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THE LINGUISTICS STUDENT’S HANDBOOK 222
vowels, while Mithun (1999) states that it has six. This does not appear to be a
matter of how to analyse long vowels, though it might well be a matter of
dialect. The outsider cannot judge.
Consequently, although the information provided here can be used to give
readers some idea of the languages mentioned, where any particular piece of
information becomes crucial in the testing of some hypothesis it is suggested
that it should be thoroughly rechecked.
Interpreting the data provided
Data was collected by checking descriptions of the various languages against a
short questionnaire. Since it was not always possible to find descriptions which
answered all the questions on the questionnaire, there are inevitably gaps in the
data. Accordingly a blank may mean that no information was found on this topic.
In such a case, it may simply be because the source did not say anything (or the
reader failed to find or interpret it), or it may mean that there is nothing to say.
For example, in some, but not all, tone languages, the category of word stress is
simply irrelevant, so it may be appropriate that no information is provided.
Language name
The language name provided in bold type is usually the one which was used
in the description from which the data is taken. Occasionally alternative
spellings are given where these are current, but this has not been done systematically.
This row also gives current alternative names for the language, and a
guide to pronunciation of the first name given.
Alternative language name
Where a language has several apparently very different names used in English,
alternatives are provided and cross-references have been added. Again, this has
not been done systematically (as a glance at Grimes 1988 will show), but major
alternatives have been listed. Sometimes this involves taking political decisions.
Croatian and Serbian, for example, have been given different listings, as have
Hindi and Urdu. In other cases, the political decisions may not even have been
ones of which we were aware: no offence is intended by any such decisions.
Pronunciation of the language name
The pronunciation of the language name is the way the name is likely to be pronounced
by English speakers rather than a reflection of the native pronunciation
of the name. Thus, for example, no attempt has been made to transcribe