Lin

2003 · Alibris.0032356 — Institute of Linguistics Academica Sinica. 2003. Hard cover. Very good in very good dust jacket. In English Chinese and Rukai. 558 p. Includes illustrations. . The present volume aims at narrating the memories of our late Mantauran Rukai informant Lu Yu-zhi å‘‚ 玉 æž who passed away on May 6 2000 as they were recorded between August 1992 and November 1998 then later edited and revised between January 1999 and May 2001. The volume is divided into two major parts: the first part consists of 178 paragraphs translated into Chinese and English with ethnographic illustrations maps photos and additional data. The second part provides morphemic analyses glosses and linguistic annotations. The index provides a list of major lexical items derivations are not included as they will appear in Zeitoun to appear b. This work represents the result of years of collaboration. Elizabeth Zeitoun began fieldwork on Mantauran Rukai in August 1992 and later trained Hui-chuan Lin in ethno-linguistics 1997-2000 & 2001 who eventually published a series of textbooks on Mantauran Lin 1999. The investigation out of which the present volume grew began as an exploration in the life of our late informant and the discovery--for both authors--of a fascinating world but was not in the early stages directed toward the writing of her memories. Two stories--the first on marriage Chapter 12 the second on childbirth Chapter 13--were collected along with other folktales in August 1992 during the very first period of fieldwork on Mantauran. The others were recorded between November 1997 and November 1998 as short paragraphs to illustrate lexical items of the Thematic dictionary see Lin and Zeitoun 1997 that we were compiling at the time. When it became apparent that these narratives were too long to fit into a dictionary we decided to put them together in a separate volume where we retained however the major themes that formed the basis of the Thematic dictionary while re-organizing and editing the data. The manuscript was revised and corrected over the years January 1999-May 2001 but the original i.e. Mantauran version was finished entirely read to Lu Yu-zhi and approved by her during our last fieldwork sessions in January 2000. She was the one who suggested the title of the book. This volume is of particular interest because Mantauran is a highly endangered language which position within the Rukai family remains rather controversial and which exhibits "aberrant" features not found in any other Formosan languages or Rukai dialects. Below background information are provided regarding the geographical and linguistic position of Mantauran within Rukai the earlier linguistic and ethnographic studies carried out on this communalect and the main grammatical features of this dialect. Institute of Linguistics, Academica Sinica hardcover