Linguists and languages for 5-page report

      Assignment: You will be assigned one language from the list below; you must also choose a second language that is completely unrelated to the first. Your assignment is to write a 2-page summary on each of the two langauges. Tell what branch of which language family the language belongs to; where it is spoken; approximately how many speakers it has; and mention three or so key characteristics of the language. For the fifth page, make a comparison of the two languages regarding their key linguistic features. Next, collect information on the linguist in the list with the same number as the language you were assigned, and write a one-page outline on him or her for the sixth page of the assignment. Include mention of his or her nationality, and major contributions to linguistics.

     Here are some links to sites that show the genetic relationships among the languages of the world:

A good place to start:
http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html

There are some nice maps and charts here:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/arjenbolhuis/language-family-trees/

Ethnologue has information on individual languages:
http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp

Wikipedia offers quite a bit of detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_families_and_languages

1. Abercrombie, David (1909-92)
2. Apollonius Dyscolus (c. 110-175 AD)
3. Aristotle (384-322 BC)
4. Bell, Alexander Graham (1847-1922)
5. Ben Yehuda, Eliezer (1858-1922)
6. Bickerton, Derek (1926- )
7. Bloomfield, Leonard (1887-1949)
8. Boas, Franz (1858-1942)
9. Bopp, Franz (1791-1867)
10. Braille, Louis (1809-52)
11. Brown, Roger William (1925- )
12. Chao, Yuen Ren (1892-1982)
13. Chomsky, Noam (1928- )
14. Comrie, Bernard
15. Courtenay, Baudouin de (1845-1929)
16. Dionysius Thrax (2nd-1st century BC)
17. Ferguson, Charles A. (1921- )
18. Fries, Charles Carpenter (1897-1967)
19. Fromkin, Victoria A (1923- )
20. Greenberg, Joseph H. (1915- )
21. Grimm, Jakob (1785-1863)
22. Haas, Mary Rosamond (1910- )
23. Hale, Ken
24. Halle, Morris (1923-)
25. Halliday, Michael (1925-)
26. Harris, Zellig S. (1909-92)
27. Haugen, Einar (1906- )
28. Hill, Archibald A. (1902-92)
29. Hjelmslev, Louis Trolle (1899-1965)
30. Hockett, Charles Francis (1916- )
31. Hoijer, Harry (1904-1976)
32. Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1787-1835)
33. Jakobson, Roman (1896-1982)
34. Jespersen, Otto (1860-1943)
35. Johnson, Samuel (1709-84)
36. Jones, Sir William (1746-94)
37. Joos, Martin (1907-78)
38. Klatt, Dennis H. (1938-88)
39. Labov, William (1927- )
40. Ladefoged, Peter (1925- )
41. Lakoff, George and Lakoff, Robin
42. Lehiste, Ilse (1922- )
43. Lehmann, Winfred Philip (1916- )
44. Li Fang-Kuei (1902-89)
45. Lu Fayan ³°ªk¨¥ (fl. 600 AD)
46. Martinet, Andre (1908- )
47. Meillet, Antoine (Paul Jules) (1866-1936)
48. Montague, Richard (1931-71)
49. Ogden, Charles Kay (1889-1957)
50. Pān̩ini (between the 7th and 4th centuries BC)
51. Paul, Hermann (1846-1921)
52. Pike, Kenneth Lee (1912-2000)
53. Pitman, Sir Isaac (1813-97)
54. Plato (c. 429-347 BC)
55. Quirk, Sir Charles Randolph (1920- )
56. Rask, Rasmus Kristian (1787-1832)
57. Sapir, Edward (1884-1939)
58. Saussure, Ferdinand(-Mongin) de (1857-1913)
59. Schleicher, August (1821-1868)
60. Sebeok, Thomas Albert (1920- )
61. Sequoyah (1760-1843)
62. Sibawayh (ca. 760-793 AD)
63. Sturtevant, Edgar Howard (1875-1952)
64. Swadesh, Morris (1909-67)
65. Sweet, Henry (1845-1912)
66. Trubetzkoy, Nikolai Sergeyevic (1890-1938)
67. Tyndale, William (1494-1536)
68. Varro, Marcus Terentius (116-27 BC)
69. Voegelin, Charles Frederick (1906-86)
70. Wang, Li (1900-86)
71. Wang, Nien-Sun (1744-1832)
72. Webster, Noah (1758-1843)
73. Weinreich, Uriel (1926-67)
74. Whitney, William Dwight (1827-94)
75. Whorf, Benjamin Lee (1897-1941)
76. Xu Shen (c. 58-147)
77. Xun Zi (c. 313-238 BC)
78. Yang, Xiong (53 BC-18 AD)
1. Afrikaans
2. Agarabi
3. Ainu
4. Albanian
5. Arabic
6. Armenian
7. Atayal
8. Basque
9. Burmese
10. Burushaski
11. Catalan
12. Dutch
13. Dyirbal
14. Tocharian
15. Esperanto
16. Estonian
17. Evenki
18. Farsi
19. Fijian
20. Finnish
21. Fula
22. Georgian
23. German
24. Greek
25. Guugu Yimithirr
26. Hakka
27. Hawaiian
28. Hebrew
29. Hindi/Urdu
30. Hmong
31. Hungarian
32. Indonesian/Malay
33. Inuit
34. Irish
35. Japanese
36. Kazakh
37. Ket
38. Khmer
39. Klingon
40. Korean
41. Lithuanian
42. Malagasy
43. Mongolian
44. Moso
45. Motu
46. Nahali
47. Nahuatl
48. Nama
49. Navajo
50. Nepali
51. Norwegian
52. Ojibway
53. Piraha
54. Portuguese
55. Quechua
56. Romani
57. Romanian
58. Russian
59. Sami
60. Serbo-Croatian
61. Shanghainese
62. Shona
63. Southern Min
64. Spanish
65. Swahili
66. Tabasaran
67. Tagalog
68. Tamil
69. Thai
70. Tibetan
71. Tok Pisin
72. Turkish
73. Tuvan
74. Uighur
75. Vietnamese
76. Wolof
77. Xhosa
78. Yami

 

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