DEAR FRANK:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01153A000100050007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 1999
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 22, 1969
• Content Type: LETTER

'L t /S 0,41 - 13,
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
22 January 1969
25X1A5a1
file
(Copy made and sent
to thru
Ch/GD)
25X1A9a
Dear Frank 25X1 A5a 1
I should like to pass on to you a more formal, and I
hope a more useful, response to your Chinese
Linguistic Project than my interim reply of 7 January.
Your Chinese Linguistics Project has been reviewed with
care in appropriate offices; the following is a composite
of the comments.
The substance of the proposed research project is
of interest to the extent that it offers promise of refine-
ment and updating of available information on the numbers
and geographic location of speakers of the various Chinese
languages and subdialects. Interest in detailed descriptive
characterizations of the various languages and dialects--their
phonology and morphology--is of very limited interest. Per-
haps, the military service language schools would find that
part of the project of special interest.
With regard to the inadequacy of presently available
linguistic maps of China and adjoining areas, we are inclined
to feel that the project proposal presents a gloomier view
than is justified by the facts. A fair amount of work in
ethnolinguistic mapping has, in fact, been done and the
admittedly generalized small-scale map in the CIA Map Folio--
intentionally limited to the actual political boundaries of
China--is not fully representative of the -extent or detail
of available work on this problem. We recognize that the
proposed project could provide a potentially useful compilation
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25X1A5a1 of basic information on a subject that deserves to be better
known, and we hope that will succeed in finding
a sponsor. In terms of available funds and relative
priorities, however, we do not feel justified in offering
financial support to the undertaking.
In addition to the existing relevant work summarized
25X1A5a1 in Section III of the proposal, the researchers
might wish to make use of the following items in digging
into the geographic distribution aspects of the problem:
a. Naseleniye Kitaya, MNR i Korei (Peoples
China, Mongolian Peoples Republic, ART-Korea).
Moscow. USSR Academy of Sciences. 1959. This
map-and-text study was compiled to 1958 in the
Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of
Sciences, with S. I. Bruk as principal compiler-
author. An English translation of the text is
available as JPRS 3710, dated 16 August 1960.
Other studies in this series provide similar
treatment of areas adjoining China.
b. Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia.
New Haven. Human Relations Area Files Press. 1984.
This study provides treatment of linguistic areas
in portions of South China as well as in Mainland
Southeast Asia. Thus, by treating minority
language areas that extend across China's bound-
aries in this sector, it provides some of the
cross-border coverage that we "ignored" in the
Communist China Map Folio.
f a sponsor is found and the project proceeds, it
would be hoped that more than 25 copies of the resulting
book would be produced. This small quantity hardly seems
adequate if the research effort is at all worthwhile.
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Finally, it would seem that if the research does
proceed, some type of mapping would need to be done by
the project team. The proposal makes reference to the
fact that the research results would permit marked
improvement of existing linguistic maps, but the descrip-
tion of the final product contains no mention of a map
25X1A5a1tt may be worthwhile, if is agreeable, for us
to volunteer a modest lever of cartographic assistance
in order to insure that the final product does, in fact,
include a map.
Sincerely,
25X1A9a
Chief, Spec a Research Staff and
Coordinator for Academic Relations
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25X1A9a
MEMORANDUM FOR: Jim Bramwell
1005 NP mag.
Jim: This is for your files. Thanks
much for the excellent response. As
you will see I cribbed most of it.
I will keep the project write up in my
file here, in case you should
want to refer to it again one day*
jkk
FORM NO. REPLACES FORM 10.101
1 AUG 54 10 I WHICH MAY BE USED.
'le ~
'(DAT
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