The Languages of the Soviet Union
A general account of the languages of the Soviet Union, one of the most diverse multinational and multilingual states in the world as well as one of the most important. There are some 130 languages spoken in the USSR, belonging to five main families and ranging from Russian, which is the first language of about 130,000,000 people, to Aluet, spoken only by 96 (in the 1970 census). Dr Comrie has two general aims. First, he presents the most important structural features of these languages, their genetic relationships and classification and their distinctive typological features. Secondly, he examines the social and political background to the use of functioning of the various languages in a multilingual state. The volume will be of importance and interest to linguists and to those with a broader professional interest in the Soviet Union.
|
Contents
Uralic languages
|
15 |
Altaic languages
|
39 |
Khanty text Vakh dialect
|
138 |
Caucasian languages
|
199 |
Paleosiberian and other languages
|
238 |
Ethnic and linguistic composition of the U S S R according to
|
279 |
Alphabets of the languages of the U S S R
|
286 |
Recent statistics and literature
|
301 |
304 | |
310 | |
315 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
addition agreement Altaic alternation Armenian Azerbaydzhan Balto-Finnic basic branches Caucasian century Chukchi clause close complex consonant construction corresponding definite dialect direct object discussion distinction ending English ergative especially Estonian ethnic group example expressed final Finnish forms front further genetic genitive Georgian German gerund give given head indicate influence instance intransitive Iranian linguistic Lithuanian live locative major marked means Mongolian morphological native language nominative nonfinite northern noted noun opposition original particular past Persian person phonetic plural population position possessive preceding present pronouns recent reference relative represented result Romany Russian sentence separate similar singular Soviet speak speakers spoken standard stem structure suffix syllable Tabasaran Table Tadzhik Tatar tense third transitive Tungusic Turkic languages Uralic languages usually Uzbek various verb vowel harmony written language