This study, based on extensive and pioneering fieldwork done by the author between 1999 and 2002, provides a first account of Yinchia, a hitherto undescribed language in the southern Shan State of Myanmar (Burma). Using data collected from native Yinchia speakers in the Nam-San community, the author presents a comprehensive analysis of Yinchia phonetics and phonology (including tonology) in a framework that is essentially structuralist. Chapters on morphology and syntax remain more sketchy and tentative but discuss important issues such as the tense and aspect system of Yinchia as well as questions of word structure and the identification of phonological words, using mainly Integrational Linguistics as a theoretical background. Moreover, the author develops an orthography for Yinchia which so far has no writing system.

Autorentext

The Author: Hla Myat Thway, born in Ngathainggyaung, Myanmar (Burma), 1968. Studied Burmese language and literature at Yangon University; 1992 B.A. (Burmese Language and Literature), 1999 M.A. (Burmese Linguistics); 1996-2001 tutor at the Department of Myanmar, University of Culture, Yangon (teaching Burmese language and literature); 2001 tutor at the Department of Myanmar, University of Yangon. Between 1999 and 2002 extensive field work on the Yinchia language in Nam-San, southern Shan State, Myanmar; 2002-2008 work on a doctoral thesis in Linguistics at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) with scholarships from the DAAD and the KAAD; 2008 Dr. phil. in Linguistics at the Freie Universität Berlin (Yinchia Studies Integrational and Structuralist).

Inhalt

Contents: Yinchia language - Languages of Myanmar (Burma) - Tone language - Language documentation - Language description - Integrational Linguistics - Linguistic structuralism.