Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary Material / Nathan W. Hill -- Introduction / Nathan W. Hill -- When Did Middle Mon Begin? / Christian Bauer -- Aspiration in the Burmese Phonological System: A Diachronic Account / Rudolf A. Yanson -- Two Lepcha delúk Texts / Heleen Plaisier -- Highlights in the Decipherment of the Nam Language / Ikeda Takumi -- A Preliminary Reassessment of the Pyu Faces of the Myazedi Inscriptions at Pagan / Uwe Krech -- Re-analysis of “Tangut-Tibetan” Phonological Materials / Arakawa Shintarō -- Verbs of Existence in Tangut and Mu-nya / Ikeda Takumi -- The Tangut Kinship System in Qiangic Perspective / Guillaume Jacques -- Notes on the Predicative Personal Suffixes of the Tangut Language / Niè Hóngyīn -- The Chán Teaching of Nányáng Huìzhōng (-775) in Tangut Translation / Kirill Solonin -- Features of the Tangut Consonant System as Reflected in Sanskrit-Tangut Transliterations / Sūn Bójūn and Chung-pui Tai -- Tibetan Palatalization and the gy versus g.y Distinction / Nathan W. Hill -- A Note on the Theme and the Author of PT 239 Recto / Ishikawa Iwao -- The Origin of the Headless Script (dbu med) in Tibet / Sam Van Schaik -- Orthography of Traditional Yi Writing: Conventions of Sign Use in the Ritual Scriptures of the Yi / Halina Wasilewska.

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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.