The following excerpts are taken from book reviews of Coupe (2007a) A grammar of Mongsen Ao.

This grammar presents one of the most useful treatments of case marking on core arguments in a Tibeto-Burman language published to date…Coupe’s chapter on clause combining provides enough typological and theoretical background to make it a standalone reading on converbs for a syntactic typology course.

I find it hard to find fault with Coupe’s grammar of Mongsen Ao … A Grammar of Mongsen Ao represents exactly the kind of comprehensive and trustable description one looks for in a grammar. It is a welcome addition to the Mouton Grammar Library and will certainly be used as a model for description of other Tibeto-Burman languages of North East India.

— Shobhana L. Chelliah (2010), Himalayan Linguistics Review 10, pp.1–9.

As a thorough description of a previously underdocumented language, this book provides an excellent and long-standing contribution to linguistics, especially typology and Tibeto-Burman studies.

There are two reasons why this grammar is especially good. First, the author reports faithfully what he has found, and does not try to simplify or cut corners. Second, the author has not imposed categories from other languages onto the present one … Also, generalizations not normally found in grammars of other languages or descriptive checklists which nevertheless do exist in Mongsen Ao seem to be caught.

— Harald Hammarström, The Linguist List 15/1/2010

There is a great deal to admire in this book. ARC is thoroughly familiar with various theoretical frameworks, both phonological and grammatical, but maintains an independent and eclectic approach. As observed above, he invokes bits of theoretical terminology or concepts when he finds them useful, but never lets theory falsify the facts of the language.

A Grammar of Mongsen Ao is beautiful in appearance, with expertly formatted interlinear glosses, and is virtually typo-free. It now takes its place as one of the best Tibeto-Burman grammars to date, ranking with Chelliah (1997) and Burling (2004) as a model for the description of the TB languages of northeast India.

— James A. Matisoff (2011), Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Vol. 34.1: 119–133.

Overall I highly recommend this volume, which is a fantastic piece of scholarship. A. R. Coupe’s A Grammar of Mongsen Ao would be a welcome addition to anyone’s research library, typologist and comparative Tibeto-Burmanist alike. It is well structured, internally referential and well-indexed.

— Gregory D.S. Anderson (2013), Studies in Language Vol. 37.3: 883–891.