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

与湄公河沿岸的民族相比，居住在伊洛瓦底江和萨尔温江沿岸的民族鲜为人知。在这样的背景下，我们通过全面的田野调查，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，我们发现了许多惊人的结果。其中，开辟了一种澄清卡列尼亚部族的古老历史的方法，很明显，北方孟高棉部族之间存在的差异是由于他们与不同的泰部族在民族语言上的接触。我们的数据也为克钦社会的形成过程提供了一种可能的解释。这个项目清楚地表明，我们使用语言数据的长期研究方法是非常有用的，并且非常有效。

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.