Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia : New Horizons for Tibeto-Burman Studies in Honor of David Bradley

Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia provides new analyses of regional Tibeto-Burman languages and sub-branches to demonstrate ways in which diachronic, social and geographic aspects of language variation and language endangerment are necessary for more adequate descriptions of language systems. Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia: New Horizons for Tibeto-Burman Studies in honor of David Bradley Copyright Contents List of Maps List of Figures List of Tables David Bradley: A bibliography Tabula Gratulatoria Part A: Sociohistorical Linguistics in Regional Perspective 1 David Bradley and Tibeto-Burman sociohistory: an introduction 1.1 The life and career of David Bradley 1.2 Contributions to the study of language 1.3 Overview of volume contents 1.4 Beyond the microlectal grammar: David Bradley’s untold legacy 2 The so-called prefixes of Tibeto-Burman, and why they are so called 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Tibeto-Burman syllable structure: prefixes and sesquisyllabicity 2.3 Morphophonemic behavior of prefixes 2.4 The continuum of meaningfulness: prefixal semantics and the grammatical exploitation of prefixes 2.5 Historical reasons for lack of meaningfulness 2.6 The compounding/prefixation cycle (PTB 153-6) 2.7 A perennial problem: distinguishing *prefix-plus-initial-consonant from root-internal *consonant clusters 2.8 Conclusions Part B: Sociohistorical Linguistics & Language Endangerment 3 Dialect diversity and language resilience: The geolinguistics of Phuza vitality 3.1 Geolinguistic and ethnolinguistic context 3.2 Phuza ethnolinguistic endangerment 3.3 Phuza dialect resilience 3.4 Implications 4 Language endangerment and loss of traditional knowledge: The case of Prinmi 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Central Prinmi as an endangered language 4.3 Traditional knowledge embedded in Prinmi 4.4 Language attrition in Prinmi 4.5 Knowledge drain and language attrition Part C: Sociohistorical Linguistics in China 5 Introducing Limi: A rising tone is born 5.1 Introduction 5.2 ‘Contourgenesis’ 5.3 Limi speakers and their sociolinguistic setting 5.4 Methodology 5.5 Limi’s sound system 5.6 Limi’s development from Proto-Ngwi and its genetic position within Ngwi 5.7 Conclusions: a rising tone is born 6 Medial changes in Jino dialects 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Synchronic description of Jino medials 6.3 Major types of medial changes 6.4 Relative chronology 6.5 Conclusion 7 Family group classifiers in Khatso 7.1 Overview of Khatso 7.2 Family group classifiers 7.3 Conclusion 8 The morphology of numerals and classifiers in Japhug 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Numerals and classifiers in Japhug 8.3 Possible pathways of development for the numeral prefix paradigms in Gyalrongic 8.4 Conclusion Part D: Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia 9 The characteristics of the Karen branch of Tibeto-Burman 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Phonology 9.3 Morphosyntax 9.4 Lexicon 9.5 Multilingualism and multidialectalism 9.6 Endangerment 9.7 Conclusion 9.8 Further research 10 The sociolinguistic context of the Tangsa languages 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Individual language usage 10.3 Traditional language usage cross-varieties 10.4 Tangsa varieties used as lingua francas 10.5 Language usage in community events 10.6 Conclusion 11 On Kuki-Chin subgrouping 11.1 The history of Kuki-Chin subgrouping 11.2 The Center/Periphery model in detail 11.3 Some remaining questions 11.4 Conclusion 12 On the diachronic origins of converbs in tibeto-burman and beyond 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Preliminary exemplification 12.3 Converb clauses and nominalization 12.4 Grammaticalization and reanalysis 12.5 Causal converbs in South Asia 12.6 Clause chaining converbs and intonation: an alternative grammaticalization pathway? 12.7 Concluding comments Toponym index Language index Subject index "Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia blends insights from sociolinguistics, descriptive linguistics and historical-comparative linguistics to shed new light on regional Tibeto-Burman language varieties and their relationships across spatial, temporal and cultural differences. The approach is inspired by leading Tibeto-Burmanist, David Bradley, to whom the book is dedicated. The volume includes twelve original research essays written by eleven Tibeto-Burmanists drawing on first-hand field research in five countries to explore Tibeto-Burman languages descended from seven internal sub-branches. Following two introductory chapters, each contribution is focused on a specific Tibeto-Burman language or sub-branch, collectively contributing to the literature on language identification, language documentation, typological analysis, historical-comparative classification, linguistic theory, and language endangerment research with new analyses, state-of-the-art summaries and contemporary applications"--back cover