South Asian language federation

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The language families of South Asia

The South Asian language federation is a language federation that covers the entire Indian subcontinent .

Historical facts

The Indian subcontinent is inhabited by different peoples who have lived there for different lengths of time. Statements about historical migration movements are partly speculative, but some reliable statements can be made.

The Indo - European Indo - Aryans migrated from around 1700 BC. In several thrusts from the northwest to northern India and slowly expanded their settlement area to the east and south. Among other things, they met the Dravidian peoples, who presumably had immigrated from Central Asia. Before the Dravids, peoples had already lived there, about whose ethnicity and language hardly any information can be given. Remnants of this indigenous population are believed to be seen in various "primitive" tribes who lived and live all over India apart from the Hindu culture; many of these tribes have long been assimilated and incorporated into the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan populations. This assimilation process continues to this day. Since the time of the immigration of the Dravids, people who speak Austro-Asian languages ​​have settled in South Asia , more precisely their western branch of the Munda languages . These are now limited to language islands in the north and northeast of India, but it is assumed that they were much more widespread in the past. The fourth language family represented in South Asia is Sino-Tibetan in the outer north and northeast, the speakers of which probably came to the subcontinent last. The isolated - so not genetically related to any other language - Burushaski is spoken in some valleys of the Hindu Kush (Hunza and Yasin valleys).

The other peoples were increasingly overlaid by the Indo-Aryans in the course of time, so that today, for example, purely Dravidian peoples or languages ​​can only be found in the southern part of India with the exception of some language islands in the north, and oral-speaking groups only in inaccessible mountain regions.

Factors in the creation

The specific processes involved in the creation of the language federation are beyond consideration, with the exception of direct borrowings. It can be said that the main contributors to the convergence of the Indian languages:

  • Substrate influences of the language (s) of the Indian indigenous population
  • Sub- and superstrate influences by
    • the close coexistence of different peoples in the immediate vicinity (often within individual states )
    • regional expansion and migration of individual ethnic groups.

The languages ​​of South Asia

The following is a list of the main languages ​​spoken on the Indian subcontinent; these are usually divided into several, sometimes very different, dialects. In addition to the ones in the list, there are various other languages ​​with sometimes only a few hundred speakers.

Status of the Sinhala

Sinhala is the structure of the Indo-Aryan language most strongly influenced by (South) Dravidian (due to its isolation from the other Indo Aryan languages ​​and geographical proximity to Dravidian); that is why Sinhala is one of the best examples of the convergence of different languages, which are also not genetically related; therefore, examples from the Sinhala are often given below.

Common characteristics

vocabulary

The strong interaction of the South Asian languages ​​is already evidenced by the relatively large vocabulary that unrelated languages ​​have in common, with borrowings in all directions. The kinship terms are probably the most important example (so the word for "mother" - Tamil, Sinhala, Hindi etc. ammā ); There are many other terms such as Sanskrit siṃha "lion", which is alien to the rest of Indo-European, also exists in Dravidian and is probably of Austro-Asiatic origin. These close relationships between the languages ​​and their speakers must have existed for a very long time. B. Simha already in the Rigveda to find is (~. 1500 BC.) And properly Dravidian words like Nira "Water" (Tamil NIR ) already in the Mahabharata happen (before Christ).

Retroflexes

The most prominent common characteristic is the existence of retroflex consonants , which are articulated with the tip of the tongue rolled back and which contrast with dental consonants. These sounds do not exist in most of the non-Indian Indo-European languages ​​or in Austro-Asian, but for Dravidian they can be reconstructed down to the earliest language levels . It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the languages ​​of the other families were influenced by Dravidian, which can also be supported by the assumption that the retroflexes achieved phoneme status with the help of Dravidian loanwords in Sanskrit .

Some linguists are of the opinion that it was an internal development of the Indo-Aryan languages ​​and cite the example of Sicilian , which developed / t / before / r / to / ṭ /, for the possibility of this development ; this development in the vicinity of / r / is also typical in Indo-Aryan, but even in the early language retroflexes occur not only in the / r / environment.

As an alternative to the view that the retroflexes were taken from Dravidian, it should be noted that for the time before 1000 BC In large parts of the subcontinent, peoples can still be expected who did not belong to any of the language families we have today; it is possible that the substratum of these languages ​​was the source of the retroflexes and possibly influenced Indo-Aryan and Austro-Asian both directly and indirectly via the Dravidian.

Participle constructions

South Asian languages often use certain nonfinite verbal forms to sets next - and subordinate ; these words are called verbal participles (often also "absolutiva" or "gerundives").

Here is an example of how assignments (in European languages ​​with an “and”) are expressed in South Asian languages ​​by means of connecting participles.

German : Go to the store and bring eggs.

French : Va au magasin et apporte des oeufs.

Tamil : kaḍaikku pōyi muṭṭaikal koṇḍuvā. ( Business + dating gone (being) brought eggs )

Hindi : dukān jākar aṇḍe lānā. ( Business gone (being) bringing eggs )

Explicit verb compounds

These composites are structurally similar to Participial described above, except that the finite verb here is not the main verb is, but for a more detailed determination of an important aspect of the preceding participle is used: The semantic center of the set is the participle on the second verb in the explicative composites on the first. The aspects of meaning expressed in this way often relate to directionality , but often also have other connotations such as the closure of the process or the subject's attitude towards it, suddenness or violence. Some examples follow.

Hindi :

le jānā ( having taken-to go ) "bring (away)"

likh denā (to give after having written ) "to write for sb."

gir paṛnā ( having fallen ) "falling down"

Sinhala :

gena enavā ( having taken-come ) "fetch"

kiyalā denavā ( having said-to give ) "explain"

vatura bīlā märenavā (to die after drinking water ) "to drown"

Tamil :

konḍu varu ( having taken-come ) "fetch"

kāli caccu (to die after being burned ) "burn (to death)"

As can be clearly seen in the translations, this characteristic expression stands in the way of the common denotation of the meaning aspect in European languages ​​by prefixes and paraphrases or their non- labeling .

Word order in the sentence

What the syntax is concerned, are the languages of the region to those with more or less pronounced linksverzweigender construction ( left-branching ). The contrast to the law-branching European languages ​​can be seen in the fact that z. B. In German, subordinate clauses usually come after the (ie “right” of) main clause, but such attributive expressions in Sinhala come before (“left” of) it: “I'm not going (there) because it's raining” / “It's raining because of I am not going ”( vahinavā hindā mama yannē nah ). The Dravidian languages ​​and Sinhala are most consistent in their left branching, while the North Indian languages ​​allow exceptions to this structure.

The characteristics of the South Asian languages ​​presented below all correspond to the left-branching structure.

Sentence structure

The sentence structure follows the sequence subject-object-predicate :

Hindi : mujhko patr likhie ( write me a letter) "Write me a letter."

Sinhala : kamalā mal kaḍanavā ( Kamala picks flowers ) "Kamala picks flowers."

Telugu : kamalā pūlu kōstunnadi (ibid.) "Kamala picks flowers."

Santali : ac'ren golame kolkedea ( sent his servant ) "He sent his servant."

Adpositions

Postpositions outweigh prepositions:

Hindi : ghar ke pīchhe ( house-from behind ) "behind the house"

Sinhala : horek vāgē ( thief-a like ) "like a thief"

Malayalam : muri-yil ( room-in ) "in the room"

Santali : oṛak're ( house-in ) "at home / in the house"

Attributes of the noun

More detailed terms such as adjectives, genitives, demonstratives and numerals are placed in front of the nouns:

Hindi :

andherī rāt "dark night"

rām kā bhāī "Ram's brother"

do ghaṇṭe "two hours"

Telugu :

kāntārāv kōpam "Kantarao's Wrath"

ī niḷḷu "this water"

Malayalam :

nalla hōṭṭal "good hotel"

nālpatu kuḻi "40 holes"

Santali :

nui hoṛ "this man"

bar poesa "two pieces"

Comparison

Here the South Asian languages ​​have a structure in which the noun is first, then the comparison marker and then the adjective:

Hindi : is se acchā ( this from [= as] good ) "better than this"

Tamil : avaṉ eṉṉai viḍa periyavaṉ ( he me "as" the-great ) "He is bigger than me."

Morphological causatives

Morphological causatives as an expression of a change in valence are still present in modern German z. B. in "sit" [valence "0"] - "(something / sb.) Put" ["1"], "drink" ["1"] - "drink" ["2"]; today only the periphrastic causatives are productive: "beat" - "let beat" etc.

In South Asia, morphological valence changes are common, for which suffixes, stem vowel changes or consonant changes are used:

Hindi :

bannā "(made) to be" - banānā "to do" - banvānā "to have it done"

dikhnā "to be seen" - dekhnā "see" - dikhānā "show ( literally let see)"

Sinhala :

märenavā "die" - maranavā "hit, kill" - maravanavā "hit / let kill"

Tamil :

ōṭu "run" - ōṭṭu "let run, hunt"

Santali :

jutok "to be right" - jut "to correct"

Dative subjects

For actions that are not actively controlled by the subject, the subject is in the dative. The absence of the verb "haben" is also included:

Hindi :

mujhe bukhār hai ( I have a fever ) "I have a fever."

mujhe Jaldi hai ( I hurry ) "I'm in a hurry."

mujhe apnē gā̃v kī yād ātī hai ( my village comes from memory ) "I miss my village."

Sinhala :

maṭa mēka hitenavā ( this thinks to me ) " This occurs to me ."

eyāṭa päni rasa dänenavā ( he tastes sweet ) "He tastes the sweetness."

Tamil :

enakku Tamil puriyum ( I understand Tamil ) "I understand Tamil."

This way of expressing states with a logical subject in the dative is, from a sociolinguistic point of view, cause or consequence, probably both, of a greater awareness of the speakers about what is under their volitional control and what is not.

Salutations and personal names

The use of various means to identify the status of the living being addressed and what is being talked about is not only very pronounced, but is usually fixed in a regular manner.

Salutation

Hindi :

tū "you (intimate)", tum "you (familiar)", āp "you (polite)"

Sinhala (only a selection):

tō "you ( pejorative )", umba "you (intimate or pejorative)", tamusē "du (pejorative)", oyā "you / you (equal)", oba "you (polite)", tamunnānsē "you (respectful) ", Oba vahansē " you (salutation for monks) "

Suffixes

Hindi :

jī ~ "venerable" (as in ammā jī "honored mother")

Sinhala :

varayā "venerable" (as in guru varayā "teacher"), tumā "venerable" (as in mantrī tumā "minister")

Malayalam :

tiru (deferential prefix)

Suffix + pluralis majestatis

Sinhala :

budun vahansē "Buddha (plural form + Honorificum )"

Imperatives

Hindi :

jā "go (intimate)", jānā "go (intimate to familiar)", jāo "go (familiar)", jāie "go (politely)", jāega "go (formally)"

Sinhala :

balanna "see (equated)", balanavā "see (command)", balapan "see (intimate or peiorative)"

Pronouns

Hindi :

Pronouns vah ( vo ) is usually in the plural ( ve ) when talking about equals or higher- ups

Sinhala :

ohu "he (high-level polite)", eyā "he / she (colloquial neutral)", ū "it (for animals or offensive / intimate for people)"

There are also cases in which a special vocabulary is used in connection with venerable persons such as monks or nobles (see Honorificum ), such as Sinhala vatura "water", pän "water (which a monk drinks)" or kanavā "eat", anubhava karanavā "eat ( supreme )", valandanavā "eat (monks)".

This pronounced differentiation is likely to be attributed to, or at least favored by, society, which is highly structured by caste.

Diglossia

In South Asia diglossia - in various forms - is widespread, which can also be seen as a sign of convergence.

In Hindi, for example, the colloquial language, interspersed with numerous Persian-Arabic, but also English loan words and constructions, is juxtaposed with the sanskritized high-level language: The situation of a Hindi native speaker, who in most cases speaks both the colloquial language and the written language fluently, is compare for example with that of a speaker of a German dialect who speaks both dialect and high-level language (e.g. High Alemannic and Standard German ). An example of the different vocabulary of the colloquial and written language in Hindi is the word for "telephone booth", colloquial. pablik ṭelīfon (English), written language sārvajanik dūrbhāṣ sak ("all-people wide-speaking means").

While the modern supraregional Hindi ("High Hindi") is a construct of the modern age, Tamil and Sinhala are literary languages ​​that have a tradition that has grown over centuries. There are even three language varieties in Sinhala:

  • the slang
  • the literary language that makes use of an archaic complex grammar (e.g. congruence between subject and verb) and is not fully understandable by the majority of the population
  • the more recent high-level language ("moderate literary language"), which uses a higher vocabulary and preserves some grammatical peculiarities (e.g. subordinate clauses, subject-verb congruence) of the literary language, but is generally closer to colloquial language

Reduplications

In South Asia there are different types of reduplication that can have different grammatical (e.g. causative, reflexive formation) and / or semantic functions (e.g. expressions of iterativity, intensity, etc.).

  • morphological reduplication, e.g. B. Santali to the root dāl "hit" dā-dāl "hit hard", Sinhala to the verb balanavā "see" bala balā "seeing ( participle to express simultaneity)"
  • lexical reduplication, e.g. B. Hindi saṛak saṛak ( streets streets ) “only streets”, baiṭhe baiṭhe ( seated sitting ) “while sitting”; Sinhala vena vena dēval ( other other things ) "many different things"
  • phonological reduplication, e.g. B. Hindi kām vām ( actual work on the left ) "Work and such activities"
  • semantic reduplication, e.g. B. Hindi dhan daulat ( wealth [skt.] Wealth [pers.] ) "Wealth"

Such reduplications are most pronounced in the munda. It is therefore assumed that the Munda languages ​​have always used reduplication as a means of inflection and word formation; the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, which they used only to a limited extent in earlier language levels, appear to have expanded their use through close contact with Munda. It is probable that in Indo-Aryan with the Central Indian period (from 500 BC) the decline in the means of expression due to the impoverishment of flexion favored the increased use of reduplications for these purposes.

Nonverbal communication

The South Asian region is characterized by its residents' common behaviors, gestures and facial expressions, which often lead to misunderstandings or amusement when dealing with Europeans.

  • / Approval /: lateral wobbling of the head around a horizontal axis from the nose to the back of the head
  • / Request to come closer /: back of the hand upwards, quickly moving the fingers or the whole hand towards your own body
  • / Arousing attention /: Loud clapping of hands or "tugging" of the mouth (drawing in air through the pressed lips to produce a squeaking noise)
  • / Hunger /: bringing the thumb and fingers of the right hand together and moving towards the mouth
  • / Thirst /: clenching of the right hand into a fist with sticking out of the thumb, which is brought to the mouth
  • / Please /: Head tilted to one side and palms brought together in front of the chest or thumb and forefinger brought together as if to hold a very small object
  • / Counting /: "1" extended index finger, "2" plus middle finger etc., "5" thumb and the four fingers brought together
  • / Fight /: both hands clenched into fists in front of the chest, the index fingers are hooked and there is a quick, violent right-left movement

These similarities in non-verbal communication are not in the strict sense characteristics of a linguistic union, but are good indications of the close social interaction that the inhabitants of the vast South Asia have and had, and they help to diagnose the relative cultural demarcation of the region from other neighboring regions .

See also

literature

  • EC Dimock, BB Kachru, B. Krishnamurti (Eds.): Dimensions of Sociolinguistics in South Asia - Papers in Memory of Gerald B. Kelley , New Delhi 1992
  • FBJ Kuiper: The genesis of a linguistic area . In: Indo-Iranian Journal 10 (1967), pp. 81-102
  • CP Masica: Defining a Linguistic Area - South Asia , Chicago 1976
  • HJ Vermeer: Investigations into the construction of Central-South Asian languages , Heidelberg 1969