Amdo Tibetan: A Comprehensive Grammar Textbook is a rigorous one-year college-level textbook for English speakers who wish to learn the Amdo dialect of the Tibetan language. This comprehensive introduction to the language provides dialogues at the start of each new lesson to illustrate the constructions covered in that lesson. Material from previous chapters is recycled within these dialogues to reinforce learning as the lessons progress. Each chapter unpacks the opening sample dialogue and provides an in-depth analysis and technical explanations of the specific constructions presented. Cultural sections are also included in each chapter, as well as a range of exercises and drills to reinforce learning and help students internalize the new information. The book will be of particular interest to linguists and students with some knowledge of either standard colloquial or literary Tibetan.

A growing number of language varieties with diverse backgrounds and structural typologies have been identified as mixed. However, the debate on the status of many varieties and even on the existence of the category of “mixed languages” continues still today. This volume examines the current state of the theoretical and empirical debate on mixed languages and presents new advances from a diverse set of mixed language varieties. These cover well-known mixed languages, such as Media Lengua, Michif, Gurindji Kriol, and Kallawaya, and varieties whose classification is still debated, such as Reo Rapa, Kumzari, Jopará, and Wutun. The contributions deal with different aspects of mixed languages, including descriptive approaches to their current status and origins, theoretical discussions on the language contact processes in them, and analysis of different types of language mixing practices. This book contributes to the current debate on the existence of the mixed language category, shedding more light onto this fascinating group of languages and the contact processes that shape them.

With nearly a quarter of the world’s population, members of at least five major language families plus several putative language isolates, South Asia is a fascinating arena for linguistic investigations, whether comparative-historical linguistics, studies of language contact and multilingualism, or general linguistic theory. This volume provides a state-of-the-art survey of linguistic research on the languages of South Asia, with contributions by well-known experts. Focus is both on what has been accomplished so far and on what remains unresolved or controversial and hence offers challenges for future research. In addition to covering the languages, their histories, and their genetic classification, as well as phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and sociolinguistics, the volume provides special coverage of contact and convergence, indigenous South Asian grammatical traditions, applications of modern technology to South Asian languages, and South Asian writing systems. An appendix offers a classified listing of major sources and resources, both digital/online and printed.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Community Party (CCP) has launched a nation-wide ethnic identification project to recognize ethnic minorities, which are widely considered as “peripheral,” “barbarian,” “inferior,” “backward,” and “distrusted.” State schooling is expected to play a significant political role in civilizing and integrating these ethnic minorities. As an important part of Chinese state schooling, fifteen tertiary minority institutions have been established, assuming a primary goal of cultivating minority officials who are loyal to the CCP. This study, situating in the context of Minzu University of China (MUC), the best university designated specifically for the education of ethnic minorities, seeks to explore the intersection between state schooling and ethnic identity construction of Tibetan students. Ethnographic data has revealed how educational backgrounds of MUC’s Tibetan students have influenced the ways in which they interpret, negotiate and assert their Tibetan-ness. Four patterns of ethnic identification are discussed: (1) For the min kao min students (meaning having received bilingual education in Chinese and Tibetan prior to MUC) in Tibetan studies, being Tibetan means assuming an ethnic mission of promoting Tibetan language and culture; (2) For the min kao min students in other majors, being Tibetan embodies having a different physical appearance, wearing different clothing, engaging in different religious practices, holding cultural beliefs and generally under-achieving academically in Han-dominant settings; (3) For the inland Tibetan school graduates, being Tibetan means having a reflective awareness of their cultural and language loss due to their dislocated schooling and a determination to make up for the past by innovatively initiating, organizing or participating in Tibetan cultural programs; (4) For the min kao han (meaning having received mainstream education the same as Han Chinese prior to MUC) students, being Tibetan is simply a symbolic identity that they sometimes utilize to gain preferential treatments. With the exception of most of the min kao han students, Tibetan identity has been revitalized and strengthened after studying and living in MUC. In the process, the unity of the Tibetan group has been promoted and enhanced. Tibetan students’ different approaches to ethnic identification provide us with useful lessons about ethnic identity dynamics in relation to education, culture, and ethnic politics. As opposed to other interpretations that see Tibetans as exotic ethnic others, this study reveals that Tibetan students’ ethnic identification is meaningful when they strategically negotiate with the Han-Chinese-dominant narratives. This study contributes to the understanding of ethnic politics and interethnic dynamics in China.

Contributions de F. Alvarez-Pereyre, M. Bejta, C. Buridant, J. Carmignac, N.G. Contossopoulos, L. Deroy, G. Drettas, M. Erdal, M.M.J. Fernandez, L. Fleuriot, C. Fondet, M. Hasiuk, P. Klafkowski, I. Levin, A.F. Majewicz, U. Masing, D. Moinfar, U. Obst, F.J. Oinas, C. Paris, J. Pohl, V. Rukke-Dravina, W.R. Schmalstieg, F. de Sivers, N. Strazhas-Kameneckaite, J.M.C. Thomas, M. Tominaga, W. Veenker et S.C. Yau.