View source for 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]]. 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.

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:
*[[Limbu language|Limbu]]
*[[Dumi language|Dumi]]
*[[Dzongkha]]
*[[Wambule language|Wambule]]
*[[Kulung language (Nepal)|Kulung]]
*[[Jero language|Jero]]

The project is currently working on comprehensive grammars of the following languages:
*[[Pattani language|Manchad]]
*[[Lohorung language|Lohorung]]
*[[Thangmi language|Thangmi]]
*[[Sunwar language|Sunwar]]
*[[Lhokpu language|Lhokpu]]
*[[Sampang language|Sampang]]
*[[Gongduk language|Gongduk]]
*[[Olekha language|Olekha]]
*[[Gyalrong language|Gyalrong]]
*[[Lepcha language|Lepcha]]
*[[Chulung language|Chulung]]
*[[Dhimal]]

The project has completed grammatical sketches of the following languages:
*[[Bumthang language|Bumthang]]
*[[Byangsi language|Byangsi]]
*[[Puma language|Puma]]
*[[Rabha language|Rabha]]
*[[Rongpo language|Rongpo]]

Members of the project are currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages:
*[[Baram language|Baram]]
*[[Dura language|Dura]]
*[[Toto language|Toto]]

The project has also studied [[Kusunda language|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.<ref>[http://www.himalayansymposium.org/ Himalayan Languages Symposium].</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20220219051227/http://www.himalayanlanguages.org/conferences.html Conferences]}}. ''Himalayan Languages Project''.</ref> Conferences have been held annually since 1995.

Below is a list of past conferences.<ref>{{cite web | title=Conference schedule | website=Himalayan Languages Symposium | date=2021-04-14 | url=http://www.himalayansymposium.org/conference-schedule.html | access-date=2024-01-20}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! Event !! Location !! Country !! Date !! Year
|-
| HLS 1 || [[Leiden]] || {{flag|Netherlands}} || June 16–17 || 1995
|-
| HLS 2 || [[Noordwijkerhout]] || {{flag|Netherlands}} || October 11–12 || 1996
|-
| HLS 3 || [[Santa Barbara, California]] || {{flag|United States}} || July 17–20 || 1997
|-
| HLS 4 || [[Pune]] || {{flag|India}} || December 7–9 || 1998
|-
| HLS 5 || [[Kathmandu]] || {{flag|Nepal}} || September 13–15 || 1999
|-
| HLS 6 || [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]] || {{flag|United States}} || June 15–17 || 2000
|-
| HLS 7 || [[Uppsala]] || {{flag|Sweden}} || September 7–9 || 2001
|-
| HLS 8 || [[Bern]] || {{flag|Switzerland}} || September 19–22 || 2002
|-
| HLS 9 || [[Mysore]] || {{flag|India}} || December 9–12 || 2003
|-
| HLS 10 || [[Thimphu]] || {{flag|Bhutan}} || December 1–3 || 2004
|-
| HLS 11 || [[Bangkok]] || {{flag|Thailand}} || December 6–9 || 2005
|-
| HLS 12 || [[Kathmandu]] || {{flag|Nepal}} || November 26–29 || 2006
|-
| HLS 13 || [[Shimla]] || {{flag|India}} || October 22–24 || 2007
|-
| HLS 14 || [[Gothenburg]] || {{flag|Sweden}} || August 21–23 || 2008
|-
| HLS 15 || [[Eugene, Oregon]] || {{flag|United States}} || July 30–August 1 || 2009
|-
| HLS 16 || [[London]] || {{flag|United Kingdom}} || September 2–5 || 2010
|-
| HLS 17 || [[Kobe]] || {{flag|Japan}} || September 6–9 || 2011
|-
| HLS 18 || [[Varanasi]] || {{flag|India}} || September 10–12 || 2012
|-
| HLS 19 || [[Canberra]] || {{flag|Australia}} || September 6–8 || 2013
|-
| HLS 20 || [[Singapore]] || {{flag|Singapore}} || July 16–18 || 2014
|-
| HLS 21 || [[Kirtipur]] || {{flag|Nepal}} || November 26–28 || 2015
|-
| HLS 22 || [[Guwahati]] || {{flag|India}} || June 8–10 || 2016
|-
| HLS 23 || [[Tezpur]] || {{flag|India}} || July 5–7 || 2017
|-
| HLS 24 || [[Lucknow]] || {{flag|India}} || June 8–10 || 2018
|-
| HLS 25 || [[Sydney]] || {{flag|Australia}} || June 28–29 || 2019
|-
| HLS 26 || [[Paris]] || {{flag|France}} || September 4–6 || 2023
|-
| HLS 27 || [[Guwahati]] || {{flag|India}} || June 12–14 || 2024
|-
| HLS 28 || [[Eugene, Oregon]] || {{flag|United States}} || August 2–3 || 2025<ref>{{cite web | title=Co-located Conferences | website=Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute: July 7-August 8, 2025 at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR | url=https://center.uoregon.edu/LSA/2025/co-located-conferences.php | access-date=2024-12-18}}</ref>
|}

== See also ==
*[[Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus]]
*[[International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090130020512/http://himalayanlanguages.org/ Himalayan Languages Project]}} official website
*[http://www.kiratrai.org The Kirat Rai Association's web portal]

{{Leiden University}}
[[Category:Linguistic research]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1993]]
[[Category:Leiden University]]
[[Category:1993 establishments in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Sino-Tibetan languages|*]]
[[Category:Linguistics projects]]
[[Category:Himalayan culture]]