Asia Minor Greek: Towards a Computational Processing

AbstractIn this paper, we discuss issues concerning the computational aspect of an on-going research project which aims at providing a systematic study of three Greek dialects of Asia Minor (“Pontus, Cappadocia, Aivali: In search of Asia Minor Greek”- AmiGre) In fact, the project constitutes the first attempt to describe dialectal phenomena at a phonological, morphological, and structural level. Furthermore, it also constitutes the first attempt in Greece to combine Informatics and Theoretical Lin- guistics in order to facilitate the above-mentioned task. The aim here is to provide the design principles of the computational component of the project namely, an electronic dictionary and a multimedia database which would provide an innovative mechanism of storing, processing and retrieving oral and written dialectal data

Gender, definiteness and word order in Ulağaç Cappadocian

Of all the Cappadocian dialects, Ulağaç Cappadocian is considered the most ‘corrupt’ by Dawkins: “Nowhere is the vocabulary so filled with Turkish words or the syntax so Turkish” (1916: 18). Kesisoglou singles out the following as being characteristic: the loss of grammatical gender distinctions and the resulting neuterisation of nouns, including the the generalized use of the neuter article do, pl. da (1951: 4). In the case of transitive clauses this results in potential ambiguity, as nominative and accusative NPs are not distinguished morphologically. Kesisoglou quotes the following example: itó do néka do ándra-t páasen do do xorjó, which could either mean ‘that woman led her husband to the village’ or ‘that woman, her husband led her to the village’ (1951: 49). To disambiguate such cases, the article is often omitted under the second interpretation according to Kesisoglou (ibid.): itó do néka ándra-t páasen do do xorjó. Likewise, itó do peí vavá-t çórsen do ‘that child, its father saw it’ vs. itó do peí do vavá-t çórsen do ‘that child saw its father’ (ibid.). This suggests that the article is omitted in the case of subject NPs, but not in the case of object NPs (Janse 2019: 100). Upon closer scrutiny, however, it turns out that the article can only be omitted if the noun is historically masculine or feminine, but not neuter. In this paper, I investigate the use of the article in transitive clauses containing two overt NPs in connection with the word order and information structure of these clauses as means of distinguishing subject from object NP

A tale of two dialect regions: Sranan's 17th-century English input

This book traces the precise origin of the early English lexical and lexico-phonetic influences in Sranan, an English-based creole spoken in Suriname. Sranan contains "fossilised" linguistic remnants of an early English colonial period. The book discusses whether Sranan’s English influence(s) originated from a single dialect from the general London area, as proposed by Norval Smith in 1987, or whether we are dealing with a composite of dialectal features from all over England. The book introduces a novel replicable methodology for linguistic reconstructions, which combines statistics (in the form of binomial probability), English dialect geography (via use of Orton’s et. al., 1962–1971, Survey of English Dialects, which focuses on traditional regional English dialects across England and Wales), and 17th-century English migration history (compiled from The Complete Book of Emigrants: 1607–1660, The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654–1686, Virtual Jamestown, Virginia Center for Digital History, and Colonial State Papers secured from the British History Online databases, among other relevant historical sources)

A tale of two dialect regions: Sranan's 17th-century English input

This book traces the precise origin of the early English lexical and lexico-phonetic influences in Sranan, an English-based creole spoken in Suriname. Sranan contains "fossilised" linguistic remnants of an early English colonial period. The book discusses whether Sranan’s English influence(s) originated from a single dialect from the general London area, as proposed by Norval Smith in 1987, or whether we are dealing with a composite of dialectal features from all over England. The book introduces a novel replicable methodology for linguistic reconstructions, which combines statistics (in the form of binomial probability), English dialect geography (via use of Orton’s et. al., 1962–1971, Survey of English Dialects, which focuses on traditional regional English dialects across England and Wales), and 17th-century English migration history (compiled from The Complete Book of Emigrants: 1607–1660, The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654–1686, Virtual Jamestown, Virginia Center for Digital History, and Colonial State Papers secured from the British History Online databases, among other relevant historical sources)

A tale of two dialect regions: Sranan's 17th-century English input

This book traces the precise origin of the early English lexical and lexico-phonetic influences in Sranan, an English-based creole spoken in Suriname. Sranan contains "fossilised" linguistic remnants of an early English colonial period. The book discusses whether Sranan’s English influence(s) originated from a single dialect from the general London area, as proposed by Norval Smith in 1987, or whether we are dealing with a composite of dialectal features from all over England. The book introduces a novel replicable methodology for linguistic reconstructions, which combines statistics (in the form of binomial probability), English dialect geography (via use of Orton’s et. al., 1962–1971, Survey of English Dialects, which focuses on traditional regional English dialects across England and Wales), and 17th-century English migration history (compiled from The Complete Book of Emigrants: 1607–1660, The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654–1686, Virtual Jamestown, Virginia Center for Digital History, and Colonial State Papers secured from the British History Online databases, among other relevant historical sources)

A tale of two dialect regions: Sranan's 17th-century English input

This book traces the precise origin of the early English lexical and lexico-phonetic influences in Sranan, an English-based creole spoken in Suriname. Sranan contains "fossilised" linguistic remnants of an early English colonial period. The book discusses whether Sranan’s English influence(s) originated from a single dialect from the general London area, as proposed by Norval Smith in 1987, or whether we are dealing with a composite of dialectal features from all over England. The book introduces a novel replicable methodology for linguistic reconstructions, which combines statistics (in the form of binomial probability), English dialect geography (via use of Orton’s et. al., 1962–1971, Survey of English Dialects, which focuses on traditional regional English dialects across England and Wales), and 17th-century English migration history (compiled from The Complete Book of Emigrants: 1607–1660, The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654–1686, Virtual Jamestown, Virginia Center for Digital History, and Colonial State Papers secured from the British History Online databases, among other relevant historical sources)