A Grammar of Anong: Language Death Under Intense Contact

hong kai Sun

BRILL, 2009 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 394 pages

A work that will be of interest to those interested in typology, language history, and contact induced change, this book documents the radical restructuring of Anong over the last 40 years under intense contact with Lisu. In the almost fifty years, Sun Hongkai has been documenting the Anong language of Yunnan China, it has undergone radical, contact-induced changes. The language of the less than forty remaining speakers is quite different than the Anong of forty years ago. Under intense contact with Lisu, major change has occurred in the language, much of it documented in this work of Sun's. The English edition is a reworking of the original Chinese version, providing annotation, an expanded lexicon, and an appendix that contains an instrumental study of the language.

Contents

• Chapter One Introduction: 1
• Chapter Two Phonology: 19
• Chapter Three Lexicon: 33
• Chapter Four Syntax: 55
• Chapter Five The Restructuring of Anong: 123
• Chapter Six Anong in TibetoBurman: 143
• Appendices: 180
• Appendix A The Anong lexicon: 181
• Appendix B Texts: 325
• Appendix C An acoustic look at Anong: 357
• Index: 391

About the author

Hongkai Sun is Professor of Anthropology and Ethnology and spent over 40 years researching Anong. He has done intensive fieldwork on 29 other languages and published 10 grammatical sketches and over a 100 articles. Liu Guangkun is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics. She has worked at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has done fieldwork on Qiang, Ersu, Shixing, Dulong, Nu and Anong area, often working together with her husband Sun Hongkai. Fengxiang Li is Professor of English and Linguistics at California State University, Chico. He has worked on Tungusic linguistics, language endangerment, and language contact for many years. He is recipient of two NSF research grants and has written or co-authored numerous articles on these topics. Ela Thurgood is Professor of English and Linguistics at California State University, Chico. Her research centers around the phonetics and phonology of underdocumented languages (Hainan Cham, Anong, eastern Javanese). She has also published on 19th century Baba Malay. Graham Thurgood is Professor of English and Linguistics at California State University, Chico. His research centers on the Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and Austronesian languages of SEA, with a focus on their histories and their tonal systems.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Grammar of Anong: Language Death Under Intense Contact; Brill's Tibetan Studies Library; Volumes 5-9 of Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, 5/6 Series; Languages of the Greater Himalayan region
• Author: hong kai Sun
• Editors: Guang kun Liu, Fengxiang Li, Ela Thurgood, Graham Thurgood
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: BRILL, 2009
• ISBN: 9004176861, 9789004176867
• Length: 394 pages
• Subjects: Foreign Language Study / Southeast Asian Languages; Language Arts & Disciplines / Study & Teaching; Reference / General; Social Science / General