LING 1020 Lecture 10: LING 1020- CH.4 & Lecture 10
Document Summary
Caucasus = border between europe and asia. = between the black and the caspian seas. Possibly a language area shares features of languages with nearby groups regardless as to whether or not they are related. Features of all 3 languages: huge consonant inventory. Only 2 vowels because of the huge distinction between consonants: ejective/glottolized consonants involves closing the glottis & another place in your mouth as you force air out. Very rare in europe & asia (except for caucasus) Exception= eastern armenian language (which is indo. European, and proves that the caucasus region is a. Language area: case system = ergative- absolutive. Absolutive = subject & object have the same morpheme: large case system. Tabasaran (ne caucasian) = 48 cases: complex morphology agglutinative. Features: agglutinative morphology, 2 cases (nominative-accusative and adverbial, subject- object- verb order, highest ratio of consonants to vowels.
