Dienstag, 3.7.2007, 15.00 Uhr
Pohligstr. 1, Raum 115

Dravidian and Altaic – is a search for a new paradigm possible?
Jaroslav Vacek, Charles University Prague

Some Dravidian and Altaic parallels were mentioned already by R. Caldwell in 1850 and there were occasional papers appearing in the last hundred and fifty years. In the last thirty years the problem has been studied with a greater attention (K.H. Menges). The present author has accumulated positive data, which appear to be more than a result of the operation of coincidence. There are parallels between the two language families not only in the sphere of lexicon, but also in morphology (layer of –VC, -VL suffixes following immediately the CVC- root). The lexical parallels, whose shared meaning cannot be doubted, allow us to establish a certain number of phonetic correspondences, some of which appear to be rather regular (e.g. –m–, initial stops, some liquids, etc.). Besides that, there are a number of lexical parallels, whose phonetic shapes appear to constitute groups of forms representing a phonetic continuum (e.g. all the principal vowels in both families). - The lecture sums up some of the results of the previous research on this topic with regard to lexical, morphological and phonetic parallels, points out some of the problems of formal and semantic interpretation of these parallels and proposes a new approach to the comparative study not only on the basis of individual lexemes but on the basis of established models.

Neu ab 14.6.2007:
Tutorium: Ethnomedizin und Ethnobotanik Indiens
Niklas Wagner
Donnerstags 17:00 in der Pohligstrasse 1, 1. Stock, Raum 109/110

In dem Tutorium soll sich den Bereichen der Ethnomedizin und Ethnobotanik mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Süd Asiens genähert werden. Ethnomedizin beschäftigt sich mit indigenen Medizinsystemen und den kulturellen Aspekten von Krankheit und Gesundheit und Ethnobotanik mit der Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Pflanze. Beides sind interdisziplinäre Felder, und ich lade ausdrücklich Interessierte aus allen Studienfächern ein, ihren Blickwinkel mit einfließen zu lassen. - Ich werde allgemein in Theorie, Methode und Problematik einführen, sowie auf Medizinsysteme Indiens und geistige Eigentumsrechte näher eingehen.