Mathias Jenny
Biographic Data
| ID | 5143417 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mathias Jenny |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mathias |
| FAMILY NAME | Jenny |
| SIGNATURE | JENNY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8919-1170 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Role of Shan in the Greater Burma Zone
Shan varieties and Khuen are relatively recent arrivals in the northern Burma Zone. With close relatives in Core Mainland Southeast Asia, most prominently Lao and Thai, Shan and Khuen play a special role in the study of the dynamics between the two linguistic areas. Shan can be seen as a major factor in the formation of a convergence zone in northern Myanmar, covering Shan State and parts of Kachin and Kayah States, as well as adjacent areas in N…
The Linguistic Landscape and Beyond
This note reports preliminary findings from the early stages of collaborative fieldwork research conducted by an international, multidisciplinary research team that aimed to document linguistic diversity in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Drawing upon initial data analysis from a pilot study as part of a PHC Franco-Thai project, we begin by exploring the linguistic landscape of key fieldwork sites, highlighting the significant presence of three main langua…
Mainland Southeast Asia and the Greater Burma Zone
Mainland Southeast Asia ( MSEA ) has been described as a prime example of a linguistic convergence area where languages of several families have interacted and influenced each other over an extended period. Combining what is known from the history and the linguistic landscape in the past and present of Southeast Asia, we argue that the present picture of MSEA is the result of the overwhelming influence of the languages of a few centralized powers…
Optionality and paradigmaticity
Zooming in from the grand-scale descriptions of the Mainland Southeast Asian convergence area, this paper focuses on Htanaw, an Austroasiatic language in Myanmar’s Shan State. Close contact with Burmese/Intha, Pa’O, and Shan led to a restructuring of Htanaw, exemplified here by the verb phrase, which exhibits an intriguing mixture of (isolating) Austroasiatic and (morphologically complex) Tibeto-Burman features. The Htanaw VP is internally comple…
Syntactic change in Palaungic
The relative constructions in several Palaungic languages (Htanaw, Wa, Lawa, Rumai Palaung, Samlong Palaung, and Rucing Palaung), here shown to be participant nominalizations, display striking mutual similarities, while conspicuously diverging from the dominant relativization strategy within the Austroasiatic family. Instead of the common n [rel (s) v (o)] pattern, the Palaungic constructions examined exhibit the following structural features: (a…
The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia
The handbook will offer a survey of the field of linguistics in the early 21st century for the Southeast Asian Linguistic Area. The last half century has seen a great increase in work on language contact, work in genetic, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics, and since the 1990s especially documentation of endangered languages. The book will provide an account of work in these areas, focusing on the achievements of SEAsian linguistics, as wel…
Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia
Morphological structure can escape reduction effects from mass admixture of second language speakers
Morphological complexity is expected to decrease under mass admixture from adult second language speakers. While this has been chiefly shown for morphological richness, an unresolved question is whether the effect extends to aspects of morphological boundedness. Here we report a case study of Sino-Tibetan verbs, contrasting verbal expressions of two languages with very large (Chinese, Burmese) and of two languages with very small (Bunan, Chintang…
The Mainland Southeast Asia Linguistic Area
This book lies at the crossroads of areal typology, language contact and genetic affiliation. Concerned with mainland Southeast Asia in particular, the various grammatical sketches lay emphasis on characteristics shared by unrelated languages.
Burmese
Burmese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Burmese grammar. It presents a fresh and thorough description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in modern Burmese. The volume is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Burmese grammar. It offers a stimulating analysis of the complexities of the language, with clear explanations. Throughout, the emphasis is on Burmese as used by present-day …
Phonetic Sources of Sound Change
The phonetic realization of nasal vowels produced by Pwo speakers of different ages can vary. The present study investigated mid and low nasal vowels of Pwo speakers from Mae Hong Son province, Thailand. Due to the higher tendency of language contact with Thai, the younger group’s nasal vowels were expected to lose more nasality than the older group. The emergence of final nasal consonants was also expected in the younger group. The nasalization …
Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages (2 Vols)
The Handbook of the Austroasiatic Languages is the first comprehensive reference work on this important language family of South and Southeast Asia. Austroasiatic languages are spoken by more than 100 million people, from central India to Vietnam, from Malaysia to Southern China, including national language Cambodian and Vietnamese, and more than 130 minority communities, large and small. The handbook comprises two parts, Overviews and Grammar Sk…
Differential subject marking without ergativity
While differential object marking seems to be widespread and is well represented in the linguistic literature, differential subject marking appears to be much less common. Burmese is one example of a language that marks some, but not all subjects, depending on a number of pragmatic factors. This phenomenon is widespread in Tibeto-Burman languages, but Burmese apparently differs from these in not having an underlying ergative alignment or an agent…
Who changes language? Bilingualism and structural change in Burma and the Reef Islands
In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source langua…
Burmese
Burmese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Burmese grammar. It presents a fresh and thorough description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in modern Burmese. The volume is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Burmese grammar. It offers a stimulating analysis of the complexities of the language, with clear explanations. Throughout, the emphasis is on Burmese as used by present-day …
Who changes language? Bilingualism and structural change in Burma and the Reef Islands
In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source langua…
Who changes language? Bilingualism and structural change in Burma and the Reef Islands
In this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source langua…
Differential subject marking without ergativity
While differential object marking seems to be widespread and is well represented in the linguistic literature, differential subject marking appears to be much less common. Burmese is one example of a language that marks some, but not all subjects, depending on a number of pragmatic factors. This phenomenon is widespread in Tibeto-Burman languages, but Burmese apparently differs from these in not having an underlying ergative alignment or an agent…
Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages (2 Vols)
The Handbook of the Austroasiatic Languages is the first comprehensive reference work on this important language family of South and Southeast Asia. Austroasiatic languages are spoken by more than 100 million people, from central India to Vietnam, from Malaysia to Southern China, including national language Cambodian and Vietnamese, and more than 130 minority communities, large and small. The handbook comprises two parts, Overviews and Grammar Sk…
Phonetic Sources of Sound Change
The phonetic realization of nasal vowels produced by Pwo speakers of different ages can vary. The present study investigated mid and low nasal vowels of Pwo speakers from Mae Hong Son province, Thailand. Due to the higher tendency of language contact with Thai, the younger group’s nasal vowels were expected to lose more nasality than the older group. The emergence of final nasal consonants was also expected in the younger group. The nasalization …
Burmese
Burmese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Burmese grammar. It presents a fresh and thorough description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in modern Burmese. The volume is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Burmese grammar. It offers a stimulating analysis of the complexities of the language, with clear explanations. Throughout, the emphasis is on Burmese as used by present-day …
The Mainland Southeast Asia Linguistic Area
This book lies at the crossroads of areal typology, language contact and genetic affiliation. Concerned with mainland Southeast Asia in particular, the various grammatical sketches lay emphasis on characteristics shared by unrelated languages.
Morphological structure can escape reduction effects from mass admixture of second language speakers
Morphological complexity is expected to decrease under mass admixture from adult second language speakers. While this has been chiefly shown for morphological richness, an unresolved question is whether the effect extends to aspects of morphological boundedness. Here we report a case study of Sino-Tibetan verbs, contrasting verbal expressions of two languages with very large (Chinese, Burmese) and of two languages with very small (Bunan, Chintang…
The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia
The handbook will offer a survey of the field of linguistics in the early 21st century for the Southeast Asian Linguistic Area. The last half century has seen a great increase in work on language contact, work in genetic, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics, and since the 1990s especially documentation of endangered languages. The book will provide an account of work in these areas, focusing on the achievements of SEAsian linguistics, as wel…
Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia
Syntactic change in Palaungic
The relative constructions in several Palaungic languages (Htanaw, Wa, Lawa, Rumai Palaung, Samlong Palaung, and Rucing Palaung), here shown to be participant nominalizations, display striking mutual similarities, while conspicuously diverging from the dominant relativization strategy within the Austroasiatic family. Instead of the common n [rel (s) v (o)] pattern, the Palaungic constructions examined exhibit the following structural features: (a…
Optionality and paradigmaticity
Zooming in from the grand-scale descriptions of the Mainland Southeast Asian convergence area, this paper focuses on Htanaw, an Austroasiatic language in Myanmar’s Shan State. Close contact with Burmese/Intha, Pa’O, and Shan led to a restructuring of Htanaw, exemplified here by the verb phrase, which exhibits an intriguing mixture of (isolating) Austroasiatic and (morphologically complex) Tibeto-Burman features. The Htanaw VP is internally comple…
The Linguistic Landscape and Beyond
This note reports preliminary findings from the early stages of collaborative fieldwork research conducted by an international, multidisciplinary research team that aimed to document linguistic diversity in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Drawing upon initial data analysis from a pilot study as part of a PHC Franco-Thai project, we begin by exploring the linguistic landscape of key fieldwork sites, highlighting the significant presence of three main langua…
Mainland Southeast Asia and the Greater Burma Zone
Mainland Southeast Asia ( MSEA ) has been described as a prime example of a linguistic convergence area where languages of several families have interacted and influenced each other over an extended period. Combining what is known from the history and the linguistic landscape in the past and present of Southeast Asia, we argue that the present picture of MSEA is the result of the overwhelming influence of the languages of a few centralized powers…
The Role of Shan in the Greater Burma Zone
Shan varieties and Khuen are relatively recent arrivals in the northern Burma Zone. With close relatives in Core Mainland Southeast Asia, most prominently Lao and Thai, Shan and Khuen play a special role in the study of the dynamics between the two linguistic areas. Shan can be seen as a major factor in the formation of a convergence zone in northern Myanmar, covering Shan State and parts of Kachin and Kayah States, as well as adjacent areas in N…
Linguistics (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · History (7 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (5 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 works) · Archaeology (3 works) · Artificial Intelligence (3 works)