26.4, Diss: Koho; Lang Documentation: Olsen: 'A Descriptive Grammar of Koho-Sre: A Mon-Khmer Language'

Fri Jan 2 20:21:24 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-4. Fri Jan 02 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.4, Diss: Koho; Lang Documentation: Olsen: 'A Descriptive Grammar of Koho-Sre: A Mon-Khmer Language'

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Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 15:18:43
From: Neil Olsen [olseneil at comcast.net]
Subject: A Descriptive Grammar of Koho-Sre: A Mon-Khmer Language

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Institution: University of Utah 
Program: Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2014 

Author: Neil H. Olsen

Dissertation Title: A Descriptive Grammar of Koho-Sre: A Mon-Khmer Language 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation

Subject Language(s): Koho (kpm)

Dissertation Director(s):
Tim Chambless
Marianna Di Paolo
MaryAnn Christison
Mark J. Alves
Lyle Campbell

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation is a descriptive grammar of the Sre dialect of the Kơho
language. Kơho, a Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) language, is spoken by an
indigenous population of more than 207,000 people located in Lâm Đồng province
in the highland region of Vietnam. There are also several thousand additional
members of this ethnic group who live in France and the United States
(primarily North Carolina).

The goal of this dissertation is to describe the Kơho-Sre language in such a
manner that it is accessible both to linguists and also to those in the
Kơho-speaking community interested in their own language. This grammar—based
on a linguistic analysis that is informed  by current linguistic theory and
best practices in the field—includes phonological, morphological, and
syntactic data.

A grammatical description of Kơho is needed, in spite of the fact that a
literature of the language does exist. This is because (1) adequate
documentation is not achieved by the extant literature; (2) materials are
dated and do not reflect recent advances in typology and linguistic analysis;
(3) many materials are published in Russian and Vietnamese or are not readily
available to most researchers; and (4) earlier descriptions are cast in
frameworks that are not amenable to contemporary documentary linguistic
analysis.

This dissertation, based on data collected during fieldwork in Vietnam Việt
Nam and North Carolina, supplemented with previously published syntactic and
lexicographic materials, provides an overview of the grammatical structure of
Sre. Sre is a polysyllabic (usually dissyllabic) language with a synchronic
tendency towards reduction of the presyllable (the weaker or minor syllable)
and development in the remaining (main or major) syllable of contrastive pitch
characteristics associated with vowel length. Vowel length, in turn, is
influenced by the main syllable coda. A formerly complex system of nominal
classifiers (operating in the pattern: numeral + classifier + noun) has been
reduced to three generally used classifiers. Sentence structure is subject +
verb + object with a fairly rigid word order with some phrase or clause
movement to indicate certain syntactic functions.

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