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The Languages of China.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ramsey, S. Robert.
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (363 pages)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1987.
- Summary:
- An incredible source of information about the Chinese language and China’s minority languagesIn this accessible and informative book, S. Robert Ramsey lucidly explains what the Chinese language is—its social and geographical situation, its history, its range of dialects, the structure of the modern standard language, and the writing system. He goes on to describe the languages of China’s national minorities, showing how they interrelate with each other and with Chinese. Readers learn about the peoples who speak the languages of China, what China is like linguistically, and the cultural and historical settings of the country’s languages. For those who want more linguistic detail, Ramsey provides lists, maps, charts, and descriptions along with technical references in notes at the end of the book. Invaluable to general linguists and Sinologists alike, The Languages of China is an excellent introduction to Chinese and East Asian linguistics.
- Contents:
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Transcriptions and Symbols
- PART I: THE CHINESE LANGUAGE
- 1 A Language for All of China
- 2 China, North and South
- 3 The Spread of Northern Influence
- 4 The Standard (Pronunciation)
- 5 The Standard (Grammar)
- Chinese and the Myth of the Primitive Language
- Words
- Sentences
- 6 Today's Dialects
- North
- South
- 7 History
- Old Chinese
- From Middle Chinese to Peking Mandarin
- 8 Chinese Writing Today
- PART II: THE MINORITY LANGUAGES OF CHINA
- 9 The Chinese and Their Neighbors
- The Classification of the Minorities
- Linguistic Areas in China
- 10 The Minorities of North China
- Turkic
- Mongolian
- Tungus
- 11 The Minorities of South China
- Tai
- Tibeto-Burman
- Miao-Yao
- Mon-Khmer
- Unclassified or Isolated Languages
- Appendix A: Chinese Sounds and the Pinyin Romanization System
- Appendix B: A Comparative Table of the Pinyin and Wade-Giles Romanizations
- Notes
- Bibliographic Abbreviations
- General Bibliography
- Bibliography for China's Other Languages
- Index.
- Notes:
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 9780691268248
- 069126824X
- OCLC:
- 1435752187
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