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Linguists (and language enthusiasts in general), how did you get interested in your specific language(s) (or family) of expertise, especially if it's a language that's not your own first language?
As for me, my interest in East Iranic and North Indo-Aryan was primarily ...
As for me, my interest in East Iranic and North Indo-Aryan was primarily ...
... motivated by representation issues.
My initiation into linguistics was through Germanic (which is why I started learning High German actually), from which I was led to read up on Indo-European comparative and historical linguistics, & ultimately to Indo-Iranian in which ...
My initiation into linguistics was through Germanic (which is why I started learning High German actually), from which I was led to read up on Indo-European comparative and historical linguistics, & ultimately to Indo-Iranian in which ...
... the languages I had been exposed to most at the time (including my mother tongue) belong. But, going through internet articles (didn't start reading proper journal articles until much later), I felt annoyed at how much Indo-Aryan appeared restricted to a few major Indian ...
... languages (especially Hindi-Urdu, along with Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and, if you're lucky, a couple other big ones) while the state of affairs in the smaller languages were totally ignored, especially the entirety of the North. So, therefore, I wanted to learn more ...
... about Shina, Khowar, Bhadrawahi, Kashmiri &c., & bring them to the forefront when discussing the structure of Indo-Aryan comparatively.
Same with Iranic, which seemed too focused on Persian and Persian alone. In particular, the entire East Iranic group seemed to be left ...
Same with Iranic, which seemed too focused on Persian and Persian alone. In particular, the entire East Iranic group seemed to be left ...
... out of discussion. After that, one thing lead to another, and before I realized, I was looking for resources to learn (about) Ossetic (added bonus was the glamour of being the language of the Scythians 
).
And it was Ossetic which got me interested in its Caucasian ...
).And it was Ossetic which got me interested in its Caucasian ...
... neighbors — a region I never thought I'd become as invested in as I am now!!
Of course, I do now realize that East Iranic and North Indo-Aryan languages have indeed been studied (and still are), but much of that is in specialized literature, and even today, they are ...
Of course, I do now realize that East Iranic and North Indo-Aryan languages have indeed been studied (and still are), but much of that is in specialized literature, and even today, they are ...
... often not invoked when discussing Indo-Iranian languages comparatively. [Same with Dravidian and the skew toward the four large literary languages, and I suspect this to be the case elsewhere too.]
P.S.: My jealousy at Hindi-Urdu's overt political promotion in India and ...
P.S.: My jealousy at Hindi-Urdu's overt political promotion in India and ...
... Pakistan may or may not have influenced my caring about the smaller languages of the family (and region) 
