The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide

Description

With nearly a quarter of the world’s population, members of at least five major language families plus several putative language isolates, South Asia is a fascinating arena for linguistic investigations, whether comparative-historical linguistics, studies of language contact and multilingualism, or general linguistic theory. This volume provides a state-of-the-art survey of linguistic research on the languages of South Asia, with contributions by well-known experts. Focus is both on what has been accomplished so far and on what remains unresolved or controversial and hence offers challenges for future research. In addition to covering the languages, their histories, and their genetic classification, as well as phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistics, the volume provides special coverage of contact and convergence, indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions, applications of modern technology to South Asian languages, and South Asian writing systems. An appendix offers a classified listing of major sources and resources, both digital/online and printed. South Asian languages and linguistics Structure, contact, computational applications, and writing systems Appendix of sources and resources Acknowledgments Table of contents Introduction 1 The languages, their histories, and their genetic classification 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Indo-Iranian 1.3 Indo-Aryan 1.3.1 Old and Middle Indo-Aryan 1.3.2 Modern Indo-Aryan 1.4 Iranian 1.5 Nûristânî 1.6 Dravidian 1.7 Austroasiatic languages of South Asia 1.8 The Tibeto-Burman languages of South Asia 1.9 Daic or Tai languages of South Asia 1.10 Language isolates 1.10.1 Andaman languages 1.10.2 The Burushaski language 1.10.3 Kusunda 1.10.4 Nihali 2 Contact and convergence 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Overall South Asia 2.3 Ancient contact, convergence, substratum influence 2.3.1 Introduction 2.3.2 Lexical evidence 2.3.3 Structural features and geographical evidence 2.3.4 Post-Vedic contact linguistics 2.4 The Northwest 2.4.1 Pre-1947 convergences 2.4.1.1 Pamir-Hindukush-Karakoram-Kohistan-Kashmir region 2.4.1.2 Baluchistan 2.4.2 Post-1947 convergence in Pakistan and Afghanistan 2.4.2.1 Recent convergence and divergence in Pakistan 2.4.2.2 Recent developments in Afghanistan 2.5 Contact and convergence in the Northeast 2.6 Other contact, regional and local 2.7 English and South Asian languages 3 Phonetics and phonology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Phonetics · Peri Bhaskararao 3.3 Phonology and phrasal prosody 4 Morphology 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Coverage 4.3 Typological issues 4.4 Theoretical issues 4.5 Morphosyntactic issues 4.5.1 Agent marking 4.5.2 Object marking 4.5.3 Agreement marking 5 Syntax and semantics 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Formal syntax 5.2.1 An overview of generative syntactic work and reference resources in South Asian languages 5.2.2 Minimalist approaches to South Asian syntax 5.2.3 Generative approaches to Pashto syntax 5.3 Cognitive Linguistics · 5.4 Morphosyntactic typology 5.4.1 Oblique Experiencers and Oblique Subjects 5.4.2 Complex Verbs 5.4.2.1 Introduction 5.4.2.2 Expanded verbs in Dravidian 5.4.2.3 Compound verbs in Indo-Aryan 5.4.3 Finite and nonfinite subordination 5.5.1 Evidentiality and mirativity in Iranian, Nuristani, Indo-Aryan, Burushaski, and Dravidian 5.5.2 Evidentiality and Mirativity in Tibeto-Burman 6 Sociolinguistics 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Language endangerment and documentation 6.2.1 The situation in India and adjacent areas 6.2.2 Pakistan and Afghanistan 6.3 Language policy and planning in South Asia 6.4 Diglossia 6.4.1 Diglossia in Bangla 6.4.2 Diglossia in Dravidian languages 6.5 South Asian pidgins and creoles 6.6 South Asian languages in diaspora 7 Indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Indo-Aryan grammatical traditions (Sanskrit and Prakrit) 7.3 Tamil and Dravidian grammatical traditions 8 Applications of modern technology to South Asian languages 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Localization 8.3 Language and linguistic resources 8.3.1 Corpus and lexical resources 8.3.1.1 Early work 8.3.1.2 India 8.3.1.2.1 History and methodologies 8.3.1.2.2 Sanskrit 8.3.1.3 Nepal 8.3.1.4 Pakistan 8.3.1.5 Bangladesh 8.3.2 Treebanking – Hindi/Urdu 8.4 Applications 9 Writing systems 9.1 Introduction 9.2 General historical and analytical 9.3 Recent script-related research 9.4 Perso-Arabic adaptations for South Asian languages 9.5 New research areas and desiderata 10 Sources and Resources Language index Subject index