A Grammar and Dictionary of Rengao - (Grammars and Sketches of the World's Languages) by Kenneth J Gregerson & Marilyn Gregerson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume is the most extensive description in English of Rengao, an Austroasiatic language spoken by around 20,000 people in the central highlands of Vietnam; it presents a sketch grammar, dictionary, and text collection.

Book Synopsis

The volume crystalizes the Gregerson's field work in the Kontum Province of Vietnam from 1968 to 1974, in collaboration with Rengao speakers Paul Hyum and Andre Ir. The result is a sketch grammar, a dictionary with over 6000 entries, and a text collection. Rengao is a North Bahnaric language within the Austroasiatic phylum: it features a typologically unusual tense-lax phonological contrast whose origins remain obscure, and an extensive "expressive" lexicon of onomatopoeic, ideophonic, and phonaesthemic forms integrel to the rich Rengao oral culture. The work also includes substbatial commentary on grammaticalization, borrowing and etymology.