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North East India is one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world, with over 100, and perhaps as many as 200, different languages spoken. This book aims to produce a volume reflective of both the linguistic diversity of the region as well as the high quality of current research on North East Indian Linguistics. The articles in this volume cover four of the language families represented in North East India: Tai-Kadai, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, and Austroasiatic. Divided into seven sections, the book presents the description and analysis of a wide variety of phonological, syntactic, morphological, socio-linguistic and historical topics in the study of several languages of the region origin of the Boro-Garo language family, Boro-Garo grammar, serial verbs in a hitherto undescribed variety of Boro, information about Dimasa dialects, phonology of Hajong, a language of Assam and Meghalaya, and analysis of copula constructions in Assam Sadri. The volume also contains an analysis of pronouns in Madhav Kandalis Ramayana, a version of the Ramayana written in colloquial Assamese of the fourteenth century. The final section in this volume discusses serial verb constructions in the Austroasiatic language war, the most detailed discussion of war syntax and semantics to date.Contributions in this volume range from renowned scholars of Tibeto-Burman linguistics to students from the North East making their first impact in the field of Linguistics. The book will be of interest to linguists, anthropologists, social scientists and general readers with an interest in the study, preservation and appreciation of North East Indian cultural and linguistic diversity.
Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830–1916) had a lifelong interest in Peru. Having already travelled there in his early twenties, he was commissioned to return ten years later to supervise the collection of sufficient specimens of the cinchona tree for its introduction to India. The bark of the tree yielded quinine, by then a well-known febrifuge and one of the few effective treatments for malaria. This book, originally published in 1862, is Markham's personal account of his travels. His story moves from the misty heights of the Peruvian mountains, where he suffered from altitude sickness, to the Malabar coastline and its complex, remarkable caste system. Markham also includes a detailed history of the use of cinchona bark, both by Europeans and aboriginal Peruvians, and a discussion of Incan culture since the arrival of the Spanish. His work is still a valuable resource for students of scientific and colonial history.
The history of Vietnam prior to the nineteenth century is rarely examined in any detail. In this groundbreaking work, K. W. Taylor takes up this challenge, addressing a wide array of topics from the earliest times to the present day - including language, literature, religion, and warfare - and themes - including Sino-Vietnamese relations, the interactions of the peoples of different regions within the country, and the various forms of government adopted by the Vietnamese throughout their history. A History of the Vietnamese is based on primary source materials, combining a comprehensive narrative with an analysis which endeavours to see the Vietnamese past through the eyes of those who lived it. Taylor questions long-standing stereotypes and clichés about Vietnam, drawing attention to sharp discontinuities in the Vietnamese past. Fluently written and accessible to all readers, this highly original contribution to the study of Southeast Asia is a landmark text for all students and scholars of Vietnam.
Written by General Sir George St Patrick Lawrence (1804–84) of the British Indian Army, this 1874 book is a memoir of his long and active service in India. The son of a distinguished officer in the army of the East India Company, he arrived in India in 1821, and was a participant in all the major military encounters of the period, including the Anglo-Afghan Wars, where he was involved in the 'Cabul disaster' and later narrowly avoided execution as a hostage, the Anglo-Sikh wars, and the Indian Mutiny, during which he and his family survived great danger. Lawrence, whose health had been undermined during the Mutiny, resigned from the army and returned to England in 1864. He entrusted his letters and diaries to William Edwards of the Bengal Civil Service, who compiled the work from these sources, and supplies a brief overview of Lawrence's career in his preface.
Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874–1938) was a colonial administrator and oriental scholar. He travelled extensively in the Far East and developed a deep interest in Chinese culture and religion. His fourteen-year posting to Weihaiwei, a quiet naval base, allowed him to travel to places not usually visited by Europeans, and to begin writing. In 1906 he spent six months travelling across China to Burma, publishing this illustrated account of his arduous journey in 1908. In it he comments on the economic and political state of China, but the book's main theme is the beauty of the country and the character of its people. His understanding of the language, religion and culture make this a valuable description of Chinese society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Johnston's Lion and Dragon in Northern China (1910) and Twilight in the Forbidden City (1934) are also reprinted in this series.
This 1912 book by Angus Hamilton (1874–1913), a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, is an account of the British military expeditions to quell uprisings among remote tribes in north-eastern India in 1911–12. Famous for his earlier books on Afghanistan, the problems of the Middle East, and Somaliland, Hamilton gives a full account of the various phases of the 'Abor expedition' which resulted in a crushing defeat of the local tribes. The book begins with a survey of the geography of the area, and a description of the Abor people, explaining the turbulent background to the murder in March 1911 of two British officials. A highly detailed and illustrated account then follows of the murders, and of the punitive response of the government in Delhi, which sent an expedition both to bring the area back under control and also to carry out geographical surveys of a relatively unknown area.
As trade between the East and the West grew in the mid-nineteenth century, increasing numbers of Westerners travelled to China and Japan, and in 1867 this guide to the key port cities such as Hong Kong and Nagasaki was published in both Hong Kong and London. Its editor, Nicholas Belfield Dennys (?1813–99) claimed it was the first such comprehensive handbook printed for public distribution. Intended for visitors and new residents, the guide was originally typeset in China, allowing place names and other words to be printed in Chinese characters. The specially commissioned maps were also engraved in China. The book includes physical descriptions and brief histories of over twenty cities, details of schools and libraries, population statistics and much practical information, as well as a list of other publications on China and Japan. It is a valuable historical source on East Asia during a period of rapid change.
Being a Compilation of Primary Rules Relative to the Doctrine of Inheritance (Including the Tenets of the Schia Sectaries), Contracts and Miscellaneous Subjects
William Hay Macnaghten (1793–1841), of the Bengal Civil Service, published this work in 1825. It is a compilation of principles and precedents of Islamic law, focusing on family, inheritance and property law, including the status of slaves. Born in India and from a legal family, Macnaghten used his skill in languages as well as his legal training to produce this monumental work, and a similar two-volume treatise on Hindu law (1828–9). Quoting from both Sanskrit and Arabic sources, Part I discusses the principles of family law, inheritance, sales, wills, and slavery, while Part II offers precedents in all these areas, and an appendix gives details of the cases cited. Macnaghten was involved in political as well as legal work, and the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War was begun largely on his advice. He was killed by an Afghan leader during negotiations outside Kabul in 1841.