The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia : An Areal Perspective

ISBN-13: 9783110426083 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 986 str.

Opis

The languages of Western Asia belong to a variety of language families, including Indo-European, Kartvelian, Semitic, and Turkic, but share numerous features on account of being in areal contact over many centuries. This volume presents descriptions of the individual languages and evaluates similarities across the languages that may have arisen by areal contact. It begins with a chapter summarizing what is known of the languages that were spoken in the region in antiquity. This is followed by an introductory overview of the various genetic groupings of the languages spoken in the region in modern times. In the core of the volume the presentation of the modern languages is divided into five contact areas, which include (i) East Anatolia and Western Iran, (ii) Northern Iraq, (iii) West Iran, (iv) the Caspian region and (v) the Caucasian rim. Each section contains chapters devoted to the languages of the area preceded by an introductory section that highlights significant contact phenomena. The handbook features contributions by Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari, Christiane Bulut, David Erschler, Geoffrey Haig, Geoffrey Khan, Rene Lacroix, Parvin Mahmoudveysi, Hrach Martirosyan, Ludwig Paul, Stefan Prochazka, Don Stilo, and Ilya Yakubovich.

O autorze

Geoffrey Haig, University of Bamberg, Germany; Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge, UK.