The Himalayan Languages Project, launched in 1993, is a research collective based at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

and comprising much of the world's authoritative research on the lesser-known and endangered languages of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

, in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. 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 George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957) is a Dutch linguist associated with the University of Bern, where he is the chair of Historical Linguistics and directs the Linguistics Institute. Education * Leiden University, 1983–1987 (PhD, ''A Grammar ...

; other top authorities include

Mark Turin Mark Turin (born 1973) is a British anthropologist, linguist and occasional radio broadcaster who specializes in the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest. From 2014–2018, he served as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program ...

and

Jeroen Wiedenhof Jeroen Maarten Wiedenhof (born 1959 in 's-Hertogenbosch) is a senior lecturer at the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Leiden, and an expert on Chinese linguistics, particularly Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of ...

. 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

to devise a standard romanization of

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...

. Since George van Driem's move to the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

, many members of the Himalayan Languages Project are now based out of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

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: * Limbu * Dumi *

* Wambule * Kulung *

Jero Jerome Charles White Jr. (born September 4, 1981), better known by his stage name , is an American enka singer of African-American and Japanese descent who is the first black enka singer in Japanese music history. In 2018, Jero announced that ...

The Project is currently working on comprehensive grammars of the following languages: * Manchad * Lohorung * Thangmi * Sunwar * Lhokpu * Sampang * Gongduk * Olekha * Chɨlɨng * Gyalrong * Lepcha * Chulung *

Dhimal The Dhimal or Dhemal(in Nepali:धिमाल) are an Kirati ethnic group residing in the eastern Terai of Nepal. They are a Sino-Tibetan-speaking ethnic group of the eastern Terai. They mainly reside in Morang and Jhapa districts of Nepal a ...

The Project has completed grammatical sketches of the following languages: * Bumthang * Byangsi * Puma *

Rabha The Rabha are a Tibeto-Burman community to the Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal. They primarily inhabit the plains of Lower Assam and the Dooars, while some are found in the Garo Hills. Most of the Rabhas of Dooars refer to thems ...

* Rongpo The Project is currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages: * Baram * Dura * Toto 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.

Conferences

Members of the Himalayan Languages Project also regularly organise the Himalayan Languages Symposium, an annual conference on Trans-Himalayan languages.Conferences
''Himalayan Languages Project''.

References

External links

Himalayan Languages Project
official website
The Kirat Rai Association's Web Portal
{{Leiden University Linguistic research Organizations established in 1993 Leiden University 1993 establishments in the Netherlands

Languages studied

Conferences

See also

References

External links