Review of A Grammar Of Zoulei, Southwest China. By Xia Li, Jinfang Li, and Yongxian Luo. Bern (Switzerland): Peter Lang, 2014. Pp 421. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. x, 431. ISBN 9780199945375.
(书评：A Grammar Of Zoulei, Southwest China [中国西南柔勒仡佬语语法] 李霞、李锦芳、罗永现著)

Peter Jenks

Abstract 摘要
Zoulei, literally Red Gelao, is a language in the Gelao (仡佬) dialect cluster of Kra (Mandarin Geyang, 仡央), which itself is a major branch of the Kra-Dai family (Ostapirat 2000). Zoulei is also known as Bigong, a toponym based on the name of the village in Guizhou Province where it is spoken. Like many Kra languages, Zoulei is severely endangered: only 368 people live in the village of Bigong, and in their book Li, Li, and Luo (2014) report that of those less than 30 individuals are fluent speakers of the language, all over the age of 60. Moreover, Kra is the least described branch of Kra-Dai, and this is the first full-length published grammar of any Kra language. With these considerations, the publication of A Grammar of Zoulei is an important contribution for Kra-Dai studies. This grammar was based on the dissertation of Xia Li under the supervision of Jifang Li at Minzu University. Professor Jifang Li had previously collaborated with the third author, Yongxian Luo, on The Buyang language of south China: grammatical notes, glossary, texts and translations in 2010 (Li and Luo 2010, see also Li and Luo 2006). As Zoulei and Buyang come from different branches of Kra, the two books together provide a glimpse as to what grammatical features might be characteristic of the family as a whole, and any linguist with an interest in Kra-Dai languages or Southeast Asian languages more generally will be grateful for the work of these scholars. A Grammar of Zoulei is comprised of eight chapters of introductory material and grammatical description, texts, and a lexicon. In this review I summarize the grammar by chapter, provide a general discussion of its strengths and weaknesses, then comment on the grammar of Zoulei in the context of Kra and Kra-Dai languages more generally.