Publisher's description:
While providing unique and detailed information on early Tibeto-Burman languages and their contact and relationship to other languages, this book at the same time sets out to establish a field of Tibeto-Burman comparative-historical linguistics based on the classical Indo-European model. The volume includes six papers on Tangut, three on Tibetan and one each on the languages Mon, Burmese, Lepcha, Pyu, Nam, and Yi. Building a bridge between linguistic and literary research the range of studies treats phonology, decipherment, literature and religion.

Table of contents:
Nathan W. HILL—Introduction
1. Christian BAUER—When Did Middle Mon Begin?
2. Rudolf A. YANSON—Aspiration in the Burmese Phonological System: A Diachronic Account
3. Heleen PLAISIER—Two Lepcha delúk Texts
4. IKEDA Takumi—Highlights in the Decipherment of the Nam Language
5. Uwe KRECH—A Preliminary Reassessment of the Pyu Faces of the Myazedi Inscriptions at Pagan
6. ARAKAWA Shintarō—Re-analysis of "Tangut-Tibetan" Phonological Materials
7. IKEDA Takumi—Verbs of Existence in Tangut and Mu-nya
8. Guillaume JACQUES—The Tangut Kinship System in Qiangic Perspective
9. NIÈ Hóngyīn—Notes on the Predicative Personal Suffixes of the Tangut Language
10. Kirill SOLONIN—The Chán Teaching of Nányáng Huìzhōng (-775) in Tangut Translation
11. SŪN Bójūn and Chung-pui TAI—Features of the Tangut Consonant System as Reflected in Sanskrit-Tangut Transliterations
12. Nathan W. HILL—Tibetan Palatalization and the gy versus g.y Distinction
13. ISHIKAWA Iwao—A Note on the Theme and the Author of PT 239 Recto 399
14. Sam VAN SCHAIK—The Origin of the Headless Script (dbu med) in Tibet
15. Halina WASILEWSKA—Orthography of Traditional Yi Writing: Conventions of Sign Use in the Ritual Scriptures of the Yi