Cross-linguistic morphology
First, spend some time deciding on a language to write your proposal and final paper about. Suggestions for exploring possibilities (and sources): • Consider languages that you already find interesting.
• Explore the entry on Ethnologue (as introduced in the tutorial on October 6).
• Search for the language in the U of T Library catalogue. Any book called e.g. ‘A Grammar of [language name]’ is likely a good bet.
• Try searching for the name of the language and “morphology” or “lexicon” (i.e. the contents of the vocabulary) on Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com).
• Look the language up on Wikipedia to find a basic look at the morphology and to identify possible references (especially books).
• Preview the World Atlas of Language Structures (https://wals.info), which will be introduced in your tutorial at the end of October. Hint: try ‘Morphology’, ‘Nominal Categories’, and/or ‘Verbal Categories’.
Once you decide on a language, keep careful track of the sources that you have looked at. You will need to cite those sources briefly here when answering the questions (put a bracket after each fact indicating where you learned these things, unless you already knew them).
1. What is the language called? Which name(s) is it conventionally referred to by? (Conside the possibility that the users have a different name for it than the English word for it.)
2. Which language family does this language belong to? (Or: is it a language isolate, or disputed?) If applicable, what are one or more other languages it is related to?
3. How many people currently use this language? Is the language endangered or extinct? (Hint: Ethnologue will help.)
4. In which part(s) of the world is this language used?
5. Are any writing systems used to read/write this language? If so, which one(s)?
6. Now list five or more reliable sources for the morphology and loanwords of your language, using full bibliographic references (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc. – see the ‘Bibliography’ list at this webpage: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using- sources/documentation/).
Note that blog posts, social-media pages, YouTube/TikTok videos, and non-scholarly websites are not considered reliable sources for this assignment. You can, however, include the Ethnologue entry for the language and the Wikipedia article and the World Atlas of Language Structures page, but you will need to go beyond these to find some deeper research into the morphology and the vocabulary of the language.
For information on what to do if you want to use your own knowledge of a language, or someone else’s, see the next page. Let Marisa and/or Sahar know if you have any questions; we’re happy to help!
