KOJIMA, Yasuhiro
Research Associate
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa,
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
3-11-1 Asahi-cho, Fuchu-shi,
Tokyo, 183-8534, Japan
Email: ya.kojima[at]tufs.ac.jp
Personal Homepage: http://fieldnet.aacore.jp/wiki/利用者:児島康宏
Research interests: Linguistics, Caucasian languages
I am investigating Georgian and other Caucasian languages
In the region of the Caucasus, there are a lot of languages spoken. Apart from those that belong to neighboring large linguistic families such as Turkic and Indo-European languages, some 35 languages are called “Caucasian languages”. Georgian has the most speakers among them and is the only language that has its own alphabet.
I have so far been investigating Georgian grammar from different aspects. Although Georgian has attracted linguists' interest since early on and has been examined in considerable detail in and outside Georgia, much still awaits to be unveiled. In particular, I expect that a pragmatic point of view will take the study a step further toward a new dimension.
Georgian is also a valuable object of research in that it provides quite a long history of written documents over 1500 years. This allows us to finely go through long-term language changes from as early as the fifth century.
Batsbi, an endangered language
Since 2005, I have visited Eastern Georgia several times and have been investigating a vernacular language called “Batsbi”, which is spoken only in one village. Batsbi is a totally different language from Georgian. It has, at present, no more than about 2000 speakers and the younger generation cannot speak it fluently any more. The language is in danger of extinction. Not much time is left! It is an urgent task to collect as much data regarding the language as possible. I aim to compile a Batsbi grammar and dictionary in the future.
Research Projects:
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