Abstract: This paper presents the sociolinguistic background and phoneme inventory of Para Naga, ethnonym Jejara, spoken in Northwest Myanmar. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of the orthography based on the phonological analysis and the history of orthography development of this lesser known and previously unwritten language are presented, too. A word list, a short glossed text in phonological and orthographic representation, and evidence of contrast with phoneme distribution charts are provided in the Appendix. 

 Abstract: Many scripts in Southeast Asia have developed ways of marking tone. When adapting such scripts to write non-tonal languages, language communities often find other uses for these symbols. The case of Cado, an Austroasiatic language of the Katuic sub-branch in Vietnam and Laos, is particularly striking in that they use tone marks as vowel diacritics in two different scripts. Because Cado speakers live on both sides of the Vietnamese-Lao border, they have chosen to use two separate writing systems based on their respective national languages. This paper presents preliminary orthographies for Cado in the Roman and Lao scripts, based on the Vietnamese and Lao orthographies. Cado has no phonation contrast, but it does retain vowel length contrast. Both Cado orthographies adapt tone marks from the Vietnamese and Lao orthographies to distinguish either vowel length or vowel quality respectively. The phonetic motivation for this cross-categorical use of tone marks is discussed, and examples of other orthographies in Southeast Asia that adapt tone marks and other symbols beyond their traditional phonetic category are given and compared with Cado. 

Abstract: The Khmuic languages represent a branch in the north-central region of the  Austroasiatic family. While there are several existing Khmuic bibliographies, namely, Smalley  (1973), Proschan (1987), Preisig and Simana (n.d.), Renard (2015), and Lund University (2015),  this paper seeks to combine, update and organize these materials into a more readily accessible  online resource. A brief overview of Khmuic languages and their linguistic features is given.  References are organized according to linguistic domain, with some annotations. An updated  language index of a dozen Khmuic languages is also included.

Forward: This bibliography is an expansion of the earlier work by Darren C. Gordon (2013). It includes a brief description of Palaungic linguistic features and a discussion of classification. References are first organized by linguistic domain, then historically by author. Many unpublished Palaungic data, including many by the late Dr. Paulette Hopple, are referenced, including when possible a location to gain access to them. The paper concludes with a Palaungic language index. Where appropriate, some items have been included under more than one linguistic domain. Some difficult to locate items have been identified as being available at the David Thomas library (DTL), Linguistics Institute, Payap University (http://msealing.info/dt-library/). Whereas some conference presentations are included, this is by no means an exhaustive listing.

Abstract: The Austroasiatic language Muak Sa-aak belongs to the Angkuic branch of the Palaungic subgroup. Speakers live primarily in eastern Shan State of Myanmar. This analysis is  based on the variety of Wan Fai village. Although Burmese and Chinese are influential, their primary contact language is the Tai Kadai language Tai Lue. Borrowing from this language is  extensive, even to the extent of replacing their numerals with Tai Lue. Although Muak Sa-aak underwent the Germanic shift typical of Angkuic languages, replacing proto-voiced initials with  voiceless ones, it still retains some voiced initials. There is some evidence that language contact  may have resulted in a three-tone system, where pitch would otherwise have been largely  predictable. For the majority of rhotic-initial loan words, borrowing shows a direct correspondence of Muak Sa-aak /r/ with initial /h/ in Tai Lue. Some evidence from Assamese Tai languages suggests that rather than being a replacement, this might reflect a time when Tai Lue possibly still had a rhotic.

Abstract: Standard Lao, the official language in the Lao PDR, is spoken in and around the capital Vientiane. Lexicon, vowels and especially tone inventories of the many Lao dialects in the nation differ tremendously. A new orthography to replace the traditional Pali-based orthography which was hard to teach and learn was established during the Lao language reform in 1975. This study investigates the grapheme-phoneme correspondences of Lao orthography and its applicability to other languages in the multilingual nation. After a short introduction to the Lao language and the linguistic situation in the country, the Lao phoneme inventory and a description of the nature and historical development of Lao script are presented, including some taxonomic considerations discussing the segmental, suprasegmental and syllabic features of this script. This is followed by a linguistic evaluation of the orthography and a summary in the light of how to apply Lao script to other languages spoken in the country. Three minority orthographies based on Lao script illustrate that the almost entirely direct phonemic correspondences, consistency in the formation of multigraphs, the rich grapheme inventory, and the both segmental and syllabic characteristics of this semi-alphabetic script support a direct application to other, even unrelated languages with contrastive suprasegmental features like tone or voice quality. No orthography testing or studies on literacy acquisition have been done on these or any other Lao-script based minority scripts yet, so that firm recommendations regarding the creation of new Lao-script based orthographies cannot be given.

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Abstract: The purpose of this bibliography is to assist Bahnaric linguists, translators, and scholars by indexing and cataloguing Bahnaric reference materials. References are organized by linguistic domain. An index of Bahnaric languages is presented at the end of this article. This work also includes an updated Bahnaric map and a brief description of Bahnaric linguistic features. Readers will be drawn into the debate on Bahnaric classification and the question of which languages need to be deleted or added to the Bahnaric family.

Abstract: Kmhmu’ is a language of the Mon-Khmer language family. Extensive linguistic research and analysis of the varieties of Kmhmu’ spoken in Southeast Asia has led to the grouping of Kmhmu’ into three dialect categories, generally referred to as Northern, Western and Southern (Svantesson 1989). The orthographydescribed in this paper was developed for the Southern dialect and utilizes a Lao-based script. Suksavang and Preisig (Suksavanget al 1994) were instrumental in refining this orthography. This description of the Southern Kmhmu’ orthography explains how the Lao script is used and/or adapted to represent the Kmhmu’ phonemes, presents orthographic conventions for writing words of various structural types and summarizes teaching/learning experiences observed in mother-tongue Kmhmu’ speakers.
Keywords: Austroasiatic, orthography, sesquisyllables

Abstract: This paper provides a review on the linguistic and cultural background of the Ta’oi people in Laos and Vietnam from the available literature. Starting with an overview of the geographic location, historical and cultural context and linguistic nature, the paper pays special attention to the confusing amount of ethnonyms and glossonyms referring to these people and their language.