This thesis presents a study of the phonological and morphosyntactic characteristics of Kalkoti, an understudied Indo-Aryan language of northern Pakistan. Kalkoti belongs to the Shina group of Indo-Aryan languages, but shows heavy influence from the Kohistani language Gawri, including the development of a complex tone system. The data used for the study were mostly collected in Pakistan in 2006 and 2015 as part of other projects, but a small amount of new data was collected as part of this study. Some notable results concern the behavior of the tone system as well as the heavily reduced nominal and verbal morphology. The ergative and genitive cases of nouns have become formally identical, and perfective verbs have by and large lost agreement, both of which set Kalkoti apart from its Shina relatives as well as from Gawri. / Denna uppsats presenterar en studie av fonologiska och morfosyntaktiska drag i kalkoti, ett understuderat indoariskt språk från norra Pakistan. Kalkoti tillhör shina-gruppen inom de indoariska språken, men uppvisar stor påverkan från kohistanispråket gawri. Bland annat har kalkoti utvecklat ett komplext tonsystem likt gawris. Det mesta av datan som använts för studien samlades in i Pakistan år 2006 och 2015 som del av andra projekt, men en liten mängd ny data har samlats in som del av denna studie. Några nämnvärda resultat behandlar tonsystemets beteende, och den kraftigt reducerade substantiv- och verbmorfologin. Ergativ och genitiv-kasus har sammanfallit för substantiv, och de flesta perfektiva verb har förlorat kongruensböjning. Båda dessa fenomen särskiljer kalkoti såväl från närbesläktade shinaspråk som från gawri.

Arthur de Gobineau est un auteur qui a suscité de nombreuses controverses engendrées par ses théories raciales. Ces théories ont cependant contribué à brouiller l’image de cet auteur, souvent présenté comme le père des dérives racistes. Ce n’est pas à l’essayiste que nous avons souhaité consacrer cette thèse, mais bien à l’écrivain, fin connaisseur de l’Orient, humaniste, parce que curieux de l’autre, et surtout méconnu.Par delà ces théories sur les races, Gobineau est l’auteur d’une oeuvre littéraire qui, sous les apparences d’un classicisme parfois hiératique nous donne la vision d’un homme d’une extrême complexité. Il est l’un des derniers représentants de la littérature de l’analyse que l’on considère comme une spécificité française. Mais il s’est également positionné en marge de la vision orientaliste de son époque.Son cheminement vers l’Orient s’est opéré d’abord par une approche toute subjective faite de sensation et d’émotion avant que la passion ne finisse par l’emporter sur les préjugés. Les Nouvelles Asiatiques opèrent une transfiguration du mythe personnel en mythe littéraire : la quête personnelle des origines se traduit par le retour au berceau de l’humanité. La fiction littéraire fait sa matrice là où tout a commencé.L’auteur met à l’épreuve de l’Orient des motifs et des figures qui lui viennent du corpus occidental en transposant dans cet ailleurs des réminiscences de sa culture d’origine. Une pensée qui évolue au gré de la fiction, ou bien un ensemble d’obsessions qui reviennent dans les replis du récit comme en contrebande ? C’est à cette question que nous avons tenté de répondre pour sonder le mystère oriental d’un auteur méconnu. / Arthur Gobineau is an author who sparked controversy over his racial theories. These theories, however, have contributed to blur the image of the author, often described as the father of racist tendencies. This thesis is not concerned with the essayist, but with the writer, as a knowledgeable of the East, humanist, curious of the other, and especially unknown.Beyond these racial theories, Gobineau is the author of a literary work which, under the appearance of a hieratic classicism, sometimes gives us a vision of a highly complex man. It is one of the last representatives of the analysis literature, which is peculiar to French. But he is also positioned on the margins of the orientalist vision of his time.His journey to the East was operated first on an approach that was based upon subjective sensation and emotion before that the passion would eventually outweigh prejudices. The New Asians operates a transfiguration of the personal myth into a literary myth: the personal quest for origins is reflected in the return to the cradle of humanity. Literary fiction made its matrices wherein it all began.Transposing to the East reminiscences of his native culture, the author puts to the test of this elsewhere western patterns and figures. Is it the thought that grows with the fiction or the same obsessions that come back into the folds of the story as contraband? It is this question that we tried to answer by probing the eastern mystery of an unknown author.

First appearing on potsherds around 3300 BC, the Indus script was primarily in use during the Mature Harappan period (ca. 2600-1900 BC) in the Indus Valley region, centred in the north-western region of the Indian Subcontinent. It is one of the last remaining undeciphered scripts of the ancient world. A great number of Indus inscriptions, however, have been uncovered at many archaeological sites in the Persian Gulf, discoveries that corroborate the inclusion of the Indus civilization as an active participant in the Mesopotamian-dominated Gulf trade of the 3rd millennium. In addition to exploring the current state of research surrounding the Indus decipherment attempts, the thesis will examine new perspectives on ancient history, arguing in favour of various possibilities of Mesopotamian, Elamite, and/or pre-dynastic Egyptian (North East African) cultural presences or influences in the ancient Indus River basin.

The present study investigates discourse markers in Dardic languages (Indo-Aryan; Pakistan), focusing on the discourse markers ba and ta in Palula in comparison with other languages of the region, particularly Dameli in which two markers with the same form and similar functions have been observed. The results showed that Palula ba functions as a topic-marker, in addition to other functions, whereas ta only signals subsequence, except in an adversative construction ta... ba. In Dameli, both ba and ta function as topic-markers, in addition to other functions such as ta marking subsequence, and the ta... ba construction functions similarly to Palula. Interestingly, Kalasha and Gawri showed some similarities, as both have a topic-marker surfacing as ta and tä respectively, which can be used in the adversative constructions ta... o and tä... i respectively, both of which have another marker as the second element. No other language in the sample was found to have a construction similar to the ta... ba construction nor a marker similar in form and function to ba, but all have a subsequence marker resembling ta. These results indicated that the Palula markers ba and ta are part of an areal phenomenon encompassing at least the Chitral, Panjkora and Swat valleys, where Palula originally only had the Shina subsequence marker and later adapted the Dameli system into the language. / Denna studie undersöker diskursmarkörer i dardiska språk (indoariska; Pakistan) med fokus på diskursmarkörer ba och ta i palula i jämförelse med andra språk i regionen, i synnerhet dameli i vilket två markörer med samma form och liknande funktion har observerats. Resultaten visade att palula ba fungerar som topikmarkör, tillsammans med andra funktioner, medan ta enbart signalerar subsekvens, förutom i den adversativa konstruktionen ta... ba. I dameli fungerar både ba och ta som topikmarkörer, tillsammans med andra funktioner så som att ta markerar subsekvens, och konstruktionen ta... ba fungerar i likhet med palula. Av intresse är att kalasha och gawri uppvisade en del likheter, så som att båda har topikmarkörer i form av respektive ta och tä, vilka kan användas i språkens respektive adversativa konstruktioner ta... o och tä... i, varav båda använder en annan markör för det andra elementet. Inget annat språk i urvalet observerades ha en konstruktion lik ta... ba eller en markör lik ba i form och funktion, men alla har en subsekvensmarkör lik ta. Dessa resultat indikerar att palulas markörer ba och ta är en del av ett arealt fenomen som innefattar åtminstone dalgångarna Chitral, Panjkora och Swat, och att palula ursprungligen enbart hade shinas subsekvensmarkör och därefter integrerade damelis system in i språket.

First appearing on potsherds around 3300 BC, the Indus script was primarily in use during the Mature Harappan period (ca. 2600-1900 BC) in the Indus Valley region, centred in the north-western region of the Indian Subcontinent. It is one of the last remaining undeciphered scripts of the ancient world. A great number of Indus inscriptions, however, have been uncovered at many archaeological sites in the Persian Gulf, discoveries that corroborate the inclusion of the Indus civilization as an active participant in the Mesopotamian-dominated Gulf trade of the 3rd millennium. In addition to exploring the current state of research surrounding the Indus decipherment attempts, the thesis will examine new perspectives on ancient history, arguing in favour of various possibilities of Mesopotamian, Elamite, and/or pre-dynastic Egyptian (North East African) cultural presences or influences in the ancient Indus River basin.