Published since March 28, 2014

Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics

ISSN: 2196-078X

Editor-in-chief: Leonid Kulikov

About this journal

Objective
The Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (JSALL) provides a peer-reviewed forum for publishing original research articles and reviews in the field of South Asian languages and linguistics, with a focus on descriptive, functional and typological investigations. Descriptive studies are encouraged to the extent that they present analyses of lesser-known languages, based on original fieldwork. Other areas covered by the journal include history of South Asian languages, language change, contact phenomena and sociolinguistics. The journal also publishes occasional special issues on focused themes relating to South Asian languages and linguistics, for which it welcomes proposals.

Topics

South Asia
Asian languages
Linguistic typology
Language history
South Asian grammatical traditions
Multilingualism
Language planning
Sociolinguistics

Article formats
Original research articles, Book reviews

Your Benefits

Your benefits:

Ground-breaking forum for publishing research on South Asian languages and linguistics
Clear focus on descriptive, functional and typological investigations
In-depth analysis of lesser-known languages from the region

History

The Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics was founded in 2013 by Anju Saxena together with the publisher De Gruyter Mouton.

Other publications in the field

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Supplementary Materials

Topics

Volume 9 Issue 1-2

September 2022

Publicly Available March 15, 2023

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Research Articles

Open Access September 16, 2022

Tu quoque?! On the second person pronoun tusya (tus̱a) and the second person verbal ending -tu (-du) in Niya Prakrit

Niels Schoubben

Page range: 1-27

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Abstract

When compared to Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) and other Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) languages, the marking of the second person in Niya Prakrit differs in two crucial respects. On the one hand, Niya Prakrit makes use of a pronoun tusya / tus̱a ‘you’ that is not found in the other languages. On the other hand, Niya Prakrit has a verbal ending - tu (- du ) as a second person marker on top of the old 2 sg ending - si (- s̱i ) and the 2 pl ending - tha . This paper argues that these two peculiarities are related to one another and that both the pronoun and the verbal ending have not been properly described in earlier scholarship. First, it will be claimed that tusya ( tus̱a ) is not a genitive singular ( gen . sg ), as previously thought, but a direct plural ( dir . pl ). As a consequence, a new etymology for this pronoun will be offered too. Second, this article presents various arguments that - tu (- du ) is not a 2 sg ending, but a 2 pl .

February 13, 2023

Data sharpening and linguistic theorizing: a case study of the causative derivation of Urdu change-of-state verbs

Ahmad Naveed Sharif

Page range: 29-67

Abstract

This study examines the evidential value of corpus and introspective data from the perspective of morphological operations involved in the causative derivation of Urdu change-of-state verbs. By analyzing multi-source data on the transitivity status of causative variants of 112 Urdu verbs, it discovers a crucial relation between the type of evidence and the aspect of linguistic competence it addresses. More specifically, it compares data from lexical translation, Urdu WordNet and Urdu Lughat on the one hand, and data from a judgment task coupled with dialogical introspection on the other hand, and finds that the former can reveal the gradient nature of morphological productivity, but not its dynamic nature; the latter, however, can help explore the dynamic nature of productivity in the causative alternation. Such an observation confirms that both corpus and introspection complement each other, and that a particular source-specific piece of evidence may limit the coverage and generality of analysis. Thus, the study shows the importance of sharpening data by multi-source evidence for examining how various components of a phenomenon interrelate in the context of the overall grammatical organization of a language.

Open Access February 6, 2023

Two plant-based numeral classifiers in Nuristani languages: grain and branch

Irén Hegedűs

Page range: 69-95

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Abstract

This study demonstrates that – contrary to common belief – classifiers occur in Nuristani languages even if their use is not obligatory. The detailed description of two numeral classifiers ( grain and branch ) shows that Nuristani languages conform to the general pattern of grammaticalizing nouns referring to plants or their parts as classifiers. The Nuristani system of nominal number marking in the direct case appears to be in harmony with the tendency that overt number marking on nouns is not obligatory in languages that use numeral classifiers. The two cases examined here are both shape-based sortal classifiers: the classifier grain occurs with items conceived of as small, round objects, while branch is used with items or phenomena that involve the perceptual schema of splitting, diverging. The lexical origin of these classifiers is transparent, and the emergence of the classifier function appears to be an innovation native to Nuristani.

March 1, 2023

Centralized vowels in Muduga

Paul Arsenault, Binny Abraham

Page range: 97-129

Abstract

Proto-Dravidian had a system of ten vowels consisting of five qualities ( i, e, a, o, u ), each with short and long counterparts. Some South Dravidian languages have expanded systems with innovative vowels that are described as centralized or retroflex. However, the phonetic nature of the vowels, and the list of languages that have them, remain poorly described. We present evidence that Muduga, a South Dravidian language of Kerala, is among the languages with expanded vowel systems. It has five innovative vowel qualities, three of which can be considered phonemic. Historical-comparative evidence indicates that the new qualities result from: (i) retraction of front vowels before retroflex consonants and alveolar /r/; and (ii) fronting of back vowels before alveolar and palatal consonants (except /r/ and /j/). Loss of conditioning consonants in some contexts has led to emergent contrasts. Acoustic phonetic analysis of two male speakers suggests that the new vowels are centralized along the front-back axis, but not retroflex or rhotacized. We compare these results to related developments in other South Dravidian languages and discuss correlations between retroflexion and retraction that motivate the observed patterns.

Open Access February 23, 2023

Evidential-perceptual transfer by a blind speaker? Or: what do the Ladakhi markers for “visual” and “non-visual” perceptual experience, ḥdug and rag, actually encode?

Bettina Zeisler

Page range: 131-157

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Abstract

A typical trait of the modern Tibetic languages is that speakers obligatorily encode the knowledge base for their statements: whether they have intimate and/or authoritative knowledge of a situation, whether they have merely perceived a situation, whether they have merely inferred (or presumed etc.) a situation, whether they have second-hand knowledge, or even whether their knowledge is shared with the addressee or the larger community. In most of the Tibetic languages, speakers do not differentiate between different perceptual channels. By contrast, in most of the Ladakhi dialects, speakers appear to differentiate between visual perception, using the auxiliary ḥdug (or snaṅ ), and sense perception through other channels, using the auxiliary rag . This opposition needs to be reanalysed based on the observation of how a congenitally blind speaker deals with these two options and upon certain unexpected choices made by non-handicapped speakers.

Book Reviews

Open Access January 26, 2023

Verónica Orqueda: Reflexivity in Vedic

Eystein Dahl

Page range: 159-168

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January 11, 2023

Luka Repanšek: Devā́ś ca vā́ ásurāś cāspardhanta: Berilo vedske proze – Vedic prose Reader

Ivan Andrijanić

Page range: 169-172

January 24, 2023

Deven M. Patel: Text to tradition: The Naiṣadhīyacarita and literary community in South Asia

Heleen De Jonckheere

Page range: 173-179

January 23, 2023

Walter N. Hakala: Negotiating languages: Urdu, Hindi, and the definition of modern South Asia

Tine Vekemans

Page range: 181-185

Obituary

Open Access February 27, 2023

In memoriam Georg Buddruss (1929–2021)

Irén Hegedűs

Page range: 187-227

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Volume 7 (2020)

Volume 6 (2019)

Volume 5 (2018)

Volume 4 (2017)

Volume 3 (2016)

Volume 2 (2015)

Volume 1 (2014)

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Submission
Please e-mail submissions as attached files (PDF or Word) to the Editor-in-Chief, Leonid Kulikov. Please see the Instruction for Authors before submitting your article.

Your benefits of publishing with us

Optional open access publication
Accepted papers will be published online first as DOI-citable, forward-linked articles for quickest visibility for the scientific community
Every article easily discoverable because of SEO and comprehensive abstracting and indexing services
Secure archiving by De Gruyter and the independent archiving service Portico

Submission process

Submission of your paper
Peer review process (you will be guided through every step)
Decision on your paper (four to five months from submission to first decision)
If accepted: you have the option to publish it open access

Please note

The article must be accompanied by 1) cover sheet; 2) abstract; 3) a list of three to five keywords; 4) bionote (brief academic biography of the author in 50-75 words) on a separate sheet (Please see the Instructions for authors)
Please see the De Gruyter Mouton journal style sheet for details regarding journal style
Abbreviations in examples should follow the Leipzig Glossing Rules
Manuscripts must be written in clear and concise English
Before submitting your article please have a look at our Instruction for Authors, Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement and our Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Once your article is accepted you have the option to publish it open access. Our repository policy allows you to distribute 30 PDF copies of your published article to colleagues (the PDF has to include the information that it is an author's copy). Please also feel free to distribute the link to the online abstract
If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ page for journal authors

We look forward to receiving your manuscript!

Hybrid Open Access

Authors have the option to publish their article under an open access license. The standard article processing charge for a hybrid open access article is 2,000 Euro (plus VAT if applicable). Please note that corresponding authors from institutions with which we have a transformative agreement, can publish open access without paying the fee. More information on the eligible institutions and articles can be found here.

Editorial

Editor-in-Chief:
Leonid Kulikov
Ghent University
Department of Linguistics
Blandijnberg 2
9000 Gent
Belgium
Leonid.Kulikov@UGent.be

Copy Editor
Nick Nicholas, University of Melbourne

Editorial Board
Anvita Abbi (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)
Rama Kant Agnihotri (University of Delhi, India)
Elena Bashir (The University of Chicago, USA)
Balthasar Bickel (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Shobhana Chelliah (University of North Texas, USA)
Bernard Comrie (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany & University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Irén Hegedűs (University of Pécs, Hungary)
Hans Henrich Hock (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Artemij Keidan (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)
Annie Montaut (Inalco Paris, France)
John Peterson (Kiel University, Germany)
Anju Saxena (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Krzysztof Stroński (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland)

(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 2196-078X
Print ISSN: 2196-0771
Type: Journal
Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
First published: March 28, 2014
Publication Frequency: 2 Issues per Year
Audience: researchers and professionals in the field of South Asian languages and linguistics as well as related social sciences: anthropologists, sociologists, historians of South Asia