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Dené–Caucasian Languages
Dené–Caucasian is a discredited language family proposal that includes widely-separated language groups spoken in the Northern Hemisphere: Sino-Tibetan languages, Yeniseian languages and Burushaski in Asia; Na-Dené languages in North America; as well as Vasconic languages (including Basque) and North Caucasian languages from Europe. A narrower connection specifically between North American Na-Dené and Siberian Yeniseian (the Dené–Yeniseian languages hypothesis) was proposed by Edward Vajda in 2008, and has met with some acceptance within the community of professional linguists. The validity of the rest of the family, however, is viewed as doubtful or rejected by nearly all historical linguists. History of the hypothesis Classifications similar to Dené–Caucasian were put forward in the 20th century by Alfredo Trombetti, Edward Sapir, Robert Bleichsteiner, Karl Bouda, E. J. Furnée, René Lafon, Robert Shafer, Olivier Guy Tailleur, Morris Swadesh, Vla ...
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Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents dates back to classical antiquity, antiquity, but their borders have historically been subject to change. For example, the ancient Greeks originally included Africa in Asia but classified Europe as separate land. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and the two are sometimes combined to describe the largest contiguous landmass on Earth, Afro-Eurasia. History Eurasia has been the host of many ancient civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and China. In the Axial Age (mid-first millennium BCE), a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian Subtropics, subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia. ...
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Historical Linguistics
Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical linguistics involves several key areas of study, including the reconstruction of ancestral languages, the classification of languages into families, ( comparative linguistics) and the analysis of the cultural and social influences on language development. This field is grounded in the uniformitarian principle, which posits that the processes of language change observed today were also at work in the past, unless there is clear evidence to suggest otherwise. Historical linguists aim to describe and explain changes in individual languages, explore the history of speech communities, and study the origins and meanings of words ( etymology). Development Modern historical linguistics dates to the late 18th century, having originally grown o ...
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Eurasiatic Languages
Eurasiatic is a hypothetical and controversial language macrofamily proposal that would include many language families historically spoken in northern, western, and southern Eurasia. The idea of a Eurasiatic superfamily dates back more than 100 years. Joseph Greenberg's proposal, dating to the 1990s, is the most widely discussed version. In 2013, Mark Pagel and three colleagues published what they believe to be statistical evidence for a Eurasiatic language family. The branches of Eurasiatic vary between proposals, but typically include the highly controversial Altaic macrofamily (composed in part of Mongolic, Tungusic and Turkic), Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Eskimo–Aleut, Indo-European, and Uralic—although Greenberg uses the controversial Uralic-Yukaghir classification instead. Other branches sometimes included are the Kartvelian and Dravidian families, as proposed by Pagel et al., in addition to the language isolates Nivkh, Etruscan and Greenberg's "Korean–Japanese ...
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Navajo Language
Navajo or Navaho ( ; Navajo: or ) is a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America. Navajo is spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States, especially in the Navajo Nation. It is one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages of the Americas#Northern America, Native American languages and is the most widely spoken north of the Mexico–United States border, with almost 170,000 Americans speaking Navajo at home as of 2011. The language has struggled to keep a healthy speaker base, although this problem has been alleviated to some extent by extensive education programs in the Navajo Nation. In World War II, speakers of the Navajo language joined the military and developed a code for sending secret messages. These Code talker#Navajo, code talkers' messages are widely credited with saving many lives and winning some of the ...
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Vladimir Toporov
Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov (; 5 July 1928 in Moscow5 December 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian philologist associated with the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School. His wife was Tatyana Elizarenkova. He is also recognized as a prominent Balticist. Background Toporov authored more than 1500 works, including ''Akhmatova and Dante'' (1972), ''Towards the Reconstruction of the Indo-European Rite'' (1982), ''Aeneas: a Man of Destiny'' (1993), ''Myth. Rite. Symbol. Image'' (1995), ''Holiness and Saints in the Russian Spiritual Culture'' (1998), and ''Petersburg Text of Russian Literature'' (2003). He translated the Dhammapada into Russian and supervised the ongoing edition of the most complete vocabulary of the Prussian language to date (5 volumes). Among Toporov's many honours were the USSR State Prize (1990), which he turned down to voice his protest against the repressive January Events of the Soviet administration in Lithuania; the first ever Solzhenitsyn Prize (1998), and the ...
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Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh ( ; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics, and developed his mature career at UNAM in Mexico. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Chicago, studying under Edward Sapir, and then followed Sapir to Yale University where he completed a Ph.D. in 1933. Swadesh taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1937 to 1939, and then during World War II worked on projects with the United States Army and Office of Strategic Services. He became a professor at the City College of New York after the war's end, but was fired in 1949 due to his membership in the Communist Party. He spent most of the rest of his life teaching in Mexico and Canada. Swadesh had a particular interest in the indigenous languages of the Americas, and conducted extensive fieldwork throughout North America. He was ...
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Olivier Guy Tailleur
Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural populated place in the United States * Olivier (crater), on the Moon * Olivier salad, a popular dish of Russian cuisine * ''Olivier'' (novel), the first published novel by French author Claire de Duras * The Olivier Theatre (named after the actor Laurence Olivier), one of three auditoria at the Royal National Theatre * The Laurence Olivier Awards, a theatrical award * Olivier (comics) Olivier is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of the antihero the Punisher. Olivier was created by Bernie Wrightson, Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegos ..., a foe of the Punisher See also * '' Olivier, Olivier'', a 1992 drama film {{disambiguation ...
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René Lafon
René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminine form). In some non-Francophone countries, however, there exists the habit of giving the name René (sometimes spelled without an accent) to girls as well as boys. In addition, both forms are used as surnames (family names). René as a first name given to boys in the United States reached its peaks in popularity in 1969 and 1983 when it ranked 256th. Since 1983 its popularity has steadily declined and it ranked 881st in 2016. René as a first name given to girls in the United States reached its peak in popularity in 1962 when it ranked 306th. The last year for which René was ranked in the top 1000 names given to girls in the United States was 1988. Persons with the given name * René, Duke of Anjou (1409–1480), titular king of Napl ...
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Karl Bouda
Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cachoeira Della Vedova Júnior, Brazilian footballer * Karl (surname) In myth * Karl (mythology), in Norse mythology, a son of Rig and considered the progenitor of peasants (churl) * ''Karl'', giant in Icelandic myth, associated with Drangey island Vehicles * Opel Karl, a car * ST ''Karl'', Swedish tugboat requisitioned during the Second World War as ST ''Empire Henchman'' Other uses * Karl, Germany, municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * ''Karl-Gerät'', AKA Mörser Karl, 600mm German mortar used in the Second World War * KARL project, an open source knowledge management system * Korean Amateur Radio League, a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in South Korea * KARL, a radio station in Minnesota * ...
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Robert Bleichsteiner
Robert Bleichsteiner (6 January 1891 – 10 April 1954) was an Austrian ethnologist. Life Bleichsteiner was born in Mariahilf and attended the local grammar school from 1901 to 1909. He went on to study history, geography, ethnography and Oriental languages at the University of Vienna. He was awarded his doctorate in 1914 and became librarian of the Research Institute for East and Orient, becoming a full member in 1917. In 1922 Bleichsteiner habilitated at the University of Caucasian languages. From 1921 he started worked as a volunteer in the ethnographic department of the Natural History Museum, now the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, being appointed scientific officer in 1926 supervising the Asia Unit. In 1929 he joined Otto Neurath of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in the production of ''Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft'' (1930). After the Second World War he became director of the museum in 1945 and an associate professor in 1947. After his death Bleichsteiner was buried i ...
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Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sapir was born in German Empire, German Pomerania, in what is now northern Poland. His family emigrated to the United States of America when he was a child. He studied Germanic linguistics at Columbia University, Columbia, where he came under the influence of Franz Boas, who inspired him to work on Indigenous languages of the Americas, Native American languages. While finishing his Ph.D. he went to University of California, Berkeley, California to work with Alfred Kroeber documenting the indigenous languages there. He was employed by the Geological Survey of Canada for fifteen years, where he came into his own as one of the most significant linguists in North America, the other being Leonard Bloomfield. He was offered a professorship at ...
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Alfredo Trombetti
Alfredo Trombetti (16 January 1866 in Bologna – 5 July 1929 in Venice) was an Italian linguist active in the early 20th century. Career overview Trombetti was a professor at the University of Bologna. He was a member of the Italian Academy. He is best known as an advocate of the doctrine of monogenesis, according to which all of the world's language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...s go back to a single common ancestral language. His arguments for monogenesis were first presented in his book ''L'unità d'origine del linguaggio,'' published in 1905. This doctrine is still extremely controversial. Proposed etymologies A selection of Trombetti's proposed global etymologies:Trombetti, Alfredo. 1905. L'unità d'origine del linguaggio'' Bologna: Luigi Beltrami. : ...
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