Ukraine’s Ethnolinguistic Landscape—and Changing Attitudes towards Rus...

Apr 22, 2015 by

Ukraine’s Ethnolinguistic Landscape—and Changing Attitudes towards Russia and the Russian Language

On April 20, 2015, I gave a lecture on the ethnolinguistic aspects of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. After reviewing the events since the late fall of 2013 and the current humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine, I turned to...

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What is the Homeland Problem?

Feb 22, 2015 by

In my recent discussions with blog readers and students, it has become clear to me that before considering the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) homeland problem in more detail it might be beneficial to review what a linguistic homeland is...

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Language Endangerment: Ideology or Fact?

Feb 13, 2015 by

Language Endangerment: Ideology or Fact?

I have been asked by a former student to comment on the article by Katie Wudel “Languages Are Going Extinct Even Faster Than Species”, published in the Good magazine online. Contrary to the name of the magazine, the article is...

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Simple Verb Tenses in Old Church Slavonic

Feb 4, 2015 by

Simple Verb Tenses in Old Church Slavonic

Verbs in Old Church Slavonic (OCS) are inflected for person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and number (singular, dual, or plural). There are three simple tenses (present, imperfect, and aorist) and three compound tenses (perfect, pluperfect, and...

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Introduction to Old Church Slavonic Conjugation

Feb 4, 2015 by

Introduction to Old Church Slavonic Conjugation

While nominal parts-of-speech, such as nouns and adjectives, decline, verbs conjugate. Each verb has a number of different forms, both tensed and non-tensed. There are three tenses in OCS: present, imperfect, and aorist. Note that...

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Palatalization in Old Church Slavonic

Jan 30, 2015 by

Palatalization in Old Church Slavonic

[For a discussion of the image, see the post in the LanguageHat blog.] In our examination of the Old Church Slavonic (OCS) declension system, we have noticed some peculiar consonant alternations, for example: člověkъ ‘man’...

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