Nikolay Nevskiy’s Miyakoan dictionary: reconstruction from the manuscript and its ethnolinguistic analysis

Wydział Neofilologii: Katedra OrientalistykiDysertacja poświęcona jest rekonstrukcji oraz analizie rękopiśmiennych notatek leksykograficznych z lat dwudziestych XX wieku autorstwa rosyjskiego orientalisty Nikołaja Newskiego – niżej: „Materiały”. „Materiały” są nieukończonym, pozostawionym na roboczym etapie szkicem wielojęzycznego (miyako-japońsko-rosyjskiego) słownika języka miyako, poważnie zagrożonego języka z rodziny japonicznej, rodzimego dla wysp Miyako w subarchipelagu Sakishima archipelagu Ryukyu. Źródło to jest kluczowe dla dokumentacji i rewitalizacji języka miyako, a w szerszej perspektywie – dla badań nad całą rodziną japoniczną. Projekt autorki był pierwszym od czasu powstania „Materiałów” systematycznym i skutecznym wysiłkiem dążącym do akademickiej publikacji słownika Newskiego. Jedna część dysertacji, The reconstructed dictionary, stanowi zasadniczo wierne odtworzenie „Materiałów”, przy sporadycznych interwencjach redakcyjnych mających na celu poprawienie czytelności i spójności źródła. Druga część, Studies on the manuscript, składa się z trzech rozdziałów, czterech indeksów oraz pięciu dodatków. Rozdział pierwszy dotyczy tła powstania „Materiałów” oraz ich leksykograficznej zawartości. Rozdział drugi zawiera autorski opis języka miyako z lat dwudziestych oparty na materiale zrekonstruowanym ze słownika Newskiego. Rozdział trzeci ma za zadanie ustalić rangę „Materiałów” na tle riukiuanistycznego dorobku naukowego oraz wartość tkwiącą w ich rekonstrukcji, opracowywaniu i przyszłej publikacji. Dysertacja zawiera także stworzony w oparciu o „Materiały” mini-słownik miyako-angielski.The present dissertation is devoted to the reconstruction of handwritten lexicographic notes compiled in 1920s by a Russian orientalist Nikolay Nevskiy, henceforth the Materials. The Materials are an unfinished draft of a trilingual dictionary of Miyakoan, a seriously endangered minority language native to the Miyako islands in the Sakishima subarchipelago in the Ryukyus, Japan. This draft is a source of paramount importance to the documentation and revitalization of Miyakoan and, by extension, to the study of Japonic languages in general. This author’s Ph.D. project has been the first systematic and successful attempt at an academic publication of Nevskiy’s dictionary. One part of the dissertation, entitled The reconstructed dictionary, is essentially a faithful reconstruction of the Materials minimally edited for legibility, consistency and an overall user-friendliness. The other part, Studies on the manuscript, consists of three chapters, four indeces and five appendices. Chapter One discusses the background of the Materials and their lexicographic content. Chapter Two involves an original description of Miyakoan from the 1920s based on the data recovered from Nevskiy’s dictionary. Chapter Three aims at establishing the merit of the Materials against the background of other achievements in Ryukyuan linguistics, as well as the value of the reconstruction, editing and future publishing of the source. A Miyakoan-English wordlist based on the Materials has also been appended to the dissertation. In all likelihood, it is the first Miyakoan-English lexicographic source to have ever been published

The weight and representation of Ryukyuan Miyako onsets: Initial geminate moraicity, markedness, and sonority

This thesis examines descriptive data on the Southern Ryukyuan Miyako languages and argues for a moraic account of the initial geminates found therein. All varieties of Miyako discussed require underived words to feature at least two morae, and the initial geminates in each variety appear to satisfy the bimoraic word minimality requirement. Segmental restrictions on the coerced (derived) moraicity of the initial geminates are proposed to be a function of sonority, primarily with regard to voicing. Distinctive (lexically specified) onset moraicity is found to be independent of sonority. Both findings are in line with proposals made in the literature about moraicity. Several claims about Miyako syllable and word structure are discussed in detail, finding that despite proposals made in the literature concerning the structure of the onsets found in the Irabu and Ikema dialects, neither dialect permits onset or coda clusters. Similarly, it is found that apparent initial geminate voiced fricatives in Irabu may be heterosyllabic clusters. Each section discussing a variety of Miyako concludes with an Optimality Theoretic account of the initial geminate patterns found therein. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion of future research topics and a summary of key findings

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia

Animacy hierarchy and case/agreement in Okinawan

In languages like Japanese and Okinawan, morphological evidence for agreement is scarce, which has led to the long-standing controversy as to its existence. In this article, I argue that while φ-agreement is not morphologically realized on the predicates in Okinawan, it is nevertheless indirectly detectable in the form of animacy agreement in differential case-marking

A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond

This study investigates the distribution of linguistic and specifically structural diversity in Northeast Asia (NEA), defined as the region north of the Yellow River and east of the Yenisei. In particular, it analyzes what is called the grammar of questions (GQ), i.e., those aspects of any given language that are specialized for asking questions or regularly combine with these. The bulk of the study is a bottom-up description and comparison of GQs in the languages of NEA. The addition of the phrase and beyond to the title of this study serves two purposes. First, languages such as Turkish and Chuvash are included, despite the fact that they are spoken outside of NEA, since they have ties to (or even originated in) the region. Second, despite its focus on one area, the typology is intended to be applicable to other languages as well. Therefore, it makes extensive use of data from languages outside of NEA. The restriction to one category is necessary for reasons of space and clarity, and the process of zooming in on one region allows a higher resolution and historical accuracy than is usually the case in linguistic typology. The discussion mentions over 450 languages and dialects from NEA and beyond and gives about 900 glossed examples. The aim is to achieve both a cross-linguistically plausible typology and a maximal resolution of the linguistic diversity of Northeast Asia