Himalayan Languages Project

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The Himalayan Languages Project, launched in 1993, is a research collective based at Leiden University and comprising much of the world's authoritative research on the lesser-known and endangered languages of the Himalayas, in Nepal, China, Bhutan, and India. Its members regularly spend months or years at a time doing field research with native speakers. The Director of the Himalayan Languages Project is George van Driem. Project members include Mark Turin and Jeroen Wiedenhof. The project recruits graduate students to collect field data on little-known languages for their Ph.D. dissertations.

Contents

The Himalayan Languages Project was officially commissioned by the government of Bhutan to devise a standard romanization of Dzongkha.

Since George van Driem's move to the University of Bern, many members of the Himalayan Languages Project are now based out of Switzerland.

Languages studied

The project has completed comprehensive grammars of the following languages:

The project is currently working on comprehensive grammars of the following languages:

The project has completed grammatical sketches of the following languages:

Members of the project are currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages:

The project has also studied Kusunda, a language isolate of Nepal.

Himalayan Languages Symposium

Members of the Himalayan Languages Project also regularly organise the Himalayan Languages Symposium, an annual conference on Trans-Himalayan languages. [1] [2] Conferences have been held annually since 1995.

Below is a list of past conferences. [3]

EventLocationCountryDateYear
HLS 1 Leiden Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands June 16–171995
HLS 2 Noordwijkerhout Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands October 11–121996
HLS 3 Santa Barbara, California Flag of the United States.svg  United States July 17–201997
HLS 4 Pune Flag of India.svg  India December 7–91998
HLS 5 Kathmandu Flag of Nepal.svg    Nepal September 13–151999
HLS 6 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Flag of the United States.svg  United States June 15–172000
HLS 7 Uppsala Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden September 7–92001
HLS 8 Bern Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland September 19–222002
HLS 9 Mysore Flag of India.svg  India December 9–122003
HLS 10 Thimphu Flag of Bhutan.svg  Bhutan December 1–32004
HLS 11 Bangkok Flag of Thailand.svg  Thailand December 6–92005
HLS 12 Kathmandu Flag of Nepal.svg    Nepal November 26–292006
HLS 13 Shimla Flag of India.svg  India October 22–242007
HLS 14 Göteborg Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden August 21–232008
HLS 15 Eugene, Oregon Flag of the United States.svg  United States July 30–August 12009
HLS 16 London Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom September 2–52010
HLS 17 Kobe Flag of Japan.svg  Japan September 6–92011
HLS 18 Varanasi Flag of India.svg  India September 10–122012
HLS 19 Canberra Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia September 6–82013
HLS 20 Singapore Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore July 16–182014
HLS 21 Kirtipur Flag of Nepal.svg    Nepal November 26–282015
HLS 22 Guwahati Flag of India.svg  India June 8–102016
HLS 23 Tezpur Flag of India.svg  India July 5–72017
HLS 24 Lucknow Flag of India.svg  India June 8–102018
HLS 25 Sydney Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia June 28–292019
HLS 26 Paris Flag of France.svg  France September 4–62023
HLS 27 Guwahati Flag of India.svg  India June 12–142024

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurung language</span> Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal and India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Bhutan</span>

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The Khengkha language, or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.

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Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym Bod, is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that all these languages form a clade, characterized by shared innovations, within Sino-Tibetan.

The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:

The Kurtöp language is an East Bodish language spoken in Kurtoe Gewog, Lhuntse District, Bhutan. In 1993, there were about 10,000 speakers of Kurtöp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibeto-Burman languages</span> Group of the Sino-Tibetan language family

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, Burmese and the Tibetic languages, which also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively. Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail.

Gongduk or Gongdu is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).

Lhokpu, also Lhobikha or Taba-Damtoe-Bikha, is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within the Sino-Tibetan language family.

The Dzala language, also called Dzalakha, Dzalamat, or Yangtsebikha, is an East Bodish language spoken in eastern Bhutan, in the Lhuntse and Trashiyangtse Districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ʼOle language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of western Bhutan

ʼOle, also called ʼOlekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.

The Brokpa language (Brokpa: Brokpakæ; Dzongkha: དྲོག་པ་ཁ།, དྲོགཔ་ཁ།) is a Tibetic language spoken by around 5,000 people. It is spoken by descendants of pastoral yakherd communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bumthang language</span> East Bodish language of north-central Bhutan

The Bumthang language ; also called "Bhumtam", "Bumtang(kha)", "Bumtanp", "Bumthapkha", and "Kebumtamp") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan. Van Driem (1993) describes Bumthang as the dominant language of central Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takpa language</span> Bodish language spoken in Tibet and Bhutan

The Takpa or Dakpa language, Dakpakha, known in India as Tawang Monpa, also known as Brami in Bhutan, is an East Bodish language spoken in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, and in northern Trashigang District in eastern Bhutan, mainly in Kyaleng, Phongmed Gewog, Dangpholeng and Lengkhar near Radi Gewog. Van Driem (2001) describes Takpa as the most divergent of Bhutan's East Bodish languages, though it shares many similarities with Bumthang. SIL reports that Takpa may be a dialect of the Brokpa language and that it been influenced by the Dzala language whereas Brokpa has not.

The East Asian languages are a language family proposed by Stanley Starosta in 2001. The proposal has since been adopted by George van Driem and others.

References

  1. Himalayan Languages Symposium.
  2. Conferences [usurped] . Himalayan Languages Project.
  3. "Conference schedule". Himalayan Languages Symposium. 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2024-01-20.