Isolating languages(otherwise amorphous, monosyllabic, root) - languages with a low morpheme-to-word ratio. Words in a maximally isolating language will consist of only one morpheme - the root, forming neither compound words nor combinations with suffixes, prefixes, etc. In this respect, isolating languages are the opposite of synthetic languages, in which words can consist of several morphemes.
Explanation
Historically, all languages were divided into three classes (isolating, inflectional, agglutinative). The division was based on two factors:
- average number of morphemes in a word;
- the strength of “glue” between morphemes.
In isolating languages, each morpheme corresponds to a separate word. Examples from Russian:
khakiThis word ( khaki) consists of only one morpheme (actually khaki), the ratio between words and morphemes is 1:1.
Another example:
travel card(ticket)This word ( travel card) consists of four morphemes ( pro-, -drive-, -n-, -Ouch), the ratio between words and morphemes is 1:4.
Languages considered isolating have a 1:1 (or close to 1:1) ratio between words and morphemes. In their pure form, isolating languages “have no morphology”: they use independent function words for those grammatical purposes that in synthetic languages are usually expressed by affixes or root changes.
The ratio of morphemes and words is considered as a constant value. Moreover, the higher this ratio, the less likely it is that a given language is isolating. Languages having this ratio above 1.0, which use multiple morphemes per word, are called synthetic. Inflectional And agglutinative languages can be defined as subclasses of synthetic languages. In this case, a specific language is assigned to one of two subclasses based on one factor (the strength of “gluing” between morphemes).
Isolating languages are widely spoken in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnamese, Classical Chinese (different from Modern Chinese). Almost all languages in the region are isolating (the exception is Malay). Also, Austronesian languages in this region exhibit more isolating features than other languages in this group. Some other isolating languages in the region are Burmese, Thai, Khmer in Cambodia, Lao, etc.
Video on the topic
Examples
Isolating languages not only do not have dependent morphemes that indicate the role of words in a sentence, but they also tend to avoid function words that would serve the same function, so the order of words in a sentence is usually extremely important. Thus, in Chinese, word order conveys the relationship between subject and direct object. For example:
| traditional | 明天 | 我 | 的 | 朋友 | 會 | 爲 | 我 | 做 | 一 | 個 | 生日 | 蛋糕 |
| simplified | 明天 | 我 | 的 | 朋友 | 会 | 为 | 我 | 做 | 一 | 个 | 生日 | 蛋糕 |
| pinyin | míngtīan | wǒ | de | pengyou | huì | wèi | wǒ | zuò | yí | ge | shēngri | dàn'gāo |
| English verbatim | tomorrow | I | (possessive particle) | friend | will 1 | for | I | make | one | (count word) | birthday 2 | cake |
| Russian verbatim | Tomorrow | I | (possessive particle) | Friend | there will be 1 | For | I | do | one | copy | birthday 2 | pie |
| “Tomorrow my friend/my friends will make a cake for my birthday.” | ||||||||||||
As can be seen from the table, English is also very isolating, with the exception of the plural morpheme -s, which is a suffix. It should be noted that the word form my is not polysyllabic, as one might think when compared with a Chinese text. This is one morpheme that conveys the meaning of two Chinese words.
zuò(“to do”) does not change in the present tense:
1 Linking verb, present tense indicator.A sentence in Burmese is constructed in a similar way (the word order is subject-object-verb):
| မနက်ဖြန် | ကျွန်တော် 1 | ရဲ့ | သူငယ်ချင်း | မွေးနေ့ | ကိတ်မုန့် | တစ် | ဗန်း | ဖုတ် | ပေး | မည်။ ² | |
| məneʔpʰyà̃ ma ne" hpyan |
ʧənɔ̀ kya no |
yḛ ye. |
θəŋèʤí̃ tha nge chin: |
mwéinḛi mwei:nei. |
keiʔ mo̰ʊ̃ kei" moun. |
tə ta |
bá̃ ban: |
pʰoʊʔ hpou" |
pei pei: |
myì myi |
|
| Tomorrow | I | (possessive particle) | Friend | birthday | pie | one | (count word) | bake | give | (future tense particle) | |
| “Tomorrow my friends will bake a cake for my birthday.” | |||||||||||
Analytical languages
In most cases the definition analytical means the same as the word insulating. Nevertheless, analyticity implies that syntactic information is conveyed using individual grammaticalized (see boundary morphemes) words instead of morphology. Obviously, the use of individual words is an isolating factor, while the use of inflection to express syntactic relations develops syntheticity.
Europeans who became acquainted with the Chinese language were amazed that the words of the Chinese language have no prefixes or suffixes. Monosyllabic words of the Chinese language were presented to them as naked roots, not amenable to morphological analysis. Therefore, in the first morphological classification of languages by the Schlegel brothers, Chinese and the languages of East Asia similar in grammatical structure were called amorphous.
V. Humboldt pointed out that the amorphous nature of a word has nothing to do with the lack of grammar in such languages. Therefore, he called languages like Chinese isolating: each root is isolated from the other, and grammatical connections between them in such languages are expressed using word order and intonation.
Grammatical relationships between words in Chinese are formed using word order and function words. The basic rules of word order boil down to the following: the definition always comes before the defined, the subject - before the predicate, the direct object - after the verb. For example: gao - “high”, shan - “mountain”. Depending on their sequence, these two words can be grouped into two different grammatical units: gao shan - “high mountains” and shan gao - “high mountains”.
The absence of external signs of belonging to a grammatical category contributes to the development of grammatical conversion of words from one grammatical category to another under the influence of the grammatical environment.
The order of words in a sentence and function words constitute the main supports in the grammatical analysis of a sentence in an isolating language. In some isolating languages, such as Thai, the order of words in a sentence can be changed by grammatical or prosodic means. Thus, in Chinese, the direct object usually comes after a transitive verb, but with the help of the preposition ba or with a pause it can be placed before the verb. However, in Vietnamese and Chinese, such a change in word order is not possible. The grammar of isolating languages makes it possible to express any content, and the isolating languages themselves can serve as an effective means of communication.
It should be borne in mind that in reality there are no languages whose grammatical structure fully corresponds to the definition of “isolating languages” in existing morphological classifications.
In the Chinese language, there are complex words constructed according to certain word-formation models, as well as words consisting of significant morphemes in combination with word-forming and formative suffixes. However, the combination of significant morphemes with suffixes and prefixes does not form that stable unity that distinguishes the combination of stem and affix in Indo-European languages. To convey the same meaning, a word can appear in some cases with a derivational or formative suffix, in others - without them. For example, attributive relations in modern Chinese are formed using the suffix - dy. However, the presence of this suffix as part of the attributive phrase depends on its quantitative characteristics, i.e., on the number of syllables that make it up. We can say that there are languages that more or less correspond to this definition. These primarily include Vietnamese and ancient Chinese. S. E. Yakhontov showed that the language of Chinese classical poetry of the 7th-10th centuries is closest to this definition.
The Department of Literature in Foreign Languages of the Ivanovo Regional Library for Children and Youth, within the framework of the Foreign Language project, continues to publish thematic recommendation lists of literature from its collection. We present to your attention a publication dedicated to the languages of South and Southeast Asia.
South and Southeast Asia is a large geographical and historical region where multilingualism is the norm and has given rise to some rather astonishing linguistic convergences. Having penetrated into South Asia, Indo-European languages met there with Dravidian and Austroasiatic languages. Some language families in Southeast Asia have mixed under the influence of Chinese culture.
This recommendation list provides detailed information about the Burmese, Vietnamese, Thai, Sanskrit, and Hindi languages, as well as a list of literature stored in the library collection. Unfortunately, the department has an insufficient number of books and electronic media related to this topic, but we hope to fill this gap in the future.
The list will be useful for those who want to learn languages or improve their knowledge. We are waiting for you in the department of literature in foreign languages!
GENERAL INFORMATION
South Asia is a large geographical and historical region in Asia, which is located on the Hindustan Peninsula and its adjacent islands and territories. Today, the following states are located in South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, as well as island states in the Indian Ocean: Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Southeast Asia is a region in Asia that is geographically located on the Indochina Peninsula and the islands of the Malay Archipelago. It is washed by the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans and includes the territories of the following modern states: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.
The languages spoken throughout South and Southeast Asia reflect the ancient history of these regions and indicate high population densities. Although many language families are represented here, these languages are not as different from each other as one might expect, largely due to the presence of common features formed as a result of contacts between speakers that have lasted for more than one generation.
South Asian languages have SOV word order (i.e. subject-object-predicate) and retroflexive consonants, which are sounds made by lifting and folding the tip of the tongue back over the hard palate.
The languages of Southeast Asia belong to the isolating type of languages, in which grammatical concepts are expressed in separate words that cannot be split into smaller semantic units. These languages have few inflections (inflectional parts of words), many nominal classifiers, and use tone to distinguish words.
Beyond the common features determined by the territorial proximity of these languages, it becomes unclear what the genetic connections between these languages are, which sometimes remain undisclosed.
SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES
South Asia is dominated by two language families: Indo-Iranian and Dravidian. In addition, there are many smaller language groups speaking Tibeto-Burman and Munda languages.
Indo-Iranian languages:
Iranian: Persian (Farsi), Pashto (Pashto), Baluchi (Baluchi), Kurdish, Ossetian, Tajik.
Indian (Indo-Aryan): Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bihari, Bengali, Sinhala, Nepali.
Dravidian languages:
-
Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Gondi.
Indian and Dravidian languages
The languages of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family occupy most of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and are also widespread in Sri Lanka and in the Himalayas, in the kingdom of Nepal.
In India and Pakistan, Indian languages came into contact with Dravidian languages, from which they adopted such characteristics as retroflexive consonants and strictly final position of the verb in a sentence. In turn, the Dravidian languages borrowed vocabulary from Indian ones. Tamil has many loanwords from Sanskrit, such as the word "padam" ("foot"), which is related to the Latin word "pedal".
The main Indian languages spoken in India are Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Bihari and Assamese. Hindi and Urdu, the official languages of India and Pakistan, are actually dialects of the same language and share a common spoken form, Hindustani, which was promoted by Gandhi as a unifying force for the nation.
However, some Indians were against the imposition of Hindi/Hindustani, so English continued to act as a “lingua franca” (a language used as a means of interethnic communication in a certain area).
India, which has approximately two hundred indigenous languages, has a trilingual policy under which children learn their mother tongue along with Hindi and English in schools.
Although Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, a large number of Pakistanis speak other Indian languages such as Punjabi and Sindhi, or the Iranian languages Balochi (Baluchi) and Pashto. Burushaski, an isolated language spoken in the Karakorams of northwestern Pakistan, has no genetic relationship to any known language in the world.
In the kingdom of Nepal, located in the Himalayas, the main languages are considered to be Nepali (Nepali), belonging to the Indian branch, and Newar (Newari), belonging to the Tibeto-Burmese branch, while in neighboring Bhutan the language acts as the “lingua franca” Dzongkha (or otherwise Bhotiya), which is a variety of the Tibetan language.
Bengali, one of the main Indian languages, dominates in Bangladesh.
The southern and eastern parts of India are occupied by Dravidian languages. However, based on the fact that one isolated Dravidian language, Brahui, is found in Pakistan, it can be assumed that they were common throughout the region before the Indo-European linguistic expansion. These are languages of the agglutinative type, they have many consonants, and the number of case forms can reach up to eight.
The main Dravidian languages are Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Each has its own ancient literary tradition and is considered an official language in one or more states of India. 
In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese language of the Indian group coexists with the Dravidian Tamil language, although not without some difficulties.
It should be noted that the invention of writing and the alphabet is legendarily attributed to the goddess Saraswati.
The languages of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family predominate in South Asia. In the south, Dravidian languages are spoken, while in the northeast there are areas of Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages.
Most people in India speak two or three languages, and they learn Hindi and English in school. The map shows the distribution zones of the main languages of each language group.
Hindi
Hindi (an Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European language family) is one of the official languages of India. In this country alone, more than 400 million people speak it, and if we take native speakers around the world, then this is about 600 million people. Hindi is widespread in Pakistan, Fiji, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Caribbean Islands. It is spoken by representatives of the Indian diaspora in European countries, as well as in Canada and the United States of America.
Hindi incorporates two concepts:
the modern literary language of Hindi, which is the official language of India;
a collective term for related languages, the number of which, according to various estimates, ranges from 17 to 23 languages.
Hindi in facts and figures
In 2009, Hindi ranked third in terms of the number of native speakers after Chinese and Arabic.
The Hindi language has 55 letters: 44 letters and 4 ligatures are contained in the Devanagari alphabet, another 7 additional letters with a dot are found only in borrowed words. A characteristic feature of the Devanagari script is the top (base) horizontal line, to which the letters “hanging down” are attached.
Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit or, more precisely, the spoken dialects that formed the basis of Sanskrit. However, over the two thousand year history from Sanskrit to Hindi, the language system has undergone significant simplification.
The ancient Indian epics - the Vedas - became known to us thanks to translations from Hindi. The Vedas are considered the most ancient literary monument in the world.
The Hindi languages began to take shape in the 10th century. Each of them went through their own development path. Some became literary, others remained only colloquial. The modern literary language of Hindi was formed in the 19th century. Today it is the language of the media, cinema, government records, international agreements, etc.
India has 845 languages and dialects, with Hindi acting as a connecting link. It is understood everywhere, thanks in no small part to radio, television and cinema, as well as the primary and lower secondary education system, where Hindi is a compulsory language.
The peculiarity of literary Hindi is that it is neither a regional nor a home (family) language. In regions and in families, native languages are spoken, so the educated strata of society have to adopt the so-called trilingual formula: the native language plus standard Hindi and English.
All students and graduates of higher educational institutions created according to the European model speak English to one degree or another. Due to the duty of service or the nature of the work, almost all civil servants of the first and second class, businessmen, senior officers and generals of the Armed Forces, representatives of some “free” professions speak English: doctors, lawyers, teachers of higher educational institutions, leading actors and musicians touring abroad. outside India, international athletes and some other categories of Indians.
According to the constitution adopted in 1950, English was to give way to Hindi as the sole official language by 1965. However, reality made its own adjustments, and English was left as an additional official language in India for an indefinite period. Its positions are strengthening. Suffice it to say that the number of periodicals in English is several times greater than all other Indian languages, excluding Hindi.
Currently, in modern India there is a tendency towards lexical and partially grammatical interference between Hindi and English. In this regard, linguistic terms appeared - “Hinglish” (a mixture of Hindi and English in people’s speech) and “Indlish” (the use of Indian and English in speech and literature). Hinglish represents a new stage in the borrowing of the English language with the mutual influence of folk cultures. In fact, it is a merger of two official languages of India - Hindi and English.
Words such as “pajamas”, “khaki”, “shampoo”, “jungle”, which sound familiar to us, came into the Russian language from the Hindi language.
According to the Fiji Constitution, Hindi is an official language along with English and Fijian.
India wants to promote Hindi as the seventh official language at the UN.
Guides to Learning South Asian Languages
Ultsiferov, O.G. Linguaphone course of the Hindi language / Oleg Georgievich Ultsiferov. – Ed. 3rd, rev. and additional – L.: MGIMO University, 2007. – 164 p.
This edition of the Hindi language course is the third, completely revised edition. The main goal of the manual is to teach senior students of linguistic universities to fully understand the announcer's and author's speech in Hindi.
In addition, the author of the language laboratory course sets himself the task of instilling the skills of consecutive and educational simultaneous translation both from Hindi and into Hindi. For these purposes, the Russian part of the course contains fragments from speeches by officials, as well as announcer and author’s texts from programs of several radio stations (the training is mainly based on broadcast material). Another objective of the course is to consolidate the basic principles of Hindi grammar on the basis of oral speech.
The manual consists of eight almost identically constructed lessons, ranging from 70 to 90 minutes, equipped with reference material, including, in addition to a general dictionary, personal names and geographical names, which makes it easier to decipher the texts.
Particular attention in the publication is paid to translations of exercises from Russian, of which there are relatively many in the language laboratory course. Their goal is to introduce students to the Russian spoken language of radio text, many words and expressions of which have not yet been recorded in Russian dictionaries, as well as in the Russian-Hindi dictionary. This is a completely new layer of Russian vocabulary, which is in an unstable position. But since it is part of our everyday life, we need to know it and be able to translate it. These exercises have a particularly detailed vocabulary.
The textbook is intended for language students and anyone interested in the Hindi language.
Ultsiferov, O.G. Hindi language: a tutorial for beginners / Oleg Georgievich Ultsiferov. – M.: AST-PRESS, 2008. – 320 p. : ill. + CD. – (Language without borders).
The new generation self-instruction manual is addressed to those who have not previously studied the Hindi language and want to master it quickly and independently. Its purpose is to teach a person completely unfamiliar with the Hindi language to understand information and reference materials in this language, especially those published on the Internet, and also to practically master the minimum communication skills in Hindi required when visiting India or working in this country.
The self-instruction book includes lessons on phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, exercises of varying degrees of difficulty with “keys”, lesson dictionaries, Hindi-Russian and Russian-Hindi dictionaries, as well as copybooks.
The manual explains the grammar of the modern literary language Hindi in a completely new way. The main emphasis here is on the principle of optimal sufficiency of grammatical material, but in general its volume can satisfy the practical needs of a person in any type of communication: written and oral.
Essentially, the tutorial lays out all the basic grammar, allowing you to read the original texts almost from the very beginning.
Each lesson includes reference material, which includes not only new words for texts and dialogues, but also dictionaries of proper names, as well as names of Indian animals and plants.
For the first time in Hindi language textbooks, new words are given with an accent mark, which is especially important for developing correct pronunciation skills.
The publication is equipped with an audio application on a CD, which contains exercises and texts voiced by a native speaker of Hindi.
The book contains color illustrations for the regional study materials of the lessons. Appendix I provides sample newspaper articles. Appendix II shows how to write letters in Hindi. Appendix III contains the basic grammar, presented in tabular form, as well as additional dialogues and words. Appendix IV is a copybook.
All vocabulary in the tutorial is repeated in the Hindi-Russian and Russian-Hindi dictionaries. At the end of the manual, the most important geographical names are given.
The manual is equipped with an index of grammatical terms, allowing you to quickly find the necessary grammatical information. The tutorial's lessons and all its applications introduce us to various aspects of Indian life.
The self-instruction manual contains a sufficient number of words characterizing the everyday realities of modern India. Along with this, a certain place is given to the politics and economy of the country.
An accessible and step-by-step presentation of the material, explanations in Russian, and an effective self-control system make the manual indispensable for both children and adults - for those who have never studied languages or think that they have no ability for them.
After completing the entire course, readers will be able to communicate in Hindi in typical situations and not find themselves in an awkward position due to ignorance of Indian customs and norms of linguistic behavior. Having mastered all the material proposed in the tutorial, you can almost freely read any reference and information text with a dictionary and speak competently in good literary Hindi, which is spoken by the educated strata of Indian society.
Russian-Hindi phrasebook / comp. Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Kostina. – St. Petersburg. : KARO, 2007. – 224 p.
The official languages of India are Hindi and English. In 1992, fifteen official regional languages were included in the Indian Constitution, and seven more were added in 2003.
The North Indian languages are of Indo-European origin, while the four South Indian languages belong to the Dravidian group.
The Hindi language belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages. According to the Indian reference book "Manorama", in 2004 it ranked second in the world in terms of the number of speakers, second only to Chinese. Speaking about Hindi, it is necessary to take into account that this name is used in two meanings: in a broad sense (as a set of dialects of the central region of Northern India) and as a state and literary language. The latter began to take shape only in the 19th century, but most of the fiction, journalistic literature, and official documents are published in this language.
One of the features of the colloquial form of modern Hindi is the heterogeneity of vocabulary. Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and English words are wonderfully woven into its grammatical structures. Despite the fact that the country has repeatedly carried out movements to “cleanse” Hindi from Anglicisms, in the minds of the speakers themselves, their use indicates the “education” of the speaker and therefore it is inevitable, especially when communicating with foreigners. This fact explains the large number of English words in the phrases given in this phrasebook. So, even for those who have never specifically studied English, the word “hospital” (“hospital”) will be clearer than the more cumbersome Indian word, which reads “chikitsalay”.
The teaching method used in this publication successfully helps to learn to communicate in a foreign language environment in standard situations.
The phrasebook contains brief information about the history of India, its national holidays, government system and much more, which is so important for a traveler to know.
This book is addressed to those who want to master spoken Hindi and have a general understanding of this language.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (translated as “processed, perfect”) is the ancient literary language of India and one of the oldest languages of the Indo-European family. The age of the earliest written monuments in this language reaches 3.5 thousand years (mid-2nd millennium BC). In ancient times and the Middle Ages, a huge layer of fiction and scientific literature was created in Sanskrit, significantly exceeding the volume of literature in ancient Greek and Latin.
Sanskrit was originally the language of everyday human communication, but gradually acquired another function. People in everyday life began to speak highly modified languages, since over a long period of time, century after century, the language of the streets around them changed. But Sanskrit, being the language of literary texts, remained unchanged. And gradually it turned into approximately the same thing that Latin turned into in Europe.
Even though Sanskrit is currently used only as a language of worship, it is one of the official languages of India.
Sanskrit in facts and figures
The oldest literary monument in Sanskrit is the “Hymns of the Rigveda”) (circa 2000-1000 BC). They were part of the collection of the so-called “Vedas” - ancient religious texts of India. “Veda” is a word that has the same meaning as the Russian “vedat”, that is, literally translated as “knowledge”. This refers to religious knowledge, knowledge about deities. XII century BC e. - this is the estimated time of the beginning of the composition of the texts of the Vedas. For at least seven hundred years, and perhaps more, they remained unwritten, passed down orally, that is, memorized by the priests.
Sanskrit is often called the proto-language from which many modern languages were formed: most European ones, including Russian. However, Sanskrit is simply one of the branches of the Indo-European languages, and the real proto-language of the Indo-Europeans in its original form has not been preserved in any written documents. Moreover, this proto-language is several thousand years deeper in time than any of the oldest written monuments that we have.
Sanskrit has many undoubted similarities with the ancient languages of Europe - Latin and Greek. This discovery marked the beginning of the development of comparative historical linguistics.
Sanskrit is used as the language of culture and the language of religion (Hindu). Moreover, in response to the question “What is your mother tongue?”, about 500 people living in modern India said: “Mother tongue is Sanskrit.” These were people from a religious Hindu background.
Different writing systems existed in different parts of India, the most famous of which is called Devanagari. This is a complex word: the first part “deva” means “god”, the second part “nagar” means “city”, plus “-i” is a relative adjective suffix, that is, the literal translation of this word is “(something) divine urban”.
A number of modern Indian languages, primarily Hindi, use Devanagari, while other languages use other forms of writing. Thus, Devanagari is not currently used in all Indian languages, but it is the first most important system. In Europe, everyone who comes into contact with Sanskrit is familiar with Devanagari.
Sanskrit has eight cases, three numbers and three genders.
Sanskrit is an artificially maintained language. It is a language of unusually sophisticated literature with a huge number of branches and schools, each of which was very proud of its inventions in the field of word usage. As a result, words in Sanskrit have many meanings, in some cases their number reaches thirty. The need to express oneself elegantly leads to the fact that in good classical Sanskrit no one will call a cow a cow, but will call it some kind of “variegated”, “milky-eyed”, etc.
The famous Arab philologist of the 11th century Al Biruni wrote that Sanskrit is “a language rich in words and endings, which denotes the same object with different names and different objects with one name.”
There are a lot of words in Sanskrit that are similar to Russian words: “mother” in Sanskrit is “matar”, “brother” is “bhratar”, “daughter-in-law” is “snusha”, “mother-in-law” is “shvashru”, “nose” is “us” ", "eyebrow" - "bhruva", etc. This similarity does not mean that the Russian language is as ancient as Sanskrit, or that it originated from Sanskrit, because the same lists of words can be compiled for almost all languages of the Indo-European family.
Sanskrit study guides, dictionaries, reference books
Kochergina, V.A. Sanskrit-Russian dictionary: about 30,000 words: with the appendix of A.A.’s “Grammarical Outline of Sanskrit.” Zaliznyaka / Vera Aleksandrovna Kochergina; edited by IN AND. Kalyanova. – 3rd ed. – M.: Academic Project; Alma Mater, 2005. – 944 p. – (Gaudeamus).
This dictionary contains about 30 thousand Sanskrit words with international transliteration based on Latin graphics, and grammatical forms of parts of speech are given. The publication reflects the most important vocabulary of epic and classical Sanskrit.
The Sanskrit-Russian dictionary covers the vocabulary of texts that are most often consulted when studying the language, history and literature of ancient India.
The dictionary does not contain words from Vedic language, Jain Sanskrit and Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit (language branches).
The publication is accompanied by a grammatical essay by A.A. Zaliznyak, necessary for working with the dictionary. It contains general information about grammar, phonetics and graphics, phonology, morphology, morphology, word formation, information about syntax, stress in the Vedic language, Sanskrit vocabulary and much more.
The dictionary includes grammatical terms, difficult-to-recognize epic forms, compound words, as well as additional meanings to words already in the dictionary.
The Sanskrit-Russian dictionary is intended primarily for students studying Sanskrit, as well as for linguists working in the field of general and comparative historical Indo-European linguistics, for literary scholars and Indological historians.
Matveev, S.A. Textbook on Sanskrit / Sergey Aleksandrovich Matveev. – M.: Amrita-Rus, 2012. – 480 p.
In ancient India, the desire to reveal the truth was so all-encompassing that the inhabitants of the ancient civilization turned to Sanskrit. This is the language of the sacred books, in which all things have their correct designation; the divine language spoken by the inhabitants of the heavenly worlds, which means that those who study Sanskrit get closer to the gods. Sanskrit is a unique linguistic code, each letter has a universal, cosmic meaning. It contains the richest philosophical and psychological terminology among world languages. The Vedas, the most ancient cult poetry, as well as the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, are written in Sanskrit.
The presented manual offers an introductory course in Sanskrit and the script used to write it - Devanagari. The Devanagari letters can be understood as the basic symbols of the categories of the Universe, the basic numbers and categories to designate the chakras, energy centers located on the human body, and also as aspects of the names of deities.
Basic grammar and writing are provided with numerous illustrations of deities of the Hindu and Buddhist pantheons with detailed descriptions. Particular attention in the textbook is paid to the mystical side of the ancient language, mantras, sacred correspondences and affirmations (short phrases, formulas for self-hypnosis).
The publication is completed with appendices: mottos in Sanskrit, a thematic dictionary, and a Sanskrit-Russian dictionary. The textbook is recommended for anyone interested in Sanskrit and studying Indian culture.
LANGUAGES OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN
The mainland countries of Southeast Asia form different linguistic areas: most languages have SOV word order (subject - object - predicate) and belong to the isolating type of languages, in which most words consist of one single syllable. Such languages are known for the fact that they use tone to distinguish words, that is, the height of the pronunciation of a syllable, on which the meaning of the word depends: in Mandarin, the word “zhu” (high tone) means “pig”, “zhu” (descending-rising tone ) means "lord". Traditionally, tones are divided into register tones, which are high, low or medium, and contour tones (descending or rising, descending-rising or rising-descending). Tone can also refer to a particular timbre of the voice, as is the case with the “creaky sounds” in Burmese and the “breathing sounds” in Hmong. 
The culture of China and India, along with their religions - Confucianism and Buddhism - have a significant impact on the languages of Southeast Asia. Borrowings from Chinese can be found in most languages of this region, and words from Sanskrit can be found in Thai (Siamese) and Khmer. The Chinese script is now or was previously used by many languages that do not belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family, in particular Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. And the writing system that originated in India underlies the Thai and Tibetan writing systems.
Austroasiatic languages include:
Munda, mundari, santali.
Mon-Khmer, Khmer, Vietnamese, Mon, Khmu, Semang-Sakai (Aslian).
The languages of mainland Southeast Asia belong to four different groups: Tibeto-Burmese, Thai-Kadai, Mon-Khmer and Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao languages). Despite their large number, the languages of this region belong to the same type, the result of long proximity, and almost all have a tone.
In Laos, languages of all four groups are spoken; on the plateaus and in the mountains, as a rule, different languages are found, for example, Hmong is spoken only in the highlands.
Mon-Khmer languages
Mon-Khmer languages, like the Munda languages spoken in northeastern India, belong to the Austroasiatic language family. The wide territorial dispersion of these languages may indicate that they once occupied a wide area on the southeast Asian continent, but were divided due to the southward movement of peoples speaking Thai languages.
Thai languages are the language family to which the Thai (or otherwise Siamese) language belongs. The most famous representatives of this family are Vietnamese and Khmer, which are also spoken in Cambodia.
The Mon language, the language of an ancient civilization that existed in Thailand, is currently found in southern Myanmar (formerly Burma), northeastern Thailand and along the border between China and Vietnam. Aslian languages (Semang Sakai languages) are spoken in the interior of the Malay Peninsula (Malaysia).
Despite the fact that these languages are similar in type to Chinese and the neighboring Thai-Kadai languages, the presence of tone in the Mon-Khmer languages is not mandatory: apparently, tone developed relatively early in the Vietnamese language under the influence of Chinese and/or Thai languages. Many Mon-Khmer languages differ in timbre rather than tone - individual vowel sounds are pronounced in a low, “creaky” voice.
Thai-Kadai languages
Thai-Kadai languages include:
Dong-Tai: Dong-Shui; Thai: Thai (Siamese), Laotian, Shan, Zhuang.
Kadai: li, be, lakkya.
The languages of the Thai-Kadai group have a common vocabulary, as well as a similar phonetic system with the southern dialects of Chinese. However, this is not the result of their genetic relationship, but is due to borrowing and switching from one language to another. This language family includes the official languages of two countries - Thailand (Thai) and Laos (Laotian).
Thai languages supposedly originated in southwest China and are still spoken by many minorities in the area.
The Zhuang language, which has its own written language based on the Latin script, has the largest number of speakers: about 13 million people (1982). The Zhuang have their own autonomous region in Guangxi Province.
The Dong Shui languages, common in the Chinese provinces of Hunan and Guizhou, are more different from the Thai and Lao languages than the Zhuang language.
The Li and Be languages are the original languages of the island. Hainan, although Chinese and Yao speaking peoples subsequently settled there.
Shan language is one of the minor languages of Eastern Myanmar and also belongs to the Thai language family. 
Previously, the Thai-Kadai languages were classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, since they share many words and a phonetic system similar to the southern dialects of Chinese, in particular Cantonese.
Nowadays, these similarities are generally considered to be the result of numerous borrowings and language switching, during which speakers of Thai-Kadai languages switched to Chinese, while transferring the features of a foreign language to their native language.
All languages of the Thai-Kadai family are tonal: classical Thai has five tones, Lao has six, and in the Kamo-Shu languages the number of tones reaches fifteen. All languages belong to the SVO type, but unlike Chinese, the definitions appear after the name. Thai writing, based on the Indian script used to write Sanskrit texts, has special symbols to indicate tones.
Burmese (Myanmar) language
Burmese (Myanmar) language is the official language of Myanmar (until 1989 the state was called the Union of Burma or Burma for short). Burmese is spoken as a mother tongue by 32 million people and as a second language by 10 million people (mostly from ethnic minorities in Burma and neighboring countries).
The Burmese language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family, which, in turn, is part of the Sino-Tibetan (Sino-Tibetan) family of languages.
Burmese language in facts and figures
In the Burmese language, diglossia is clearly visible, i.e. its literary and colloquial versions are very different from each other. The literary language is extremely conservative.
In the mid-1960s, a group of Burmese writers began an active struggle to abandon the use of the classical literary language, but it is still widely used in literature, official correspondence, radio and television.
There are different levels of politeness used in spoken language. For example, personal pronouns of the first and second person (“nga” - “I, we”, “nang” - “you, you”) are used only when communicating with close people of the same or younger age. And when addressing elders, teachers or strangers, archaic forms of the third person are used. There are also special forms of pronouns that are used only when addressing Buddhist monks: "bhun" (from the word "phun" - "monk"), "chara dau" ("royal teacher") and "ahrang bhura" ("your lordship" ).
Burmese is a tonal language, it has four tones (low, high, closed, creaky), which play a semantic and distinctive role. Thus, the word “ka” pronounced in a low tone means “to shake”, in a high tone it means “bitter”, in a closed tone it means “to pull”, and in a creaky tone it means “to pay”.
The first monuments of Burmese writing date back to the 11th century. The Burmese script is an abugida in which each letter is a combination of a consonant phoneme with a vowel [a] or [e]. Tone and vowel modification are indicated in writing by diacritics.
Burmese is a syllabic language with thirty-three letters in the alphabet, each representing a syllable. Words are made up of individual letters or letters in combination with various symbols representing vowel sounds and tones.
Burmese writing does not necessarily look like a sequence of letters written from left to right; symbols for vowels can be located anywhere relative to the letter representing the initial consonant: to the left, above, below or to the right. Spaces separate phrases or expressions, not words.
The vast majority of words in the Burmese language are monosyllabic, and polysyllabic words are usually borrowed from other languages (Pali, English, Mon, Chinese, Sanskrit and Hindi). Borrowings from Pali are usually associated with religion, politics, science and the arts. English loanwords are predominantly scientific and technical terms. Borrowings from the Mon language relate to flora, fauna, clothing, art, architecture and music.
The Burmese government has repeatedly tried to limit the use of borrowings from Western languages, especially English. Instead, it was recommended to use phrases with Burmese roots. Thus, the word “television,” which is a literal transliteration of the English “television,” should have been replaced by the Burmese phrase “see the picture, hear the sound.”
The Burmese language does not have adjectives; instead, verbs are used that mean “to be (who, what).”
The Burmese language actively uses various particles - untranslatable words that are attached to the main word as a suffix or prefix and indicate the level of respect, degree of politeness, grammatical tense or mood. There are a total of 449 such particles in the Burmese language.
Burmese dictionaries
Burmese-Russian dictionary. – M.: Russian language, 1976. – 784 p.
This Burmese-Russian dictionary is a unique publication in our country. In Burma (another name of the state is Myanmar) there live about 70 nationalities and tribes, mostly belonging to the Tibeto-Burman (Burmese, Karen, Chin, Kachin, Kaya, Naga and others) and Thai (Shan and others) language groups, as well as to the Mon-Khmer family of languages (Mon, Palaun and Wa). In the Irrawaddy delta region, on the sea coast and in large cities, about 500 thousand people from India and Pakistan (mainly Tamils, Telugus and Bengalis) and 400 thousand Chinese live.
The official language of Myanmar is Burmese. It is the mother tongue of more than 20 million Burmese and the means of communication for the multiethnic country's 30 million people. The Burmese language is taught in schools and other educational institutions of the country, textbooks, fiction and socio-political literature, newspapers, magazines, and radio broadcasts are published.
In Burma, under the conditions of English colonial rule (1886-1948) and during a decade and a half of independence (the country's state independence was officially proclaimed on January 4, 1948), English was the state language. Therefore, the Burmese language has included many words from English (primarily this concerns scientific and technical terminology).
The dictionary is designed for people studying the Burmese language, students, teachers and translators, oriental linguists, and can also serve as a guide for Burmese studying the Russian language.
The publication includes about 29 thousand words and reflects the vocabulary of the modern Burmese literary language, socio-political, as well as special general terminology from the fields of science, technology, agriculture, medicine, art and sports. Archaisms are included in the dictionary in limited quantities; they are necessary for understanding the works of Burmese literature, since some of them are often found in the modern Burmese language.
At the end of the dictionary there are useful appendices: brief information about the calendar and chronology, a list of geographical names, the most common abbreviations, a list of weights and measures, monetary units, a list of holidays, significant and memorable dates, a list of orders, honorary titles and medals, a list of scientific degrees, a list of counting words, numerals and a brief outline of Burmese grammar.
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese belongs to the Viet Muong branch of the Austroasiatic family of languages and is the official language of Vietnam. It is spoken by more than 80 million people living in Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, France, USA, Canada, Germany, Thailand and Laos.
Vietnamese language in facts and figures
Until the end of the 19th century. Vietnamese functioned as the language of everyday communication and fiction, and classical Chinese was used as the official language.
The formation of the literary Vietnamese language began at the end of the 17th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the formation of the literary Vietnamese language was accelerated by the French colonization of the country: at that time, much attention was paid to the development of the Vietnamese language in order to weaken the position of the Chinese language and culture.
The modern literary Vietnamese language is based on the Hanoi dialect of the northern dialect.
Vietnamese is the only language in East Asia that uses the Latin alphabet. All other countries in this region: Japan, Korea or China use their own alphabet. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese writing was used in Vietnam. In 1910, writing on a Latin basis was introduced - “Kuok-ngy”.
The Central Vietnamese language Sedang contains the maximum number of vowels - fifty-five. In Vietnamese, there are eight first-person singular pronouns, while we make do with the single word “I”. The use of these pronouns depends on the gender and social status of the speaker and his interlocutor. In addition, in everyday speech, Vietnamese people much more often refer to themselves or their interlocutor using kinship terms, of which there are at least twenty. Their use is also associated with a large number of subtleties, depending on gender, age and social status, and incorrect use can be perceived as an insult.
The name of Russia does not come from the root “ros-” or “rus-” in all languages. For example, the Chinese call our country Elos and can shorten it to simply E, while the Vietnamese read the same hieroglyph as Nga, and call Russia that way.
The most common name in Vietnam is “Ruan”. For 7 out of 10 Vietnamese, “Ruan” is either their first or last name. The most common surname is Nguyen. Approximately 40% of the population has this surname.
In the vocabulary of the Vietnamese language, in addition to the original vocabulary, there is a huge number of Chinese borrowings (60%), as well as borrowings from Thai languages, from French, Russian, English and other languages.
Dictionaries and phrase books
Aleshina, I.E. Russian-Vietnamese educational dictionary: about 5000 words / Idalia Evseevna; specialist. ed. Nguyen Van Thac. – 3rd ed., stereotype. – M.: Russian language, 1989. – 504 p.
The dictionary contains about five thousand of the most common words of the modern Russian literary language, necessary for the development of oral speech skills and for understanding texts of average difficulty.
The vocabulary presented in the publication is necessary for communication in official settings and at home, for understanding broadcasts on radio and television. Texts of medium complexity will become available to you when reading newspapers, magazines and fiction. The dictionary lists the most common phrases. For educational purposes, the words are provided with detailed grammatical characteristics.
The publication is intended for a wide range of Vietnamese readers studying Russian at an advanced stage. The dictionary can also be useful to anyone who is interested in learning the Vietnamese language.
Sokolov, A.A. Vietnamese-Russian phrasebook / Anatoly Alekseevich Sokolov, Vladimir Ivanovich Zotov; edited by Buoy Hiena. – 5th ed., stereotype. – M.: Russian language, 1988. – 222 p.
The compact Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook contains typical patterns of phrases and expressions. The range of topics covered is very wide (for example: dating, consumer services, medical assistance, customs formalities, as well as everyday communication).
The publication provides practical transcription that conveys the sounds of the Vietnamese language using Russian graphics for the convenience of students of this language.
The phrasebook is intended for Russian citizens visiting Vietnam for various purposes and who do not speak Vietnamese.
Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook / comp. E.V. Buttercup. – St. Petersburg. : KARO, 2005. – 124 p.
Are you planning a trip to Vietnam and you only speak Russian? A phrasebook from the publishing house "KARO" will help you, which contains all the expressions necessary for everyday communication in Russian and Vietnamese.
To simplify the task as much as possible, each word translated from Vietnamese is given its transcription. Russian transcription was used in compiling the phrasebook. Despite the fact that it cannot reflect all the features of the Vietnamese language, the compiler of the phrasebook made a successful attempt to briefly present the main aspects of Vietnamese phonetics.
The phrasebook contains general and very useful information about the country in Russian: the address of the embassy, the consulate of Vietnam in Russia and Russia in Vietnam, information about the climate, the operation of shops and institutions, a traveler's reminder about safety and many other important things.
This phrasebook is intended for people who do not speak Vietnamese. He will be able to help you communicate with the Vietnamese at a basic level. The small size of the phrasebook allows you to put it in your pocket.
Formanovskaya, N.I. The use of Russian speech etiquette: for speakers of Vietnamese / Natalya Ivanovna Formanovskaya. – M.: Russian language; Hanoi: Enlightenment, 1987. – 216 p.
The author of the book is Formanovskaya Natalya Ivanovna, Doctor of Philology, graduate of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Since 1976 he has been working at the State Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin. From 1977 to 1998 – Head of the Department of Modern Russian Language. Currently, he is a professor at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics. Her research interests include: speech culture, linguoculturology, problems of speech behavior and speech etiquette, and many others. etc.
The book is addressed to those who speak Vietnamese and are studying Russian. It gives stable expressions of the Vietnamese language used in communication situations: greeting, farewell, apology, gratitude, congratulation, wish, request, invitation, sympathy, approval and much more.
The publication will be useful to everyone who studies the Vietnamese language and improves their knowledge in the field of communication.
Thai language
Thai is the official language of the Kingdom of Thailand. Until 1939, Thailand was called Siam, and the Thai language was accordingly called the Siamese language.
Thailand's population is 67 million (as of 2010). Ethnic Thais make up about 80% of the population of all of Thailand. Thus, Thai is the mother tongue of approximately 46 million people. At the same time, the Thai language in Thailand is the main language of education and all government agencies, therefore, as a non-native language, almost all representatives of ethnic minorities in Thailand speak it. Accordingly, the total number of Thai speakers (including those who use it as a second language) is more than 60 million.
The Thai language belongs to the Thai-Kadai language family, which is quite extensive, with 6 language groups and at least 30 individual languages. Only two languages of this language family have official status and are known to the general public: the Thai language in Thailand and the Lao language in Thailand and Laos. Both of these languages are closely related, and their speakers can understand each other’s speech to a certain extent.
Thai language in facts and figures
Thai is not related to Chinese (Sino-Tibetan family), Burmese (Sino-Tibetan family), Vietnamese (Austroasiatic family), Khmer (Austroasiatic family), Malay (Austronesian family), or languages India (Indo-European family).
Modern Thai has five main dialects: Central (Bangkok), Northeastern, Northern, Southern and Royal. The Central dialect, spoken in the Thai capital Bangkok and in the Chao Phraya River Valley, forms the basis of the nationwide literary Thai language (so-called "standard Thai"). It provides education in schools, as well as television and radio broadcasting on most channels. A special place is occupied by the royal dialect, in which subjects address the royal family.
The Thai language has its own unique script. The Thai alphabet consists of 44 consonant letters, 4 non-alphabetic consonants and 28 vowel forms. Vowel sounds in Thai writing are not indicated by letters, but by special vowel signs that are not included in the alphabet.
The Thai alphabet is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the second largest in the world, second only to the Khmer alphabet.
When writing Thai, consonants are written from left to right. Vowel marks, unlike consonant letters, are a kind of “modifiers” of consonants, and can be placed to the right, left, above or below the supporting consonant. Without a consonant, vowels are not used. On top of that, there are four more tone designations. Thai writing has no punctuation marks, no spaces between words in a sentence, and no capital letters. Thus, neither proper names nor the beginning of a sentence stand out in any way.
There is no word for "hunger" in the Thai language. There is also no separate name for rice: “rice” and “food” are one word.
The official name of Bangkok contains 147 letters and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It literally translates as “The city of angels, the great city, the eternal treasure city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the majestic capital of the world, endowed with nine precious stones, the happy city, full of abundance, the grand Royal Palace, reminiscent of the divine abode, where the reincarnated god reigns, the gifted city Indra and built by Vishnukarna." Only a Thai can say this in Thai, and even then not everyone. In everyday speech, Thais use the abbreviated name Kroon Thep.
According to the Thais, depending on one's status and social position, a person should use a certain set of personal pronouns. There are many more of them than in European languages, and they are all used in everyday communication. Without risk of error, you can use the words "pom" ("I" for a man only), "dichan" ("I" only for a woman) and "khun" ("you" for both genders). When we address a person in English, what we call him depends on the gender of the interlocutor - “sir” or “ma’am” (in Russian - “mister” or “madam”). Thai address depends on the speaker: a man should always say “kraap” and a woman “kah”, regardless of the gender of the interlocutor. These two words are of great importance to Thais because they indicate good manners and politeness.
Study guides, dictionaries and phrasebooks for learning the Thai language
Thai language: three in one: grammar, phrasebook, dictionary / comp. Martin Lutherjohann. – M.: AST: Astrel, 2005. – 256 p.
This book will help you master basic words and phrases in Thai. The grammar is presented in simple, accessible language and is given in the amount necessary to master the skills of correctly constructing phrases.
The author of this book has traveled a lot and studied the language on his own while in the country, so he knows well how and what people say on the street. People's speech in most cases is much simpler and more accessible than the language of literature or television.
Here is a modern type of phrasebook-dictionary, which contains information on the grammar of the Thai language, colloquial phrases on current topics, useful tips for tourists, small Russian-Thai and Thai-Russian dictionaries. In a foreign country, it is very important to understand facial expressions, body language and rules of behavior, without this it is difficult to get in touch with people. This is what the book pays special attention to.
The publication is intended for tourists, as well as for everyone who is interested in the Thai language or begins to study it.
Thai phrasebook and dictionary. – M.: Living Language, 2004. – 224 p. – (Berlitz).
“Speak without difficulty - travel with pleasure!” – this is the motto that opens this phrasebook-dictionary.
The publication is intended for those who do not know the Thai language and who can read and write Thai, but do not have speaking skills. A phrasebook can also be useful when learning Thai. A variety of conversational topics are complemented by Russian-Thai and Thai-Russian dictionaries, as well as the basics of Thai grammar.
The publication is intended for those who decide to go to exotic Thailand and want to learn to speak Thai. A beautifully designed book with a lot of useful information for travelers and those simply interested in Thailand.
Sino-Tibetan languages
The languages of this family are common in China and much of Southeast Asia. These languages have more than 1 billion speakers, more than any other language family except Indo-European.
The authors of this publication specifically did not include in the list materials about the Chinese language, which was already covered in an earlier material - “Window to Asia”: a recommended list of literature on the Chinese language” (the material is presented on our website).
Electronic publications
The Department of Literature in Foreign Languages has a teaching program on electronic media that can be used to study Vietnamese, Thai and Hindi.
35 languages of the world [Electronic resource]. – Sergiev Posad: Russobit-Publishing, 2007. – 1 DVD.
“35 Languages of the World” is a universal training course aimed at scholars and travelers. The lessons are distinguished by a large number of studied expressions and phrases, the presence of a speech recognition system, and detailed regional information.
Internet resources
The department was formed in 1987 under the leadership of senior researcher, candidate of philological sciences Yuri Yakovlevich Plama.
In 1994, the head of the Department was an outstanding Russian scientist, a major specialist in general and oriental linguistics, grammar and typology, corresponding member. RAS Vadim Mikhalovich Solntsev, researcher of Chinese and Vietnamese languages, as well as a number of other languages of Southeast Asia, the materials of which were used by him in the development of general linguistic theories and the theory of isolating languages. As director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Department of Languages of East and Southeast Asia, V.M. Solntsev (1928–2000) opened new areas of scientific research, expanded the area of scientific interests of the Department, including research on the languages of China and Southeast Asia.
- Solntsev Vadim Mikhailovich // Berezin F.M. (Responsible editor). Domestic linguists of the 20th century. Part 2. – Sat. articles. – M., INION, 2003. – P. 198-217.
- Vadim Mikhailovich Solntsev. Materials for the biobibliography of scientists. - Literature and Language Series. Vol. 25. - Comp. E.V. Barinova et al. Author. entry Art. V.Yu. Mikhalchenko - M., 1999.
- Solntsev V.M. // Miliband S.D. Orientalists of Russia. Biobibliographic reference book. Book 2. – M.: Publishing house. company “Oriental Literature” RAS, 2008. – pp. 387-389.
- Kubryakova E.S., Stepanov Yu.S., Arutyunova N.D. Vadim Mikhailovich Solntsev – linguist // General and Eastern linguistics. - Sat. scientific works, dedicated 70th anniversary of corresponding member RAS V.M. Solntsev. - M.: Modern writer, 1999. – P. 3-19.
- Corresponding member RAS V.M. Solntsev is 70 years old // Bulletin of the RAS. T. 68. 1998, No. 9. – Page. 861-862.
In 2000–2007 The duties of the head of the department were performed by Doctor of Philological Sciences Nina Vasilievna Solntseva.
In 2007-2012 The department was headed by senior researcher, candidate of philological sciences Irina Nigmatovna Komarova.
Since 2013, the department has been headed by the director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member. RAS.
Participants in the work of the Department’s team (years of work in the Department are indicated in brackets):
- Plum Yuri Yakovlevich (1987–1994), senior researcher, Ph.D., head of the Group of Languages of East and Southeast Asia, deputy head of the Russian part of the Russian-Vietnamese linguistic expedition.
- Sitnikova Antonina Nikolaevna (1987–1998), senior researcher, candidate of philosophical sciences, author of the Big Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary (BVRS).
- Alyoshina Idalia Evseevna (1996–2001), senior researcher, candidate of philosophical sciences, author of the Great Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- Letyagin Dmitry Vikentievich (1994-2008), senior researcher, candidate of historical sciences, author of the Great Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- Samarina Irina Vladimirovna (1987-2002), research scientist, specialist in the languages of small peoples of Vietnam.
- Barinova Elena Vladimirovna (1990-2005), research scientist, scientific secretary.
- Sherkova Elena Alvianovna (2000-2012), programmer.
- Bandasak Saad (Laos) (1990–1999), researcher, author of the Russian-Laotian dictionary.
- Bandasak Sengtian (Laos) (1990–1999), researcher, author of the Russian-Laotian dictionary.
- Nguyen Tuyet Minh (SRV) (1987–2006), senior researcher, doctor of philosophical sciences, author and executive editor of the Big Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- Nguyen Van Thac (SRV) (1987–2010), senior researcher, candidate of philosophical sciences, author of the Great Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- Chan Van Co (NRT) (1994-2002), senior researcher, doctor of philosophical sciences, author of the Great Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- By Loc (NRT) (1993–2000), researcher, author of the Great Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary.
- Nguyen Van Tai (SRV) (1994–1999), senior researcher, Ph.D., worked in the Vietnamese group of the Russian-Vietnamese linguistic expedition.
- Chhorn Prolyng (Cambodia) (1997–2006), researcher, doctor of legal sciences, author of the Russian-Khmer dictionary.
- Sahak Chandara (Cambodia) (1996–2006), junior researcher, author of the Russian-Khmer dictionary.
Over the course of a number of years, the following people worked in collaboration with the department: Lev Nikolaevich MOREV, chief researcher, Doctor of Philology; Vladimir Vladimirovich IVANOV, senior researcher; Anatoly Alekseevich SOKOLOV, senior researcher, candidate of philological sciences; Anatoly Sergeevich PRONIN, senior researcher, candidate of technical sciences; Tatyana Ivanovna RUMYANTSEVA, research fellow; Irina Anatolyevna LETYAGINA, junior researcher; Tamara Alekseevna GOPPA, junior researcher; Dang Thi Hong Hanh (NRV), editor of MERS; Nguyen Thanh Lam (NRV), editor of MERS; Nguyen Thi Mai Hong (SRV), junior researcher; Truong Quang Zao (NRT); Duong Quang Bic (NRT); Svetlana Evgenievna GLAZUNOVA, junior researcher, Vietnamese language specialist; Nikolai Nikolaevich VOROPAEV, researcher, candidate of philological sciences, specialist in Chinese language and Chinese linguistics.
Main areas of work of the Department
- Research into Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan and Southeast Asian languages, including Vietnamese.
- Creation of bilingual dictionaries.
Information about the department's research staff is presented in the directory:
S. D. Miliband. “Orientalists of Russia. Bio-bibliographic dictionary". In 2 books. M.: Publishing house. Firm "Oriental Literature" RAS, 2008.
Alphabetically:
- ALYOSHINA I.E. – book 1, p. 36-37.
- Alpatov V.M. – book 1, p. 45-46.
- ANTONYAN K.V. – book 1, p. 61-62.
- BARINOVA E.V. – book 1, p. 105-106.
- BELETSKAYA A.A. – book 1, p. 125-126.
- VOROPAYEV N.N. – book 1, p. 275.
- IVANOV V.V. – book 1, p. 542.
- KOMAROVA I.N. - book 1, p. 667-668.
- MOREV L.N. – book 1, p. 945.
- PLUM Y.Y. – book 2, p. 155-156.
- SITNIKOVA A.N. – book 2, p. 358.
- SOKOLOV A.A. – book 2, p. 382.
- SOLNTSEV V.M. – book 2, p. 387-389.
- Solntseva N.V. – book 2, p. 389-390.
Publications
Scientific monographs
- Antonyan K.V.. Morphology of effective constructions in the Chinese language. - M.: “Ant”, 2003.
- Voropaev N.N. Chinese-language precedent. – LAP: LAMBERT Academic Publishing, AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG Saarbrücken, 2013.
- Komarova I.N. Tibetan letter. - M.: Publishing company “Eastern Literature”, 1995.
- Nguyen Tuyet Minh. Aspects of functional morphology. Functional-semantic category of incentive in the Russian and Vietnamese languages. - M., 1999. – 2nd ed.: Rep. ed. N.V. Solntseva. - M., 2000.
- Solntsev V.M. Introduction to the theory of isolating languages: In connection with the general features of human language. – M.: Publishing house. company "Oriental Literature", 1995. -.
- Solntsev V.M.. Vietnamese language. - M., 1999.
Dictionaries and reference books
- New Large Vietnamese-Russian Dictionary in two volumes (About 80,000 words and expressions). - Answer. ed. V.A. Andreeva and Nguyen Tuyet Minh. T. I (A-K) 1276 pp., T. II (L-Z) 1270 pp. - M., Publishing company “Oriental Literature” RAS, 2012.
- Aleshina I.E. and others. Vietnam: Pocket Encyclopedia. - M.: Publishing House "Ant-Hyde", 2001.
- Large Vietnamese-Russian dictionary, volume I. - Answer. ed. N.V. Solntseva, V.A. Andreeva, V.V. Ivanov, Vu Loc, Nguyen Van Thac, Nguyen Tuyet Minh. - M., Publishing company “Oriental Literature” RAS, 2006.
- Vadim Mikhailovich Solntsev. - Comp. E.V. Barinova and others. Materials for the biobibliography of scientists. - Literature and Language Series. Vol. 25. - M., 1999.
- Voropaev N.N. China: names for all times. Precedent characters. Linguistic and cultural dictionary-reference book for students of the Chinese language, culture, history, and literature of China. – M.: VKN Publishing House LLC, 2015.
- Vietnamese-Russian dictionary. - Comp. Chan Wan Ko. M., 2001.
- Musical educational dictionary. OK. 1000 words. - Moscow state Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, Institute of Linguistics of Russia. acad. Sciences - Comp. T.V. Taktashova, N.V. Basko, E.V. Barinova. - M.: Publishing house "Flinta-Science", 2003.
- Russian-Vietnamese dictionary of musical terms. 1500 words. - Comp. E.V. Barinova, Nguyen Van Thac. - M., 2008.
- Russian-Laotian dictionary. 24,000 words.- Rep. ed. L.N. Morev (authors L.N. Morev, Yu.Ya. Plum, Saad Bandasak, Sengtyan Bandasak and others). - M.: Publishing company “Oriental Literature” RAS, 2004.
- Modern Russian-Chinese dictionary / N.N. Voropaev, Ma Tianyu, Deng Jie, S.M. Ivanov. – M.: Oriental Book, 2012. – 384 p.
Conference materials
- Current issues in Chinese linguistics. Materials of the IV, V All-Union Conference. – Answer. ed. V.M. Solntsev. – M., 1988, 1990.
- Current issues in Chinese linguistics. Materials of the VI,VII All-Russian Conference. – Answer. ed. V.M. Solntsev. – M., 1992, 1994/1995.
- Chinese linguistics. Materials of the VIII, IX International Conference. – Answer. ed. V.M.Solntsev. – M., 1996, 1998.
- Chinese linguistics. Isolating languages: Materials of the X, XI, XII International Conference. – Answer. ed. V.M. Solntsev (2000), N.V. Solntseva (2002), I.N. Komarova (2004). - M., 2000, 2002, 2004.
Expedition materials
- Materials of the Russian-Vietnamese linguistic expedition. Vol. 4. Hand language. - Answer. ed. N.V. Solntseva, Nguyen Van Loy; authors of the linguistic essay V.M. Solntsev, N.V. Solntseva, I.V. Samarina. -M., 2001.
Tutorials
- Aleshina I.E., Chan Van Ko. Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook. M., 2000.
- Beletskaya A.A. Russian-Vietnamese phrasebook on foreign economic relations. - M.: All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, 1991. - 177 pp.
- Spring feeling. Chinese stories (parallel texts in Chinese and Russian) / comp. N.N. Voropaev. - LLC PO "Sedial". - Tomsk, 2000. – 474 p.
- Voropaev N.N. In Chinese about everything. 88 popular science miniature texts in Chinese language classes / N. N. Voropaev, Ma Tianyu. - M.: Eastern Book, 2013. - 272 p.
- Voropaev N.N. 500 Chinese words. The simplest self-instruction manual of the Chinese language / Author's compilation. N.N. Voropaev, Ma Tianyu. – Moscow: AST, 2013. – 219 p.
- Voropaev N.N. Textbook of practical phonetics of the Chinese language / Ma Tianyu, N. N. Voropaev. - M.: Oriental Book, 2013. - 208 p.-
- Voropaev N.N. Chinese. Three books in one. Grammar, phrasebook, dictionary / comp. N.N. Voropaev, Ma Tianyu. – Moscow: AST, 2013. – 317, p. – (Pocket tutorial).
- Voropaev N.N. Chinese in one month. Self-instruction manual for spoken language. Entry level / comp. N.N. Voropaev, Ma Tianyu. – Moscow: AST, 2014. – 190 p. – (Language in one month).
- Tyumeneva E.I., Glazunova S.E. Vietnamese language. Socio-political translation. Tutorial. - M.: MGIMO-University, 2014. - 472 p.
Current projects
In the works of corresponding member. RAS studies the issues of grammar and pragmatics of the Japanese language, the linguistic culture of Japan in its various aspects, such as the use of language in various spheres of life, peculiarities of views on language, and the linguistic picture of the world. Issues of standardization of the Japanese language are also being studied. Methods of maintaining and improving language norms adopted in Japan are of great interest for organizing similar activities in Russia. The works of V.M.ALPATOV also explore the problems of the connection between language and society, language and culture in Japan.
Scientific works are devoted to the study of the grammar of the Chinese language in a typological aspect, in particular, the processes of grammaticalization in the Chinese language, occurring on the basis of desemantization of the second components of complex words. The object of the study is the system of verbal modifiers in the Chinese language and the formation on its basis of a number of verbal categories, such as aspect, category of orientation and category of possibility/impossibility of an action achieving a result. Similar processes are characteristic of a number of languages in East and Southeast Asia. K.V. Antonyan also explores the cognitive mechanisms of grammaticalization - metaphor and metonymy. The phenomenon of grammaticalization of verbal modifiers in the Chinese language is compared with similar phenomena in Germanic languages that are typologically and genetically unrelated to the Chinese language.
The scientific research of I. N. KOMAROVA covers theoretical issues of phonetics, phonology and grammar of the Tibetan language. The author comes to the conclusion that the grammatical system of the Tibetan language has typological characteristics characteristic of agglutinative-analytical and inflectional-synthetic languages, and the grammatical structure of the Tibetan language is ergative in nature with a clear tendency towards nominativity. Currently, I.N. Komarova is working on the project “Dialect system of the Tibetan language: phonetic-phonological features”, dedicated to the study of the interaction and mutual influence of dialects of the Tibetan language, in particular, the Lhasa dialect and the Amdo dialect. This study aims to clarify and supplement existing dialect classifications of the Tibetan-speaking area, which requires the development of new research methods and techniques. The theoretical and practical significance of the work lies in the further development of the theory and methodology of dialectological research in Tibetology, the compilation of a Tibetan dialectological atlas.
VIETNAMESE-RUSSIAN PHRASEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY WITH CULTUROLOGICAL DESCRIPTION (ANDREEVA V.A., BELETSKAYA A.A., GLAZUNOVA S.E.) is created using linguocultural, linguocultural and cognitive approaches, which will more fully reflect the national-cultural specificity of phraseological units and the features of phraseological systems Vietnamese language, to identify the national and cultural connotations of key words and cultural concepts contained in phraseological units. Work is underway to form a vocabulary of the dictionary in the amount of about 4000 dictionary entries, principles of lexicographic description of phraseological units are being developed in accordance with the different zones of the dictionary entry: semantic, grammatical, illustrative and cultural.
Indo-European languages. The first language family established through the comparative historical method was the so-called “Indo-European”. After the discovery of Sanskrit, many European scientists - Danish, German, Italian, French, Russian - began to study the details of the relationship of various externally similar languages of Europe and Asia using the method proposed by William Jones. German experts called this large group of languages “Indo-Germanic” and often continue to call it that to this day (this term is not used in other countries).
The individual language groups, or branches, included in the Indo-European family from the very beginning are Indian, or Indo-Aryan; Iranian; Greek, represented by dialects of the Greek language alone (in the history of which the Ancient Greek and Modern Greek periods differ); Italian, which included the Latin language, whose numerous descendants form the modern Romanesque group; Celtic; Germanic; Baltic; Slavic; as well as isolated Indo-European languages - Armenian And Albanian. There are generally recognized similarities between these groups, allowing us to talk about such groups as the Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. inscriptions in languages were discovered and deciphered Hittite-Luwian, or Anatolian group, including the Hittite language, which shed light on the earliest stage of the history of Indo-European languages (monuments of the 18th–13th centuries BC). The use of materials from Hittite and other Hittite-Luvian languages stimulated a significant revision of systematizing statements about the structure of the Indo-European proto-language, and some scholars even began to use the term “Indo-Hittite” to designate the stage that preceded the separation of the Hittite-Luvian branch, and the term “Indo-European” proposes to retain one or more later stages.
Indo-European also includes Tocharian a group comprising two dead languages spoken in Xinjiang during the 5th–8th centuries. AD (texts in these languages were found at the end of the 19th century); Illyrian group (two dead languages, Illyrian proper and Messapian); a number of other isolated dead languages spoken in the 1st millennium BC. in the Balkans, - Phrygian, Thracian, Venetian And Old Macedonian(the latter was under strong Greek influence); Pelasgian language of the pre-Greek population of Ancient Greece. Without a doubt, there were other Indo-European languages, and perhaps groups of languages that disappeared without a trace.
In terms of the total number of languages included in it, the Indo-European family is inferior to many other language families, but in terms of geographical distribution and the number of speakers it has no equal (even without taking into account those hundreds of millions of people almost all over the world who use English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian , Hindi, to a lesser extent German and New Persian as the second)
Altai languages are usually considered a macrofamily, and a hypothetical one at that, although there are many arguments in favor of its recognition. It includes three main language groupings, traditionally called families, although according to standard criteria the degree of similarity of languages within each of them is characteristic of groups or at most branches: this Turkic(about 30 languages, and with dead languages and local varieties, the status of which as languages is not always indisputable, more than 50; the largest are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur, Tatar; the total number of speakers of Turkic languages is about 120 million. Human); Mongolian(the most famous are modern Mongolian, or Khalkha, Buryat, Kalmyk; the total number of speakers is about 6.8 million people) and Tungus-Manchu(Manchu, Evenki, Nanai and a number of others; the total number of speakers is about 180 thousand people; all these languages are in danger of extinction as a result of the transition of their speakers to Russian or Chinese, and in the case of the not so small Manchu people - about 4, 5 million people – this transition is almost complete). Recently, it has been almost universally recognized that such large languages as Altai belong to the Altai (as separate branches) Korean(over 70 million people) and Japanese(about 125 million people). Taking them into account, the total number of speakers of Altai languages exceeds 320 million people.
The center of the Turkic range is Central Asia, from where, in the course of historical migrations, they also spread, on the one hand, to southern Russia, the Caucasus and Asia Minor, and on the other, to the northeast, to eastern Siberia up to Yakutia. Mongolian languages, despite their relative scarcity, are distributed over a vast territory from northeastern China to southeastern European Russia; Most of their speakers live in Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China and Buryatia. Tungus-Manchu languages are widespread in the north of China, Mongolia and vast areas of Central and Eastern Siberia.
Many of the Altai peoples have a long literary tradition, however, with the exception of Japanese, Azerbaijani and partly Uyghur literature, this tradition was not linguistically continuous. The book culture of an earlier time was based on languages not identified with the modern Altaic languages as their previous stages; for Turkic languages this is Old Anatolian-Turkic, Turki, Chagatai (the question of the continuity of Old Uyghur and modern Uyghur remains a subject of debate); for Mongolians – old written Mongolian; there was significant literature that has not survived in the dead Jurchen language and the now extinct Manchu language; in Korea until the end of the 19th century. The Korean version of the ancient Chinese literary language was used as a written language.
The comparative historical study of Altai languages began in the 19th century. Nevertheless, there is no generally accepted reconstruction of the Altai proto-language; one of the reasons is the intensive contacts of the Altai languages and numerous mutual borrowings, which complicate the use of standard comparative methods
Sino-Tibetan languages. This language family, also called Sino-Tibetan, has the largest number of native speakers in the world. Chinese language, which together with Dungan forms a separate branch within its composition; other languages, numbering from about 200 to 300 or more, are united in the Tibeto-Burman branch, the internal structure of which is interpreted differently by different researchers. With the greatest confidence in its composition, the Lolo-Burmese groups are distinguished (the largest language is Burmese), Bodo-Garo, Kuki-Chin (the largest language is meithey, or Manipuri in eastern India), Tibetan (the largest language is Tibetan, fragmented into widely differing dialects), Gurung and several groups of so-called “Himalayan” languages (the largest is Newari in Nepal). The total number of speakers of the languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch is over 60 million people, in Chinese – more than 1 billion, and due to it, the Sino-Tibetan family ranks second in the world in terms of the number of speakers after the Indo-European. Chinese, Tibetan and Burmese languages have long written traditions (from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, 6th century AD and 12th century AD, respectively) and great cultural significance, but most Sino-Tibetan languages remain unwritten. From numerous monuments discovered and deciphered in the 20th century, the dead Tangut language of the Xi-Xia state (10th–13th centuries); there are monuments to a dead language I drink(6th–12th centuries, Burma).
Sino-Tibetan languages have the structural characteristic of using tonal (pitch) differences to distinguish between usually monosyllabic morphemes; there is little or no inflection or any use of affixes at all; syntax relies on phrasal phonology and word order. Some of the Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages have undergone extensive study, but reconstruction similar to that which has been made for the Indo-European languages has as yet been carried out only to a small extent.
For quite a long time, the Thai and Miao-Yao languages were also brought together with the Sino-Tibetan languages, specifically Chinese, uniting them into a special Sinitic branch, opposed to the Tibeto-Burman one. Currently, this hypothesis has practically no supporters left, however, the above-mentioned Sino-Caucasian hypothesis of S.A. Starostin is gaining popularity.
Chinese letter(Chinese trad. 漢字, ex. 汉字, pinyin hànzì, pal. Hanzi) has been the only generally accepted way of writing the Chinese language for several thousand years. Chinese characters are also widely used in Japanese and Korean writing (where they are called kanji and hanja, respectively). Until 1945, Chinese script was also used to write Vietnamese (Han Tu).
In the context of internationalization, scripts based on Chinese are called C.J.K.(English) Chinese, Japanese, Korean) or CJKV(with the addition of English) Vietnamese).
The age of Chinese writing is constantly being clarified. Recently discovered inscriptions on turtle shells, reminiscent of ancient Chinese characters in style, date back to the 6th millennium BC. e., which is even older than Sumerian writing.
Chinese writing is usually called hieroglyphic or ideographic. It is radically different from the alphabetical one in that each character is assigned some meaning (not just phonetic), and the number of characters is very large (tens of thousands).
Mongolian scripts- writing systems of different origins that arose at different times and were used to record the Mongolian language.
Since the 13th century, the Mongol peoples have used about 10 writing systems to record Mongolian languages. Some of these systems were subsequently adapted for other languages.
The oldest of the Mongolian writing systems proper - the Old Mongolian letter (classical Mongolian letter) - turned out to be the most successful of them, and after a number of modifications continues to be actively used to this day, primarily in the PRC.
The attention of the great powers brought to life, beginning in the mid-19th century, a number of projects for writing systems based on the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet. In 1940, as a result of rapprochement with the Soviet Union, Mongolia switched to the Cyrillic alphabet, which is currently
remains the main writing system in the country, although projects to switch to the Latin alphabet have been considered.
Hangul- phonemic writing of the Korean language. A characteristic feature of Hangul is that letters are grouped into groups that roughly correspond to syllables.
The image of the mother in fiction The image of the mother in Russian literature
What else can bird cherry be compared to?
What to tell children about spring?
Brief retelling of the story: he is alive and glowing
Think of something else you can compare it to