This book provides a clear and comprehensive description of the Ocotepec/Tapalapa variant of Chiapas Zoque. Zoque is one of the two major branches of the Mixe-Zoquean language family, spoken in the southern part of Mexico. Until the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century the Mixe-Zoquean languages covered a large area from Veracruz on the Gulf coast to the border of Guatemala and the Pacific coast. Inscriptions in Zoque from the first half of the first millennium AD are the oldest known linguistic documents in Mesoamerica.The Zoquean area once included the entire heartland of the Olmecs, who almost certainly spoke a proto-Zoquean or proto-Mixe-Zoquean language. The Zoques are thus the most likely direct descendents of the oldest known civilization of Mexico. As a result of a long history of close contact, Zoque and Mayan share areal features, and there are lexical borrowings in both directions, but genetically and typologically they are clearly distinct. The Zoque-speaking area has shrunk considerably since pre-colonial times. In 1982 an eruption from the volcano Chichonal destroyed a central part of the Zoque core area and caused a mass migration of Zoque speakers to parts of Mexico where Spanish is the dominant language. This record of an unusual and critically endangered language will be a vital resource for linguists of all theoretical persuasions.

This book offers the first account of Old Norse syntax for almost a hundred years and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. The language of the Vikings and of the Old Icelandic sagas is the best documented medieval Germanic language and the author is able to present a comprehensive analysis of its syntax and overviews of its phonology and morphology. He supports his analyses with examples taken from Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. Professor Faarlund's approach is descriptive, in a generative framework with a minimum of technical detail. He includes a complete bibliography of Old Norse syntax.
The book is intended for advanced students and scholars of historical linguistics, Germanic and Scandinavian languages, Norse philology, and all others with a serious interest in Nordic languages, civilizations, and history.

This book explores the syntactic structures of Mainland Scandinavian, a term that covers the Northern Germanic languages spoken in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Finland. The continuum of mutually intelligible standard languages, regional varieties, and dialects stretching from southern Jutland to eastern Finland share many syntactic patterns and features, but also present interesting syntactic differences. In this volume, Jan Terje Faarlund discusses the main syntactic features of the national languages, alongside the most widespread or typologically interesting features of the non-standard varieties. Each topic is illustrated with examples drawn from reference grammars, research literature, corpora of various sorts, and the author's own research. The framework is current generative grammar, but the volume is descriptive in nature, with technical formalities and theoretical discussion kept to a minimum. It will hence be a valuable reference for students and researchers working on any Scandinavian language, as well as for syntacticians and typologists interested in Scandinavian facts and data without necessarily being able to read Scandinavian.

This is the first account of Old Norse for a hundred years and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of Old Norse syntax and succinct descriptions of its phonology and morphology. Old Norse was the language of the Vikings and the Old Icelandic sagas and is the best documented medieval Germanic language. Professor Faarlund supports his analysis with numerous prose examples taken from the most reliable Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. His approach is descriptive, set in a framework of generative grammar with technical details kept to a minimum. He includes a complete bibliography of the syntax of Old Norse. This book will interest students and scholars of Nordic languages, civilizations, and history as well as those studying historical linguistics, diachronic syntax, and Germanic and Scandinavian languages.