OverviewJoint ResearchResearch ResourcesTraining and Capacity BuildingNew Trends in the Studies on Qidan ScriptsProject term: April, 2010 – March, 2013Coordinator: MATSUKAWA, Takashi (Otani University)One of the unique ‘pseudo-Chinese scripts’, Qidan scripts were established during the Liao (Qidan) dynasty (916-1125). In Liao, the Mongolic language ‘Qidan’ was the ofcial language together with Chinese. The language was written in two different systems of scripts. They are called ‘Qidan large script’ and ‘Qidan small script’. Though it seems that the former is ideogram and the latter is phonetic letter, the scholars did not go into details. Since the materials for the synthetic study have been rare during the last centuries, decoding them has not been a priority till now. In recent years, however, new materials concerned with the scripts have been discovered in China and Mongolia and have aroused strong interest among scholars. Moreover, the information throughout the texts in the Qidan scripts is beginning to affect historical study on Liao. Some linguists have a passionate interest in the Qidan scripts and the language. Under these circumstances, this project analyses the system of Qidan scripts linguistically with the cooperation of researchers who specialize in Qidan scripts, pseudo-Chinese scripts, Mongolic languages, Altaic language, Chinese phonology and the history of Liao. After the last term, the project will release the products, lists, and data on Qidan scripts, texts and articles as results.Typological Studies of Information Structures and Linguistic Forms in AfricaProject term: April, 2011 – March, 2014Coordinator: HIEDA, OsamuThe aims of the project are: 1) to study how languages express informational structures phonologically, morphologically or syntactically; 2) to demonstrate what typological diversity African languages show in the relationship between information structures and linguistic forms; and 3) to examine whether African languages are characterized geographically in the relationship between information structures and linguistic forms. To study these themes, the project members have organized a research network. Humboldt University Project leader: Tom Guldemann (Humboldt University) plans to start a new project for an investigation similar to our project. When his project starts, we will conduct our project in cooperation with his.Historical Study of Normative Glyphs of Chinese Characters (2nd stage)Project term: April, 2010 – March, 2013Coordinator: ISHIZUKA, Harumichi (Prof. Emer. Hokkaido University)This project aims to describe the historical shifts in the standards of the Chinese characters (or KANJI) glyphs. Sources of the research are taken from those materials (engraved, hand-written or printed documents) that gave the normative standards, or those that succeeded those norms of the glyphs, of China, as well as Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean, and Sino-Vietnamese ones. The historical overview is given by the HNG (Hanzi normative glyphs) database (http://joao-roiz.jp/HNG/), which has been constructed and maintained by the project, and was awarded by the 1st “Shirakawa Memorial Academic Award in Asian Script Cultures”.15Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA)
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