The Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale (CRLAO) of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) is pleased to announce the forthcoming summer school on Old Chinese Phonology to be held at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris on July 2 through July 4. The course will be taught by Laurent Sagart (CNRS) and William Baxter (University of Michigan) and will introduce participants to the Baxter-Sagart system of Old Chinese reconstructions (BS 0.97).

The following topics will be covered:

• overview of Old Chinese phonology
• new features in the Baxter-Sagart system (the A/B distinction; the uvulars)
• incorporating uncertainty in the reconstructions
•  strategy of research
• morphology and word families
• Old Chinese dialects
• the Chinese script as an imperfect syllabary enriched with semantic information

The course will consist of six sessions of three hours each (9:00-12:00 in the morning and 14:00-17:00 in the afternoon) with half of the time (1 hour 30 minutes per session) devoted to open discussion. The language of communication will be English.

The course is primarily intended for graduate and post-graduate students with a good background in linguistics, but those more advanced in their research careers as well as those working on Sino-Tibetan languages other than Chinese or even on other East Asian language groups, are also encouraged to apply. Prior knowledge of Baxter (1992) and Sagart (1999) will be an asset.

No participation fee will be charged for the Summer School. Please note, however, that the CRLAO is unfortunately unable to provide funding for travel and accommodation.

Please send a short CV and a statement of why you are interested in the Summer School to Katia Chirkova (chirkova.k@gmail.com) by May 1, 2007.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to possible participants.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Paris in July.

Recommended Reading:

• Baxter, William H. 1992. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The roots of Old Chinese. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.