This volume provides accurate and reliable data from 1,159 common cognates found in 19 dialects from the Tai language family. Originally collected by noted Tai linguist, the late William J. Gedney, the data are organized into the three branches of the Tai language family, the Southwestern, the Central, and the Northern, to facilitate comparisons among the various sound systems within the individual branches and within the Tai language family as a whole. Supplementing the cognates are phonological descriptions of each of the dialects. Included among the nineteen dialects are Siamese, White...

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Thai poets produced epics depicting elaborate myths and legends which intermingled the human, natural, and supernatural worlds. One of the most famous of these classical compositions is the "Samuttakhoot kham chan," presented here in English for the first time as "The Tale of Prince Samuttakote." The work of three poets, it was begun during the reign of King Naray (1656-1688) and was completed in 1849 by the patriarch-prince Paramanuchit Chinorot (1790-1853).
Translated with enchanting poetic imagery, the poem relates the adventures of...