International Summer School on
Language Documentation and Description

School of Oriental and African Studies, London

22 June - 3 July 2009
Instructor:
Françoise Rose

Email:
francoise.rose@univ-lyon2.fr

Course days:
Monday 29 June 2009
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Wednesday 1 July 2009
Thursday 2 July 2009

Course time:
16.00-17.30

Venue:
G52
Back to the programme

Amazonian languages

This course will consist of an introduction to the variety of languages spoken throughout the Amazon basin (Brasil, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, French Guyana). The first class will offer an overview of the diversity of languages spoken in the region (sociolinguistic facts, genetic classification, contact, previous linguistic work), a short presentation of the major language families (Arawak, Caribe, Tupi, Macro-Je, etc.) and some general typological facts about languages spoken in the area (shared characteristics, rarer phenomena). The remaining classes will focus on some topics particularly interesting in the area, among which nasalization, possessive constructions and cross-referencing.