Volume 2007, Issue 15

Abstract: A study of the semantic field ‘cow’ in Galician: ‘neck’ This article presents a sample of a broader project that has as objective its study of the names referring to the cow's appearance and certain parts of the body. I have chosen thirty lexical fields which best exemplify the different procedures that speakers follow for coining these names, and in this article I will focus on the words used to designate a cow's neck. The responses for this concept have been extracted from the materials of the Atlas Lingüístico Galego (165) and from a series of dialectal inquiries (216) carried out in 1969 by undergraduate students. A bipartite structure has been chosen for this work. In the first place, I analyze the geographic distribution of different responses in the case of this concept, categorizing each according to motive and registering these on a map. In the second place, each form is studied on an individual basis from several perspectives: etymology, morphological analysis, first recorded usage, for example. This methodology seeks to complement current work on the Atlas Lingüístico Galego and similar projects that focus on geolinguistic distribution without paying attention to the other aspects aforementioned. Eleven different lexical families (with some morphological variants) for ‘neck’ are commented on in this article. The most significant form noted is pescozo ; though colo is found and also xugueira , and, less commonly: cachazo, carrolo, gorxia, marmela, moleira, nobenillo, pulmoeira , and taloeira . Though there is not a great diversity of forms, they are, nevertheless very interesting, because we can observe a number of different linguistic and semantic developments. Whereas pescozo – the standard word for ‘neck’ and reflex of a Latin construction * cocciu ( cocciu ‘trough, sink’: the semantic link is clear, comparing a curved sink to the curvature of the neck) – is known throughout the whole territory, the other forms are each limited to a particular zone. We have descendants of Lat. collu ‘neck’, but only in the northern part of Galicia; as to the form caluga , Galician and Asturian dialectal data show that the etymological explanation suggested by Corominas is unacceptable, as this form must be connected to the family of reflexes of Lat. collu . We also find a term based on xugo ‘yoke’, a farming implement referring directly to the bovine's neck; xugueira is also a frequent appellation with reference to an ‘injured neck’. A southern form, cachazo , continues in the Portuguese linguistic domain, a term of disputed origin, possibly from cacho / a ‘mass of meat in a part of the body’. The etymology of carrolo is also undecided. Finally, there are a number of isolated responses and comments, each of which have been studied individually and compared to different data collected from dictionaries, databases, other dialectal research, etc. As a result of this, I have determined that: a) some forms are really references not to the neck but to a neighbouring part of the body: gorxia, moleira, marmela ; b) some constitute references to a disease that can affect the neck: nobenillo, pulmoeira ; and c) two forms remain that currently have not so far been satisfactorily explained: corpozo, taloeira . In the course of the article, I demonstrate the importance of dialectal data in refuting a number of etymological hypotheses and the usefulness of lexicographical material as an aid to improving our understanding of certain dialectal forms. The need to look at neighbouring linguistic zones in order to arrive at a better analysis of the data also emerges clearly from the work.

The aim of this paper is to present a small selection of linguistic facts that describe currents and contrasts in the Cisalpine Valleys, relying on some ALEPO [Atlante Linguistico ed Etnografico del Piemonte Occidentale – Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Western Piedmont] data. The area investigated is characterized by a close relationship between different languages and cultures. As it is well known, the Gallo-Italic languages of Piedmont are spoken along with local dialects of two Gallo-Romance languages, Occitan and Franco-Provençal; Italian (and, in some areas, French) obviously has to be added to this rich linguistic repertoire. Data have been collected in 42 localities: 32 pertaining to the Gallo-Romance domain (13 Franco-Provençal- and 19 Occitan-speaking); and 10 belonging to the Gallo-Italic one. The localities in question have been chosen ta take account of both social and linguistic dynamics. Socio-cultural and economic changes that deeply affected the Alpine Valleys in the last century have also had linguistic consequences, with increasing Italian and Piedmontese influence on varieties of Gallo-Romance, and of Italian on Piedmontese; nevertheless, some instances of mutual influencing between Occitan and Franco-Provençal are also documented, as well as significant reactions on the part of these varieties to dominant codes (namely Piedmontese, Italian, and French). We deal here with language change at three levels of linguistic analysis (lexical, morphological, and phonetic), showing moreover how a traditional reading of the maps may also yield results of sociolinguistic import.

Abstract: The Terminology of Pottery in Prekmurje, Slovenia This article presents the terminology employed in the pottery of Prekmurje. The terms presented are related to the most important pottery activities: getting (digging) clay, shaping objects on a potter's wheel, firing them in the kiln, preparing the glaze, drying the products and selling them. These are all professionnal dialectal terms dating back centuries ago, the proof of which is provided by archeological finds and local geographical names. The development of pottery in Prekmurje – the flat agricultural region which lies along the Mura River in the extreme northeast of Slovenia, bordering on Austria and Hungary – was possible because of the rich quantities of suitable clay and the high demand for earthenware. In addition to weaving, pottery was among the most important trades in Prekmurje and in some villages the majority of the population was involved in it. Owing to the changed social circumstances, the technical revolution (new cooking technology), the changed way of life and work in the countryside, pottery in Prekmurje has almost died out today. With the gradual disappearance of this old trade we are also witnessing the disappearance of the related terminology. It is the purpose of this inventory of pottery terminology to prevent its falling into oblivion and at the same time provide a comparison of the terms used in different Slovene dialectal areas. In this way we can define the location of individual lexemes used as well as their semantic fields. The terms collected, which are primarily of Slovene origin, although some have also been borrowed in different time periods from Hungarian and from/through German as contact languages, are mostly known only by the oldest generation of speakers.

Ternary deictic system in Aromanian Adverbs of place of the type here, there, which form a binary system met in many languages, can be considered as local or spatial deictic elements. In Ibero-Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan) a ternary deictic system appears which, regionally, can be found in dialects of the Romanian language, i.e. Aromanian and Dacoromanian. This paper deals with the spatial deictic system using three terms in Aromanian and comparing them to the Romance and Balkan (Albanian) languages; this information is compared with the situation observed in another local dialect. The presence of the ternary deictic system in some Romance languages, as well as in Slavic ones and in Albanian, around which Aromanian developed (especially the Fãrşerot local dialect), proves that there is a Romance tendency developed within the Balkan context in Aromanian, too.

Catalan includes six dialectal areas. In general, all of them are subdivided into subdialects. Eastern Catalan incorporates five subdialects: the northern transitional subdialect, the subdialects of Barcelona and Tarragona, and the so-called xipella and salat subdialects, which have only been defined by one dialectal feature. These particular traits are dying out at the moment. The aim of this paper is to study the process of extinction of the salat subdialect. The project L'arxiu audiovisual del parlar salat de la Costa Brava (The archive of the salat subdialect of the Costa Brava), started in 2004, shows the vitality of this subdialect and its present-day situation.

The author introduces the Romanian linguistic atlases that appeared within an interval of a hundred years. There were taken into consideration three series of linguistic atlases: – Linguistischer Atlas des dakorumänischen Sprachgebietes (Leipzig, 1909) by Gustav Weigand, – Atlasul lingvistic român (1938–1942) by Sever Pop and Emil Petrovici, under the guidance of Sextil Puşcariu, – 8 regional linguistic atlases, representing the historical provinces; starting with 1967 there appeared 24 volumes up to the present moment. – At present Atlasul lingvistic român pe regiuni. Sinteză (coordinator: Nicolae Saramandu) is being elaborated. The first volume was issued in 2005.

Languages and dialects can change from one prosodic category to another, causing thereby phonetic and phonological changes. This happened in Danish as well as in Northern Alemannic when both changed their basic rhythm from a more syllable-based system to a more word-based one. The consequences of this transition were very similar, some even identical. This article focuses on these similarities comparing the development of the plosive sounds as well as the assimilation of nd > n in Danish and in a small area of Northern Alemannic in the transition area to Rhenish Franconian. Furthermore some of the changes that have taken place in a wider area of Northern Alemannic are discussed such as the deletion of word final vowels (apocope), the introduction of the glottal stop, the linking n in hiatus position as well as phonetic assimilation across word boundaries.