- Central Eurasian Studies >> Courses >> Course List
- Central Eurasian Languages
- CEUS-R 699
- Christopher Beckwith
1.1. Languages of Central Eurasia vs. Central Eurasian languages; map; typology; Cyrillic script(1)
1.2. Introduction to Turkish; agglutinative morphology; vowel harmony(1); evidentiality(1); Turkish text; Cyrillic script(2)
READINGS
Göksel, A. and C. Kerslake 2005. Turkish: a comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge. (R [= on Reserve, Wells Library])
Kornfilt, Jacklin 1997. Turkish. London: Routledge. (R)
Krämer, Martin 2003. Vowel harmony and correspondence theory. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (R)
Johanson, Lars 2003. Evidentiality in Turkic. In A.Y. Aikhenvald & R.M.W. Dixon, eds., Studies in evidentiality. Amsterdam: Benamins, 273-290. (B-WELLS Carrel 9-036A)
2.1. Discussion of Turkish; lecture: The Turkic Languages; the Big Bang Theory in Historical Linguistics; Cyrillic script(3)
READINGS
Johanson, Lars and Éva Csató 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge. (R)
Beckwith, C.I. 2006. Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages II. Leiden: Brill, 23-36 (“Language family divergence theories”)(P [=PDF distributed via Oncourse])
2.2. Introduction to Turkmen; vowel harmony(2).
READINGS
Clark, Larry V. 1998. Turkmen reference grammar. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (R)
Hanser, Oskar 1977. Turkmen manual. Wien: Verlag des Verbandes der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Österreichs. (R)
3.1. Discussion of Turkmen; discussion of language description models; lecture: Morphophonology, lexical sets, and language distinctiveness.
READINGS
Language description encyclopedia articles (listed on handout; look through, see how they’re organized, read a few of them)
Beckwith, C.I. forthcoming. Theoretical and methodological problems in the comparative-historical linguistics of eastern
Eurasian languages. In: C.I. Beckwith, ed., Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages III. Halle: IITBS GmbH. (P)
Beckwith, C.I. 2007. Koguryo, 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 218-220, 234-235 (on “lexical sets”).(P)
3.2. The Tungusic Languages; Introduction to Manchu (and Sibe); lecture: historical-comparative linguistics & the Altaic divergence theory
READINGS
Gorelova, Liliya M. 2002. Manchu grammar. Leiden: Brill (R)
[Kawachi, Yoshihiro and Gisaburo N. Kiyose 2002. 満洲語文語入門. Kyoto: Kyoto Daigaku Gakujutsu Shuppansha.—KA]
4.1. Discussion of Manchu; lecture: Chinese in Central Eurasia and the Ch’inghai-Kansu area Sprachbund, a linguistic example of la longue durée.
READINGS
Nakajima, Motoki 2008. Characteristics of the Gansu (甘粛) Chinese Dialects. Altaistic Studies 2. Non-final version (P)
Svetlana Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer 1967. Soviet Dungan: the Chinese language of central Asia: alphabet, phonology,
morphology. Bloomington: Asian Studies Research Institute (GB 145)
Slater, Keith W. 2001. A grammar of Mangghuer: a Mongolic language of China's Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund. Richmond:
Curzon. (R)
[Imazov, Mukhame Khusezovich 1987. Ocherki po sintaksisu dunganskogo jazyka. Frunze: Ilim. (IUL)]
[—1982. Ocherki po morfologii dunganskogo jazyka. Frunze: Ilim. (IUL)]
4.2. Introduction to Evenki; agglutination, fusion (1); negative verbs and structural convergence.
READINGS
Bulatova, Nadezhda and Lenore Grenoble 1999. Evenki. München: LINCOM Europa. (R)
Nedjalkov, Igor 1997. Evenki. London: Routledge. (R)
5.1. Discussion of Evenki; discussion of language description models; lecture: functional and formal typology and schools of typological linguistics.
READINGS
Shibatani, Masayoshi and Theodora Bynon 1995. Approaches to language typology. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1–25 (R)
Beckwith, C.I. 2007b. Phoronyms: classifiers, class nouns, and the pseudopartitive construction. New York: Peter Lang 181-
189 (“Typology and classifiers”). (P)
5.2. The Uralic Languages; Introduction to Finnish and Hungarian; vowel harmony(4); partitive and pseudopartitive; negative verbs and structural convergence again; Finnish text
READINGS
Karlsson, Fred 2008. Finnish: An Essential Grammar. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Ahonen, Lili 2005. Kuulostaa hyvältä = Sounds good. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society (includes video).
White, Leila and Aili Kämäräinen 2006. A grammar book of Finnish. Helsinki : Finn Lectura.
Beckwith, C.I. 2007. Phoronyms. New York: Peter Lang, 38-66 (on partitive and pseudopartitive). (P)
Kiparsky, Paul 1998a. Structural Case in Finnish. Lingua 111.315-376, 2001. http:// www.stanford.edu/~kiparsky/
Kiparsky, Paul 1998b. Partitive Case and Aspect. In: Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder (eds.). The Projection of Arguments.
Stanford: CSLI. http://www.stanford.edu/~kiparsky/
Tökencsy, Miklós. 1997. Hungarian verbs and essentials of grammar. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Passport Books.
Hall, Robert A., Jr. 1944. Hungarian Grammar. Language 20.4: 9-91. (= Linguistic Society of America, Language Monograph
No. 21: Hungarian Grammar)
6.1. Discussion of Finnish; lecture: a Central Eurasian Sprachbund?
READINGS
Janhunen, Juha 2003. The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge.
Svantesson, Jan-Olof 2005. The phonology of Mongolian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6.2. Introduction to the Mongolic Languages; Mongol; Kalmyk (Oirat) coda clusters: phonological convergence or typology?
READINGS
Svantesson, Jan-Olof 2005. The Phonology of Mongolian. Oxford: Oxford U. Press.
Sanders, Alan J.K. and Bat-Ireedui, Zh. 1999. Colloquial Mongolian: the complete course for beginners. London: Routledge.
Street, John 1963. Khalkha structure. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
7.1. Discussion of Mongol; discussion of language description models; lecture: The Tibeto-Burman
Languages and ‘Sino-Tibetan’.
READINGS
Bradley, David 2002. The subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman. In: C.I. Beckwith, ed., Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages.
Leiden: Brill, 73-112. (Look through and read some of to get an idea of the magnitude of the problem.)
Beckwith, C.I. 2006. Medieval Tibeto-Burman languages II. (“Introduction: Toward a Tibeto-Burman Theory”). (P)
Beckwith, C.I. 2004. Old Chinese. In: Philipp Strazny, ed., Encyclopedia of linguistics, vol. 2. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn,
2004, 771-774. (Reference Room.)
7.2. Introduction to Tibetan; vowel harmony(4); onset clusters and their reduction; ergativity; evidentials(2).
READINGS
Chang, Kun and Betty Shefts 1964. A manual of spoken Tibetan (Lhasa dialect). Seattle: University of Washington Press.
(Unparalleled source for good Lhasa dialect examples.)
Agha, Asif 1993. Structural form and utterance context in Lhasa Tibetan: grammar and indexicality in a non-configurational
language. New York: Peter Lang. (pretty good specialized study)
Zeisler, Bettina 2004. Relative tense and aspectual values in Tibetan languages: a comparative study. Berlin: Mouton de G.
Hongladarom, Krisadawan 1993. Evidentials in Tibetan. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.
Beckwith, C.I. 2006. The sonority sequencing principle and Old Tibetan syllable margins. In: Medieval Tibeto-Burman
languages II. Leiden: Brill, 45-55. (P)
8.1. Discussion of Tibetan; lecture: classifier languages vs. non-, or not: phoronyms, class nouns, etc.
READINGS
Beckwith, C.I. 2007b. Phoronyms. New York: Peter Lang, 67-93 (“The group classifier”), 94-110 (“Classifier languages and
the repeater”), 128-139 (“Classifying qualifier terms”). (P)
8.2. The Japanese-Koguryoic Languages; Introduction to Japanese and the study of Koguryo.
READINGS
Beckwith, C.I. 2007a. Koguryo, language of Japan’s continental relatives. Leiden: Brill.
Kiyose, Gisaburo N. and C.I. Beckwith 2008. The Origin of the Old Japanese Twelve Animal Cycle. Arutaigo kenkyû –
Altaistic Studies 2008, 2: 1-18. (optional reading) (P)
Martin, Samuel E. 1988. A reference grammar of Japanese. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle.
Shibatani, Masayoshi 1990. The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beckwith, C.I. 2007b. Phoronyms. New York: Peter Lang, 111-127 (chapter on Japanese classifiers). (P)
9.1. Discussion of Japanese; WRITTEN INPUT DUE FOR FINALIZATION OF LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION MODEL; lecture: Creolization, the Mixed Language Theory, and frequency.
READINGS
Beckwith, C.I. 2007a. Koguryo, language of Japan’s continental relatives. Leiden: Brill, 195-213 (Chapter 10, “Japanese and the Mixed language theory”) (P)
9.2. Introduction to Uzbek and Uighur; the Central Asian Kipchak Turkic creoles with Eastern Iranian substratum: classifiers, phonology, and a lot more; Uighur text
READINGS
Bodrogligeti, András J. E. 2003. An academic reference grammar of modern literary Uzbek. München: Lincom Europa.
Sjoberg, Andrée F. 1963. Uzbek structural grammar. Bloomington: Indiana University. Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 18.
Beckwith, C.I. 1998. Noun specification and classification in Uzbek. Anthropological Linguistics 40.1: 124-140.
(De Jong, F. 2007. A grammar of modern Uyghur. Utrecht: Houtsma. [requested purchase])
(De Jong, F. and Muhammatrehim Sayit, Rayhangül Ahmad 2005. Uyghur: a manual for conversation. Utrecht: Houtsma. [requested purchase])
Hahn, Reinhard F. 2006. Spoken Uyghur. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
(Yakup, Abdurishid 2005. The Turfan dialect of Uyghur. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz. [requested purchase])
10.1. Discussion of Uzbek and Uighur; lecture: the Altaic Convergence Theory and Greenbergian typology
READINGS
Beckwith, C.I. 2007a. Koguryo, language of Japan’s continental relatives. Leiden: Brill, 184-194 (“The Altaic convergence
theory”) (P)
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966. Language universals, with special reference to feature hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton.
10.2. Introduction to Chuvash; lecture: Iranian, Germanic, the origins of the Turks, the early Turkic dialects or languages (ruling stratum and substratum, etc.); Chuvash and the Volga-Kama Sprachbund
Krueger, J.R. 1961. Chuvash manual. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Hesselbäck, André. 2005. Tatar and Chuvash code-copies in Mari. Uppsala: Distributed by Uppsala University Library.
11.1. Discussion of Chuvash; lecture: the ‘Indo-Iranian’ languages and other Indo-European languages of
Central Eurasia; the return of Indo-European to Central Eurasia in modern times
READINGS
Beckwith, C.I. 2007. On the Proto-Indo-European Obstruent System. Historische Sprachforschung 120: 1-19.
Beckwith, C.I. forthcoming. Empires of the Silk Road. (Appendix A). (P)
11.2. Introduction to Tajik; lecture: Western (southern) Iranian; Tajik text
READINGS
Perry, John R. 2005. A Tajik Persian reference grammar. Leiden: Brill.
Rastorgueva, V.S. 1963. A short sketch of Tajik grammar. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Lazard, Gilbert 1992. A grammar of contemporary Persian. Costa Mesa: Mazda.
Thackston, W.M. 1993. An Introduction to Persian. Bethesda: Iranbooks.
12.1. Discussion of Tajik. STUDENT CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATIONS BEGIN TODAY.
12.2. STUDENT CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATIONS TODAY.
13.1. STUDENT CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATIONS TODAY.
13.2. THANKSGIVING VACATION
14.1. Introduction to Ossetian (Ossetic); lecture: Northern (‘East’) Iranian, language of the Scythians.
READINGS
Thordarson, Fridrik 1989. Ossetic. In: Rüdiger Schmitt, ed. Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 456-
479. (available online)
Abaev, V.I. 1964. A grammatical sketch of Ossetic. Bloomington: Indiana University. (available online)
14.2. Discussion of Ossetian; FINAL REVISED PAPERS DUE TODAY.
15.1. Lecture: Language revival or death in Central Eurasia. Discussion of language descriptions.
15.2. Discussion of language descriptions. Take-home final exam assigned
16. FINAL EXAM WEEK; TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE BY OFFICIAL FINAL EXAM DATE.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Attendance and participation: Reading assignments (books: look through, read some of; articles: read all of) and weekly class presentations; participation in development of language template (25%).
One short research paper (on a linguistic topic determined after consultation with the instructor) to be presented in class (25%).
One short research article developed from the paper presented in class (25%).
Quiz: Take-home exam, language description based on the template developed in class (25%).
