The Ancestry of the Chinese Language

Description

These two fields, Linguistics and Sinology, flow together in their concern with the Chinese Language. The central questions on the language remain the same: its structure, its ontogeny, and its phylogeny, as well as the interactions between the Chinese Language on the one hand, and Chinese thought, literature, and social systems on the other. Also of considerable interest are the questions which arise when the Chinese language comes into contact with other languages, be it in the controlled context of a language class or on the streets of an emigrant community. All in all, there is much to be done. Papers on Chinese Linguistics had to seek foster homes in diverse journals of general linguistics and in publications of various hues of orientalia. This situation was at best a nuisance, and at worst a serious impediment to the communication and progress of our field. In this journal, let us hope, Chinese Linguistics will have found its own voice.