Himalayan Languages Project
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; other top authorities include Mark Turin and Jeroen Wiedenhof. It recruits grad students to collect new field research on little-known languages as the topics for their Ph.D. dissertations.
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
Many of the languages studied by the Project are believed to be doomed to extinction in the next few years or decades, and might be lost to human knowledge but for the efforts of the Project.
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:
The Project is currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages:
The Project also studied the fall into apparent extinction of the language Kusunda in Nepal, as its last speakers, who lived in the forest and subsisted by hunting, were absorbed and dispersed into the larger society.
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]
Event | Location | Country | Date | Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
HLS 1 | Leiden | Netherlands | June 16–17 | 1995 |
HLS 2 | Noordwijkerhout | Netherlands | October 11–12 | 1996 |
HLS 3 | Santa Barbara, California | United States | July 17–20 | 1997 |
HLS 4 | Pune | India | December 7–9 | 1998 |
HLS 5 | Kathmandu | Nepal | September 13–15 | 1999 |
HLS 6 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | United States | June 15–17 | 2000 |
HLS 7 | Uppsala | Sweden | September 7–9 | 2001 |
HLS 8 | Bern | Switzerland | September 19–22 | 2002 |
HLS 9 | Mysore | India | December 9–12 | 2003 |
HLS 10 | Thimphu | Bhutan | December 1–3 | 2004 |
HLS 11 | Bangkok | Thailand | December 6–9 | 2005 |
HLS 12 | Kathmandu | Nepal | November 26–29 | 2006 |
HLS 13 | Shimla | India | October 22–24 | 2007 |
HLS 14 | Göteborg | Sweden | August 21–23 | 2008 |
HLS 15 | Eugene, Oregon | United States | July 30–August 1 | 2009 |
HLS 16 | London | United Kingdom | September 2–5 | 2010 |
HLS 17 | Kobe | Japan | September 6–9 | 2011 |
HLS 18 | Varanasi | India | September 10–12 | 2012 |
HLS 19 | Canberra | Australia | September 6–8 | 2013 |
HLS 20 | Singapore | Singapore | July 16–18 | 2014 |
HLS 21 | Kirtipur | Nepal | November 26–28 | 2015 |
HLS 22 | Guwahati | India | June 8–10 | 2016 |
HLS 23 | Tezpur | India | July 5–7 | 2017 |
HLS 24 | Lucknow | India | June 8–10 | 2018 |
HLS 25 | Sydney | Australia | June 28–29 | 2019 |
HLS 26 | Paris | France | September 4–6 | 2023 |
HLS 27 | Guwahati | India | June 10–12 | 2024 |
References
- Himalayan Languages Symposium.
- Conferences. Himalayan Languages Project.
- "Conference Schedule". Himalayan Languages Symposium. 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
External links
- Himalayan Languages Project official website
- The Kirat Rai Association's Web Portal