The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehensive survey of the history and core systems and subsystems of the languages of this fascinating region. Drawing on his depth of expertise in mainland Southeast Asia, Enfield includes more than a thousand data examples from over a hundred languages from Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, bringing together a wealth of data and analysis that has not previously been available in one place. Chapters cover the many ways in which these languages both resemble each other, and differ from each other, and the diversity of the area's languages is highlighted, with a special emphasis on minority languages, which outnumber the national languages by nearly a hundred to one. The result is an authoritative treatment of a fascinating and important linguistic area.
- Includes detailed descriptions of the nature of mainland Southeast Asian languages, with examples from more than a hundred languages
- Provides a rich account of the prehistorical background to human and linguistic diversity in mainland Southeast Asia
- Offers a compact and comprehensive overview of the historical relationships between the languages and language families of mainland Southeast Asia
Reviews & endorsements
'This is a must-read for linguists working on the languages of Southeast Asia, and anyone interested in an insightful and instructive overview of this important linguistic area.' Robert Dixon, James Cook University, Australia
Product details
March 2021Adobe eBook Reader
9781108751261
0 pages
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Preface
- 1. Context
- 2. Language Histories and Classifications
- 3. Typological Overview
- 4. Phonological systems
- 5. Word formation
- 6. Reference and Nominal Syntax
- 7. Predication and Clausal Syntax
- Postface
- References
- Index.