Germanic languages

Elementary metaplasmic analyses of forename levels in twenty coats of arms: King Afonso of Algarve (Portuguese), Queen Petronilla of Aragon (Latin), King Ludwig of Bavaria (German), King Leopold of Belgium (French), Count Ramon of Barcelona (Latin), Franz Joseph of Bosnia-Herzegovina (German), Marquess João Carlos of Aracati (Portuguese), Emperor Pedro of Brasil (Portuguese), Queen Isabella of Spain (Spanish), Emperor Napoleon of France (French), Emperor Francis of the Holy Empire (German), Empress Victoria of India (English), King Umberto of Italy (Italian), King Godfrey of Jerusalem (French), Emperor Agustín of Mexico (Spanish), King Frederick of Prussia (Low German), King Carlos of Portugal (Portuguese), King Edward of Scotland (English), King Richard of England (English) and Mendes of Portugal (Portuguese).

This Excel file is a WORK IN PROGRESS on Indo-European basic lexicon, aligning PIE reconstructions from IEW, LIV and Mallory-Adams with intermediate reconstructions of IE sub-families found in several other sources (mainly Brill / Leiden etymological dictionaries): see dedicated sheet for details on sources.
Reconstructions with a green background have more complete data than those with a white background.
This DRAFT database is intended as a stepping stone for researchers who want to explore external genetic relationships between Indo-European languages and other language families.

Kleine Formen – großes Werk. Die Arbeitsmaterialien im wissenschaftlichen Nachlass der Brüder Grimm

Das Forschungsprojekt nimmt den umfangreichsten, bislang aber am wenigsten erforschten Teil des Nachlasses der Brüder Grimm in den Blick: ihre wissenschaftlichen Arbeitsmaterialien – Notizen auf Zetteln und in Heften, Exzerptsammlungen, Werkmanuskripte und Arbeitsspuren in Büchern. Eng am Material dieser kleinen philologischen Gebrauchsformen lassen sich Methodik, Wissenstopik und Arbeitspraktiken der frühen Germanistik exemplarisch bis ins Detail rekonstruieren.

Le dialecte de Saint-Priest-la-Feuille, petit village limousin du Nord de la Creuse, est encore aujourd'hui un idiome vivant. Une partie importante de la population, surtout parmi les gens âgés de plus de quarante ans, maîtrise le vocabulaire et les conjugaisons de base tout au moins.
Tout le monde n'est pas d'accord sur le nom qu'il faut donner à ce parler. "Marchois", le nom employé ici, dérive de l'ancienne province de la Marche, qui englobait grosso-modo la Creuse actuelle. Ce nom est employé assez couramment par les gens qui s'intéressent à l'occitan.
Cependant, il présente un grave inconvénient: les frontières de la Marche historique ne correspondent pas au marchois tel qu'on l'envisage ici. Le Sud de la Creuse emploie des parlers appartenant aux dialectes occitans limousin (à l'ouest) ou auvergnat (à l'est). Il vaudrait donc mieux parler de "bas-marchois" à propos du dialecte étudié ici, celui de Saint-Priest.

Comprehensive editions of the oldest runic inscriptions are few and largely outdated; even the more recent ones do not meet modern critical standards. Other runic publications that treat this material tend to concentrate on selected data only. An up-to-date scholarly edition of the oldest runic inscriptions is thus currently lacking. The question is: what criteria must a new edition fulfil?
Of course, information has to be provided concerning the rune-bearing object, such as (1) a description of the artifact, including the present place of keeping, (2) the find circumstances and (3) an archaeological dating. The description of the inscription itself has to be thorough, and must include (1) a plausible reading of the runes with remarks on runic forms and the textual composition,
and (2) a transliteration, which constitutes the basis for a transcription. The transcription is the starting point for the internal, viz. linguistic interpretation that has to contain etymological as well as syntactic information (where necessary). In the etymological component, all important proposals have to be reconsidered. The linguistic interpretation must be the starting point for any broader analyses, which of necessity will require an interdisciplinary approach. The paper shows how such an edition can be laid out by means of one selected example.

The collective work deals with the linguistic reconstruction of person’s artifact world. Based on the Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages (English, German, French, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian), the paper focuses on the topical issues related to the semantic modelling of person’s artifact space, analysis of artifact designations, the study of mental images functioning, study of artifact concepts.

Although it is commonplace in scholarship today to talk about a ‘system’ of kennings or ‘kenning system’, critical discussion has tended to take the qualification ‘system’ for granted and left this topic unexplored. The present paper presents a study of extended kennings which reveals that the systemic network of kennings have different referents. It shows that kennings for MAN/WARRIOR are at the center of this network.

This article discusses the collective names of trees used in the Scandinavian languages, as well as the formation process of similar collective names in Eastern and Western Germanic. It should be emphasized that the Northern Germanic languages used the suffix *-ijan for creating collective nouns which denote ‘a group of trees’, e. g. ON. birki n. coll. ‘birch forest’, Icel. birki ‘birch forest; birch’, Norw. birki ‘birch forest’, Swed. björke ‘birch forest, birch grove’ (< PG. *berkijan n. coll. ‘a group of birches, birch forest, birch grove’ <-- PG. *berkō f. ‘birch, Betula’). The same suffix denoting collectivity and originating from the Proto-Indo-European language is also present as *-ьje in most Slavic languages, cf. Ru. dial. берéзье n. coll. ‘birch forest, birch twigs’; OPol. brzezie n. ‘birch grove or forest’; Cz. březí n. ‘small birch-grove’, also břízí n. ‘birch twigs, birch-wood’; Slovak brezie n. ‘small birch-forest, birch-grove’; SC. brȇzje n. coll. ‘birch forest’, Sloven. brẹ̑ zje n. ‘id.’ (< PSl. *berzьje n. coll. ‘group of birches, birch forest, birch- grove’ <-- PSl. *bȅrza f. ‘birch, Betula’). Further possible traces of the same suffix can be found in the Baltic languages (cf. OPrus. pannean n. ‘mossy fen’ vs. Go. fani n. ‘mud’, OSax. feni n. ‘fen’) suggesting that the Proto-Indo-European collective suffix can be reconstructed as *-ii̯om (n. coll.). It seems probable that some northern Indo-European tribes used the derivative word *bherh̥2ĝii̯ om (n.) to denote ‘a group of birch trees’, espe- cially ‘a birch grove’ or ‘a birch forest’.

The study of the history of the English language (HEL) encompasses a broad sweep of time and space, reaching back to the fifth century and around the globe. Further, the language has always varied from place to place and continues to evolve today. Instructors face the challenge of fitting this vast subject into one semester of study and the challenge of engaging students with unfamiliar material and techniques. This volume guides instructors in choosing among many possibilities to design an HEL course to match their own interests and institutions.

The essays consider what subjects of HEL to include, how to organize the course, and what textbook to assign. They offer historical approaches and those that are not structured by chronology. Sample assignments provide opportunities for students to conduct original research, work with archives and digital resources, and investigate language in their communities. The essays also help them question notions of linguistic correctness.

The Ossolineum bought the coin discussed in this article at the 58th auction of the Warsaw Numismatic Centre held on 8 November 2014. It was initially identifi ed as a Gothic imitation
of an aureus of Severus Alexander, most probably made in the Chernyakhiv culture. Only after close examination was it revealed that the coin had a runic inscription, which was part of the matrix and not carved on the coin. This means that it is the oldest known runic coin, as it should be dated to 271–332, whereas other runic coins or gold Scandinavian bracteates are dated no earlier than to the fi fth century AD. The authenticity of the specimen has been confirmed by microscopic examination, comparative analysis of other imitations, numismatic objects produced in an analogical method or style and metal analyses. Attempts to trace the provenance of the specimen failed. The meaning of the inscription cannot be ascertained. The discovery of runic signs on the coin has serious implications for our knowledge of ancient East Germanic peoples. It means that we have to
date the beginnings of Germanic coinage at least two  centuries earlier than has been accepted until recently. We must also accept that the links between the Baltic and Black Sea regions were very close.

This article is actually part of my work about the migration of Gutians (Goths) from the west of Iran (Asagarta) to Europe, one of the most important things about this migration is to know where these people lived in the middle of the second half of the 1st millennium BC, we see here that they were still not too far from Iran in the 2nd century BC.

The present paper provides a typological study of the semantic shift from ‘word’ or ‘speech’ and from speech act verbs to nouns with the meaning ‘thing’. The evidence for such a shift was found in various Indo-European and Semitic languages, as well as in Japanese, Hurrian, and Chatino. This semantic shift is unidirectional. The meaning ‘thing (material object)’ can be developed from ‘word’, ‘speech’ or verba dicendi only through the stage ‘matter’. The semantic change in question can have an areal nature. Ancient Near East is an area where it is especially common.

"This special issue of Comparative Literature Studies brings together talks, some extensively revised, others virtually unchanged, that were delivered at a conference entitled "What is Philology?" The gathering took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988 at Harvard University under the aegis of the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The depth and breadth of interest in the conference was deeply gratifying. I had not experienced another occasion when so many scholars from different language and literature departments gathered at Harvard, and I hope that publishing the proceedings will benefit a larger community outside the University.

By way of introduction I will describe how the event originated. My description will explore a few of the reasons why an interdisciplinary conference of a dozen speakers and respondents attracted an audience of more than two hundred, and why a topic that 'may sound rarefied drew participants whose main fields of research and teaching interests ran the gamut from the most ancient Indo-European languages to the most recent African American literature. In short, I will offer tentative explanations for the urgency of the topic to students, professors, and independent scholars who engage in philology, linguistics, literary history, literary criticism, and literary theory."

The Heliand is a rewriting of the Gospels in Old Saxon, reflecting daring efforts to not only convert pagans, edify catechumens and reinforce orthodox teachings, but also to present the Old Saxon vernacular as a language worthy of translating Scripture. A copy of the poem was in England by the second half of the tenth century, perhaps even earlier. In the single surviving copy from England, two incipits from a gospel lectionary were added in the margins near the time of writing, and they shed much light on how this poem was consulted and probably used for guidance on specific issues faced by a tenth-century English court. From its origin as a theological statement about the capabilities of vernacular languages in continuing Patristic traditions, the Heliand was later valued as a text that offered clarification on how to deal with hostile military and spiritual threats to Christian kingdoms.

This paper presents a case study on formula selection and variation in eddic poetry. It includes a general discussion of approaches to formulae in eddic poetry, problems with these, and offers a new model for addressing the relative fixity of formulaic expressions.  Although focused on Old Norse poetry, this discussion has a broad relevance to approaching other oral-poetic traditions through limited medieval sources or their relationships.

The paper analyzes the thirteen formulaic stanzas in Alvíssmál which ascribe poetic synonyms to different types of mythic being. The formula is approached through linguistics rather than directly from Oral-Formulaic Theory. Meter and alliteration are discussed as conditioning and determinant factors. The ‘alliterative rank’ of terms is correlated with their formulaic use to accomplish alliteration. An inclination to non-variation is demonstrated for the poem - i.e. variation in the use of formulae is avoided rather than tapping its potential.  The concentration on a single text takes this discussion into detail, including e.g. observing indicators of some form of interruption in the documentation process evident through changes in use of manuscript abbreviations correlated with peculiarities in formula use. Binary models of ‘improvization’–‘memorization’ are shown to be insufficient to describe actual variation. ‘Crystallization’ is proposed as an alternative. Comparison with stanzas quoted in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda suggest that a formula and its variable element were inclined to crystallize as a whole-line unit in memory, and that constraints of alliteration, semantics and syllabic rhythm within a line limited variation as a process of social negotiation in transmission. The hypothesis of whole-line crystallization is tested elsewhere in the eddic corpus, drawing examples from Vǫluspá, Skírnismál and Þrymskviða, where it offers an explanation for grammatical peculiarities or inconsistencies associated with repeating lines.

Throat Singing Vikings: A new translation of the account of Ibrâhîm ibn Ya`qûb al-Tartushi and his visit to the Schleswig area in the 9th century, and his observations of a form of singing that exhibited a 'Humming' sound from the throat that could possibly be a form of throat singing. This new translation is compared against various older translations in an attempt to gain a better understanding of Al-Tartushi's original account.

Author: Noel Braucher

Lexical variation counts to-date as one of the largely neglected system levels of modern variationist linguistic research on German. In particular, vertical-social variation on the dialect/standard axis have only sparingly been investigated in previous lexical studies and projects, something that is rather surprising given that investigations on lexical phenomena ('special words') have been a prominent focus in traditional dialectology and also count as one of the most interesting system levels from the speakers' perspective. In this paper we present an investigation on lexical phenomena conducted by means of a nationwide questionnaire, taking into account intra-individual variation. The main aim of the questionnaire survey was to collect data on the lexical variation of the German language in Austria, which firstly enables statements to be made about the areal-horizontal and vertical-social dimension of lexical variation.

Монография является первым обобщающим типологическим исследованием префиксальной перфективации — феномена, до сих пор получившего подробное освещение лишь в славянских языках. В книге на синхронном уровне рассматривается материал славянских и балтийских языков, идиша, немецкого, венгерского, осетинского, а также картвельских языков — грузинского, сванского, мегрельского и лазского. Подробно изучаются морфологические свойства глагольных префиксов (превербов), их семантика, особенности семантики и функционирования превербных глаголов, устройство аспектуальных систем. Полученные эмпирические данные подвергаются количественному анализу, позволяющему выделить две области кластеризации систем префиксального перфектива — славянскую и кавказскую, — различающиеся набором харак-теризующих их признаков. Отдельно исследуются диахрония систем превербов и перфективации в рассматриваемых языковых семьях, возможные типологические параллели в других ареалах и типы наблюдаемых в этой области контактных явлений, для чего привлекается материал ряда миноритарных идиомов (цыганских, славянских, балтийских, балканороманских, финно-угорских). Делаются эмпирически обоснованные выводы о соотношении генетически унаследованного, универсально-типологического и контактного в наблюдаемом ареальном распределении систем префиксального перфектива в языках Центральной и Восточной Европы и Кавказа.

Altaic-related German words represent namely substrate, i. e. basic (not cultural) lexicon which might be inherited from ‘macro-Altaic’ (Y haplogroup C, longhouses) Linear Pottery culture. ‘Hamitic’ (non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic)-related cultural lexicon was possibly accepted from Ertebølle (fishing and swine-herding, reflected in language, while ox may be wild). Pictish as well as several pre-Proto-Germanic substrate words might be Yenisseian-related. Kartvelian and North Caucasian elements might be preserved from Basque (Caucasian, mainly Daghestanian-related) Bell Beaker culture. Hurrian elements in Proto-Germanic are confirmed by genetic link with Cyprys and Aegean influence on the Nordic Bronze Age. Etruscan consonantism is similar to Armenian and Germanic as a result of the substrate influence or preservation of archaic features

Some recent studies concerning early medieval Europe have suggested that Scandinavia and Francia represented two ideological poles with which other populations within the Germanic world might have intended to align themselves. While such a view sometimes may be useful, it may also over-simplify a more complex situation. Scandinavians must have recognised cultural distinctions between themselves and Christian Europeans, but may not have viewed these distinctions necessarily as emblems of opposition unless faced by a direct political or military threat. Indeed, ideological contrasts concerning the way society was structured and power was wielded may have cut across apparent ethnic boundaries.

Roman influences on early Germanic society may have assisted in the creation of a ‘Germanic’ identity. Roman pressure also may have affected the development of Germanic governmental structures, encouraging king-centred governmental ideologies that contrasted with possibly older, assembly-centred systems. Scandinavia, never threatened by Roman domination, may have retained assembly-centred structures longer than other Germanic societies. Southern Scandinavia’s ‘central places’ of the Early Germanic Iron Age, such as Gudme, may have had functions comparable with those of the later Old Saxon Assembly and Icelandic Alþingi. Such sites may have provided a focus for an emergent Scandinavian identity. This assembly-centred system may have been disrupted as chieftains struggled to attain the kind of power enjoyed by their counterparts in king-centred societies (much as happened in medieval Iceland), perhaps explaining the poverty of archaeological finds in the region from the Late Germanic Iron Age.
The growing Frankish threat to Scandinavia in the eighth century may have both spurred further consolidation of power in the hands of the élite and, initially, provoked an ideological reaction against Christian Europe. Yet while wary of domination by Christian European kingdoms, the Viking-Age Scandinavian élite may have envied their powerful model of lordship and had an interest in accessing elements of their culture. Such a situation may be reflected in historical legends, particularly the Scylding-Skjöldung cycle, which perhaps developed during the Viking Age. These legends might represent not source material for historical glimpses of early northern Europe (as is often assumed) but rather Scandinavian attempts at self-definition in relation to the burgeoning and powerful cultures of Christian Europe. Scandinavia’s eventual adoption of Christianity and Christian lordship in the course of the Viking Age largely resolved the ideological contrasts that had existed both within Scandinavian society and between Scandinavia and Christian Europe.

Zuckermann, Ghil'ad and Walsh, Michael 2011. ‘Stop, Revive, Survive!: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures’, Australian Journal of Linguistics 31.1: 111-127.

LINK TO THE ARTICLE: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Revival_Linguistics.pdf

Final version:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a932426202~frm=titlelink

DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2011.532859

Australian Journal of Linguistics (AJL)
Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2011, pages 111 - 127

Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures

GHIL‘AD ZUCKERMANN and MICHAEL WALSH

University of Adelaide and University of Sydney


ABSTRACT

The revival of Hebrew is so far the most successful known reclamation of a sleeping tongue and is a language movement that has been in progress for more than 120 years. By comparison, language revival movements in Australia are in their infancy. This article provides comparative insights and makes information about the Hebrew revival accessible to Australian linguists and Aboriginal revival activists.

Needless to say, the first stage of any desire by professional linguists to assist in language reawakening must involve a long period of thoroughly observing, carefully listening to the people, learning, mapping and characterizing the specific indigenous community. Only then can one inspire and assist. That said, this article proposes that there are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would be useful to endangered languages in general and to Aboriginal linguistic revival in particular.

This article contributes towards the establishment of Revival Linguistics, a new linguistic discipline and paradigm. Zuckermann`s term Revival Linguistics is modelled upon 'Contact Linguistics' (<language contact). Revival linguistics inter alia explores the universal constraints and mechanisms involved in language reclamation, renewal and revitalization. It draws perspicacious comparative insights from one revival attempt to another, thus acting as an epistemological bridge between parallel discourses in various local attempts to revive sleeping tongues all over the globe.


Keywords: Revival Linguistics, Language Revival, Aboriginal Studies, Hebrew, Social Empowerment, Hybridity and Multiple Causation, Purism versus Compromise, Language and Identity, Contact Linguistics, Yiddish, Aboriginal English, Anthropological Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Language Endangerment, Resilience Linguistics, Revitalization, Renewal.


Dedicated to Professor Michael Clyne z"l



ARTICLE

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

(John Adams, 1735–1826, second president of the United States)


The main aim of this article is to suggest that there are perspicacious lessons applicable from the relatively successful Hebrew revival to the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and cultures. 'Language is power; let us have ours', wrote Aboriginal politician Aden Ridgeway on 26 November 2009 in the Sydney Morning Herald. Previous revival efforts have largely failed (for obvious reasons, we are not going to single out specific failures here). While there have been some good results from several projects since 1992 (e.g. Kaurna, see below), Aboriginal people overall do not see as many positive outcomes from revival programmes as they would like. In large part this is the result of shortage of sufficient (continuity of) funding, lack of technical expertise, and lack of integration of school-based programmes with community language programmes. However, there are purely linguistic reasons too: Many revival efforts were not supported by a sound theoretical understanding of how successful language revival works. As pointed out by Thieberger (2002), decisions about the appropriate target for language maintenance programmes are too often driven by structural linguistics, where the supposed ideal is intergenerational transmission of the language with all its original structural complexity retained, thus creating unrealistic expectations among the Aboriginal community.

This article is the first of its kind as it will innovatively draw crucial insights from 'Modern Hebrew' (henceforth, Israeli – see Zuckermann 1999), so far the most successful known reclamation attempt of a sleeping tongue. Zuckermann's (2008a, 2009, 2010, 2011) research on Israeli demonstrates which language components are more revivable than others. Words and conjugations, for example, are easier to revitalize than intonation, discourse, associations and connotations. We should encourage revivalists and Aboriginal leaders to be realistic rather than puristic, and not to chastise English loanwords and pronunciation, for example, within the emergent language. Applying such precious conclusions from Hebrew will closely assist Australian revivalists in being more efficient, urging them not to waste time and resources on Sisyphean efforts to resuscitate linguistic components that are unlikely to be revivable.

While the results the endeavors we are proposing here have considerable value as a research enterprise, one can also consider them in terms of a cost-benefit analysis (Mühlhäusler and Damania 2004, Walsh 2008): Language revitalization contributes to social reconciliation, cultural tourism (Clark and Kostanski 2005), capacity building, and improved community health for Indigenous peoples (Walsh forthcoming B). In the process of language revival, some Aboriginal people will go from being dysfunctional (cf. Sutton 2009) to well-balanced, positive people. The benefits to the wider community and to Australian society are immense.

Reversing language shift (RLS) (Fishman 1991, 2001, Hagège 2009, Evans 2010, Walsh 2005a, Zuckermann 2011) is thus of great social benefit. Language revival does not only do historical justice and address inequality but can also result in the empowerment of people who have lost their heritage and purpose in life.

Some Aboriginal people distinguish between usership and ownership. There are even those who claim that they own a language although they only know one single word of it: its name. Consequently, some Indigenous Australians do not find it important to revive their comatose tongue. We, on the other hand, have always believed in Australia’s very own roadside dictum: ‘Stop, revive, survive!'


Background: The Hebrew Revival

I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages: 1. This is worthless nonsense. 2. This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view. 3. This is true, but quite unimportant. 4. I always said so. (Haldane 1963: 464)

'Hebrew' is the most quoted example of a successful language revival. On the other hand, if we are to be brutally truthful with ourselves, the modern-day vernacular spoken in downtown Tel Aviv is a very different language – both typologically and genetically – to that of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) or of the Mishnah, the first major redaction of Jewish oral traditions.

Hebrew was spoken since approximately the 14th century BC. It belonged to the Canaanite division of the northwestern branch of the Semitic languages, which constitute a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Following a gradual decline, it ceased to be spoken by the second century AD. The failed Bar-Kokhba Revolt against the Romans in Judea in 132-5 AD marks the symbolic end of the period of spoken Hebrew. We believe that the Mishnah was codified around 200 AD because Hebrew was then dying as a mother tongue. Rabbi Judah haNasi and his collaborators might have realized that if they did not act then to redact the oral tradition, it would soon have been too late because Jews were already speaking languages other than Hebrew. (In fact, the Gemara, the other component of the Babylonian Talmud, which was codified around 500 AD, was written in Aramaic rather than in Hebrew.)

For approximately 1,750 years thereafter, Hebrew was ‘clinically dead’. A most important liturgical and literary language, it occasionally served as a lingua franca – a means of communication between people who do not share a mother tongue – for Jews of the Diaspora, but not as a native language.

Fascinating and multifaceted Israeli, which emerged in Palestine (Eretz Israel) at the end of the nineteenth century, possesses distinctive socio-historical characteristics such as the lack of a continuous chain of native speakers from spoken Hebrew to Israeli, the non-Semitic mother tongues spoken by the Hebrew revivalists, and the European impact on literary Hebrew. Consequently, it presents the linguist with a unique laboratory in which to examine a wider set of theoretical problems concerning language genesis, social issues like language, identity and politics, and important practical matters, such as whether it is possible to revive a no-longer spoken language.

The genetic classification of Israeli has preoccupied scholars since its genesis. The still regnant traditional thesis suggests that Israeli is Semitic: Hebrew revived. The revisionist antithesis defines Israeli as Indo-European: Yiddish relexified; that is, Yiddish, the revivalists’ mother tongue, is the 'substratum', whilst Hebrew is the 'superstratum' providing the vocabulary (cf. Horvath and Wexler 1997). According to Zuckermann's mosaic (rather than Mosaic) synthesis, Israeli is not only multi-layered but also multi-parental. A Semito-European, or Eurasian, hybr...

"Language Revitalisation: Discourse, Myths and Ideologies
A Critical Approach to Revitalisation Movements in Provence and Scotland
This thesis seeks to explore theoretical and practical aspects of language revitalisation (LR), an emerging field of investigation which has been described as under-­‐theorised. We approach the question from a sociolinguistic and anthropological point of view, informed by fieldwork in Provence and Scotland, where both Provençal (or Occitan) and Scots are construed as being under threat. This thesis, which treats LR as a social phenomenon arising in contexts of cultural contact, comprises three parts (seven chapters) organised as follows:
Part One explores how the question of LR arose from works on language death in descriptive linguistics, but also from works in sociolinguistics and anthropology. It then examines the way in which LR is conceptualised in academic literature, particularly in sociolinguistics and documentary linguistics. This part concludes that while works on LR have focused on language, much work needs to be conducted on social actors in order to understand this growing and worldwide phenomenon.
Part Two links works on LR with more ancient findings on cultural revitalisation movements in American anthropology, and suggests links with LR in order to propose a conceptual framework for the description and analysis of LR movements. This framework includes central notions such as mazeway, and adds the categories of myth and ideology as central notions for the understanding of LR movements.
Part Three explores how this conceptual framework can be used to describe and interpret some aspects of language revitalisation movements in Provence and Scotland, looking at how LR is construed in the discourses of language experts, activists, ordinary speakers and pupils. It then looks at how discourses circulate in two schools, which represent particular sites of LR in which orders of discourse and social practice meet.
In our conclusion, we suggest links between current works on language revitalisation theory and globalisation studies. Contemporary LR movements can indeed represent ways of dealing with the uncertainty caused by the increasingly globalised world in which we live"

This article is the second part in a series. It shows that the Old Norse term hrímþurs, often translated 'frost-ogre' or 'frost-giant' in English, was a poetic term as a variation on the archaic and obscure poetic term þurs (addressed in part I) that was employed for h-alliteration. After reviewing the limited poetic examples, the article shows that this term was strategically correlated with hrím ['rime, frost'] as a prime element of the world-creation in Snorri Sturluson's 13th century mythography, where hrímþurs is otherwise uniquely elevated to a distinct ethnonym. This construction of a mythic ethnic category is placed in
dialogue with other places where Snorri seems to have elevated or created a term and constructed a mythic ethnos in Edda. This discussion is put forward as a frame for considering whether Snorri also constructed the category of gods called ‘Vanir’, the controversial topic of the so-called Vanir Debate.

Der vorliegende Aufsatz ist der etymologisch-morphologischen Erklärung der im Titel genannten adjektivischen Stammformen gewidmet. Zuerst werden die innergermanischen Verhältnisse erörtert, anschließend werden die voreinzelsprachlichen bzw. urindogermanischen Vorformen analysiert. Den Schluß bildet ein Anhang über den Ansatz proterokinetischer *-uh2/wah2- und hysterokinetischer *-wah2/uh2-Stämme für das Urindogermanische.