Subgrouping in Tibeto-Burman : can an individual-identifying standard be developed? How do we factor in the history of migrations and language contact?

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to apply insights and methodologies from Nichols (1996) to help us resolve problems in determining genetic relatedness among Sino-Tibetan languages and in our efforts at reconstructing protolanguages of different time depths. The results from the application of Nichols’s methodology are explained with reference to what we know about the migrations of the Sino-Tibetan peoples.