David Bradley

This chapter summarises the linguistic phylogeny of the Sino-Tibetan (ST) languages and how this phylogeny relates to archaeological and genetic information.
In forthcoming Oxford Handbook edited by Martine Robbeets and Mark Hudson
Co-authors Liu Li Stanford U
Ning Chao, Peking University
Rita dal Martello, Università ca' Foscari, Venezia

The deictic system of Lisu is complex, and includes deictics expressing distance, height and anaphora. Most dialects have a system which includes proximal, medial (by addressee), distal same level, distal higher level and  distal lower level forms. There are also expressive forms with different tones and some initials for the three distal forms, and reduplicated and triplicated forms combining basic and expressive distals.

Also available on YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PybKhzJ5eQo>

The present issue contains selected papers from the Fifth Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment (SoLE) Workshop held during the Twentieth International Congress of Linguists of the Comité International Permanent des Linguistes at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, on 5-6 July 2018. This collection focuses on sociolinguistic issues related to language endangerment in Africa and Asia, but, of course, similar processes are underway worldwide. I also discuss here in general terms the many factors leading to language endangerment and the range of possible community responses.

Most nations in mainland Southeast Asia and elsewhere have one national language as a focus of national identity and unity, supported by a language policy which promotes and develops this language. Indigenous and immigrant minority groups within each nation may be marginalized; their languages may become endangered. Some of the official national language policies and ethnic policies of mainland Southeast Asian nations aim to support both a national language and indigenous minority languages, but usually the real policy is less positive. It is possible to use sociolinguistic and educational strategies to maintain the linguistic heritage and diversity of a nation, develop bilingual skills among minority groups, and integrate minorities successfully into the nations where they live, but this requires commitment and effort from the minorities themselves and from government and other authorities. The main focus of this paper is two case studies: one of language policy and planning in Myanmar, whose language policy and planning has rarely been discussed before. The other is on the Lisu, a minority group in Myanmar and surrounding countries, who have been relatively successful in maintaining their language.

Like almost every Ngwi language, Lisu has a complex pattern of grammaticalization of a number of positive verbs of dimensional extent (Bradley 1995). Seven positive dimensional extent verbs show this pattern in all dialects, with six showing consistent tonal differences in different syntactic frames.

The Sino-Tibetan (ST) languages, including Chinese, are the major family of languages in China and many areas surrounding China in Southeast and South Asia. There have been many proposals about the phylogeny of Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) and the possible connections between specific ancient cultures of China and specific subgroups of PST; the basic modern subgrouping followed here is set out in more detail in Bradley (1997, 2002). It has recently been proposed (van Driem 2014) that the entire family should be renamed Trans-Himalayan (TH); others have suggested that the entire family should be called TB, with Sinitic as just one subgroup of TB (DeLancey 2013); both proposals aim to question the central historical position of Sinitic within TB. The general consensus (van Driem 1999, LaPolla 2001) is that PST was spoken during the 仰韶 Yangshao Culture in northwestern China circa 7,000 to 5,000 years before present (7-5K YBP). The Sinitic branch (Chinese) remained in northern central China during the 龙山 Longshan Culture (5-3.9K YBP), then later spread east during the 夏 Xia Dynasty (4.1-3.6K YBP) and 商 Shang Dynasty (3.6-3K YBP) and southeast in later times. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the family probably moved southwest from the Yangshao area and became Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) during the 马家窑 Majiayao Culture (5.3-4K YBP); PTB then gradually subdivided into various branches as groups of speakers moved further south and west. In addition to comparative linguistic evidence, there are five types of external evidence. One is paleoclimate: where in the area would it have been ecologically desirable or at least possible for Neolithic hunters, early pastoralists and early agriculturalists to live at various times in the past? A second is archaeology: where and from when are traces of human settlement found, and what level of material culture is present at each period: what domestic and hunted animals, cultivated crops and other collected plants, artefacts and human remains are found? A third is paleobiology: where were the relevant plants and animals indigenous, when did they start to be associated with human management, and how did they spread? A fourth is genetics; though of course not all speakers of a given language are descendants of earlier speakers of that language, and evidence of male (X chromosome) and female (mitochondrial DNA) genetic descent is sometimes contradictory. Lastly, there is much more recent traditional human evidence: oral traditions concerning origins and migration as embodied in oral history, psychopompic and other funeral-related traditions, and so on, as well as written history. Of course sometimes oral and early written history is unclear or partly mythologized, and so may be less reliable than hard evidence from paleoclimate, archaeology, paleobiology and genetics, but it is still suggestive. Where all of these agree, we can begin to build a picture of early civilization in China and surrounding areas, and attempt to connect particular linguistically-reconstructed subgroups with particular locations and periods. For some efforts in these areas, see Bradley (2011) on crops, Bradley (2016) on animals, and Bradley (2017a, 2017b) on correlating crop and domestic animal information with archaeology and PST subgrouping. Those scholars who wish to rename ST as TH prefer to place the point of origin in what is now the area where northeastern India, northwestern Southeast Asia and southwestern China meet. This proposal is most unlikely on geographical grounds (the area is extremely mountainous and divided by major non-navigable rivers in deep valleys which separate rather than link); on climate grounds (this area has never been a particularly favourable location for pastoral or agricultural activity, and at colder periods much of it has been almost

The paper will discuss the early linguistic history of China and the phylogeny of Sino-Tibetan based on comparative linguistic and archaeological evidence. In particular, there will be a focus on the domestication of animals and the origins of agriculture in China, and how this is reflected in the archaeological and historical record and in linguistic evidence.

The paper discusses the phylogeny of Tibeto-Burman (TB) from the perspective of forms for major plant crops and domestic animals, and places this in the context of archaeological findings. It is clear that at least as early as eight thousand years before present (8K BP), the main plant crops domesticated by the speakers of Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) in the upper Yellow River basin of north central China were two different types of millet, Setaria italica or foxtail millet and Panicum miliaceum or broomcorn millet, also Glycine max or soybeans (Liu & Chen 2012). Somewhat later, Oryza sativa or rice was first domesticated in mainland Southeast Asia (var. indica) and separately in southern China (var. japonica) and buckwheat Fagopyrum cymosum probably first domesticated in southwestern China, both arrived in this area approximately 6K BP, with buckwheat perhaps slightly later. Major grain crops introduced subsequently from the west include Triticum spp. or wheat and Hordeum vulgare or barley arriving circa 4.5K BP. For the six domestic animals with the greatest importance for Sinitic culture and which are included in the Chinese 12-animal cycle, the dog, pig, cow, goat, chicken and horse, we have archaeological evidence about very early presence of the first three as domestic animals and the goat as a wild animal in north central China, and approximate dates for the introduction of the domestic goat, sheep and chicken from elsewhere circa 4.5K BP, and the horse from the west circa 3.3K BP. Given the very widespread distribution of PST cognates for foxtail and broomcorn millet, buckwheat, soybeans, dog, pig and cow, the importance of these crops and animals for most Sinitic and TB groups, and the absence of PST cognates for wheat, barley, goat vs. sheep, horse and chicken, we can infer a likely phylogeny. * I am pleased to acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council (most recently DP0772046) and assistance with information from many colleagues, notably Stephen Morey and Mike Mulder on Tangsa, Keita Kurabe on Jinghpaw, Libu Lakhi on Namuyi, Ken Manson on Karenic, Laurent Sagart on Sinitic, and many language consutants over many years. Discussion at the ICEHEP meeting at La Trobe University in February 2017 also provided a valuable contribution. Of course any remaining issues are solely my responsibililty.

In David Bradley & Maya Bradley (eds) Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance. London: RoutldegeCurzon 2002.

Brief overview of the role of in-group and out-group attitudes as crucial factors in maintaining endangered languages within speech communities

Overview of the Burmic language spoken in Myanmar, including Myanmar/Burmese and closely related languages, as well as North Burmish languages and Ngwi (Loloish) languages

In Ken VanBik (ed.) Continuum of the richness of languages and dialects in Myanmar. Yangon: Chin Human Rights Organization, 2015.

Six of the seven nations in mainland Southeast Asia have a substantial number of indigenous ethnic minority groups, each with a distinct language. Some of these are transnational minorities whose languages are spoken in more than one country; others are indigenous to only one country. In some countries, the official policy is supportive of these groups, but not necessarily of their languages; and in many cases the nominal official policy is more positive than the reality. For all of these groups, learning of the national language is regarded as essential, and mother-tongue education is given only limited attention, particularly in government schools. Most mother-tongue instruction goes on in informal settings outside normal schools; some nations have a more restrictive attitude about even this kind of learning. As education spreads to indigenous minority group areas, much of the unique linguistic heritage of the region is endangered by this policy, and many ethnic minority groups risk losing their distinctive identity as well as their languages.

This is a paper delivered at the 34th ICSTLL at Kunming in 2001, which contains a very large vocabulary of 8 Hani dialects, including otherwise unpublished data on the two northernmost Hao-Bai varieties spoken in Luquan and Wuding, north of Kunming, as well as the small Hao-Bai vocabulary from Gao Huanian (1955), four additional varieties from Zhang (1998) as well as the 'standard' Luchun dialect.

Language endangerment confronts many Tibeto-Burman (TB) languages. This paper provides a general typology of methods for reclaiming such languages, using TB examples where possible, and discusses the problems which may arise. This is followed by a case study of one such endangered language, Gong in Thailand, and attempts for its reclamation.

The well-known Chinese twelve animal cycle includes the most important animals in ancient Chinese culture. There are six domestic animals, five wild animals and one mythical animal, the dragon. This presentation traces the history of these twelve animals in China, the use of words for them in the Shanhaijing, and their origins in Chinese and related Sino-Tibetan languages. It also briefly discusses how the structure of the animal terms used in the Shanhaijing reflects historical changes within the Chinese language.

Explores how and why languages become endangered, including a comprehensive new theoretical framework and a wide range of examples from around the world. The book will be welcomed by students and scholars of anthropology, linguistics and related disciplines, and by communities at risk of losing their heritage.

Discusses the issue of maintaining indigenous languages through cyberspace, and in particular the question of mapping endangered and other indigenous languages through time. Examples are drawn from Lisu in China, Myanmar, Thailand and India, and from Bisu in China, Myanmar and Thailand.

Discusses the development of reported speech and quotation markers in Burmese through literary to modern spoken Burmese, showing how a series of different speaking verbs have been grammaticalized through time, and reports on the distribution of the modern spoken markers in a corpus of spoken Burmese. Further discusses the development of an evidentioal marker into an epistemic marker in Lisu.

This is a report submitted to UNICEF Myanmar 2016, to assist in developing bilingual education for Myanmar's ethnic groups. It gives a full listing and classification of the 135 officially recognised groups as well as relevant sections of the three post-independence constitutions (1948, 1974 and 2008), the 2014 education law and the 2015 ethnic rights law.