The Tai-Kadai languages (review)

What do we expect from a language-family handbook? Linguists not specializing in the language family might expect to acquire a sense of its shared features and range of diversity in at least the core areas of phonology, morphosyntax, and diachrony, with perhaps some additional information on semantics and sociocultural context, among others. Specialists might expect a conspectus of the current state of research as well as some indication of new directions.

One way to achieve these goals is to present a matched set of sketches of languages and language groups following a uniform outline, supported by overview chapters on more general topics. The volume under review takes a different tack: it presents a mixture of language sketches, overviews, and analyses of selected topics either in single languages or across several. There is wide variation among chapters in length and in depth of analysis. My view is that this approach also succeeds, although unfortunately the book suffers from problems in editing and production.

The Tai-Kadai family of languages has also been called Kadai and Kra-Dai, as deftly explained by editorAnthonyV. N. Diller in Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’(3–8). The termsTai, Thai, and (Ka/Kra-)Dai are easily confused. Furthermore, Thai is often used for several languages spoken in Thailand (e.g. Southern Thai, Central Thai). To avoid confusion, some authors use Siamese to designate the standard language of modern Thailand, and I follow that practice here. As background to subsequent discussion, readers should know that (i) major subdivisions of the family are Tai, Kam-Sui (sometimes grouped with the foregoing as Kam-Tai), Hlai (Li), and Kra; and (ii) Tai has been divided by Li (1977) into Northern, Central, and Southwestern subgroups.

The center of diversity for this language family is in southern China (Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan), while the center of population is in Thailand and Laos. Those countries are also the center of political prominence, in that the Southwestern Tai languages—Siamese and Lao—are the only ones that have the status of national languages. So, it is not surprising that these two languages at the southern extreme of the family’s area are the earliest studied and the best known. More recent linguistic study then worked its way up the family tree and northeastward, first to the Northern and Central Tai languages of Guangxi and northern Vietnam, then to the Kam-Sui languages of Guangzi (Guizhou and Hunan), and finally to the smallest and arguably the earliest splits off the line of descent, Hlai (Li) of Hainan, Gelao of Guizhou and Guangxi, Laha of northern Vietnam, and a number of others. The volume under review is not free of a weighting toward the southern languages, especially Siamese of course, but it makes a commendable effort at redressing the balance.

Diller’s two chapters, ‘Introduction’ (Ch. 1) and ‘Resources for Thai language research’ (Ch. 3), are a pleasure. The section on terminology in Ch. 1 is as good a presentation of this vexed topic as I have seen anywhere. Ch. 3 elegantly combines (i) guiding the reader through a hefty number of published works (there is a twenty-eight-page list of references) on all aspects of Siamese linguistics with (ii) setting forth a quite complete basic sketch of Siamese phonology, syntax, semantics, diachrony, and more.

Many chapters consist of or include sketches of individual languages. Space limitations prevent me from describing all of them, so I single out two. Based on the author’s own first language, a Northern Tai variety spoken at Fengshan, Yongxian Luo’s chapter, ‘Zhuang’ (317–77), represents this heterogeneous grouping, which covers both the Central Tai and the Northern Tai spoken in Guangxi province. The sixty-one-page description is quite extensive, and includes tidbits such as a list of compounds headed by body-part terms like ‘throat’ and ‘heart’ that designate emotions and temperaments. This is possibly the most extensive description of a Northern Tai language...