept of mystical love and its components in a hierarchical manner.
Topic:
Linguistics, Sufism, Quantitative, Computational Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Poetry, and Mysticism
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia