2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Typological Studies of the North West Caucasian Languages
Project/Area Number |
24320076
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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Allocation Type | Partial Multi-year Fund |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
Linguistics
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Research Institution | Nagoya University |
Principal Investigator |
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Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
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Keywords | 北西カフカース諸語 / 言語類型論 / アブハズ語 / チェルケス語 |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The aim of the present study is to elucidate the main topics of the typological characteristics of the North West Caucasian languages. On the basis of my “A Grammar of Abkhaz” (Hituzi Syobo Publishing, 2013) and “A Dictionary of the Bzyp Dialect of Abkhaz”, I compare Abkhaz with the other North West Caucasian languages, and I conclude as follows: (1) the accentuation of Abkhaz and Ubykh shows that the accent systems of the two languages can be explained according to the same principle, i.e. ‘the accent law of Spruit’. This indicates that the North West Caucasian proto-language is assumed to have a tonal system; (2) in Ubykh and Circassian the polysynthesism is more declining than in Abkhaz. This indicates that the ergative-absolutive case marking system of Ubykh-Circassian has developed secondarily.
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Free Research Field |
言語学
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