The objective of the work of W. South Coblin has been to collect various materials on Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages into a single list and to arrange this list in a clear and convenient form, with indexes which make the information easily accessible.The author presents the view that Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages must have descended from a common proto-language. He reconstructs Sino-Tibetan proto-forms from which Chinese and Tibeto-Burman reflexes can be derived by regular rules. The importance of the reconstructive exercise lies not in the detail of this or any other reconstructed system but in the fact that the exercise can be successfully carried out, regardless of theoretical convictions or orientations.
