The Tai Languages Of Assam

The Tai Languages of Assam - a grammar and texts presents a comprehensive linguistic analysis of two endangered Tai languages of Assam, Aiton and Phake, together with information about Tai Khamyang, a highly endangered variety. This book presents chapters on phonology, syntax, lexicography and the writing system, as well as discussing earlier recorded data on the Tai languages in detail. Together with the book, there is a CD version of the linguistic analysis, linked to text files, sound files and photographs. Every language example is linked to a sound file, and to a document file containing a full transcription of the text from which that example has come. The comprehensive nature of this linking between the grammatical analysis and the primary data allows linguists, other scholars and members of the Tai community to check any of the claims made in the analysis. This innovative combination of book and CD therefore represents both a grammatical description in the best traditions of linguistics as well as a substantial documentation of the Tai languages. In the CD version, an electronic appendix presents a rich corpus of texts, from a wide range of styles and genres, together with documents presenting a transcription, translation and thoroughly annotated analysis for each of the texts presented.

The Routledge Language Family Series is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates of linguistics and language, or those with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistics anthropology and language development. With close to 100 million speakers, Tai-Kadai constitutes one of the world's major language families. The Tai-Kadai Languages provides a unique, comprehensive, single-volume tome covering much needed grammatical descriptions in the area. It presents an important overview of Thai that includes extensive cross-referencing to other sections of the volume and sign-posting to sources in the bibliography. The volume also includes much new material on Lao and other Tai-Kadai languages, several of which are described here for the first time. Much-needed and highly useful, The Tai-Kadai Languages is a key work for professionals and students in linguistics, as well as anthropologists and area studies specialists. ANTHONY V. N. DILLER is Foundation Director of the National Thai Studies Centre, at the Australian National University. JEROLD A. EDMONDSON is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas Arlington and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Scholars. YONGXIAN LUO is Senior Lecturer in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Australian Linguistic Society.

Studies on Southeast Asia 10 The ancient but not completely forgotten language of Ahom (part of a culture that once dominated the Brahmaputra Valley in India) has been marked by a lack of competent critical and scholarly study. The present authors aim to correct this: in their work they include a useful introduction to the state of Ahom studies and about linguistic problems and possibilities. The three primary texts studied are presented in their Ahom characters, in transliteration, and in translation into Thai and English, and are the subjects of both literary and historical interpretation. In the final section, the scholar J. C. Eade presents an essay entitled Astronomy in the Texts: Is there any Coherence? The relevant pages from the three original manuscripts that gave rise to the established texts are reproduced here as well.

The handbook will offer a survey of the field of linguistics in the early 21st century for the Southeast Asian Linguistic Area. The last half century has seen a great increase in work on language contact, work in genetic, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics, and since the 1990s especially documentation of endangered languages. The book will provide an account of work in these areas, focusing on the achievements of SEAsian linguistics, as well as the challenges and unresolved issues, and provide a survey of the relevant major publications and other available resources. We will address: Survey of the languages of the area, organized along genetic lines, with discussion of relevant political and cultural background issues Theoretical/descriptive and typological issues Genetic classification and historical linguistics Areal and contact linguistics Other areas of interest such as sociolinguistics, semantics, writing systems, etc. Resources (major monographs and monograph series, dictionaries, journals, electronic data bases, etc.) Grammar sketches of languages representative of the genetic and structural diversity of the region.

The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization is the first comprehensive overview of the language revitalization movement, from the Arctic to the Amazon and across continents. Featuring 47 contributions from a global range of top scholars in the field, the handbook is divided into two parts, the first of which expands on language revitalization issues of theory and practice while the second covers regional perspectives in an effort to globalize and decolonize the field. The collection examines critical issues in language revitalization, including: language rights, language and well-being, and language policy; language in educational institutions and in the home; new methodologies and venues for language learning; and the roles of documentation, literacies, and the internet. The volume also contains chapters on the kinds of language that are less often researched such as the revitalization of music, of whistled languages and sign languages, and how languages change when they are being revitalized. The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization is the ideal resource for graduate students and researchers working in linguistic anthropology and language revitalization and endangerment.

Language endangerment is a fundamental issue for humanity. What rights do minority communities have concerning their languages? How does each language conceptualize the world differently? How much knowledge about the world and a local ecosystem is lost when a language disappears? What is the process involved and how can insights about this process contribute to linguistic theory? What typological insights will be lost if undescribed languages disappear before their unique structural properties are known? How can language shift be stopped or reversed? This volume comprises: * a general overview introduction * four theoretical chapters on what happens during language shift * ten case studies of autochthonous languages under threat * four case studies of migrant languages at risk * three concluding chapters discussing strategies and resources for language maintenance.

Accompanying DVD-ROM contains ... "the full text of the grammatical description in web format (xml) with comprehensive links from language examples to recordings, and to the context of the example: transcriptions of the texts from which they are drawn."--Page 4 of cover.