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Six main alternative linkage proposals which involve the Sino-Tibetan family, including Sinitic and other language families of the East Asian area (Miao-Yao, Altaic/Transeurasian, Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian) are briefly outlined. Using the standard techniques of comparative linguistics, a remote linkage between the Sino-Tibetan languages, including Sinitic, the Yeniseian languages of Siberia, and the Na-Dene languages of northwest North America is demonstrated. This includes cognate core lexicon showing regular sound correspondences, morphological similarities of form and function, as well as similarities in social structure. The other proposals for linkages that connect Sinitic and other languages of the East Asian area appear not to be based on a genetic linguistic relationship but rather due to contact: millennia of loanwords from Sinitic into the languages of those families and some lexicon borrowed into Sinitic. More remains to be done to further document the status of the linkage between Sino-Tibetan and Dene-Yeniseian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates various negation strategies in Hlai. The analysis is carried out within the framework of language typology. The most common negation in Hlai is expressed with vei 11, immediately preceding the element it negates. The nominal and imperative predications are negated by the nonstandard negators guai 121 and zou 55. Each type of modal has its own specific suppletive form for negative expression. As previous studies contain little information on this topic, this paper contributes to the field by introducing, clarifying, and analyzing these divergent negative markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory contribution to the inaugural issue of Languages and Peoples of the Eastern Himalayan Region (LPEHR) outlines the mission and goals of this new publication outlet. LPEHR takes over where the North East Indian Linguistics (NEIL) series left off. As such, this introduction also looks back on NEIL. An index of all articles published in the NEIL volumes is attached as supplemental material to this contribution.

The genome-wide characteristics and admixture history of the Tai-Kadai-speaking populations are essential for understanding the population genetic diversity in southern China. We genotyped about 700,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 239 individuals from six Tai-Kadai-speaking populations residing in the mountainous Guizhou Province of southwestern China. We merged the genome-wide data with available populations and ancients in East and Southeast Asia to infer Tai-Kadai-speaking populations’ admixture history and genetic structure. We observed a genetic substructure within the studied six populations in the PCA, ADMIXTURE, ChromoPainter, GLOBETROTTER, f-statistics, and qpWave analysis. The Dong, Zhuang, and Bouyei people had a strong genetic affinity with other Tai-Kadai-speaking and Austronesian groups in the surrounding area. However, Gelao showed an affinity to Sino-Tibetan groups, and Mulao people were genetically close to Hmong-Mien populations. qpAdm further illuminated that Gelao and Dong_Tongren composited more Han-related ancestry than Dong, Zhuang, Bouyei, and Mulao people. Meanwhile, we observed high frequencies of Y-chromosome haplogroup O in studied Tai-Kadai-speaking groups except for Gelao people with a high haplogroup N frequency. From the maternal side, haplogroup M7 was frequent in studied populations except for Tongren Dong, who had a high frequency of haplogroup B5. Our newly reported data are helpful for further exploring population dynamics in southern China.

It is well-known that Tai-Kadai languages have affected the typological profiles of Southern Sinitic varieties. For example, compared with their northern sisters, Southern Sinitic varieties display a stronger tendency towards head-initial structures, as in the N–N compounds for expressing the sex of animals and in post-verbal temporal adverbs. Given that the Tai-Kadai languages in China have been in contact with Sinitic for over two millennia, it is quite natural to find signs of Sinitic influence therein. Most remarkably, pre-verbal adjunct phrases and pre-nominal relative clauses, which are extremely atypical of VO languages but distinctive of Sinitic, are attested in some Tai-Kadai languages in Southern China. The prevalence of such typologically unusual traits among different linguistic groups in the Lingnan region of Southern China provides strong support for its status as a linguistic area. Devising and adopting a 'mutualist' approach, we analyse the typological data of over 280 language varieties, which we believe illustrates and strongly supports the idea that Western Lingnan qualifies as a linguistic area in its own right according to criteria widely recognized by areal linguists. The approach proposed in this study can be applied to other putative linguistic areas around the world to study the mechanisms and outcomes of contact-induced change under a specific set of ecological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, inhabited by over 1.3 billion people and known for its genetic, cultural and linguistic diversity, is considered to be indispensable for understanding the association between language families and genetic diversity. In order to get a better understanding of the genetic diversity and forensic characteristics of Tai–Kadai-speaking populations in Southwest China, we genotyped 30 insertion/deletion (InDel) markers and amelogenin in 205 individuals from Tai–Kadai-speaking Bouyei people using the Qiagen Investigator DIPplex amplification kit. We carried out a comprehensive population genetic relationship investigation among 14,303 individuals from 84 worldwide populations based on allele frequency correlation and 4907 genotypes of 30 InDels from 36 populations distributed in all continental or major subregions and seven linguistic phyla in China. Forensic parameters observed show highly polymorphic and informative features for Asians, although the DIPplex kit was developed focusing on Europeans, and indicate that this amplification system is appropriate to forensic personal identification and parentage testing. Patterns of InDel variations revealed by principal components analysis, multidimensional scaling plots, phylogenetic relationship exploration, model-based clustering as well as four pairwise genetic distances (Fst, Nei, Cavalli-Sforza and Reynolds) demonstrate significant genetic differentiation at the continental scale and genetic uniformity in Asia except for Tibeto-Burman and Turkic-speaking populations. Additionally, Tai–Kadai speakers, including Bouyei, Zhuang and Dong, share more genetic ancestry components than with other language speakers, and in general they are genetically very similar to Hmong–Mien-speaking populations. The dataset of Bouyei people generated in the present study is valuable for forensic identification and parentage tests in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent accounts on the typology of predicative possession, including those by Stassen, recognise a Topic Possessive type with the possessee coded like the figure in an existential predication, and the possessor coded as a topic that is not subcategorised by the predicate and is not related to any syntactic position in the comment, literally: As for Possessor, there is Possessee. The Asian region is explicitly singled out as being a Topic Possessive area. On the basis of a sample of 71 languages from the four main language families of continental East and Southeast Asia – Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic, contrary to these previous accounts of the distribution of the main types of predicative possession in the world's languages, we argue that this area should rather be considered as showing a particularly high concentration of Have-Possessives, with the additional particularity that the verbs occurring in the Have-Possessive constructions in this linguistic area are polysemous verbs also used for existential predication. After briefly reviewing Stassen's typology of predicative possession, we discuss his account of the Topic Possessive type and then present five arguments for considering why the possessor NP of the existential/possessive verb yǒu 有 in Standard Mandarin Chinese cannot be analysed as invariably occupying the position of a topic, and consequently, that the construction should be reclassified as an instance of the Have-Possessive type. In the final sections, the situation is examined for other Southeast Asian languages showing the same configuration for predicative possession and existential predication as Standard Mandarin, to the extent that data is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Placement events in Zhuang are encoded in serial verb constructions. • Verbs of Putting constitute locative applicative. • Distribution of placement verbs is governed by semantic and syntactic factors. • Verb serialising languages exhibit both S-framed and V-framed features. Abstract This study explores the linguistic encoding of placement events in Zhuang, a Tai dialect spoken in south China's Guangxi Province. Focusing on the placement verb PUT/PLACE, this paper provides a typological description of caused motion in this semantic domain. The results reveal patterns of syntactic constructions that are consistent with generalisations of placement events in cross-linguistic investigations with respect to semantic specificity of verb types, while also unveiling some language-specific features pertaining to the nature of relationship between Figure and Ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper discusses evidentiality and epistemic modality in Zhuang, a Tai language spoken in South China's Guangxi Province and surrounding regions. A set of verbs of SPEAKING are found in Zhuang that describe the sources of information. These typically involve the grammaticalised marker nau4 which derives from a lexical verb meaning 'say', forming a rich array of expressions to mark direct and indirect speech, hearsay and other types of reported information, which carry a wide variety of evidential and epistemic overtones such as surprise, self-correction, mirativity, uncertainty, among others. A number of sentence-final particles, along with hedges and sensory verbs, are also found with these functions. Each of these conveys different degrees of reliability of the source of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sui, an indigenous minority language of southwest China, has an elaborate system of adjective intensification. Adjectives are intensified with word-specific, bound morphemes that usually either rhyme with the base or alliterate with the base. Stanford (2007) notes morpho-phonological patterns that suggest reduplication, rhyme, alliteration, The Emergence of the Unmarked (McCarthy & Prince 1994, Yip 2001), identity avoidance, and “Copy But Don’t Repeat” (Kennard 2004). However, the adjective intensifiers defy a simple, fully predictable explanation in such terms; the intensifier lexicon may be best described as “patterned variety,” a case of lexicalized poetry or a poeticized lexicon. Word formation is guided by general patterns, but each specific intensifier may vary within those overall guidelines. Many adjectives have multiple intensifiers that bear subtle semantic and pragmatic distinctions. The current paper serves as a complement to Stanford (2007) by providing a detailed lexicon of the Sui adjective intensifiers for future reference and further analysis. This lexicon is based on the author’s fieldwork and represents the first detailed account of Sui adjective intensifiers for the wider linguistic community.

The origins of Kam-Sui speaking Chadong and Mulam people have been controversial subjects in ethnic history studies and other related fields. Here, we studied Y chromosome (40 informative single nucleotide polymorphisms and 17 short tandem repeats in a non-recombining region) and mtDNA (hypervariable segment I and coding region single nucleotide polymorphisms) diversities in 50 Chadong and 93 Mulam individuals. The Y chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup components and network analyses indicated that both Chadong and Mulam originated from the admixture between surrounding populations and the indigenous Kam-Sui populations. The newly found Chadong is more closely related to Mulam than to Maonan, especially in the maternal lineages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Sui dialect geography study conducted new fieldwork to examine changes among regional dialects across a time span of 50 years. The new field results were compared to an unpublished 1950s Sui dialect survey, Shuiyu Diaocha Baogao. The results provide new insights about this particular Tai-Kadai language and also new perspectives for the study of dialects and physical space in other small, rural indigenous communities across Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on natural conversational data, the current study analyzes utterance-final pragmatic particle lāh in Shishan, a dialect of Lingao of the Tai-Kadai language family. The research proposes that lāh signals an interactively built, relational notion of restrictivity. Specifically, lāh signals to the addressee that the state-of-affairs described in the utterance is restricted such that “nothing else” is possible due to a pre-existing, external constraint. The core meaning of relational “nothing else” gives rise to such pragmatic extensions as marking suggestions necessitated by external circumstances, assertion of “obviousness,” negative politeness strategies, and various emotive stances toward the situation in focus and/or toward the addressee. The range of functions of lāh parallel a number of Southeast Asian languages’ pragmatic particles (e.g., Cantonese lo, Mandarin me, Singapore English lor), particularly surrounding the function of marking the propositional content as “obvious.” The overlap corroborates a recurrent theme in the expanding research on pragmatic particles, specifically, pragmatic particles’ encoding the speaker''s subjectivity toward the content being communicated. Equally important is that their use is prompted by, and in turn, responds to, perceived sharedness/divergence in the speaker''s and addressee''s subjective understandings of the world, an embodiment of the “intersubjective” nature of language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The government of China defined 56 official ethnicities for the ethnic groups in China for political purposes; however, there are many more than 56 ethnic groups. Therefore, similar groups must be pooled for registry, and the so-called ethnicity identification is an important official mission in China. Here, we showed how genetics can help in the ethnicity identification for the Gelong people on Hainan Island. The Gelong speak a Kadai language whose other speakers (officially of the Gelao ethnicity) are all far in the southwest of China. Being registered as a Han ethnicity, the Gelong lost all the benefits assigned to the minorities. Y-chromosome typing was performed in a sample of 78 individuals. Twenty single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and seven short tandem repeats (STRs) were typed and eight haplogroups were detected, among which haplogroup O1a* was the most dominant. Compared with the Y haplogroups of the populations in south China, the Gelong were found to be closest to the Gelao and the Hlai using principal components (PCs) analysis, dendrogram clustering and STR networks. The genetic similarity between the Gelong and the Hlai may have resulted from the gene flow during thousands of years of neighboring history on Hainan Island, whereas the similarity between the Gelong and the Gelao may have resulted from their common ancestry because there is less possibility of gene flow over such a far distance. As both linguistic and genetic evidence support the similarity between the Gelong and the Gelao, we suggest that the Gelong register as Gelao for their official ethnicity. However, this identification is invalid until it is accepted by the Gelong people themselves and the Hainan government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intricate system of adjective intensification permeates Sui, a Tai-Kadai minority language of Guizhou Province, China. Sui adjective intensifiers show evidence of partial reduplication involving a complex interplay of morphophonological processes: rhyme, alliteration, The Emergence of The Unmarked (TETU), and identity avoidance patterns that support Kennard’s “Copy but don’t repeat” [(2004). Phonology, 21(3), 303–323]. This Sui phenomenon has never been reported to the wider linguistic community beyond Guizhou, and it provides valuable theoretical insight into reduplication and related morpho-phonological processes. Moreover, the interaction of these morpho-phonological processes forms a system of patterned variety that may be viewed as a poeticized lexicon or lexicalized poetry, thus illustrating the presence of extensive poetic effects embedded within the core grammar. In this way, Sui provides strong support for Yip’s observation that “humans have both an aptitude and a taste for creating repetitive sequences, and they may use this skill in a variety of ways that are more or less part of the core grammar of the language” [(1999). Glot International, 4.8, 1–7]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• I examine serial verb clauses with ʔaw 'take' in Isaan from a Construction Grammar. • The study relies on collexeme analysis within an Isaan corpus. • I argue that the instrumental meaning of 'take' in Isaan is fully grammaticalized. This paper describes the syntactic and semantic properties of serial verb clauses with ʔaw 'take' in Isaan, a Tai-Kadai language variety spoken in Northeast Thailand that shares linguistic features with both Thai and Lao. Contrary to previous hypotheses about the instrumental meaning of 'take' in Thai and Lao, I argue that the instrumental meaning of ʔaw belongs to a distinct serial verb construction (SVC) in Isaan grammar, and the pattern ʔaw NP VP does not qualify as an instance of the "purposive" SVC nor the "handling-dispatch" SVC. The analysis has used a combination of semantic tests, analysis of corpus frequency patterns, and discourse analysis. Analysis of the Spoken Isaan Corpus suggests that serial verb uses of ʔaw with instrumental meaning not only have a syntactic pattern distinguishable from the purposive and the handling-dispatch constructions, but also exhibit different discourse-informational structure; the instrument participant is typically new information or contextually non-recoverable information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]