A Descriptive Grammar of Sa̱‮ع‬i:di Egyptian Colloquial Arabic

Abstract A new project has just been launched to write a synchronic, descriptive grammar of Niçois, the Occitan dialect of Nice. In this article, I define the corpus of the research. To do so, I first review written production from the Middle Ages to the present. I then analyze the linguistic features of Niçois over time, in order to determine the precise starting point of the current language state. But because of reinforced normativism and the decreasing social use of Niçois among the educated population, written language after WWII became artificial and does not really correspond to recordings made in the field. The corpus will thus be composed of writings from the 1820’s to WWII and recordings from the last few decades.

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A Grammar of The Colloquial Arabic of Syria and Palestine. by G. R. Driver, M.A. London: Probsthain, 1925. 12s. 6d. net.

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0041977x00123900 ◽

1928 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 880-881

Author(s):

H. A. R. Gibb

Keyword(s):

Colloquial Arabic

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Grammar of Skolt Saami

10.33341/sus.14 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Timothy Feist

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Speech Community ◽

Vowel Length ◽

Descriptive Grammar ◽

Case Marking ◽

Endangered Language ◽

The Subject ◽

Auxiliary Verb ◽

Northeast Finland

Skolt Saami is a Finno-Ugric language spoken primarily in northeast Finland by less than 300 people. The aim of this descriptive grammar is to provide an overview of all the major grammatical aspects of the language. It comprises descriptions of Skolt Saami phonology, morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax and syntax. A compilation of interlinearised texts is provided in Chapter 11. Skolt Saami is a phonologically complex language, displaying contrastive vowel length, consonant gradation, suprasegmental palatalisation and vowel height alternations. It is also well known for being one of the few languages to display three distinctive degrees of quantity; indeed, this very topic has already been the subject of an acoustic analysis (McRobbie-Utasi 1999). Skolt Saami is also a morphologically complex language. Nominals in Skolt Saami belong to twelve different inflectional classes. They inflect for number and nine grammatical cases and may also mark possession, giving rise to over seventy distinct forms. Verbs belong to four different inflectional classes and inflect for person, number, tense and mood. Inflection is marked by suffixes, many of which are fused morphemes. Other typologically interesting features of the language, which are covered in this grammar, include (i) the existence of distinct predicative and attributive forms of adjectives, (ii) the case-marking of subject and object nominals which have cardinal numerals as determiners, and (iii) the marking of negation with a negative auxiliary verb. Skolt Saami is a seriously endangered language and it is thus hoped that this grammar will serve both as a tool to linguistic researchers and as an impetus to the speech community in any future revitalisation efforts.

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