Linguistic and Cultural Approach to the History of Ethnic Groups residing along the Irrawady and Salween rivers

居住在伊洛瓦底江和萨尔温江沿着的民族与湄公河的民族相比鲜为人知。在这样的背景下，我们通过广泛的田野调查，成功地获得了大量关于他们的语言和文化资料。通过分析这些数据，发现了许多惊人的结果。其中，开辟了一种澄清克伦族群体旧历史的方法，并且很明显，北方孟高棉群体之间存在的差异是由于他们与不同的岱族群体的民族语言接触造成的。我们的数据也提出了一个可能的解释，目前克钦社会的形成过程。这个项目表明，我们长期使用语言数据的研究方法与有关发言人的社会和文化方面是非常有用和非常有效的。

The ethnic groups residing along the Irrawady and Salween rivers have been less known compared to those of the Mekong river. Under such background, a huge amount of linguistic and cultural data on them was successfully obtained through our comprehensive fieldworks. By analyzing these data, a lot of striking outcomes were discovered. Among these, a way to clarify the old history of the Karenic groups was opened up and it became evident that the existing difference among the Northern Mon-Khmer groups is due to their ethno-linguistic contacts with the different Tay groups. Our data also suggest a possible explanation of the formation process of the present Kachin society. This project made it clear that our long term research method of using linguistic data in relation to the social and cultural aspect of the speakers concerned is very useful and extremely efficient.