The Tibeto-Burman Linguistics Domain is meant to be a general umbrella for disseminating information about Tibeto-Burman languages, cultures, and linguistics, and for improving communication between scholars working on Tibeto-Burman languages and cultures. To post information or links on this site, contact Randy LaPolla. (In the page below, scroll over the text for links.)

Events related to Tibeto-Burman linguistics (in chronological order):

• 43nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics will be hosted by the Centre for Languages and Literature at Lund University October 15-18th 2010.
  
• 16th Himalayan Languages Symposium, 2-5 September 2010, hosted by SOAS, University of London, UK. The Himalayan Languages Symposium is an annually convening, open scholarly forum for scholars of Himalayan languages.
  
• 5th International Conference of the North East Indian Linguistics Society was held Feb. 12-14, 2010, in Guwahati, Assam. The conference was hosted by the Department of Linguistics of Gauhati University at the Don Bosco Institute (http://www.dbig.org/) in the Kharguli Hills district of Guwahati. In conjunction with the conference, the Department of Linguistics of Gauhati University also hosted a two-day workshop series (at no charge) Feb. 10-11 primarily aimed at students.
  
• Nominalization and its Discontents: Workshop on Nominalization and Its Uses in Tibeto-Burman Languages is an on-going discussion/workshop on the definition and uses of nominalization in Tibeto-Burman languages being carried out at La Trobe University and on the Tibeto-Burman Linguistics listserv (see just above on the latter). The web site archives papers which have been circulated on the list as part of the workshop. A special issue of Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area on nominalization appeared as the October 2008 issue (31.2).

Recent publications and MA/PhD theses:

• Button, Christopher Thomas James. 2009. A Reconstruction of Proto Northern Chin in Old Burmese and Old Chinese Perspective. PhD dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The phonology, morphology and semantics of six Northern Chin languages are investigated in terms of their relationships with Old Burmese and Old Chinese. Regular correspondences are achieved through a vertical two vowel system and a segmentally derived three tone system. A word list with reconstructed Northern Chin forms, of which several are used in the comparisons with Old Burmese and Old Chinese throughout the work, is included as an appendix. An extensively revised version will be published next year in the STEDT monograph series. For download (3.7MB), click the icon:
• van Breugel, Seino (Jonkheer Egbert Joost Seino Clifford Kocq van Breugel). 2009. A Grammar of Atong. PhD dissertation, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Atong is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the South Garo Hills district of Meghalaya State in Northeast India. The grammar is based primarily on data collected during a total of twelve months of fieldwork, spread out over two trips, between 2005 and 2007, in the villages of Badri Maidugytym and Siju. The grammar consists of 29 chapters. The first is a general introduction to the Atong language, its speakers and also discusses its possible historical affiliations. Chapter 2 describes the phonology and discusses the phenomenon of glottalisation. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the word classes. The different word classes are discussed in detail in Chapters 4 to 17. Chapter 18 describes the different types of word-class-changing derivation. Chapters 19 and 20 describe the phrasal morphology of the language. Chapter 21 treats the subject of transitivity, which plays only a minor role in the language. Chapters 22 to 25 describe the predicate and predicate morphology. Chapter 26 gives an overview of the different clause types, some of which are treated in more detail in that chapter, while others are treated in chapters 27 to 29. There are two appendices to this thesis. The first appendix contains five Atong texts of different genres. Four of them are fully glossed and translated, one serves as an example of the seemingly dying practice of spirit incantation and cannot be translated. The second appendix is an Atong-English dictionary. The Atong entries and examples in this dictionary are written in the orthography van Breugel designed for the language. For download (3.5MB), clik the icon:
• Rwbaa, Post et al. 2009. A Galo-English Dictionary (International Edition). Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, Galo Welfare Society. "Warning! Downloading this file constitutes an undertaking that you will *not* disseminate it further in electronic form. This request has been made by the copyright owners, the Galo Welfare Society. Thank you in advance for your cooperation." For download (3.9MB), click the icon:
• Morey, Stephen & Mark Post, eds. 2008. North East Indian Linguistics. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India (HB & 284pp; ISBN 9788175966000; $32.00). The North East of India is one of the most rich and diverse cultural-linguistic regions of Asia. However, awareness of this is not widespread and as a result, the linguistic abundance of the region has not been sufficiently appreciated. Students and scholars from different parts of India and the world are now making efforts to turn around this scenario. North East Indian Linguistics is a result of such concerted attempts. This book is the first published collection of selected articles on North East Indian linguistics. The articles represent the current state of research in the field. The authors have adopted a variety of approaches to the study of the multifarious North East Indian languages – Ao (Naga), Assamese, Atong (Bodo-Garo), Bishnupriya, Garo, Khamti (Tai), Khasi, Kurtoep, Singpho, and the Tani languages, Apatani, Galo and Mising. The areas addressed in this book include descriptive phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax and semantics. The book also discusses general topics regarding fieldwork and orthography development.
• Coupe, A.R. 2007. A grammar of Mongsen Ao. Mouton Grammar Library 39. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
  Details available at: http://www.degruyter.com/cont/fb/sp/detailEn.cfm?id=IS-9783110190885-1
• Post, Mark. 2007. A Grammar of Galo. PhD dissertation, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
  This work is the first comprehensive descriptive grammar of the Lare dialect of Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in central Arunachal Pradesh State, in the North East Indian Himalaya. It is based on primary data obtained from original fieldwork conducted by the author in Galo towns and villages in Arunachal Pradesh over three years. In addition to description of the synchronic phonology and grammar of Lare Galo, it contains a historical overview and preliminary reconstruction of Proto-Galo segmental phonology, in addition to a glossary of approximately 1,300 lexical roots with 4,000 lexical exemplars and three fully analyzed texts.  For download (6MB), click the icon:
• Willis, Christina M. 2007. A Descriptive Grammar of Darma: An Endangered Tibeto-Burman Language. PhD dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin. Darma is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the eastern corner of the state of Uttarakhand, India. With fewer than 2,600 speakers and no writing system, Darma is considered endangered. This dissertation is the most comprehensive description of Darma to date. Darma is widely described as a western Himalayish language that is closely related to Byansi, Chaudangsi and Rangkas. The data presented in this dissertation were obtained through direct elicitation, participant observation, and the discourse-centered approach to data collection advocated by Joel Sherzer, which relies on naturally occurring speech, including conversation, stories, songs and public dialogues. The resulting data are contextualized in a cultural framework, and the majority of examples presented come from these texts. The dissertation is presented in five sections and includes a glossary. The first section provides background information on the Darma people, the language, and how this project came about. The second section describes the sound system of Darma, including its typologically unusual class of oral stops. The third section introduces the words that comprise a noun phrase including nouns, personal pronouns, and pronominal demonstrative forms, which are marked on a spatial axis (e.g. proximate, neutral, distal, and non-visible). The fourth section examines the affixes that combine with verb stems to form clauses and sentences. This includes a discussion of the basic SV/AOV constituent order, and the ergative/absolutive alignment system. Here nominalization/relativization, a common feature of Tibeto-Burman languages, is also presented along with the clause chaining strategy commonly found in narrative discourse. For download (3.3MB), click the icon:

The Tibeto-Burman Linguistics listserve discussion list is a relatively informal and unmoderated forum for discussion of any aspect of the analysis of Tibeto-Burman languages (or possibly Sino-Tibetan in general) and the culture of their speakers. It is also a good place to announce events and activities relevant to linguists working on these languages. To join the list, send an e-mail to listserv@latrobe.edu.au with no subject. In the body of the message type

subscribe tibeto-burman_linguistics First_name Last_name

Where "First_name", "Last_name" are the names of the subscriber. After that, to post a message to the list, send the message to tibeto-burman_linguistics@latrobe.edu.au (note underscore)

Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area is the only journal devoted to publishing articles on the languages of the Tibeto-Burman language family and their neighbors.

The Bibliography of Tibeto-Burman contains items related to all aspects of Tibeto-Burman linguistics and culture. There are two versions, sorted by author, and sorted by language.

Photos and videos of Tibeto-Burman peoples. NEW!

The Rawang-Dulong-Anong Language and Culture Web Site is a joint effort by Randy J. LaPolla (linguistics), Dory Poa (linguistics), Stéphane GROS (anthropology), and Christiaan Klieger (anthropology). It presents information (lexical data, texts, analysis, photos) about the language and culture of the people known as the Rawang of Upper Burma, the Dulong of Yunnan, China, and the Anong, also of Yunnan, China.

The Qiang Language and Culture Web Site is a joint effort by Randy J. LaPolla (linguistics), Dory Poa (linguistics), and Wang Ming-ke (anthropology). It presents information information (lexical data, texts, analysis, photos) about the language and culture of the people known as the Qiang of northern Sichuan Province, China.

 Links to Other Sites is a list of sites on other servers that are relevant to Tibeto-Burman languages and cultures.

Cado Vir Fallen heroes of the field of Tibeto-Burman linguistics.