Publisher's Synopsis
Sinitic is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consisting of thousands of local language varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. This book sets out to give a comprehensive and systematic description of one of these: the Jixi language. It focusses on the Shangzhuang variety and is spoken in the mountainous Jixi county in the southern Anhui province, China. It is a language of a much debated affiliation, wedged in between the Wu, Gan and Southern Mandarin areas. Basic linguistic theory is used as the main theoretical framework to provide a detailed description of the language's phonological and grammatical systems. In writing this grammar, the author has principally relied on fieldwork data collected in Shangzhuang during the years 2010-2018. This book is the first comprehensive grammar of a Hui language and will undoubtedly be of interest to linguists wishing to learn more about the many understudied varieties of Sinitic languages.
