Intensive language contact in the Caucasus

Tsova-Tush is an East Caucasian language spoken in one single village in Eastern Georgia by approximately 300 speakers. Since its early description, scholars have been intrigued by the high degree of linguistic influence from the Georgian language. This book has a threefold goal: (1) To contribute t...

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Váldodahkki: Wichers Schreur, Jesse
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Almmustuhtton: Language Science Press 2026
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author Wichers Schreur, Jesse
author_browse Wichers Schreur, Jesse
author_facet Wichers Schreur, Jesse
author_sort Wichers Schreur, Jesse
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Tsova-Tush is an East Caucasian language spoken in one single village in Eastern Georgia by approximately 300 speakers. Since its early description, scholars have been intrigued by the high degree of linguistic influence from the Georgian language. This book has a threefold goal: (1) To contribute to the overall description of the Tsova-Tush language, by filling gaps in the previous literature in absence of a reference grammar. (2) To contrast Tsova-Tush constructions with functionally equivalent constructions in Chechen and Ingush, its closest relatives, and with Georgian, the language of wider communication which all Tsova-Tush speakers speak as a second language, in order to form hypotheses concerning which Tsova-Tush construction is inherited, and which has arisen under influence of Georgian. (3) To provide the most probable diachronic scenario of language contact, by looking at historical Tsova-Tush language data, as well as at its historical sociolinguistics._x000D_ This book provides a basic description of Tsova-Tush, in particular in the domain of spatial cases (which exhibit a two-slot system similar to Daghestanian languages), TAME categories (indentifying a Iamitive and a Past Subjunctive developing indirect evidential semantics), complex verbs, and subordination and clause-chaining (which in Tsova-Tush is finite)._x000D_ In terms of language contact, this book concludes that (1) Tsova-Tush conforms to most established borrowing hierarchies and theories surrounding intensity of contact, except for the borrowing of a verbal inflection marker in a remarkably early stage of contact; (2) The Georgian influence that Tsova-Tush shows in sources from the 1850 suggest that a notable increase in bilingualism occured already at a point where there was little institutional or numeral dominance of surrounding the Georgian-language population. A change in ethnic self-identification can be the underlying factor for the early instances of contact-induced change.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1761222026-06-12T07:48:42Z Intensive language contact in the Caucasus Wichers Schreur, Jesse Linguistics thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics Tsova-Tush is an East Caucasian language spoken in one single village in Eastern Georgia by approximately 300 speakers. Since its early description, scholars have been intrigued by the high degree of linguistic influence from the Georgian language. This book has a threefold goal: (1) To contribute to the overall description of the Tsova-Tush language, by filling gaps in the previous literature in absence of a reference grammar. (2) To contrast Tsova-Tush constructions with functionally equivalent constructions in Chechen and Ingush, its closest relatives, and with Georgian, the language of wider communication which all Tsova-Tush speakers speak as a second language, in order to form hypotheses concerning which Tsova-Tush construction is inherited, and which has arisen under influence of Georgian. (3) To provide the most probable diachronic scenario of language contact, by looking at historical Tsova-Tush language data, as well as at its historical sociolinguistics._x000D_ This book provides a basic description of Tsova-Tush, in particular in the domain of spatial cases (which exhibit a two-slot system similar to Daghestanian languages), TAME categories (indentifying a Iamitive and a Past Subjunctive developing indirect evidential semantics), complex verbs, and subordination and clause-chaining (which in Tsova-Tush is finite)._x000D_ In terms of language contact, this book concludes that (1) Tsova-Tush conforms to most established borrowing hierarchies and theories surrounding intensity of contact, except for the borrowing of a verbal inflection marker in a remarkably early stage of contact; (2) The Georgian influence that Tsova-Tush shows in sources from the 1850 suggest that a notable increase in bilingualism occured already at a point where there was little institutional or numeral dominance of surrounding the Georgian-language population. A change in ethnic self-identification can be the underlying factor for the early instances of contact-induced change. 2026-05-01T05:43:21Z 2026-05-01T05:43:21Z 2026-04-30T10:13:01Z 2025 book ONIX_20260429T161216_9783961105106_26 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112768 9783961105106 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/176122 eng Languages of the Caucasus open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112768/1/9783961105106.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112768/1/9783961105106.pdf Language Science Press Language Science Press 10.5281/zenodo.15275286 10.5281/zenodo.15275286 ed03121b-b998-4b50-8d58-1d0745565558 9783961105106 Knowledge Unlatched (KU) Language Science Press 2024-2026 Language Science Press Berlin open access
spellingShingle Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
Wichers Schreur, Jesse
Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title_full Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title_fullStr Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title_full_unstemmed Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title_short Intensive language contact in the Caucasus
title_sort intensive language contact in the caucasus
topic Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
topic_facet Linguistics
thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics
url ONIX_20260429T161216_9783961105106_26
work_keys_str_mv AT wichersschreurjesse intensivelanguagecontactinthecaucasus