17.288, Books: Lang Description, Tujia: Brassett, Brassett, Lu

Fri Jan 27 18:51:48 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-288. Fri Jan 27 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.288, Books: Lang Description, Tujia: Brassett, Brassett, Lu

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1)
Date: 25-Jan-2006
From: Ulrich Lueders < lincom.europa at t-online.de >
Subject: The Tujia Language: Brassett, Brassett, Lu 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:50:26
From: Ulrich Lueders < lincom.europa at t-online.de >
Subject: The Tujia Language: Brassett, Brassett, Lu 

Title: The Tujia Language 
Series Title: Languages of the World/Materials 455  

Publication Year: 2006 
Publisher: Lincom GmbH
	   http://www.lincom.at

Author: Cecilia Brassett
Author: Philip Brassett,   
Author: Meiyan Lu,   

Paperback: ISBN: 3895869953 Pages: 220 Price: Europe EURO 68.00

Abstract:

The Tujia people group is the sixth largest ethnic minority in China,
numbering over 8 million. However, the Tujia language is now only spoken by
about 70,000 people, a figure that represents less than 1% of the total
Tujia population. These speakers live in the northern half of the Xiangxi
Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Hunan Province. The
language was once spoken throughout the areas inhabited by the Tujia, which
comprise a region of 100,000 square miles straddling the common borders of
Hunan, Hubei, and Guizhou Provinces, and Chongqing Municipality. In view of
the present rate of decrease in language use, Tujia is considered to be an
endangered language.

Tujia is a member of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, but its
specific genetic affiliation remains unclear. Its phonology is extremely
similar to the local Chinese dialect. Tujia syllables are of the CV type,
with most vowels having nasalised variants. There are four tones and sandhi
is common. The basic word order is SOV. There is an abundance of verb
particles, which indicate aspect, modality, directionality, negation, and
relevance. Adjectives do not exist as a distinct category and conjunctions
are rare.

This grammar of the northern dialect of Tujia is based on research
conducted in Xiangxi over an 18-month period from 2002 to 2003. It is the
first in-depth analysis of the Tujia language that has been written in the
English language. The book offers a comprehensive and systematic overview
of the language and includes a lexicon of over 1,500 vocabulary items as
well as three traditional texts. This description of one of the
lesser-known minority languages of China should also provide a useful
record of a language which is currently in decline. 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Description

Subject Language(s): Tujia, Northern (tji)

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=18029

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