Abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to study and compare the morphological processes in Kui, Bruu and So. The morphology of each language is investigated and comparisons are made to determine similarities and differences in their morphologies. Data were obtained from Kui-Thai-English, Bruu-Thai-English and So-English dictionaries and from interviews with the native speakers who compiled the dictionaries and with persons who had made studies of these languages. Comparison of the three languages show that they share the morphological processes of affixation and reduplication. Kui has the additional process of register change. Affixation functions to nominalize verbs, to alter the meaning of nouns, to alter the meaning of verbs, and to verbalize nouns. Reduplication consists of complete and partial reduplication. Based on morphological evidence it may be concluded that Bruu and So are genetically closer to each other than either is to Kui; which lends support to the subgrouping of Katuic languages by Kenneth D. Smith (1981) based on lexico-statistical evidence.