The Saek Language

Little research had been conducted on Saek, a Tai-family language spoken by the Saek people of Laos and Thailand, until the preeminent linguist William J. Gedney began his exhaustive study of it in the 1960s. Never before published, Gedneys field data on Saek are collected here, including a 550-page glossary and 450 pages of Saek oral literature presented in free translation and linear glosses. The volume concludes with two important, previously unpublished Gedney papers, Saek Final-L: Archaism or Innovation? and The Twelve Year Names in Saek. While William J. Gedneys The Saek Language offers a particularly rich vein of primary data to specialists in comparative Tai, its textsranging from oral histories and descriptions of Saek life to folktalesare also of value to historians, anthropologists, and folklorists. Introductions contextualize the linguistic data for more general readers.