Looking for book recommendations, plus a grammar question

[shanrina]

Hi, guys! I was wondering if anyone knew of any good books that went into detail (the more, the better, although overviews would be good too) on languages that are closely related and how they evolved to become separate languages. Books on Romance languages or North Indian languages would probably be best because I'm already somewhat familiar with

Comments

[dustinalfonso]

My understanding is that -wala is perfectly normal and run-of-the-mill for identifying where something's from. I don't think "banaras ke/ka paan" or whatever would be wrong, but it's just an easy proper noun -> modifier suffix.

As for "khaike", i've heard it but I don't have much to really say to help. In addition to the -i, it's also a little strange that it's a -ke and not -kar suffix if you're talking One And Only Standard Hindi that I learn. Probably just a colloquialism / dialectal thing -- kind of impossible to avoid in Hindi.

[shanrina]

Thanks! I've heard the -ke instead of -kar fairly often, but that might be because I'm not completely sure how standard the Hindi I learned in my classes was. (Lecturers were Rajasthani, and the classes were skewed toward that area. Although I don't know if -ke is actually Rajasthani.)

[doe_witch]

I recommended it in a comment in this comm a few days ago, but Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, while focusing on not just the language families you speak of, provides a comprehensive detailing of as much linguistic evolution as we've managed to figure out so far. If I remember correctly; it's been about a year since I read it.

... Short of that, there's Wikipedia. I have other books for resources on comparative linguistics but they don't have as much of a historical focus as the Ostler does.

[shanrina]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[talinthas]

If you call someone Banaraswala or Barodawala or Mumbaiwala or whatever, you're saying that they're from the town mentioned. Paan Banaraswala is a poetic way of saying paan from banaras, and it's totally ok. Khaike is from the local dialect, to give the song a folkier air.

[shanrina]

Thanks for the clarification!

[basal_ganglia]

I love that song. :)

[doe_witch]

Your username WINS.

[basal_ganglia]

Why, thanks!

[shanrina]

Me too. I love the whole soundtrack, actually. Which version do you prefer--AB's or SRK's?

[ubykhlives]

If you're up for something a bit different, Chirikba's Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology is a very accessible treatment of the evolution of the North-West Caucasian family. It's published by CNWS, and can be had quite cheaply.

[shanrina]

Thanks for the rec!