This study based on extensive and pioneering fieldwork done by the author between 1999 and
2002 provides a first account of Yinchia a hitherto undescribed language in the southern Shan
State of Myanmar (Burma). Using data collected from native Yinchia speakers in the Nam-San
community the author presents a comprehensive analysis of Yinchia phonetics and phonology
(including tonology) in a framework that is essentially structuralist. Chapters on morphology
and syntax remain more sketchy and tentative but discuss important issues such as the tense and
aspect system of Yinchia as well as questions of word structure and the identification of
phonological words using mainly Integrational Linguistics as a theoretical background.
Moreover the author develops an orthography for Yinchia which so far has no writing system.
