Book Description

A STUDY OF THE HLERSU LANGUAGE makes an ontological study of Hlersu, focusing on its phonology, lexicology, and syntax with a brief introduction to the history and customs of the people. This book, as the first monograph that manages an exhaustive record and thorough analysis of the Daxishan vernacular, does something pioneering to expand the research limits of Yiish languages that stand as the bulk in the Tibetan-Burmese Family among the Sino-Tibetan Phylum. This book provides linguists with valuable data conducive to interlingual comparisons and particularly, to the study of Generative Linguistics that aims to discover Universal Grammar and Language Faculty. It also presents the readers with a glimpse of research proceedings done by Chinese linguists in the field of ethnic minority languages and, therefore, does good for exchanges of linguistic research between China and other countries. The Hlersu people, as a significant branch of the Yi ethnic minority, choose to live in alpine districts at elevations more 2,000 meters in Yunnan Province, primarily in the middle counties such as Xinping, Yuanjiang, E’shan, Shuangbai, and Shiping. Its population witnesses an increase to 15,737, according to a 2010 investigation by Professor Xu Xianming, the second author of the original Chinese work.