Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Grammar of the Kabardian Language by John Colarusso

Rate this book
This is the first comprehensive grammar of a non-Indo-European language from the Northwest Caucasian family in a language other than Russian. Kabardian is complex at every level. The language treated is not the literary standard, but Kabardian as it was found in texts and in the mouths of Kabardians. This study is an advance over grammatical sketches of related languages in that it gives a complete account of the phonology and morphology of the language, accounting for what were previously known as "random variants." A Grammar of the Kabardian Language also gives the reader the first account of the syntax of this language. It will give the area specialist access to the language. It will give the linguist interested in complex languages access to an extraordinarily difficult language, and it will give the theoretical linguist access to a language that exhibits topological exotica at every level of its grammar, from phonetics to the lexicon.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read

About the author

John Colarusso

7 books9 followers
John's major interests are Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Comparative Mythology, the size of language (Vastness Theory), and International Relations (culture and nationalism). Geographic interests are centered on Inner Eurasia, especially the Caucasus, and cover both modern and ancient periods. Also, at times, John served as an informal diplomat and advisor in matters concerning the Caucasus and its peoples.

Born in California, raised in Mississippi and New Jersey.
John Colarusso first studied physics and then took two degrees in philosophy (BA Cornell, MA Northwestern).
He earned his doctorate in Linguistics from Harvard University in 1975. Since 1967 he has studied the Caucasus, its languages, myths, and cultures.
He has taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario since 1976. Since 1992 he has been active in advising leaders and policy makers in Washington, Ottawa, Moscow, and the Caucasus itself.

In addition to more than sixty-five articles on Linguistics, myth, politics, and the Caucasus, he has written three books, edited one, and is finishing two more.

He is married and the father of three children. When relaxing he enjoys hiking and biking, or reading math, paleontology, and the works of William Faulkner.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1 (20%)
4 stars
3 (60%)
3 stars
1 (20%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Profile Image for Ido.
1 review
July 3, 2019
This grammar is excellent. It is has just the right amount of conciseness, but also comprehensive. Perhaps a longer treatment of verbs (Kabardian and Adyghe are considered verb-centric languages, with the noun morphology relatively simple), and especially the extremely complex preverb system would have done good.

As of now, I have two complaints, really:
1. The transcription system used isn't IPA; infact, I think it is based on Native-American linguistic transcription. This system suffers from a few issues: for one, it isn't as well known and standardized as the IPA, and secondly, some of the grapheme are based on subtle changes in diacritics rather than different letter shapes. For instance, the difference between the phonemes /ɕ/ and /ç/ in this system is just the one between ⟨x̌⟩ and ⟨x̂⟩, which I find confusing. Furthermore, the system is presented in a very confusing verb diagram without IPA correspondence given.
2. In it's treatment of preverbs, some compound preverbs are presented with examples, but without actually saying what they mean. For example, there are preverbs that can appear with a further "dative" prefix added after it, or without it. The book presents the two options on different verbs but doesn't explain what they actually mean.

All and all, I would recommend this grammar if you are interested in the Northwest-Caucasian languages, and especially the Circassian branch (Adyghe and Kabardian). It is important to note that not a lot of research about those languages seems to be available in English, with the bulk of it being published in Russian. As far as I know, this is the only available comprehensive treatment of either of these two beautiful and complex languages in English.
Displaying 1 of 1 review

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.