Announcements in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area

ANNOUNCEMENTS

41st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics is to be held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London from 18-21 September 2008, hosted by the Department of South East Asia and the Islands in conjunction with the Centre of South East Asian Studies. If there is interest, pre-conference workshops may be held on 17th and 16th September. Further conference information will be available from April 2008 on the conference website at http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/wadict/icstll41/. If you plan to attend the conference, please send an email to ICSTLL41@soas.ac.uk giving your email address and saying whether or not you intend to present a paper and/or to organise a panel or workshop. Full abstracts are due 15 June, 2008.

14th Himalayan Languages Symposium, 21-23 August 2008, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. Keynote speaker: Scott DeLancey, University of Oregon. Abstracts due 31 March, 2008. If you would like to receive information about the conference, send an e-mail to HlsGoteborg at ling.gu.se.

Books Available for Review in LTBA

Borchers, Dörte. 2008 A Grammar of Sunwar (Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 7). Leiden & Boston: Brill, xxvi, 318 pp.

Bradley, David. 2006. Dictionary of Southern Lisu (STEDT Monograph 4). Berkeley: STEDT. (see description below)

Cook, Richard S. 2006. Classical Chinese Combinatorics: Derivation of the Book of Changes Hexagram Sequence (STEDT Monograph 5). Berkeley: STEDT. (see description below)

Joseph, U. V. 2007. Rabha (Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Vol. 1). Leiden & Boston: Brill, xxxii, 864 pp.

Matisoff, James A. 2003. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 750 pages.

Matisoff, James A. 2006. English-Lahu Lexicon (UC Publications in Linguistics 139). Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 450 pages.

Plaisier, Heleen. 2007. A Grammar of Lephcha (Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Vol. 5). Leiden & Boston: Brill, xvi, 256 pp.

Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2005. A Grammar of Jero, with a historical comparative study of the Kiranti languages. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 404 pages.

Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The Roots of Old Chinese. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 184). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins, 272 pages.

See the Books Available for Review page for more details on these books. Please contact ltba@latrobe.edu.au if you would like to review one of the books.

New Journal: 《汉藏语学报》Journal of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics

《汉藏语学报》Journal of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, edited by Prof. Dai Qingxia, is a new journal devoted to the Sino-Tibetan language family, and so will include a large number of papers on Tibeto-Burman languages. The first issue appeared in mid 2007. For more information and to submit articles, write to Dr. Ziqun Luo at luoziqun@263.net (in Chinese) or to Randy LaPolla at r.lapolla@latrobe.edu.au (English or Chinese).

Classical Chinese Combinatorics:
Derivation of the Book of Changes Hexagram Sequence Now Available

The first and most enigmatic of the Chinese classics is the Book of Changes, and the reasoning behind its binary hexagram sequence remained an unsolved mystery for some 3,000 years (according to the tradition ascribing it to King Wen of Zhou, d. -11th c.). STEDT Monograph 5: Classical Chinese Combinatorics: Derivation of the Book of Changes Hexagram Sequence, by Richard S. Cook, resolves the classical enigma. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the hexagram sequence, showing that its classification of binary sequences demonstrates knowledge of the convergence of certain linear recurrence sequences (LRS; Pingala -5th c.?, Fibonacci 1202) to division in extreme and mean ratio (DEMR, the “Golden Section” irrational; Pythagoras -6th c.?, Euclid -4th c.). It is shown that the complex hexagram sequence encapsulates a careful and ingenious demonstration of the LRS/DEMR relation, that this knowledge results from general combinatorial analysis, and is reflected in elements emphasized in ancient Chinese and Western mathematical traditions. This copiously illustrated 656-page volume presents a detailed introduction of the classical problem, an overview and in-depth derivation of the solution, an extensive terminological glossary, and computer source code formalizing all aspects of the derivations. The conclusion of this work situates the major findings in a larger historical context. (ISBN 0-944613-44-6; 656 pages)

STEDT, Linguistics Dept.
1203 Dwinelle Hall #2652
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2652

ltba@socrates.berkeley.edu

US$100.00 + shipping and handling (please specify air-mail or sea-mail)

Dictionary of Southern Lisu Now Available

A new dictionary of Southern Lisu by David Bradley has been published as STEDT Monograph Series No. 4. This includes a seven-page introduction by the series editor, James A, Matisoff, a 20-page introduction giving linguistic and other background on the Lisu, and 346 pages of dictionary entries including many sentences and other examples. Lisu forms are given in Lisu orthography and in phonetic transcription; the entries also include a wealth of cultural information. The Southern Lisu dialect spoken in Thailand and represented in this dictionary is quite different from the dialect represented in the 1994 Northern Lisu dictionary by the same author, published by Pacific Linguistics. Copies may be ordered from:

STEDT, Linguistics Dept.
1203 Dwinelle Hall #2652
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2652

ltba@socrates.berkeley.edu

Hard cover: US$50 + postage (please specify air-mail or sea-mail)
Softbound: US$40 + postage

English-Lahu Lexicon Now Available

Lahu is an important minority language of Southeast Asia, belonging to the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken by over 500,000 people in China. Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. This English-Lahu Lexicon (ELL) is a computer-aided but manually edited "reversal" of the author's monumental Lahu-English dictionary (The Dictionary of Lahu, UCPL #111, 1988, xxv + 1436 pp.). English-Lahu Lexicon contains nearly 5400 head-entries and well over 10,000 carefully arranged subentries. Every Lahu expression is provided with a form-class designation to indicate its grammatical function. Eight useful Appendices (e.g. Plant and Animal Names) round out the volume's 450 pages.
(UC Publications in Linguistics 139. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 2006, 450 pages. Cloth: $39.95, £26.95 978-0-520-09855-8)

Listserve for Tibeto-Burman Linguistics

The Tibeto-Burman Linguistics discussion list is a relatively informal and unmoderated forum for discussion of any aspect of the analysis of Tibeto-Burman languages (or possibly Sino-Tibetan in general) and the culture of their speakers. It is also a good place to announce events and activities relevant to linguists working on these languages.
To join the list, send an e-mail to listserv@latrobe.edu.au with no subject. In the body of the mail type

subscribe tibeto-burman_linguistics address@server First_name Last_name

Replace "address@server" with your e-mail address, and "First_name" "Last_name" with your names. After that, if you want to post a message to the list, send the message to tibeto-burman_linguistics@latrobe.edu.au

LTBA Now Available On Line

Beginning with Issue 29.1, LTBA will be available on line from the Informit e-Library service for a separate subscription fee. It is also possible to purchase individual articles through this service.