The Taita Hills in Southern Kenya are a culturally and linguistically interesting location. Previous linguistic research has shown that even though only Bantu languages are spoken in the area,...Show moreThe Taita Hills in Southern Kenya are a culturally and linguistically interesting location. Previous linguistic research has shown that even though only Bantu languages are spoken in the area, there might have been Southern Cushitic habitation in the past. Taita Bantu words that resemble Cushitic words might be loanwords that were borrowed in a past period of language contact. This idea of extinct Southern Cushitic languages in the Taita Hills was proposed by Christopher Ehret and Derek Nurse in 1981. This thesis aims to critically review their article “The Taita Cushites”. Several tables with proposed Southern Cushitic loanwords in the Taita Bantu languages are included in the article. By reviewing 41 of these proposed loanwords, the accuracy of the article’s conclusions will be tested. New data is available on the Southern Cushitic and Bantu languages of East Africa that was not present yet in 1981. Using this data, new insights in the existence of the Taita Cushitic language(s) could be gained.Show less
The Ancient Greek lexicon contains words that cannot be explained by an Indo-European origin. Many of such words can be explained as loanwords of a Pre-Greek substrate or as Semitic loanwords....Show moreThe Ancient Greek lexicon contains words that cannot be explained by an Indo-European origin. Many of such words can be explained as loanwords of a Pre-Greek substrate or as Semitic loanwords. However, some Greek words seem to originate from a Semitic language, but the morphology and phonology point towards a Pre-Greek origin. To solve this apparent discrepancy, the possibility that Semitic loanwords entered the Greek lexicon via Pre-Greek is examined in this thesis. A sample of fourteen obscure Greek words confirms this hypothesis. The words share semantical and phonological features with equivalent words in Semitic languages, but share phonological and morphological features with Pre-Greek as well. Especially the occurrence of Pre-Greek suffixes that are not present in the Semitic equivalents are strong arguments in favor of this hypothesis. Besides examples of Semitic influence on Pre-Greek, this thesis provides two possible examples of Pre-Greek loanwords in Semitic languages. These findings develop our knowledge of language contact in the Mediterranean region during the Bronze and Iron Age.Show less
De overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun...Show moreDe overeenstemming tussen fonemen en de letters die hen weergeven is niet altijd even evident en transparant. De zogenaamde orthografische diepte kan hevig variëren wanneer talen en hun schriftsystemen vergeleken worden. Voor het Standaardnederlands is meerdere malen berekend in hoeverre het orthografisch diep of ondiep genoemd kan worden. Vergelijkingen zijn gedaan met andere talen, zoals het Engels, Frans en Duits, maar een vergelijking met een Nederlands dialect ontbreekt. Daarom zal in dit werkstuk een vergelijking worden gemaakt met het Haagse stadsdialect. Dit zal een inzicht geven in de verschillen betreffende orthografische diepte tussen standaardtaal en dialect.Show less
Within sign language poetry there is a genre that has not been the subject of scientific research yet, even though it has been around for quite some time: visual vernacular. It differentiates...Show moreWithin sign language poetry there is a genre that has not been the subject of scientific research yet, even though it has been around for quite some time: visual vernacular. It differentiates itself from other types of sign language literature in that it hardly ever uses anything but iconic signs, and this is what makes it internationally comprehensible across sign language borders. It is even understandable to audiences who do not have any knowledge of a sign language. Besides iconic signs, it uses many cinematographic techniques such as role switching from and to different subject or objects within the story. Visual vernacular is different from another type of sign language literature called classifier stories mainly in that the latter uses sign language specific lexicon which visual verancular does not. Another similar form of art, this time outside the sign language realm, is pantomime, but this is different from visual vernacular in many ways, one of the most prominent of which is that pantomime performers are only the storyteller whereas visual vernacular performers swith between the storyteller, main protagonist and any other subject or object in the story. By making a literary overview and using a dataset of different types of visual vernacular stories, this thesis provides an inter and intra sign language poetry genre comparison.Show less
In deze scriptie wordt gezocht naar een manier om het drogredenonderwijs, zoals beschreven in de drie meestgebruikte lesmethoden Nederlands in 6VWO, aan de hand van de pragma-dialectische...Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt gezocht naar een manier om het drogredenonderwijs, zoals beschreven in de drie meestgebruikte lesmethoden Nederlands in 6VWO, aan de hand van de pragma-dialectische argumentatietheorie te verbeteren.Show less
Deze scriptie behandelt involuntary bodily actions. Er is gekeken via een klein sample hoe talen in de wereld deze constructies zowel lexicaal als syntactisch uit drukken. Lexicaal is gekeken naar...Show moreDeze scriptie behandelt involuntary bodily actions. Er is gekeken via een klein sample hoe talen in de wereld deze constructies zowel lexicaal als syntactisch uit drukken. Lexicaal is gekeken naar hoe de acties worden uitgedrukt, de verschillende woordsoorten, of deze woorden een lexicale eenheid zijn en of er klanknabootsende woorden te vinden zijn in de lijst met involuntary bodily actions. Syntactisch is gekeken naar welke soort grammaticale constructies gebruikt worden en wat deze constructies zeggen over of de persoon controle heeft over de actie. Het onderzoek is gedaan aan de hand van woordenboeken, grammatica's, corpora en een informant. De talen die voor het onderzoek gebruikt zijn: Bwe Karen, Duits, Engels, Kiliwa, Nederlands, Oneida, Trio, Wolof en Yupik.Show less
In this comparative study I have decided to look at the switch-reference paradigm in three Panoan languages: indigenous languages spoken in Peru and Brazil. Reason for this is the increasing amount...Show moreIn this comparative study I have decided to look at the switch-reference paradigm in three Panoan languages: indigenous languages spoken in Peru and Brazil. Reason for this is the increasing amount of moribund languages, especially in this fascinating and linguistically diverse region. I will compare the systems and research the distinction between converbs and switch-reference constructions.Show less
This research attempts to give a description of the verbal morphology of the moribund Mawayana language from the Arawakan language family. Little has been written about Mawayana, but there is a...Show moreThis research attempts to give a description of the verbal morphology of the moribund Mawayana language from the Arawakan language family. Little has been written about Mawayana, but there is a corpus of stories and elicited texts. That corpus has been used for this research. Several suffixes have been found, including valency marking suffixes and TAME-markers. Also quite a few clitics may occur on verbs, including the typical Arawakan pronominal elements. Other clitics do not have clear cognates in related languages and may or may not be innovations of Mawayana. In general, quite some restructuring of the verbal morphology has taken place in Mawayana and/or the closest related language Wapishana since the two split apart. The result in Mawayana seems quite chaotic, but this may be due to the limited size of the corpus. Still, there is some clear structure that becomes more clear once the many clitics have been divided on morphosyntactic or semantic grounds.Show less
