This edited volume contains original contributions on five under-researched Tibetic varieties: Purik (Kargil, India), Dongwang (Yunnan, China), Cone, Kami and Thebo (all spoken in Sichuan, China), some of which are distinct enough to merit independent language status. Each chapter contains a detailed account of the target variety’s synchronic sound system and its diachronic evolution, a summary of the characteristic innovations, notes on its genetic subgrouping, as well as an English-Tibetic vocabulary of around one thousand items. Beyond this basic format in common, section organization and terminology usage are left to the discretion of the individual authors, some of whom enrich their presentations with additional observations from lexical, morphophonological, morphological and areal linguistic perspectives to shed further light on the phonological structures and linguistic affinity of the respective varieties.
