The Geolinguistics of the Languages in Yunnan

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02525
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Endo Mitsuaki 青山学院大学, 経済学部, 教授 (30176804)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 言語地理学 / 近過去の言語変化 / タイカダイ語族 / 中国語 / 方言 / 声調 / 相対的順序 / 絶対年代

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The modification of the nasal codas -m, -n, and -ng among the Sinitic, Tai-Kadai, Tibeto-Burman, and Hmong-Mien languages distributed in Yunnan are indicated in the maps with the same symbols, distinguished by colors. The common tendencies and mutual relationships of these languages were traced by superimposing these maps. In particular, the tones of Yunnan Chinese were classified into types, the results were mapped, and their formation process was reconstructed. The time series maps exhibiting the recent three stages of the Chinese Shandong dialects were drawn and their corresponding changing process was traced. The mapping and interpretation of these languages was based on eight elements that consisted of the lexical, phonological, and syntactic features of Tai-Kadai, which is also distributed in Yunnan, and the results were published in English. Concrete examples of the linguistic changing processes apart from the language families were discovered.

Free Research Field

言語学