Thomas John Hudak

This volume provides accurate and reliable data from 1,159 common cognates found in 19 dialects from the Tai language family. Originally collected by noted Tai linguist the late William J. Gedney, the data are organized into the three branches of the Tai language family, the Southwestern, the Central, and the Northern, to facilitate comparisons among the various sound systems within the individual branches and within the Tai language family as a whole. Supplementing the cognates are phonological descriptions of each of the dialects.Included among the nineteen dialects are Siamese, White Tai, Black Tai, Shan, Lue, Yay, Saek, and dialects found at Leiping, Lungming, Pingsiang, and Ningming in China. The meticulous attention paid to consonants, vowels, and tones found in each cognate will allow for further dialect studies, for the investigation of questions concerning the tripartite division of the Tai language family, and for the continuing investigation into the reconstruction of the Proto-Tai language family and its wider genetic relationships.

"A Man in Saffron Robes" offers a unique Thai perspective on the tradition of entering the monkhood for the rainy-season retreat called "phansa". It is also the story of one man's journey of exploration to the far north of Thailand and his reflections on the culture and people of the North as seen through the eyes of this southerner from Nakhon Si Thammarat then living near the bustling metropolis of Bangkok. In 1974 Maitree Limpichart, author, newspaper columnist and government official, temporarily left a wife and two children behind to put on the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk. He traveled from Bangkok to Thailand's northwestern-most province of Mae Hong Son, situated not far from the frontier with Burma (Myanmar). There, along with the other monks at the hilltop temple of Wat Phrathat Doi Kong Mu, he joined in the daily activities of the brotherhood of monks, the sangha. Maitree Limpichart's story, however, is not a scholarly explication of what it means to study the Dhamma, the Buddha's Teachings, in the contemplative environment of the temple. Rather it is the story of a lay individual's experiences with Buddhism and the sangha. Those who have visited or lived in upcountry Thailand will find sketches of life, characters and events that will no doubt trigger more than a recollection or two. Those who have no or only a passing acquaintance with Thailand or Buddhism will find stories here that are accessible, engaging, sometimes humorous, always curious and illuminating. Readers will take pleasure in this book for its humor, its poignancy, its exotic and wondrous setting, and for the likeable and interesting characters one meets along the way.