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The article deals with the etymology of Mari terms of children’s games with bones, sticks and pieces of wood: doverʹka, dyrka, tera, jyvyli, sak, suka, shygyle, shaklʹaka, shakmak. Turkic origin of most of them is established, in some cases through the Russian dialects. The Mari lexemes in question are compared with related game terms in Russian and the Finno-Ugric languages (mostly of Turkic origin).
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The paper tests the antecedent preferences for the null pronoun, the personal pronoun and the demonstrative subject in L2 and 2L1 Hungarian (with Romanian as the other language) by means of an offline picture selection task. In the null subject condition, both groups show subject bias, confirming previous hypotheses and research. An evident object bias is observable with the demonstrative, again confirming the low accessibility status of demonstratives. The results differ in the case of the overt personal pronoun subject. While it can have both topic shift and topic continuity interpretation in both languages, previous research suggests that in Romanian the former is favoured over the latter, whereas the reverse is true for Hungarian. Whereas the L2 group shows no bias in the personal pronoun condition, thus possibly showing transfer from L1, the 2L1 group shows a strong subject bias, placing the personal pronoun on equal footing with the null pronoun.
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Although not long discussed and studied, code switching must have always existed and not been perceived otherwise than normal by its users, speakers with more than one mother tongue that have been able to communicate freely using all languages, mixing their grammar rules or vocabularies and still understanding each other, creating, therefore, a code that existed only in their region.The most common examples are known as Spanglish and Franglish. The Hungarians of Transylvania have also invented several smaller-scale linguistic codes of this kind, spoken in different cities and a larger-scale one, understood by every Hungarian in Transylvania - the Hungarian of Romania, with different word order, vocabulary, word formation both from Romanian and from standard Hungarian, and illustrating all the types of code switching identified by scholars. This article analyses this new linguistic code history of Transylvania and compared to the surrounding areas, giving examples of Transylvanian Hungarian.
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The Estonian abessive shares characteristics with almost all Uralic languages, which have abessives, caritives or privatives. As many other Uralic languages, the Estonian abessive emerges in both verbal (as the -mata form) and nominal forms (as -ta). The nominal and verbal abessive forms are optionally complements of the preposition ilma ‘without’ in Estonian. The agglutinative features and rich case system of Estonian is not matched by its non-Finnic contact languages in the European area. The focus of the study is how the verbal abessive fits into the functional gaps in the verbal paradigms of newly developed and analytically expressed tenses such as the perfects. A corpus study supports the hypothesis that the -mata form is taking on more verbal properties and losing nominal properties in its developments towards a construction expressing the negation of the perfect.
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Acta Semiotica Estica is an annually published peer-reviewed Estonian-language journal of semiotics based in Tartu, that has been published since 2001. This article gives a brief overview of the history and development of the journal.
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This paper addresses some aspects of collecting and preparing language data of the Livvi dialect of the Karelian language needed for training a system of automatic speech-to-text conversion. The importance of such technologies for the Karelian language derives from its status as a low-resource language, which is a serious obstacle to its study and preservation. The main tasks at the current stage of the research are to collect and annotate speech and text corpora, as well as to create a transcription dictionary. The speech corpus includes audio recordings of 15 speakers (6 men and 9 women). All the recordings were transcribed and segmented into single utterances. The volume of records after the removal of “junk” fragments was 3,5 hours. The volume of the text corpus after the removal of repeated sentences was over 5M word usages. Based on the collected text corpus, a dictionary was created, which will subsequently be used as a part of the Karelian speech recognition system. All the words included in the dictionary were automatically transcribed (phonemic transcription). In the further research collected text and speech data will be used for training and testing the Livvi-Karelian speech recognition system.
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The paper deals with the event-structure properties of causative verbs with the suffix -t in Tatyshly Udmurt (Republic of Bashkortostan). Concerning external causatives, we consider the following phenomena that are sensitive to the event structure and are accepted in the literature as diagnostics of mono- or bi-eventive causatives: a set of possible controllers of the subject of the converb clause (only the Causer / the Causer and the Causee), modification by the manner, temporal localization, duration, and frequency adverbials (only the caused sub-event / the caused and the causing sub-events / the whole situation). Applying these diagnostics shows the following results. The test for the ability to control the subject of the converb clause is the only one of the entire battery that corresponds to the bi-eventive structure, which may be due to some external syntactic factors and thus casts doubt on the reliability of this test in other languages. The tests for the interpretation of adverbials show that the causing subevent cannot accept any modifiers and has an extremely reduced structure. Causatives with both contact and distant semantics are therefore single-eventive, which contradicts the known data of standard Udmurt. The results obtained speak in favor of approaching the semantics of causatives as a continuum between direct and indirect causation. Tatyshly Udmurt morphological causatives with the suffix -t cover the entire semantic continuum, except for the actual indirect ones, since even distant uses do not allow a temporal gap between the causing and the caused sub-events. The fact that situations of causation, which are conceptualized as single, indivisible situations, are expressed by morphologically productive rather than lexical means seems typologically curious.
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This article analyses the vowel in the illative marker of monosyllabic nouns which usually copies the quality of the stem vowels. The data come from different questionnaires recorded by Soikkola Ingrian speakers in the 21st century. The main point of interest is the contradiction between the fact that the vowel in the illative marker copies the stem vowel and the fact that existing descriptions often indicate raising of mid vowels in the stem but not in the illative suffix. Both auditory analysis and acoustic measurements are used to check the correspondence between the quality of the stem and suffix vowels in the illative forms of monosyllabic nouns. The research reveals that there is both interspeaker and intraspeaker variation in the quality of the vowels under discussion, and several different strategies can be used for building the illative marker. The rounded stem vowels öö and oo are opposed to the unrounded ee: if raised in the stem, the latter does not influence the quality of the suffix vowel. In most cases, the quality of the rounded stem and suffix vowels is the same, so a transcription where these vowels are denoted differently is not justified. Pronunciations where both the stem and suffix vowels are half-raised argue for an alternative variant of the Soikkola Ingrian phonological system.
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The article deals with a morphosyntactic innovation in Komi, namely adjectives formed from adverbial participles (converbs). Such lexical units have not been previously studied, and the identification of their part-of-speech status may be challenging, as, for example, in the Komi electronic corpus (http://komicorpora.ru/), from where the material was partially extracted. In the present study, these lexemes are defined as author’s neologisms. The study clarifies the part-of-speech status of these units and determines the processes of word formation. The research material has been extracted from original and translated literary works of the 20th—21st centuries. It is revealed that adjectives are derived from the adverbial participles (or converbs) in -иг, -игöн, and -тöдз in two ways: complex-suffixal and suffixal, with the help of the productive adjective derivation suffixes -са, -ся, and the bases кад, водз, дыр, чöж depending on semantics. They usually occur as attributes, but attested is also one instance of predicative function.
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The article looks at Estonian farm names, using examples from Audru Parish. Farm names are considered younger than village names, although historians believe that the farm is older than the village as a settlement unit. It has been suggested that farm names developed in the 9th century. This article shows that many farm names were already documented in the 16th century. In the past, villages were subject to taxation, but from the 16th century onwards, farm families (Gesinde) became the tax unit. Indeed, it was in the 16th century that the names of peasants – mostly consisting of first and last names – began to appear in documents. The question is whether the last name of a peasant denoted a group of people (a family) or whether it also applied to the plot of land managed by the family. It makes sense to assume the latter. In this article I present examples of older farm names in Audru, their changes over time and name etymologies. I also make an attempt to align the names collected over nearly a century by the Mother Tongue Society and the Institute of the Estonian Language with those available in the Place Names Register.
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The article discusses the etymology of the Estonian word (raie)lank ‘a piece of forest land meant for cutting’. The first documented use of this word dates back to 1898. The word has no etymological counterparts in other Balto-Finnic languages. In etymological literature, the Estonian lank has been linked to the verb langema ‘to fall’, assuming the formation of a new basic root – lank – through the sound change g > k in the root. This explanation is unconvincing. The assumption is not supported by any derivative relationships in the relevant vocabulary in the neighbouring or contact languages. This interpretation is even more clearly challenged by evidence in the vernacular literature in Estonian dialects, where not just lank but also, plank : plangi ~ plangu has been documented in the sense of ‘a piece of a forest land that has been cut down or is meant for cutting; a plot of farmland or hayfield’. It is probably a German loan, cf. Middle Low German planke, German Planke ‘a thick board, a plank’. This is assumed that the semantics of the Estonian (raie)lank originates from the meaning branch ‘fence, barrier’ in the German semantic line that has served as the source of the loan. In the Estonian language context the meaning has developed as follows: ‘a demarcated area’ ‘a piece of forest land where the cutting area has been marked with poles and lines’ ‘a piece of forest land that has been cut down, a clearing’. Between 1898 and 1915, one of the largest pulp factories in the world, Waldhof, operated in Pärnu as a subsidiary of the German-based corporation AG Zellstofffabrik Waldhof. To supply the factory with raw materials, the surrounding areas of Pärnu were subjected to devastating logging activities, resulting in enormous clear-cut areas, which people began to call Waldhof’s clearings. Taking into account the described circumstances and economic situation, it is plausible to assume that it was at that time that lank, meaning a forest area designated for cutting, started to spread and take root more widely in Estonian.
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The paper analyses the patterns of figurative language and thought addressing the abstract domain of “language”, which emerged in the discourse about the language norms and standardisation in Estonian public media in 2020–2022. The situation was perceived as critical by the language practitioners (editors, proof-readers, translators, teachers, etc) because of confusion and ambiguity in respect of when and in what form would the new edition of ÕS (the traditional prescriptive dictionary of Standard Estonian), appear. The ambiguous feelings were accompanied by the sense of threat to fundamental values, and the sense of urgency to act – all the substantial features of a crisis were met. The corpus of texts contained 62 texts by practitioners, journalists, professional linguists (institutional scientists), and state officials. The corpus of texts was analyzed qualitatively from the viewpoint of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Figurative Framing, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Critical Discourse Analysis. The critical situation stimulated figurative thinking by all the “voices” in discussion: language practitioners framed the Estonian language as a ‘needy’ – an image, which was amplified into an image of ‘protegee’ and further so into ‘victim’. Linguists tended to think and speak of language as a ‘living being’, borrowing vocabulary from evolutionary biology. Both practitioners and researchers also used the image of ‘building’ while highlighting different aspects: linguists talked more about language reconstruction and repair, while the other disputants referred to demolition, breaking down, and decay. Personification was also used, i.e. attributing human qualities and desires to language. The practitioners showed empathy to the language as a sufferer, while the linguists talked about well-being and health. One of the most disputable images was that of language as a social subject that could enjoy freedom. This image, originally proposed by the progressively minded linguists was sharply rejected and responded to by the journalists and the practitioners by using irony and ridiculing. One of the images used only by the practitioners was that of language as a beautiful garden in threat of getting abandoned.
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Review of: Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso, Elena Skribnik (toim). The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages. (Oxford Guides to the World’s Languages.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. 1184 lk.
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Interview with Karl Pajusalu by Liina Lindström
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Estonian is a verb-second (V2) language: in certain types of sentences, the finite verb tends to be the second constituent. The V2 feature of Estonian is most likely to have developed under Germanic influence. However, there are differences between Germanic and Estonian V2 order. The word order of Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is one of the major exceptions to the V2 order. Main-clause wh-interrogatives are always V2 in Germanic but predominantly verb-final in Estonian. The paper describes two corpus studies - a synchronic and a diachronic one - that aimed to clarify the proportion, nature and development of the V2 order in Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives. The synchronic study showed that the proportion of the V2 order in present-day Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is approximately 22%.
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Review of: Methis. Studia humaniora Estonica 2022, nr 29. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli kultuuritea-duste instituut, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Kultuurilooline Arhiiv. 199 lk. Methis. Studia humaniora Estonica 2022, nr 30. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli kultuuritea-duste instituut, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Kultuurilooline Arhiiv. 235 lk. Õige keha, vale keha? Näitus keha tähendustest Eestis. Koostanud ja toi-metanud Anu Kannike ja Kristel Rattus. Tartu: Eesti Rahva Muuseum, 2023. 310 lk. Karl Pajusalu, Eberhard Winkler. Salatsi liivi keele teejuht. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kir-jastus, 2023. 99 lk.
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The article outlines linguistic contacts in Finland in different periods of time, from prehistory to the present day. It emphasizes the historically validated multilingualism and multiculturalism of the country. A thesis has been formulated concerning the strong influences of various languages on Finnish at various stages of its development (i.e. on prehistoric spoken Proto-Finnish, the medieval folk language of the Finns, Finnish of the modern era, as well as on the contemporary stratified language characterized by diglossia and triglossia). The author describes the latest sociolinguistic phenomena such as the interference of migrant languages with the stratified Finnish language and with its urban jargons. The analysis includes the national languages of Finland and languages of ethnic minorities, including sign languages (and their sociolinguistic aspect). The article refers to the latest developments in genetic linguistics.
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The article discusses selected issues concerning the Uralic terminology, focusing on Polish terms and names. We understand Uralic studies as both a study programme and a scholarly line of research. In Section 2 of the paper, we delimit a general point of reference for the Uralic terminology, whereas Section 3 provides an overview of specific terminological problems related to the labelling of Uralic languages and ethnolects, with special emphasis on the Finno-Ugric group. We conclude that the Polish Uralic terminology lacks a number of relevant Uralic names/labels/terms and champions its own idiosyncratic terminological solutions. Further standardisation and internationalisation of the Uralic terms in Polish are recommended.
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The article examines the nominations of a good-looking person, for which the Karelian language uses a fairly extensive range of lexical means, including the polysemantic attributes kaunis and čoma. The analyzed nomination conventions are widely represented in the language world picture of the Karelian people, especially in idioms. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that this issue has not been previously studied with the use of the Karelian language material. The research methodology included ethnolinguistic and comparative methods, while the theoretical and methodological basis of the study was the studies of foreign and Russian researchers in the fields of linguistics and folklore. The sources for collecting language material were dialect and phraseological dictionaries of the Karelian language, samples of Karelian speech, and field materials collected by the authors. The analysis led to the conclusion that the attributes kaunis and čoma have a wide area of use, with both lexemes being polysemantic. A large number of nominations for a physically attractive person are derived from the lexemes čoma/šoma and kaunis with the help of various suffixes. Moreover, two-component lexemes as parts of the nominative construction with the meaning ‘a good-looking, ruddy-faced person’ are common in Karelian dialects. In Karelian phraseology, the physical attractiveness of a person is presented in different aspects: it has both positive and negative connotations and is compared with various human values.
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