29.4393, Books: The Khasian Languages: Sidwell

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4393. Thu Nov 08 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.4393, Books: The Khasian Languages: Sidwell

Moderator: linguist at linguistlist.org (Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté)
Homepage: https://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2018 16:37:55
From: Ulrich Ulrich [contact at lincom.eu]
Subject: The Khasian Languages: Sidwell

 


Title: The Khasian Languages 
Subtitle: Classification, Reconstruction, and Comparative Lexicon 
Series Title: Languages of the World 58  

Publication Year: 2018 
Publisher: Lincom GmbH
	   http://www.lincom-shop.eu
	

Book URL: http://lincom-shop.eu/LW-58-The-Khasian-Languages 


Author: Paul Sidwell

Hardback: ISBN:  9783862889143 Pages: 216 Price: Europe EURO 138.80


Abstract:

Khasian is group of Austroasiatic languages spoken by more than a million
people in Meghalaya State of Northeast India and various smaller communities
in neighboring lowland areas. Its closest linguistic relatives are the
Palaungic languages of Myanmar (and further east), indicating that Meghalaya
was settled by migrants from Southeast Asia sometime before the Common Era.
The most well known language in the group is Standard Khasi, which has
official status and is used widely as a regional lingua franca. As
Austroasiatic branches go, Khasian is one of least diverse; the present work
recognizes four other languages—Pnar, Lyngngam, Maram, and War—which are often
erroneously regarded as Khasi dialects.

This book presents the first monograph length reconstruction of proto-Khasian
lexicon and phonology, plus some discussion of historical morphology and
classification. While Standard Khasi remains an important witness for
historical studies due to the ready availability of dictionaries and texts, it
is clear that other speech varieties preserve many archaisms and important
clues to unlocking the history of the branch. This study draws upon recent
field work by local and international scholars, recent dissertations, as well
as previous scholarship on Khasi, and presents a comparative vocabulary of 912
proto-Khasian reconstructions, plus 154 proto-Pnar-Khasi-Lyngngam forms. While
there are many data gaps and unanswered questions, it is hoped that the
framework offered here establishes a firm basis for Khasian
historical-linguistic studies, and will stimulate robust discussion and
further original contributions to the field.

Dr Paul Sidwell graduated with a PhD in Linguistics from Melbourne University
in 1999, and subsequently held appointments with the Max Planck Institute
(Leipzig), the Center for Research in Computational Linguistics (Bangkok) and
the Australian National University (Canberra). His principle research focus is
on the comparative reconstruction of Austroasiatic history and its wider
implications for Mainland Southeast Asia and beyond. Since 2016 Paul has been
a partner in the Canberra based consulting firm Language Intelligence,
offering applied research and analysis to assist defense and law enforcement.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Language Documentation

Language Family(ies): Khasian


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=131754




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4393	
----------------------------------------------------------