A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China: Getting More Out of Language Survey Wordlists Than Just Lexical Similarity Percentages
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Statement of Responsibility:
Johnson, Eric C.
Series:
Series Issue:
Issue Date:
2011
Publisher:
SIL International
Publisher Place:
Is Part Of Series:
SIL Electronic Working Papers 2011-005
Extent:
Abstract:
Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Yunnan province is home
to over a million members of the official Zhuang nationality. Over half of these speak
language varieties classified into the central branch of Tai languages. The aim of the
present work is to analyze wordlist data from the several Central Taic Zhuang languages
of Wenshan prefecture from a historical and comparative perspective in order to identify
phonological distinctives explaining the observed levels of mutual intelligibility among
these lexically similar languages and also to consider ramifications for spelling
conventions using the official Zhuang orthography. The data analyzed in this paper
results from sociolinguistic field research conducted by the author from 2005 to 2007, as
well as previously published sources.
Publication Status:
Published
Country:
China
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Entry Number:
41954