Central Eurasian Language Grammars First Attempt/Letter

<accesscontrol>CELG</accesscontrol> This page is for drafting a letter to invite people to contribute to the first volume of the Central Eurasian Language Grammars.

Letter

To:____ Subject:seeking ____ contributing to Central Eurasian languages volume

____,

We are writing to invite you to contribute to a volume on the major languages of Central Eurasia. Specifically, we are hoping that you would be able to contribute a chapter on ____.

The volume in question will include detailed grammatical sketches, informed by modern linguistic theory, of the major languages of Central Eurasia. We have a list of __ languages which we are seeking contributions on, and are specifically interested in contributors who have background in modern theoretical linguistics and have worked closely with the language they're contributing for.

The majority of descriptive literature in English (and for that matter other languages) is not well-informed linguistically, and/or is often based on previous literature instead of on experience working with the languages. The purpose of this volume is to provide a general reference on these languages, and the intended audience is scholars of all disciplines with a focus on the area and any linguist interested in information on these languages.

This volume will focus on presenting basic grammatical sketches of the languages in question (across all elements of the grammar), but will also emphasise typologically interesting, previously unaddressed, and currently not well understood aspects of the grammar. The volume intends to be honest about elements requiring further research, and will attempt to present brief outlines of what is currently understood about several such issues for each language.

We are currently interested in a contribution on ___ of approximately 30 to 40 pages, organised by linguistic topic (e.g., Orthography, Phonology, Morphology and Syntax, Social context), and including a short lexicon, and several fully glossed and translated samples. There are certain topics which we're especially interested in detailed coverage of, such as agreement, quotatives, relativisation, and coordination. We will not expect conformation to a specific template (as this has resulted in poor quality of other volumes), but we will provide a general outline and a list of specific topics we'd like covered within each section.

We already have commitments for several languages, including a couple preliminary drafts. Once we have commitments for enough of the languages, we'll begin pitching the idea to publishers. We want you to know that we are offering you an opportunity to participate in this volume because we recognise that your background in both the ____ language and in linguistics together make you a good fit for the project. We hope you'll take the offer seriously, and carefully think through whether you would be able to help us.

Chief editor, Chris Beckwith