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Smirnitskaya A. Brahui language kinship system in terms of the typology of semantic transitions

A. Smirnitskaya - Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, Russian Federation ORCID: 0000-0001-7814-8716
E‑mail: nyushas@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The subject of this paper is kinship terms system in the Northern Dravidian language Brahui. Brahui has long been surrounded by Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages: Persian and particularly the neighboring Balochi language, both of the Iranian group, and Punjabi and Sindhi of the Indo-Aryan one. The contacts with these ethnic groups have influenced Brahui kinship system. Many kinship terms in Brahui, such as those for father, grandfather or aunt, are borrowings; but, remarkably, the majority of other terms appear to be of Dravidian origin, including those for mother, brother, grandmother, uncle (mother’s brother), etc. Methodologically, the study is based on the theory of semantic shifts developed by the research group headed by Anna A. Zalizniak at the Institute of Linguistics (Moscow) — a new rapidly developing direction in semantic typology. The study of semantic derivation in panchronic (both synchronic and diachronic) perspective is a specific feature of this approach. The methodology of semantic shifts, realized by polysemy or diachronic semantic evolution, allows us to take a fresh look at this kinship system. The paper shows that this methodology can be used as an argument for identifying an anthropological type of kinship system, i.e. the linear type of kinship reflected in modern Brahui and the bifurcative-merging “Dravidian” kinship type, of which only some semantic traces are found in the language.

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2020-4(10)-101-117
УДК 811.57

 

KEYWORDS: semantic typology, semantic shift, polysemy, diachronic semantic evolution, Dravidian, Brahui, Tamil, kinship terms, anthropological kinship type

 

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