Reference no: EM13836642

Objective: To practice applying some of the basic ideas behind the concept of genetic relatedness between languages. (10pts total)

1)    Look at the gloss (a type of translation) and decide which gloss represents a concept that belongs to a Basic Level Vocabulary, and which gloss represents a concept that is not a Basic Level Vocabulary.

A note on spelling. The grave accent indicates a long vowel; it can be ignored. The vowels æ, œ, and ? represent vowels like the a in English 'hat,' the œu in French 'sœur,' and the u in French tu. When making comparisons, pay particular attention  to the beginning of words and also to consonants. Comparing vowels may not help much here.

2)    Once 1) is completed, fill in the following chart with the words that are NOT considered basic level vocabulary. Put the gloss on the far left. Then fill in the appropriate Finnish & Hungarian word in the matching column. The first example is done for you. Remember that here you focus only on the meaning of the words.

WORLD ON OUR LIST THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED BASIC LEVEL VOCABULARY
Gloss	Finnish	Hungarian
A)    church	Kirkko	Templom
b)
Etc...

Cross the words you put here off of the main list. They are not basic level vocabulary. Therefore, they are not relevant to establishing whether the two languages are related. Some of these words may look very similar, why do you think this is so?

3)  Step three: Look for systematic sound correspondences in the remaining words. It is sufficient to find four sound correspondences (including the example in (a)), if they exist. The correspondences can either be that the sound is the SAME in both languages, or that the sound is systematically different in each language. This is like what we did in the Polynesian language exercise. The first one is done for you. You could also note anything else about the pronunciation of the two languages that you think looks like a pattern.

Systematic Sound Correspondences
Evidence ( line number of example that illustrate your observations)	Finnish	Hungarian
a)     4, 11	t	t
b)
C)
D)
.....

5)  Do you think these languages are related? Do you think they are closely related?

gloss	Finnish	Hungarian
1) child	lapsi	?ermek
2) church	kirkko	templom
3) six	kusi	hat
4) fire	tuli	t?¯z
5) head	pæ¯	fej
6) three	kolme	harmon
7) cracker	keksi	keks
8) water	vesi	viz
9) fish	kala	hal
10) cloud	pilvi	felhœ¯
11) winter	talvi	tel
12) sugar	sokeri	tsukor
13) tree	pu	fa
14) tongue	kieli	?elv
15) eye	silmæ	sem
16) blood	veri	ver
17) death	kuolema	halal
18) zero	nolla	nulla
19) son	poika	fiu
20) under	ala	alla
21) hear	kulla	hall
22) heel	suoni	in
23) nose	nenæ	orr
24) soap	saippua	sappan
25) soft	pehmeæ	puha
26) ice	jæ¯	jeg
27) nest	pesæ	fesek

6)        If you believe the two languages to be related, what persuades you? How closely do you feel the languages are related and why? Your answer should be clear and succinct. Attach (a copy of) any handwritten worksheets on the Finnish/Hungarian problem to end of this assignment.