16-17 June, 1995
Leiden, The Netherlands

Himalayan Languages Symposium

This year the First international Himalayan Languages Symposium was convened in the Netherlands under the auspices of the Himalayan Languages Project of Leiden University. For over a decade, scholars in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands had expressed the desirability of the establishment of a regularly convening forum for scholars of Himalayan languages. This year the research team of the Himalayan Languages Project in Leiden took the initiative of organizing the first such symposium in the Netherlands. The symposium proved to be a great success, and Zürich has already been proposed as the venue for next summer's meeting. The First International Himalayan Languages Symposium was sponsored by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) at Leiden, the Leiden Research school CNWS, and by the Himalayan Languages Project of Leiden University.

By George van Driem

Participants expressed the shared hope that this symposium will establish a tradition. The First Himalayan Languages Symposium brought together scholars stationed in Europe, and it is hoped that the symposium will grow into a global forum for Himalayan language scholars. The Himalayan Languages Symposium was envisaged as a platform for contributions from linguists and specialists from kindred disciplines on any language of the Himalayas, whether Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Burushaski, Kusunda or some other tongue. The fact that the First Himalayan Languages Symposium included contributions on languages of Sichuan and the Tibetan Plateau demonstrates that the term 'Himalayan' is intended not in a restrictive, but in a panoramic sense.
The keynote speaker at the Leiden symposium was Bernard Comrie. Participants presented contributions on a variety of Himalayan languages, viz. Bantawa, Dumi, Byangsi, Tibetan, Limbu, Mewahang, Lepcha, Belhare, Yamphu, Kulung, rGya-rong and Nepali. No proceedings will be published, but many of the symposium contributions will be included in a 'Trends in Linguistics' volume to be entitled Himalayan Linguistics (Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin). This volume also will contain contributions not presented at the symposium. The Himalayan Languages Symposium will convene each summer at a location to be announced one year in advance. More information about the 1996 Himalayan Languages Symposium will be made available in the autumn. The Himalayan Languages Project at Leiden University will act as the caretaker of the permanent mailing list of the symposium. You can be put on the mailing list by sending your name, complete address, e-mail address, fax and telephone numbers to the address below. Abstracts for next year's symposium can be sent for review to the same address.

Himalayan Languages Project
Leiden University
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands 





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