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]

EventLocationCountryDateYear
HLS 1Leiden NetherlandsJune 16–171995
HLS 2Noordwijkerhout NetherlandsOctober 11–121996
HLS 3Santa Barbara, California United StatesJuly 17–201997
HLS 4Pune IndiaDecember 7–91998
HLS 5Kathmandu   NepalSeptember 13–151999
HLS 6Milwaukee, Wisconsin United StatesJune 15–172000
HLS 7Uppsala SwedenSeptember 7–92001
HLS 8Bern  SwitzerlandSeptember 19–222002
HLS 9Mysore IndiaDecember 9–122003
HLS 10Thimphu BhutanDecember 1–32004
HLS 11Bangkok ThailandDecember 6–92005
HLS 12Kathmandu   NepalNovember 26–292006
HLS 13Shimla IndiaOctober 22–242007
HLS 14Göteborg SwedenAugust 21–232008
HLS 15Eugene, Oregon United StatesJuly 30–August 12009
HLS 16London United KingdomSeptember 2–52010
HLS 17Kobe JapanSeptember 6–92011
HLS 18Varanasi IndiaSeptember 10–122012
HLS 19Canberra AustraliaSeptember 6–82013
HLS 20Singapore SingaporeJuly 16–182014
HLS 21Kirtipur   NepalNovember 26–282015
HLS 22Guwahati IndiaJune 8–102016
HLS 23Tezpur IndiaJuly 5–72017
HLS 24Lucknow IndiaJune 8–102018
HLS 25Sydney AustraliaJune 28–292019
HLS 26Paris FranceSeptember 4–62023
HLS 27Guwahati IndiaJune 10–122024

See also

References

  1. ↑ Himalayan Languages Symposium.
  2. ↑ Conferences. Himalayan Languages Project.
  3. ↑ "Conference Schedule". Himalayan Languages Symposium. 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
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