Andrew B. Liu: Tea War: A History of Capitalism in China and India (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asia Institute of Columbia University.) xi, 360 pp. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. $50. ISBN 978 0 30024373 4.

Abstract

tribe’s frequent migration. Uta Reinöhl (ch. 9) discusses the classification of three Mishmi languages. In addition to an etymological investigation of tribe and language names of the Mishmi languages, the author contributes to establishing a phylogenetic tree of Proto-Kera’a-Tawrã, with Kera’a and Tawrã being its bifurcating branches. The Kera’a languages consist of Mithu and Midu, where Midu is undergoing an unusual innovation of consonant aphaeresis in polysyllabic words. Tawrã, on the other hand, is the most conservative for preserving phonetic features lost in Kera’a. Scott DeLancey’s paper (ch. 10) identifies an innovation that differentiates South Central and Naga Belt languages from other Central branch languages through a comparison of first-person pronominals. In these two subbranches, the pronominal reflexes of first person singular have been commonly replaced by the corresponding plural forms, either inclusive (Naga Belt) or exclusive (South Central). After an elucidation of possible socio-pragmatic motivations of this shared innovation, DeLancey tentatively proposes that first person in Proto-Kuki-Naga exhibits a register-determined alternation to denote singular by the two plural forms in certain socio-pragmatic contexts. Linda Konnerth (ch. 11) reviews pre-existing proposals of classification of South Central languages, with which she integrates new materials from the previously neglected Northwestern subgroup. An updated list of sound correspondences in onsets is then given, along with a brief discussion of carrying out subgrouping through morphosyntactic features. Gwendolyn Hyslop (ch. 12) traces the development of certain verb suffixes in Kurtöp and argues that not all of them are inherited from Proto-East Bodish but from borrowing or morphological innovation, the latter of which has two diachronic origins: grammaticalization from clause-chaining construction, and reanalysis of nominalization. The book successfully presents current advances in linguistic studies in East Himalaya with reference to anthropology. It is recommended to linguists and anthropologists who are interested in this currently flourishing field.