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
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 ...
, 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 ma ...
,
China,
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 mountai ...
, 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 ...
. 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
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. He is a member of the Leiden Sch ...
. 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
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 mountai ...
to devise a standard romanization of
Dzongkha.
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 Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...
, 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:
*
Limbu
Limbu may refer to:
* Limbu people, an indigenous tribe living in Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan
** Rambahadur Limbu (born 1939), Nepalese Gurkha recipient of the Victoria Cross
* Limbu language
* Limbu script
** Limbu (Unicode block)
Limbu is a Unicod ...
*
Dumi
Dumi (also Duni) is a village in the Chaurpati Rural Municipality of Achham District in the Sudurpashchim Province of western Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census, the village had a population of 1517 living in 332 houses. At the time of th ...
*
Dzongkha
*
Wambule
Wambule (; ne, वाम्बुले, translit=Vāmbulē) is a Kiranti language language spoken by the Wambule Rai, one of the Rai groups belonging to the Kiranti (किरान्ती) ethnolinguistic family of eastern Nepal. Wambule is ...
*
Kulung Kulung may refer to:
* Kulung people, an ethnic group of Nepal
* Kulung language (Nepal), a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal
* Kulung language (Chad), a Chadic language of Chad
* Kulung language (West Chadic), a Chadic language of Nigeria
* Kulung l ...
*
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 Lohorung may be:
*Lohorung people
*Lohorung language
Lohorung, also spelled Lorung, Lohrung or Loharung, is a Kirati language of eastern Nepal. It has been described by George van Driem.
Southern Lorung is also considered to be Southern Yamphu l ...
*
Thangmi
*
Sunwar
The Sunuwar or Koinch (; ''Sunuwār Jāti'') is a Kirati tribe native to Nepal, parts of India (West Bengal and Sikkim) and southern Bhutan. They speak the Sunuwar language. According to the 2001 census of Nepal, 17% of the tribe follow the Kir ...
*
Lhokpu
*
Sampang
*
Gongduk
*
Olekha
*
Chɨlɨng
*
Gyalrong
Gyalrong people (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་རོང, Chinese:嘉绒), also called Jiarong, rGyalrong, are speakers of the Qiangic Gyalrong language who live in the southern part of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, China. Th ...
*
Lepcha
*
Chulung Chulung may refer to:
* Chulung glacier, west of map Point NJ9842 on India-Pakistan Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL)
* Chulung language, a Kiranti language spoken in Nepal
* Chulung, a village in Down Meramor, Shahristan District
Shahristan ( ...
*
Dhimal
The Project has completed grammatical sketches of the following languages:
*
Bumthang
*
Byangsi
*
Puma
Puma or PUMA may refer to:
Animals
* ''Puma'' (genus), a genus in the family Felidae
** Puma (species) or cougar, a large cat
Businesses and organisations
* Puma (brand), a multinational shoe and sportswear company
* Puma Energy, a mid- and d ...
*
Rabha
*
Rongpo
The Project is currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages:
*
Baram
*
Dura
Dura may also refer to: Đura such as, for example, Đura Bajalović
Geography
* Dura language, a critically endangered language of Nepal
* Dura, Africa, an ancient city and former bishopric, now a Catholic titular see
* Dura-Europos, an ancient c ...
*
Toto
Toto may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Pets
* Toto (Oz), Toto (''Oz''), a dog in the novel and film ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''
* Toto, in Japanese ''The Cat Returns#Plot, The Cat Returns''
Characters of agency
* a ...
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''.
See also
* Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus
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