Архив 2001-2008

28.10.08 

А. Ю. Айхенвальд
профессор, Научно-исследовательский центр лингвистической типологии 
Университет Ла Троб, Мельбурн, Австралия

Языковые контакты в бассейне реки Сепик

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
PhD, DLitt, FAHA
Professor and Academic Co-ordinator RCLT
La Trobe University, Australia

Language contact along the Sepik River

Abstract:

The Sepik River Basin in New Guinea is a locus of substantial linguistic diversity, with several genetically related and unrelated languages in continuous contact. The inhabitants of the area divide into those who live on the Sepik River ('River dwellers') and those who live in the bush ('Jungle dwellers'). The two groups differ in their ways of subsistence, knowledge of each other's languages, and the impact of language contact. I focus on Manambu, from the Ndu family, spoken by a war-like group of River dwellers, and the ways its grammar was influenced by the languages of the neighbouring Jungle dwellers, the Kwoma and the Yessan-Mayo. The lexical influence from the closely related Iatmul (also spoken by River dwellers) is restricted to a number of ritual genres (now obsolete). The patterns of interaction between Jungle dwellers and River dwellers, and the effects of language contact in the Middle Sepik, are compared to the situation in the multilingual Vaupés area in Northwest Amazonia. In each case, the different means of subsistence, life-styles and interactions are responsible for different effects of contact-induced change.