LINGUIST List 11.463

Sat Mar 4 2000

Books: West Bahnaric, Chinese Ling, Tungusic Langs

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, A Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary, P. Jacq & P. Sidwell
2. LINCOM EUROPA, Chinese Ling: Kunming chinese, Ming Chao Gui
3. LINCOM EUROPA, Tungusic Lang: Evenki, Nadezhda Bulatova & Lenore Grenoble

A Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary

PASCALE JACQ & PAUL SIDWELL, University of Melbourne

The dictionary consolidates wordlists collected by Jacq and Sidwell
during fieldwork to the Lao PDR (1996 to 1998), plus some material
from other sources. The languages treated are Oi, Cheng, Sapuon,
Talieng, Kraseng, Nhaheun, Laveh, Loven and Alak. The listing is
according to semantic fields and includes both native vocabulary and
borrowings, with some etymological commentary.

The introduction includes a discussion of the current linguistic
situation in the south of the Lao PDR, with maps and a listing of
languages and villages where they are spoken. The recording and
transcription of data is discussed, and some brief remarks are made on
the phonology and grammar of the languages. A preliminary genetic
classification based upon the lexical data is also presented. A
bibliography of West Bahnaric studies completes the introduction.

ISBN 3 89586 558 3. 
Languages of the World/Dictionaries 21. 
Ca. 260 pages. USD 70 / DM 107 / � 37. 



Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de

Kunming Chinese
MING CHAO GUI
University of Oklahoma

Kunming Chinese, commonly regarded as lingua franca of Yunnan
province, is a major variety of Yunnanese, a member of Southwestern
Mandarin. Based primarily on the linguistic typology and geographic
distribution, Kunming Chinese has been further classified in one of
the four major subgroups of Yunnanese: Central Yunnan group. Kunming
Chinese, as well as all the dialects in Yunnan province, has a long
history of development, which can probably be traced back to Qin and
Han dynasties. The languages of twenty-four ethnic groups inhabiting
in the same speech community also play a very important role in the
development of Kunming Chinese. Until now Kunming Chinese remains a
less studied dialect and no complete work has been done on its major
grammatical aspects, especially morphology and syntax.

This book is intended to provide a descriptive account for the grammar
of Kunming Chinese as spoken in Kunming city and its vicinities. The
major topics discussed are: phonetics and phonology; the phonological
developments in the past sixty years; morpheme categories and word
formation; grammatical categories, syntactic categories; sentence
types and structures.

Special discussions are given to the idiosyncratic features of the
dialect: fronting and deletion of nasal in nasal rhymes, loss of
rhotic initial series, breathy phonation; infix, the function and loss
of "-er" suffix, word blending, reduplication and its interaction with
tone change; question words and question formation. The book also
features an interlinear text with transcription and translation
demonstrating the major features discussed.

The author Ming Chao Gui teaches Chinese and linguistics at the
Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics of the
University of Oklahoma, Norman campus, U.S.A.. He has regular
publication on this dialect in the past ten years.

ISBN 3 89586 634 2. 
Languages of the World/Materials 340. 
Ca. 100 pp. EUR 32.73 / USD 44 / DM 64 / � 24. 



Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

Evenki 

NADEZHDA BULATOVA (Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) & LENORE
GRENOBLE (Dartmouth College)

Evenki is the largest of the Manchu-Tungusic languages spoken in
Siberia. The Evenki ethnic population currently numbers roughly 30,000
people; approximately one third of the population speaks Evenki.

This monograph provides an overview of Evenki phonology, morphology
and syntax. Evenki is characterized by strong agglutination, vowel
harmony, verb-final (SOV) word order, and the use of
postpositions. Nouns inflect for case, number and possession; Standard
Evenki has 12 cases. The verbal system morphologically marks tense,
mood, person and number, aspect and Aktionsarten as well as
voice. Furthermore, Evenki possesses a complex system of participles,
supines and gerunds.

In addition to the grammatical sketch and a sample text, discussion of
the current sociolinguistic situation of Evenki is provided as well,
with special attention to the Evenki dialect continuum and the status
of Evenki as an 'endangered' language.

ISBN 3 89586 222 3. 
Languages of the World/Materials 141. 
Ca. 60pp. USD 32.50 / DM 49.80 / � 19.90. 
2nd printing: 02/2000



Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404 
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.