Download or read book How Dead Languages Work written by Coulter H. George and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-05 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What could Greek poets or Roman historians say in their own language that would be lost in translation? After all, different languages have different personalities, and this is especially clear with languages of the ancient and medieval world. This volume celebrates six such languages - Ancient Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, Old Irish, and Biblical Hebrew - by first introducing readers to their most distinctive features, then showing how these linguistic traits play out in short excerpts from actual ancient texts. It explores, for instance, how Homer's Greek shows signs of oral composition, how Horace achieves striking poetic effects through interlaced word order in his Latin, and how the poet of Beowulf attains remarkable intensity of expression through the resources of Old English. But these are languages that have shared connections as well. Readers will see how the Sanskrit of the Rig Veda uses words that come from roots found also in English, how turns of phrase characteristic of the Hebrew Bible found their way into English, and that even as unusual a language as Old Irish still builds on common Indo-European linguistic patterns. Very few people have the opportunity to learn these languages, and they can often seem mysterious and inaccessible: drawing on a lucid and engaging writing style and with the aid of clear English translations throughout, this book aims to give all readers, whether scholars, students, or interested novices, an aesthetic appreciation of just how rich and varied they are.
Download or read book The Lake of Dead Languages written by Carol Goodman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2005-12-27 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A gothic and elegant page-turner.”—The Boston Globe Twenty years ago, Jane Hudson fled the Heart Lake School for Girls in the Adirondacks after a terrible tragedy. The week before her graduation, in that sheltered wonderland, three lives were taken, all victims of suicide. Only Jane was left to carry the burden of a mystery that has stayed hidden in the depths of Heart Lake for more than two decades. Now Jane has returned to the school as a Latin teacher, recently separated and hoping to make a fresh start with her young daughter. But ominous messages from the past dredge up forgotten memories. And young, troubled girls are beginning to die again–as piece by piece the shattering truth slowly floats to the surface. . . .
Download or read book Extinct Languages written by Johannes Friedrich and published by . This book was released on 1957 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dead Languages written by David Shields and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dead Languages by David Shields, Jeremy Zorn's mother tries unsuccessfully to coax him into saying "Philadelphia," and his life becomes framed by his unwieldy attempts at articulation. Through family rituals with his word-obsessed parents and sister, failed first love, an ill-fated run for class president, as the only Jewish boy on an otherwise all-black basketball team, all of the passages of Jeremy's life are marked in some way by his stutter and his wildly off-the-mark attempts at a cure. It is only when he enters college and learns his strong-willed mother is dying that he realizes all languages, when used as hiding places for the heart, are dead ones.
Download or read book Language Death written by David Crystal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-29 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'Why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. This 2002 book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.
Download or read book When Languages Die written by K. David Harrison and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. This text focuses on the question: what is lost when a language dies?
Download or read book The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World s Ancient Languages written by Roger D. Woodard and published by . This book was released on 2004-04-29 with total page 1162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the writing systems, morphology, phonology, syntax, and lexicon of ancient languages.
Download or read book The Last Speakers written by K. David Harrison and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part travelogue and part scientist's notebook, The Last Speakers is the poignant chronicle of author K. David Harrison's expeditions around the world to meet with last speakers of vanishing languages. The speakers' eloquent reflections and candid photographs reveal little-known lifeways as well as revitalization efforts to teach disappearing languages to younger generations. Thought-provoking and engaging, this unique book illuminates the global language-extinction crisis through photos, graphics, interviews, traditional wisdom never before translated into English, and first-person essays that thrillingly convey the adventure of science and exploration.
Download or read book Atlas of the world s languages in danger of disappearing written by Wurm, Stephen A. and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2001-07-17 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Close to half of the 6,000 languges spoken in the world are doomed or likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. The disappearance of any language is an irreparable loss for the heritage of all humankind. This new edition of the Atlas, first published in 1996, is intended to give a graphic picture of the magnitude of the problem and a comprehensive list of languages in danger.
Download or read book Living with a Dead Language written by Ann Patty and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A delightful mix of grammar and growth, words and wonder.” – The Washington Post An entertaining exploration of the richness and relevance of the Latin language and literature, and an inspiring account of finding renewed purpose through learning something new and challenging After thirty-five years as a book editor in New York City, Ann Patty stopped working and moved to the country. Bored, aimless, and lost in the woods, she hoped to challenge her restless, word-loving brain by beginning a serious study of Latin at local colleges. As she begins to make sense of Latin grammar and syntax, her studies open unexpected windows into her own life. The louche poetry of Catullus calls up her early days in 1970s New York, Lucretius elucidates her intractable drivenness and her attraction to Buddhism, while Ovid’s verse conjures a delightful dimension to the flora and fauna that surround her. Women in Roman history, and an ancient tomb inscription give her new understanding and empathy for her tragic, long deceased mother. Finally, Virgil reconciles her to her new life—no longer an urban exile, but a rustic scholar, writer and teacher. Along the way, she meets an impassioned cast of characters: professors, students and classicists outside of academia who keep Latin very much alive. Written with humor, heart, and an infectious enthusiasm for words, Patty’s book is an object lesson in how learning and literature can transform the past and lead to an unexpected future.
Download or read book Dead Language and Dead Languages with Special Reference to Latin written by John Percival Postgate and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language written by Stanislav Segert and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1929, the first cuneiform tablet, inscribed with previously unknown signs, was found during archeological excavations at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria. Since then a special discipline, sometimes called Ugaritology, has arisen. The impact of the Ugaritic language and of the many texts written in it has been felt in the study of Semitic languages and literatures, in the history of the ancient Near East, and especially in research devoted to the Hebrew Bible. In fact, knowledge of Ugaritic has become a standard prerequisite for the scientific study of the Old Testament. The Ugaritic texts, written in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B. c., represent the oldest complex of connected texts in any West Semitic language now available (1984). Their language is of critical importance for comparative Semitic linguistics and is uniquely important to the critical study of Biblical Hebrew. Ugaritic, which was spoken in a northwestern corner of the larger Canaanite linguistic area, cannot be considered a direct ancestor of Biblical Hebrew, but its conservative character can help in the reconstruction of the older stages of Hebrew phonology, word formation, and inflection. These systems were later-that is, during the period in which the biblical texts were actually written-complicated by phonological and other changes. The Ugaritic texts are remarkable, however, for more than just their antiquity and their linguistic witness. They present a remarkably vigorous and mature literature, one containing both epic cycles and shorter poems. The poetic structure of Ugaritic is noteworthy, among other reasons, for its use of the "parallelism of members" that also characterizes such ancient and archaizing poems in the Hebrew Bible as the Song of Deborah (in Judges 5), the Song of the Sea (in Exodus 15), Psalms 29, 68, and 82, and Habakkuk 3. Textual sources and their rendering The basic source for the study of Ugaritic is a corpus of texts written in an alphabetic cuneiform script unknown before 1929; this script represents consonants fully and exactly but gives only limited and equivocal indication of vowels. Our knowledge of the Ugaritic language is supple-mented by evidence from Akkadian texts found at Ugarit and containing many Ugaritic words, especially names written in the syllabic cuneiform script. Scholars reconstructing the lost language of Ugarit draw, finally, on a wide variety of comparative linguistic data, data from texts not found at Ugarit, as well as from living languages. Evidence from Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and recently also Eblaitic, can be applied to good effect. For the student, as well as for the research scholar, it is important that the various sources of U garitic be distinguished in modern transliteration or transcription. Since many of the texts found at Ugarit are fragmentary or physically damaged, it is well for students to be clear about what portion of a text that they are reading actually survives and what portion is a modern attempt to fill in the blanks. While the selected texts in section 8 reflect the state of preservation in detail, in the other sections of the grammar standardized forms are presented, based on all available evidence.
Download or read book Endangered Languages written by Sarah G. Thomason and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-23 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to language endangerment. What is it? How and why does it happen? Why should we care?
Download or read book Motherfocl ir written by Darach O'Séaghdha and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestseller & Winner of the Popular Non-Fiction Irish Book Award. 'Thought-provoking, irreverent and often laugh-out-loud hilarious' Irish Independent. "Motherfoclóir" [focloir means 'dictionary' and is pronounced like a rather more vulgar English epithet] is a book based on the popular Twitter account @theirishfor. As the title suggests, Motherfoclóir takes an irreverent, pun-friendly and contemporary approach to the Irish language. The translations are expanded on and arranged into broad categories that allow interesting connections to be made, and sprinkled with anecdotes and observations about Irish and Ireland itself, as well as language in general. The author includes stories about his own relationship with Irish, and how it fits in with the most important events in his life. This is a book for all lovers of the quirks of language.
Download or read book Reading the Past written by C. B. Walker and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains six previously published titles brought together in a single volume.
Download or read book Endangered Languages of the Caucasus and Beyond written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to UNESCO, it is believed that at least half of the nearly 7,000 languages spoken around the world will cease to be used within the next 100 years. If this issue is neglected, people will lose not only their cultural heritage but also invaluable understandings about the history of all humankind. Endangered Languages of the Caucasus and Beyond includes the manuscripts of 19 papers that were presented at the 1st International CUA Conference on Endangered Languages, organized by the Caucasus University Association (CUA), at Ardahan, Turkey, on 13 to 16 October 2014. The articles address issues such as the state of the field of documentation, conservation and revitalization of endangered languages with special reference to the endangered languages in the Caucasus region and beyond.
Download or read book Dialect written by Hakan Seyalioglu and published by . This book was released on 2018-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
