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 256 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 Dead Languages written by David Shields and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 246 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 Living with a Dead Language written by Ann Patty and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-06-14 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 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 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 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 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 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 The Ancient Languages of Europe written by Roger D. Woodard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-10 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, describes the ancient languages of Europe, for the convenience of students and specialists working in that area. Each chapter of the work focuses on an individual language or, in some instances, a set of closely related varieties of a language. Providing a full descriptive presentation, each of these chapters examines the writing system(s), phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of that language, and places the language within its proper linguistic and historical context. The volume brings together an international array of scholars, each a leading specialist in ancient language study. While designed primarily for scholars and students of linguistics, this work will prove invaluable to all whose studies take them into the realm of ancient language.
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 How to Keep Your Language Alive written by Leanne Hinton and published by Berkeley, Calif. : Heyday Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you want to learn the language of your ancestors? Do you want to help save an endangered language? Do you know someone who speaks another language and could help you learn it? If the answer to any or all of these questions is "yes," this book can help. Amidst an epidemic of worldwide language loss, author Leanne Hinton and a group of dedicated language activists have created a master-apprentice program, a one-on-one approach to ensure that new speakers will take the place of those who are fluent in the world's languages. The Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program originated among the indigenous tribes of California, but this is a manual for students of all languages, from Yurok to Yiddish, Washoe to Welsh. Here is a simple, structured series of exercises and activities designed to help you take advantage of the language-learning skills shared by all humans, along with advice to students and their mentors about how to succeed.--From publisher description.
Download or read book Language in Prehistory written by Alan Barnard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For ninety per cent of our history, humans have lived as 'hunters and gatherers', and for most of this time, as talking individuals. No direct evidence for the origin and evolution of language exists; we do not even know if early humans had language, either spoken or signed. Taking an anthropological perspective, Alan Barnard acknowledges this difficulty and argues that we can nevertheless infer a great deal about our linguistic past from what is around us in the present. Hunter-gatherers still inhabit much of the world, and in sufficient number to enable us to study the ways in which they speak, the many languages they use, and what they use them for. Barnard investigates the lives of hunter-gatherers by understanding them in their own terms, to create a book which will be welcomed by all those interested in the evolution of language.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography written by Philip Durkin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides concise, authoritative accounts of the approaches and methodologies of modern lexicography and of the aims and qualities of its end products. Leading scholars and professional lexicographers, from all over the world and representing all the main traditions andperspectives, assess the state of the art in every aspect of research and practice. The book is divided into four parts, reflecting the main types of lexicography. Part I looks at synchronic dictionaries - those for the general public, monolingual dictionaries for second-language learners, andbilingual dictionaries. Part II and III are devoted to the distinctive methodologies and concerns of the historical dictionaries and specialist dictionaries respectively, while chapters in Part IV examine specific topics such as description and prescription; the representation of pronunciation; andthe practicalities of dictionary production. The book ends with a chronology of the major events in the history of lexicography. It will be a valuable resource for students, scholars, and practitioners in the field.
Download or read book Speak A Short History of Languages written by Tore Janson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-03-14 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a history of human speech from prehistory to the present. It charts the rise of some languages and the fall of others, explaining why some survive and others die. It shows how languages change their sounds and meanings, and how the history of languages is closely linked to the history of peoples. Writing in a lively, readable style, distinguished Swedish scholar Tore Janson makes no assumptions about previous knowledge. He takes the reader on a voyage of exploration through the changing patterns of the world's languages, from ancient China to ancient Egypt, imperial Rome to imperial Britain, Sappho's Lesbos to contemporary Africa. He discovers the links between the histories of societies and their languages; he shows how language evolved from primitive calls; he considers the question of whether one language can be more advanced than another. The author describes the history of writing and looks at the impact of changing technology. He ends by assessing the prospects for English world domination and predicting the languages of the distant future. Five historical maps illustrate this fascinating history of our defining characteristic and most valuable asset.
Download or read book The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia Egypt and Aksum written by Roger D. Woodard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A convenient, portable paperback derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages.
Download or read book The Saga of the Volsungs written by and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the translator of the bestselling Poetic Edda (Hackett, 2015) comes a gripping new rendering of two of the greatest sagas of Old Norse literature. Together the two sagas recount the story of seven generations of a single legendary heroic family and comprise our best source of traditional lore about its members—including, among others, the dragon-slayer Sigurd, Brynhild the Valkyrie, and the Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok.
