Analytical phonetic study of three areas of Al-Farahidiy's legacy

It is the purpose of the present thesis to present an analytical phonetic study of three areas of alFarahidiy1s linguistic legacy in a general phonetic perspective in such a way as to preserve a proper balance between the analytical and historical sides of our subject, Phonetics. Only three areas have been decided upon due to the fact that a comprehensive, analytical study of al Farahidiy's linguistic legacy would be a lifetime-work. The thesis is presented in four major sections: an introduction and an analytical phonetic study of three areas. The introduction deals in general terms with alFarahidiy1s biography and his contributions to fields pertinent to Phonetics, though they are not primarily phonetic. The three areas deal respectively with his approach to verse structure, the time-substratum underlying his system, and his restoration of the principles which lie hid underneath what I have called (since no other term exists) the phoniconic symbols1 of the East Mediterranean scripts. Each analytical section includes either a theoretical, phonetic discuss¬ ion against which alFarahidiy's contribution is projected in terms of its relation to the general phonetic spectrum, or an empirical evidence in support of a hypothesis discovered in the construction of his prosodic system. Towards this end, the first area, following a more or less Stetsonian line, includes a theoretical view of the articulatory actualization of the respir¬ atory potential1 and rhythmicality in Arabic; the second section is focused on the empirical authentication of the time-units which underlie his prosodic system, whilst the third section starts with an analytico-phonetic approach to the East Mediterranean scripts. The thesis is concluded with a general bibliography of works that have been cited or consulted, with a special section allocated to works by or about alFarahidiy. The author is convinced that the soundest basis for an understanding of certain phonological phenomena (particularly, the superimposed stretches, quantity and rhythm) of a living language with a long history behind it, would be an illumination of the path of development it has pursued. Such a path, in normal conditions, is provided by phoneticians or writers on phonetics. It is also the conviction of the author that for an enlightened attitude towards the history of phonetics, especially in olden times when phonetics was a practice not a discipline, an analytical, phonetic approach to the pertinent writing system constitutes a proper springboard. For this reason, equal attention has been paid to the development of the 'pure' iconic and phoniconic writing systems in Mesopotamia and the East Mediterranean in the prelude to alFarahidiy's restoration of certain scriptological, phoniconic principles which lie in the background of the Ugaritic script in his prosodization of the Arabic script

The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices

Writing is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology

The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices

Writing is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology

The influence of English on the lexical expansion of Bahasa Malaysia

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D38970/82 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Language and Identity Theories and experiences in lexicography and linguistic policies in a global world

This book was conceived during the closing event of the DiM project, developed within the framework of the Erasmus plus KA204 - Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education programme. Its fourteen chapters intend to offer food for thought on some of the currently most debated questions for linguists in the global village, and are divided into three thematic sections: 1) multilingualism, minority languages and the eternal dichotomy between orality and writing; 2) lexicography and L2 teaching; 3) the role of linguistics in particularly complex multilingual contexts. The book was published thanks to a grant obtained in 2018 by Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia

Rapid Generation of Pronunciation Dictionaries for new Domains and Languages

This dissertation presents innovative strategies and methods for the rapid generation of pronunciation dictionaries for new domains and languages. Depending on various conditions, solutions are proposed and developed. Starting from the straightforward scenario in which the target language is present in written form on the Internet and the mapping between speech and written language is close up to the difficult scenario in which no written form for the target language exists

Unquiet City: Making and Unmaking Politics in Mughal Delhi, 1707-39

This dissertation is a study of the elaborations of the cultures of politics in the Mughal capital of Shahajahanabad - modern day Delhi - from the death of the emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 to the invasion of the Iranian warlord Nadir Shah in 1739. While this period has frequently been imagined as one of imperial decline and political failure, this dissertation argues that these years of tumult saw instead the transformation of elite politics and the development of a language of popular politics within the space of the Mughal capital. The transformation of politics as practiced by Mughal elites became dramatically evident in the second decade of the eighteenth century, in which two reigning emperors were violently removed from the throne. Through a close examination of the admonitory historical texts which describe these events, this dissertation suggests that such transgressive actions reflected a debate among the Mughal elite about the proper role of the emperor in an empire which had become unprecedentedly bureaucratic and routinized in its administration. Yet speculation about the place of the emperor did not remain the affair of the empire's elites who saw themselves as the traditional guardians of the realm. For now, an unlikely new party began to intervene ever more assertively in matters that had been considered the preserve of the empire's ruling nobility. This was the people itself, an entity that agitated vociferously in support or in criticism of elite acts of governance. In doing so, the people produced a new language of popular politics which directly addressed the powers-that-be. Such a popular politics was produced within, and enacted upon the stage of the Mughal capital, itself built as a representation of the virtues of Mughal imperium. The emergence of the people as an increasingly visible mass in the city is the subject of the first chapter. The second, third and fourth chapters then turn to an examination of the dramatic convulsions of elite politics which caused the bodies of slaughtered princes to be paraded in the thoroughfares of the Mughal city. Chapter four ends with a study of the popular response to one such incident, the deposition of the Emperor Farrukh Siyar in 1719, arguing that the event marks an instance of the city's masses making an explicit intervention in the politics of the imperial elite. Chapter five considers the means of communication by which such political solidarities were forged, arguing that poetry in particular was a powerful form of social communication which might activate political solidarities among the people of the city. Chapters six and seven offer a detailed account of other instances of popular political activity, focusing particularly on the Shoe-sellers' riot of 1729. Chapter eight turns to the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739, arguing that the resistance to his occupation of Delhi and subsequent events mark the limits of possibility of such politics. The conclusion examines the divergent trajectories of elite and popular politics through the end of the empire and the rise of the colonial state in the subcontinent