The Sinitic Languages : Routledge : 9780367186203 : 0367186209 : 16 Jan 2019 : The Sinitic Languages is the quintessence of Mieczyslaw Jerzy Künstler's thirty years of research into the Chinese languages. Originally published in Polish in 2000 as Jezyki chinskie, this work collected Künstler's various lectures on the fascinating world of this branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It marked the apogee of linguistic research of Chinese languages in Poland. With a keen, intuitive understanding of the workings of these languages, Künstler introduces his readership to the historical development of spoken Sinitic languages. Besides analyzing the various stages of Standard Chinese, he also makes a convincing case for classifying Cantonese, Pekinese, Nankinese, Minnanese, Wu, and other so-called "dialects" as distinct languages. Künstler's work offers an insightful and detailed overview about synchronic and diachronic research on the major language groups of Chinese, a fast growing acade