Ross Perlin

Trung (Dulong) is a little-documented, endangered Tibeto-Burman language with approximately 6,000 speakers in the mountainous border region of northwest Yunnan Province. I propose to revise and prepare for publication my dissertation – an in-depth, fieldwork-based description of this endangered and little-documented language, spoken by one of China’s smallest official nationalities in a region that is arguably China’s most multilingual but undergoing rapid language shift to Chinese. Although grounded in linguistics and endangered language documentation, the book will aim to connect rapid linguistic and cultural change in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands to broader discussions within China Studies about Han and minority identities, Zomia and borderlands, and the revival of religion.