Staff profile

Dr Stephen Morey

Australian Research Council Future Fellow

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity

NR6 Building, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD, Monash University

Area of study

Asian Studies
Linguistics

Brief profile

After completing his PhD at Monash University in 2002, Stephen joined the former RCLT in 2003. He has also held fellowships from La Trobe University, the Endangered Languages Documentation Program,  and from the Volkswagen Foundation through the DoBeS Program. His research is undertaken in Assam State, India, as well as work on the Aboriginal languages of Victoria and South East Australia. His research covers three language groups, Tai, Singpho and Tangsa. Stephen has transcribed and analysed a large corpus of text in these various languages. He has also worked on the languages of Victoria, Australia, particularly Yorta Yorta (formerly spoken on the Murray River), Woiwurrung (the Aboriginal language of Melbourne) and Mathi-Mathi / Wati-Wati (Murray River from Swan Hill to Mildura and lower Murrumbidgee.

Research interests

Asian Cultural Studies

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Linguistic Anthropology

- Language documentation

- Linguistic typology

- Syntax

Religion and Society

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Recent publications

Refereed Books:

  • Morey, S.D., 2005, The Tai languages of Assam – a grammar and texts, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 413p. : ill., tables. Accompanying CD containing text collection and audio files
  • Morey, S.D. 2010. Turung – a variety of Singpho language spoken in Assam. Canberraː Pacific Linguistics
  • Blake, Barry, Luise Hercus, Stephen Morey with Ted Ryan. 2011. The Mathi group of Languages. Canberra, Pacific Linguistics.

Refereed Book Chapters:

  • Morey, S.D., 2008, ‘The Tai Languages of Assam’, in Anthony Diller and Jerrold A. Edmondson (eds.) The Tai Kadai Languages. London: Routledge. 207-253.
  • Morey, S.D., 2008. ‘Working with Tones in Northeast India - the tonal system of Numhpuk Singpho, Assam’ in S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India. 26-44.
  • Hercus Luise and S.D. Morey, 2008. Some remarks on Negatives in Southeastern Australia. published in Bowern, C, B. Evans and L,. Miceli, Morphology and Language History in honour of Harold Koch. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; 139-154.
  • Morey, S.D. 2009 ‘The realisation of tones in traditional Tai Phake songs’, in S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics II. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India. 54-69.
  • Tabassum, Zeenat and S.D. Morey. 2009. ‘Linguistic features of the Ahom Bar Amra,’ , in S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics II. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India. 70-89.
  • Morey, S.D. 2011. ‘Nominalisation in Numhpuk Singpho’, in Yap, Foong Ha and Janick Wrona, Nominalization in Asian languages: Diachronic and Typological perspectives. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 289-311.
  • Morey, S.D. 2011. 'Documentation of traditional songs and ritual texts: issues for archiving'. in Nick Thieberger, Linda Barwick, Rosie Billington and Jill Vaughan (eds). Sustainable data from Digital research. Custom Book Centre, University of Melbourne. 119-136.
  • Morey, S.D. 2012. ‘Poetic forms in Nocte, Singpho, Tai and Tangsa’ to appear in G. Hyslop, S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 4. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India. 145–165.
  • Morey, S.D. In print. ‘The marking of noun phrases: Some observations on the languages of North East India’ to appear in G. Hyslop, S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 5. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India.
  • Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, Meenaxi and S.D. Morey. Accepted ‘Wihu song of the Pangwa Tangsa: poetry and linguistic forms, meaning and the transformation to a symbol of identity’ to appear in G. Hyslop, S. Morey and M. Post (eds) North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 5. Delhi: Cambridge University Press, India.
  • Morey, S.D. and Jürgen Schöpf. Under review. ‘The language of ritual in Tangsa – the Wihu song’ to appear in Martin Gaenszle et al (eds) Ritual speech in the Himalayas: oral texts and their contexts.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Morey, S.D. 2006. ‘Constituent order change in the Tai languages of Assam’ Linguistic Typology, Vol 10 pp 327-367
  • Morey, S.D. 2006 ‘Small languages in a polylingual situation – the case of Turung’ in R. Elangaiyan, R. McKenna Brown, Nicholas D.M. Ostler and Mahendra K. Verma eds. FEL X: Vital Voices - Endangered Languages and Multilingualism: Mysore. pp87-94
  • Morey, S.D. 2008. ‘Tones in the Tai languages of Northeast India’ Bangkok: Khanittanan, Wilaiwan and Paul Sidwell (eds) SEALS XIII: Volume I. Papers from the 14th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 239-250 (electronic publication, available at http://pacling.anu.edu.au/catalogue/SEALSXIV_Vol1.pdf).
  • Morey, S.D. 2010. 'Syntactic variation in different styles of Tai Phake songs' to appear in Turpin, Myfany, Tonya Stebbins and Stephen Morey (eds). Special Issue on Language in Song in Australian Journal of Linguistics.
  • Morey, S.D. 2011. 'Transitivity in Cholim Tangsa', Studies in Language, edited by Alexander R. Coupe, Frantisek Kratochvil and Randy LaPolla. 35.3:676-701.
  • Morey, S.D. and Jurgen Schopf. 2011. 'Tone in speech and singing: a field experiment to research their relation in endangered languages of North East India' in Language Documentation and Description, special issued edited by Niclas Burenhult, Arthur Holmer, Anastasia Karlsson, Hakon Lundstrom and Jan-Olof Svantesson. 10:37-60.
  • Morey, S.D. in print. 'The Singpho agentive - functions and meanings' to appear in a special issue of Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, edited by Shobhana Chelliah and Gwendolyn Hyslop.

Non-refereed Journal Articles:

  • Morey, S.D., 2007. ‘Preservation and study of Tai manuscripts – some ideas’ in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol VII
  • Morey.S.D. and Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai. 2008. ‘Ahom Poetics – some preliminary observations’ in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol VIII 17-34.
  • Morey, S.D. 2009. 'The solar eclipse of July 22nd 2009 and the Ahom Lakni book,' in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol IX 90-104.
  • Morey, S.D. 2010. 'Bringing the Ahom Script into the Unicode' in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol X.
  • Morey, S.D. 2012 ‘Documenting, Conserving and Archiving the Tai Ahom Manuscripts of Assam.’ in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol XII
  • Morey, S.D. 2011. 'A sketch of Tai Ahom, as recorded in original manuscripts' in appear in Das, Biswajit and Phukan Basumatary (eds). 2010. Axamiya aru Axamar Bhasa. (Assamese and The languages of Assam). Guwahati: AANK-Bank.
  • Morey, S.D. 2011. ‘A sketch of Singpho’ in Das, Biswajit and Phukan Basumatary (eds). Axamiya aru Axamar Bhasa. (Assamese and The languages of Assam). Guwahati: AANK-Bank.

Older publications

Refereed Books:

  • Bowe, H., and S.D. Morey, 1999, Yorta Yorta (Bangerang) language of the Murray-Goulburn including Yabula Yabula. Pacific Linguistics. xiii, 286 p. : ill., tables.

 Refereed Book Chapters:

  • Morey, S.D., 2002, ‘Tai languages of Assam, a progress report ­– Does anything remain of the Tai Ahom language?’ in David and Maya Bradley, (eds). Language Maintenance for Endangered Languages: An Active Approach. London: Curzon Press. 98-113.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Morey, S.D., 1999., ‘Previously unexamined texts in Victorian Languages - The manuscripts of Rev. William Thomas (1793-1867)’ in Monash University Linguistic Publications Volume 2 No.1:45-60.
  • Morey, S.D., 2001., ‘The literature of the Tai of Assam’ in Melbourne Papers in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Volume 1, Issue 1:37-46
  • Morey, S.D. 2005. ‘Tonal change in the Tai languages of Northeast India’ Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 28 (2) 139-202.
  • Morey, Stephen. 2005. 'The tone and syllable structure of Turung', in Paul Sidwell (ed.) SEALS XV - Papers from the 15th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics (Electronic Publication E1) p149-168.
  • Morey, Stephen 2005. 'The Place Names and Words Collected by Philip Chauncey: a linguistic examination' in Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 76 (2) pp 180-198

Non-refereed books:

  • Morey, S.D., 1993. Mandolins of the 18th Century. Cremona: Turris Press

Editions of Tai texts (non refereed)

  • Morey, S.D., 1999., Tai Aiton history. Dibrugarh: Triograph Press. 32p. (the first book ever published containing a complete text in one of the Tai languages of Assam, this is an edition and translation of three Tai Aiton historical texts).
  • Morey, S.D., 2001., Book of calling the Khon. Dibrugarh: Triograph Press. 32p. (an edition and translation of an important Tai Khamyang ritual text)
  • Morey, S.D., 2001., Grandfather teaches grandchildren. Dibrugarh: Triograph Press. 44p. (an edition and translation of an important Tai Phake text, containing proverbs and cultural mores)
  • Morey, S.D. 2006. Turung Khong na Pung (Turung area stories), printed by Screenotec Printing, Titabar, Jorhat Assam. 54pp.
  • Khamdaengyodtai, Chaichuen, Stephen Morey, Nabin Shyam Phalung and Zeenat Tabassum. 2008. Ma Likha Lit . Dibrugarh: published by the authors, printed at Designer Graphics.

Tai primers (non refereed)

  • Morey, S.D., 1999, Tai Aiton Primer. Dibrugarh: Triograph Press. 32p.
  • Morey, S.D., 2000, Tai Phake Primer. Dibrugarh: Triograph Press. 32p.

Non-refereed Journal Articles

  • Morey S.D., 2002. ‘The Study and Revival of the Ahom Language’ in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol II: 89-103.
  • Morey, S.D., 2004. ‘The Practice of Buddhism in Northeast India’ in Ven. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh (ed) Yasodhara (Newsletter on International Buddhist Women’s Activities) p2-4.
  • Morey, S.D., 2004 ‘Tones in the Tai Languages of Assam’ in Indian Journal of Tai Studies. Vol IV:53-68

Research projects

A multifaceted study of Tangsa – a network of linguistic varieties in North East India.

An Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Future Fellowship for 2011-14

This project investigates the complex linguistic diversity of the Tangsa languages, spoken on the India-Burma border, and documents the traditional knowledge of those communities with a particular emphasis on ritual texts and traditional songs. The recordings are being archived for public access at the DoBeS archive () and on-line dictionaries are being produced for as many varieties as possible.

Documenting, Conserving and Archiving the Tai Ahom Manuscripts of Assam

A British Library funded project under the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), for 2011-14

This project aims to photograph the many Tai-Ahom manuscripts that have been preserved in the Ahom villages in Assam, India, and to catalogue them and where possible transcribe and translate them. An online dictionary  is being progressively updated as the work of analysis continues.