滇藏缅印交角地区藏缅语族群史国外研究述评

A review of international studies on the histories of Tibeto- Burman-speaking groups in China-Myanmar-India tri-border area

滇藏缅印交角地区是世界上藏缅语族群分布最集中的区域之一,系中国境外藏缅语族群分布的核心区,同时,该地区还是历史上重要的古代移民走廊之一,是藏缅语族群、孟高棉族群、泰傣族群和印欧语族群等不同语系族群的混融聚合区,族群众多、族源构成复杂和语言资源丰富成为了该地区显著的人文特征。因之,该地区自近代以来便成为国外学群积极关注和研究的对象。在国外的相关研究中,涉及对该地区族群历史、语言,特别是藏缅语族群的族源历史和语言历史的成果也较为丰富。其中,早期英印政府学群的研究奠定了该地区较早的族群史脉络,当代欧美日学群的潜心关注使得该地区族群语言和族群历史的研究更为深入,而印度阿萨姆地区学群的研究则进一步强化了该地区族群历史研究的本土化力量。聚焦到藏缅语族群层面,国外学群主要围绕原生形态层面的神话传说、迁移路线、语言形态和族群DNA体质分析等内容展开,研究较为深入而详细,为我们能够在宏观层面较为清晰地认识该地区藏缅语族群的发展史,奠定了较为扎实的学术借鉴基础。

The China-Myanmar-India tri-border area is one of the most concentrated areas of the Tibeto-Burman languages in the world. It is the important area of the Tibeto-Burman-speaking ethnic groups outside China. At the same time, the China-Myanmar-India tri-border area is also one of the significant corridors of ancient immigrants in history, which makes it the mixed and aggregated area of different language groups such as Tibeto-Burman group, Mon-Khmer group, Thai group and Indo-European groups. The humanistic features of this area find expression in the complexity of the ethnic origins and the rich language resources. As a result, the China-Myanmar-India tri-border area has been the research object by the international academia since modern times. The research findings on ethnic histories and languages of this area, especially the origins and language histories of these Tibeto-Burman-speaking ethnic groups, are abundant. Among them, the early British-Indian government-sponsored academia laid an early framework for studying the histories of these ethnic groups. The contemporary European, American and Japanese scholars have made progress on the study of ethnic languages and ethnic histories in this area. The scholars in Assam of India have become a local research group that has exerted much influence on the study of ethnic histories in this area. The relevant international studies focus on the myths and legends, migration routes, language forms and DNA features of these Tibeto-Burman-speaking groups. These in-depth and detailed studies reveal quite clearly the development history of these Tibeto-Burman-speaking groups in this area at the macro-level and help lay a solid foundation for future studies.