Review of Dictionary of Kammu of Yùan Language and Culture, by Jan-Olof Svantesson, Kàm (Damrong Tayanin) Ràw, Kristina Lindell, and Håkan Lundström

Abstract

The Dictionary of Kammu of Yùan Language and Culture (Kopenhagen: NIAS Press 2014. XXXVI, 462 S. m. Abb. 4°. Hartbd. ISBN 978-87-7694-116-1) is a pleasingly decorated, large (roughly size A paper), tan, hard-cover reference with clear black print inside but also with numerous vivid drawings referring to lexical entries exemplifying aspects of Kammu culture. A majority of the 700,000 speakers of the Austroasiatic Kammu (also spelled ‘Khmu’) language live in Laos but also nearby areas of China, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. However, as the authors state, 'This dictionary records the Yùan dialect of Kammu, spoken in the southern part of Luang Namtha Province in northern Laos.'