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Proto-Palaungic Language, Proto-Palaungic
Proto-Palaungic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Palaungic languages of mainland Southeast Asia.Sidwell, Paul. 2015. The Palaungic Languages: Classification, Reconstruction and Comparative Lexicon''. München: Lincom Europa. Homeland Paul Sidwell (2015) suggests that the Urheimat (homeland) of Proto-Palaungic was in what is now the border region of Laos and Sipsongpanna in Yunnan, China. The Khmuic homeland was adjacent to the Palaungic homeland, resulting in many lexical borrowings among the two branches due to intense contact. Sidwell (2014) suggests that the word for 'water' (Proto-Palaungic *ʔoːm), which Gérard Diffloth had used as one of the defining lexical innovations for his Northern Mon-Khmer branch, was likely borrowed from Palaungic into Khmuic. Reconstructed forms The following list of Proto-Palaungic reconstructions, organized by semantic category, is from Sidwell (2015: 100-111). ;Personal pronouns ;Demonstratives * *nɔʔ ‘this (prox.)’ * *ne� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Austroasiatic
Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a new Proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction is currently being undertaken by Paul Sidwell. Scholars generally date the ancestral language to with a homeland in southern China or the Mekong River valley. Sidwell (2022) proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area around . 500 Proto-Austroasiatic etyma were published by Paul Sidwell in 2024. Phonology Earlier work sought to reconstruct the ancestor of the Mon–Khmer languages, viewed as a primary branch of the Austroasiatic language family alongside the Munda languages. This bifurcate model has been abandoned in favour of a flatter classification since around 2000.Sidwell, Paul (2009)The Austroasiatic Central Riverine Hypothesis Keynote address, SEALS, XI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexical Innovation
In linguistics, specifically the sub-field of lexical semantics, the concept of lexical innovation includes the use of neologism or new meanings (so-called semantic augmentation) in order to introduce new terms into a language's lexicon. Most commonly, this is found in technical disciplines where new concepts require names, which often takes the form of jargon. For example, in the subjects of sociology or philosophy, there is an increased technicalization in terminology in the English language for different concepts over time. Many novel terms or meanings in a language are created as a result of translation from a source language, in which certain concepts were first introduced (e.g. from Plato's Ancient Greek into Latin or from Kant's German into English). Lexical innovation via neologism A straightforward method of introducing new terms in a language is to create a neologism, i.e. a completely new lexical item in the lexicon. For example, in the philosopher Heidegger's nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sambar Deer
The sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, South China and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local insurgency, and industrial exploitation of habitat. The name "sambar" is also sometimes used to refer to the Philippine deer called the "Philippine sambar", and the Javan rusa called the "Sunda sambar". Taxonomy and evolution Genetic analysis shows that the closest living relative of the sambar is most likely the Javan rusa of Indonesia. This is supported by reports that sambar can still interbreed to produce fertile hybrids with this species. Fossil sambar are known from the early Pleistocene, although they are very similar in form to early deer species from the Pliocene, with less of a resemblance to more modern cervines. The species probably arose in the tropical reaches of southern Asia, and later spread across its current r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Language Contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum languages, or as the result of migration, with an intrusive language acting as either a superstratum or a substratum. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other. Intensive language contact may result in language convergence or relexification. In some cases a new contact language may be created as a result of the influence, such as a pidgin, creole, or mixed language. In many other cases, contact between speakers occurs with smaller-scale lasting effects on the language; these may include the borrowing of loanwords, calques, or other types of linguistic material. Multilingualism has been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexical Diffusion
Lexical diffusion is the hypothesis that a sound change is an abrupt change that spreads gradually across the words in a language to which it is applicable. It contrasts with the Neogrammarian view that a sound change results from phonetically-conditioned articulatory drift acting uniformly on all applicable words, which implies that sound changes are regular, with exceptions attributed to analogy and dialect borrowing. Similar views were expressed by Romance dialectologists in the late 19th century but were reformulated and renamed by William Wang and coworkers studying varieties of Chinese in the 1960s and the 1970s. William Labov found evidence for both processes but argued that they operate at different levels. Neogrammarians A key assumption of historical linguistics is that sound change is regular. The principle was summarized by the Neogrammarians in the late 19th century in the slogan "sound laws suffer no exceptions" and forms the basis of the comparative method of reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperata Cylindrica
''Imperata cylindrica'' (commonly known as cogongrass or kunai grass ) is a species of Perennial plant, perennial rhizomatous grass native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Africa, and Southern Europe. It has also been introduced to Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Southeastern United States. It is a highly flammable pyrophyte, and can spread rapidly by colonizing disturbed areas and encouraging more frequent wildfires. Common names The species is most commonly known in English as "cogongrass" (also "cogon grass"), from Castilian Spanish, Spanish ''cogón'', from the Tagalog language, Tagalog and Visayan languages, Visayan ''kugon''. Other common names in English include kunai grass, blady grass, satintail, spear grass, sword grass, thatch grass, alang-alang, lalang grass, cotton wool grass, kura-kura, and keri, among other names. Taxonomy ''Imperata cylindrica'' was first described by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus in 1759 under the basionym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ficus
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig (''F. carica'') is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region (from Afghanistan to Portugal), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs. The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are extremely important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of considerable cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Description ''Ficus'' is a pantropical genus of trees, shrubs, and vines occupying a wide variety of ecological niches; most a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Job's Tears
Job's tears (''Coix lacryma-jobi''), also known as adlay or adlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennial tropical plant of the family Poaceae (grass family). It is native to Southeast Asia and introduced to Northern China and India in remote antiquity, and elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an annual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and the New World tropics. In its native environment it is grown at higher elevation areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's tears are also commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley, though true barley belongs to a completely different genus. There are two main varieties of the species, one wild and one cultivated. The wild variety, ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''lacryma-jobi'', has hard-shelled pseudocarps—very hard, pearly white, oval structures used as beads for making prayer beads or rosaries, necklaces, and other objects. The cultivated variety ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''ma-yuen'' is harvested as a cereal crop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foxtail Millet
Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evidence of foxtail millet cultivation was found along the ancient course of the Yellow River in Cishan culture, Cishan, China, carbon dated to be from around 8,000 years before present. Foxtail millet has also been grown in India since antiquity. Other names for the species include dwarf setaria, foxtail bristle-grass, giant setaria, green foxtail, Italian millet, German millet, and Hungarian millet. Description Foxtail millet is an annual plant, annual Poaceae, grass with slim, vertical, leafy stems which can reach a height of . The seedhead is a dense, hairy panicle long. The small seeds, around in diameter, are encased in a thin, papery hull which is easily removed in threshing. Seed color varies greatly between varieties. File:Food gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gérard Diffloth
Gérard Diffloth (13 February 1939 – 14 August 2023) was a French linguist known as a leading specialist in the Austroasiatic languages. As a linguistics professor, he was employed at the University of Chicago and Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA, after a dissertation on the Irula language. He was an advocate of immersion fieldwork for linguistic research. Diffloth was known for his widely cited 1974 and 2005 classifications of the Austroasiatic languages. Diffloth was a consulting editor of the journal ''Mon-Khmer Studies ''Mon-Khmer Studies'' was an academic journal that focused on Mon-Khmer languages. It was established in 1964 and ceased publication in 2016. From 1992 onwards, it was published by Mahidol University and SIL International SIL Global (formerl ...''. Gérard Diffloth died on 14 August 2023, at the age of 84, in Surin, Thailand. Selected bibliography * Diffloth, Gérard. ''A History of the Khmer Language''. n preparation * Difflot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaungic Languages
The Palaungic or Palaung–Wa languages are a group of nearly 30 Austroasiatic languages, with scholars disagreeing on exactly which languages to include in the classification. They are spoken in scattered pockets across an inland region of Southeast Asia, centered on the borders between Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and China. Phonological developments Most of the Palaungic languages lost the contrastive voicing of the ancestral Austroasiatic consonants, with the distinction often shifting to the following vowel. In the Wa branch, this is generally realized as breathy voice vowel phonation; in Palaung–Riang, as a two-way register tone system. The Angkuic languages have contour tone — the U language, for example, has four tones, ''high, low, rising, falling,'' — but these developed from vowel length and the nature of final consonants, not from the voicing of initial consonants. Homeland Paul Sidwell (2015) suggests that the Palaungic Urheimat (homeland) was in what ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
