Diachronic Study on Myanmar and Neighboring Minority Languages Based on the Corpus of Inscriptions

缅甸语是东南亚的一种主要语言，也是藏缅分支缅甸族的主要语言，有着丰富的书面材料，其历史可以追溯到公元12世纪。本研究通过对缅文及邻近语言的文字进行数字化处理，并结合在缅甸的实地考察所获得的数字图像进行核对，建立了缅文及邻近语言文字的语料库，并在此基础上对缅文语音、语法和缅文系统的历时性进行了研究。同时，基于语料库和田野调查资料，对缅语与周边少数民族语言文字的相互影响进行了研究，并对缅语马鲁语亚群的重建进行了研究。目前，我们正在为语料库的网上出版做准备。

Burmese is a major language in Southeast Asia, the principal language of Burmish group in Tibeto-Burman branch, and has ample written material which can be traced back to 12cAD. In this research project we made a corpus of the inscriptions of Burmese and adjacent languages, by digitizing the texts of these inscriptions in roman transcription and checking them by reference to the digital images of inscriptions acquired through the fieldworks in Myanmar as necessary.Based on the corpus we conducted the research on some topics on the diachrony of Burmese phonology, grammar and the system of Burmese script. We also conducted the research on the mutual influence between Burmese language/script and adjacent minority languages/scripts, and the research toward the reconstruction of Maruic sub-group of Burmish group, based on the corpus as well as data from fieldwork. Now we are preparing for the on-line publication of the corpus.