The 50th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics was held from Nov. 26 to 28 in Beijing.(PHOTO: CSSN)

From Nov. 26 to 28, the 50th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics sponsored by the Presidium of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the Bureau of International Cooperation of CASS and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of CASS was held in Beijing.

Li Peilin, vice-president of CASS, said the internationally acclaimed Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics Conference celebrated its 50th birthday in China, the birthplace of Sino-Tibetan languages. In 1968, in order to unite researchers in the field of Sino-Tibetan languages and jointly promote studies of Sino-Tibetan languages. James Matisoff, a professor emeritus of linguistics from the University of California, Berkley, participated in the organization of the annual “International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics.”

Over the past 50 years, the conference has been vital to promoting academic research on Sino-Tibetan languages in all countries and exchanges between Sino-Tibetan languages researchers. Matisoff said this conference aims to provide answers to many neglected research questions, including the position of Chinese in the Sino-Tibetan language family, the possibility of constructing a single tone system for the original Sino-Tibetan language and the early forms of verbal pronunciation as well as the significance of the Zhuang-Dong language, the Miao-Yao language and the Tujia language in embryology.

The conference was divided into multiple discussion sections, such as historical linguistics, philology, phonetics, prosody and phonology, morphology, grammar, typology, and grammaticalization, and lexics. Papers submitted involve such topics as the diachronic comparison of Sino-Tibetan languages, synchronic description, morphological types, prosodic sound changes, phonetic experiments, ancient writing documents, language ecology, big data construction of Sino-Tibetan languages, relations between Sino-Tibetan languages and surrounding languages, and language translation and application.

The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the most widely spoken language families in the world. Distributed in the vast areas of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, hundreds of languages in the family have diverse linguistic features and complex language relations like an inexhaustible cultural treasure house. The family contains countless mysteries of languages, history and culture, waiting to be explored. The study of Sino-Tibetan languages is of great value to the development of linguistics, ethnology, history and sociology. There are nearly 80 languages in the Sino-Tibetan language family in China. With the deepening of investigation and research, new languages may even be discovered.

Wang Yanzhong, director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at CASS, said further development of cultural diversity depends on linguistic diversity. The study of language will surely provide an important foundation for the development of the diversity of human civilization in the new era. At present, the research fields and methods of linguistics advance with each passing day while an endless stream of new concepts is emerging. Linguistics has fully demonstrated its attributes as a leading science. Considering the complexity and diversity of Sino-Tibetan languages, scholars expected that Sino-Tibetan language studies will bring into focus rich linguistic outline of the development of human civilization. Scholars also expected China to make greater contributions to the study of Sino-Tibetan languages.