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

缅甸语是东南亚地区的主要语言，是藏缅语系缅语族的主要语言，有大量的文字资料，可追溯到公元12年。在这个研究项目中，我们制作了缅甸语和邻近语言的碑文语料库，通过将这些碑文的文本数字化，并在必要时参考缅甸实地工作中获得的碑文数字图像进行检查。以语料库为基础，对缅甸语语音历时性、语法历时性和缅甸语文字系统进行了研究。基于语料库和实地调查数据，对缅甸语/文字与邻近少数民族语言/文字的相互影响进行了研究，并对缅甸语组的马鲁伊克亚群进行了重建研究。现在我们正在为语料库的在线出版做准备。

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.