Review of "A Naxi-Chinese-English dictionary/纳西汉英词典"

• Main Author: Michaud, Alexis
• Other Authors: International Research Institute MICA (HUST-CNRS-Grenoble INP)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177624
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Until 2011, there existed no full-fledged dictionary of Naxi. This major gap in the field of Sino-Tibetan linguistics was filled by two remarkable publications in quick succession: A Dictionary of Colloquial Naxi (《纳西语常用词汇》) by He Jiren, edited by Zhao Qinglian et al. (2011), and A Naxi-Chinese-English Dictionary by Thomas Pinson. Both dictionaries were published by Yunnan Minorities Publishing House (Kunming), but were produced independently. The present review focuses on T. Pinson’s book. Dialect abbreviations are the same as those provided on p. 39 of the dictionary (initials of the place names in Chinese Pinyin), with the addition of FK, for Fengke (奉科乡善美行政村; Naxi: Fvlko); for simplicity, tone marks used here are ˥, ˧ and ˩ for High, Mid and Low tones, instead of the contour stylization used by the author: 55, 33 and 21, respectively.