LINGUIST List 7.1415

Thu Oct 10 1996

Qs: South-East-Asian lgs, "thou", Inclusive/exclusive pronouns

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. bartos, South-East-Asian languages - query
2. Mario Cal Varela, Qs: pronunciation of "thou"
3. Kearsy Cormier, Inclusive vs. exclusive pronouns

Dear Listers,

I need some info on a handful of South-East-Asian lang's, for
inclusion in an encyclopedia of languages.

The data I need is:

- the name(s) of the language as used by its speakers, with gloss if
it has any other meaning than the reference to the language itself
- the name(s) of the people as they use it in refernce to themselves
- standard literature reference on these languages, incl. reference
grammars, introductory descriptions, coursebooks, important books or
papers on the grammar/phonology/history of the language (provided
they are accessible for a relatively wide public), in English, German,
French, or Russian

The languages in question are:

Khmer
Mon
Palaungic
Karen
Burmese

Plus a side-issue: what is the current stand on the relatedness of
Vietnamese to the Mon-Khmer languages?

Please reply to me directly. Thank you, in advance.

Huba Bartos
Research Institute for Linguistics
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
(bartosnytud.hu)

Dear fellow linguists,

In modern stage performances of 17th century drama, or whenever texts
from the Early Modern English period are read aloud, I understand that
the pronoun "thou" tends to be systematically pronounced with the
vowel of MOUTH. However, I have not found any reference in
descriptions of English at this stage to such a pronunciation. It is
rather given as /thu(:)/. If this is accurate, where does the /thau/
variant come from?

Mario Cal Varela
Departamento de Filolox=EDa Inglesa e Alemana, despacho 307
Facultade de Filolox=EDa
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
c/ Burgo das Naci=F3ns s/n
Santiago 15705
ESPA=D1A
tlf (981) 563100 ext. 11858
fax (981) 574646

Hello,

I'm looking for languages that grammatically distinguish between
inclusive and exclusive pronouns (i.e. "we" meaning "all of us but not
you" vs. "we" meaning "all of us including you"). English does not
distinguish between the two forms, but I am certain there must be
languages that do. If you know of any, I would appreciate hearing
about them. Any references you know of would also be helpful. Thanks
in advance!!

-Kearsy

- -----------
Kearsy Cormier
kearsymail.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin
PhD student, Department of Linguistics