Mark Turin

The Thangmi verbal agreement system and the Kiranti connection

The Thangmi verb sheds new light on subgroupings of Tibeto-Burman languages in the Himalayan region. Morphological analysis supports the promising, yet still controversial, Mahākirāntī hypothesis. Rigorous synchronic analysis yields the precisely defined morphological units and establishes the underlying regularities which enable substantive diachronic comparison. The complete verbal paradigm of Thangmi is compared to canonical Kiranti languages and is shown to be closely genetically related to Barām and Newar

Language Endangerment and Linguistic Rights in the Himalayas: A Case Study from Nepal

Abstract According to even the most conservative estimates, at least half of the worlds 6500 languages are expected to become extinct in the next century. While the documentation of endangered languages has traditionally been the domain of academic linguists and anthropologists, international awareness of this impending linguistic catastrophe is growing, and development organizations are becoming involved in the struggle to preserve spoken forms. The death of a language marks the loss of yet another piece of cultural uniqueness from the mosaic of our diverse planet, and is therefore a tragedy for the heritage of all humanity. Language death is often compared to species extinction, and the same metaphors of preservation and diversity can be invoked to canvas support for biodiversity and language preservation programs. The present article addresses language endangerment in the Himalayas, with a focus on Nepal, and presents the options and challenges for linguistic development in this mountainous region.

Born Archival: The Ebb and Flow of Digital Documents from the Field

Facilitated by an infusion of funding from philanthropic sources, descriptive linguists have been galvanized to document the worlds languages before they disappear without record. Linguists have responded to the “crisis of documentation” (Dobrin, L. M. & Berson, J. (2011), “Speakers and Language Documentation”, in The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, P. K. Austin & J. Sallabank (eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 187–211) by entering into increasingly collaborative partnerships with speech communities, producing “documents” that have both local relevance and academic integrity. The growth in access to digital recording technology has meant that contemporary research initiatives on endangered languages are not only born digital, but often birthed straight into an archive. Yet heritage collections of recordings made by ethnographers and linguists in the past are ever more endangered, becoming orphaned when their collectors die or fragmented into their component parts based on the medium of documentation when they are finally archived. Drawing on fieldwork in Nepal with a community speaking an endangered Tibeto–Burman language, and reflecting on the decade I have spent directing a digital humanities research initiative—the Digital Himalaya Project—I discuss how linguists and anthropologists are collecting, protecting and connecting their data, and how technology influences their relationship to documents.

Himalayan Languages and Linguistics

Himalayan Languages and Linguistics is an edited collection of new and unpublished primary research findings, some fresh from the field and others derived from comparative textual material, on the Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan and Austroasiatic languages of this important and underdocumented mountainous region.

Searching for Sharing : Heritage and Multimedia in Africa

In a world where new technologies are being developed at a dizzying pace, how can we best approach oral genres that represent heritage? Taking an innovative and interdisciplinary approach, this volume explores the idea of sharing as a model to construct and disseminate the knowledge of literary heritage with the people who are represented by and in it. Expert contributors interweave sociological analysis with an appraisal of the transformative impact of technology on literary and cultural production. Does technology restrict, constraining the experience of an oral performance, or does it afford new openings for different aesthetic experiences? Topics explored include the Mara Cultural Heritage Digital Library, the preservation of Ewe heritage material, new eresources for texts in Manding languages, and the possibilities of technauriture. This timely and necessary collection also examines to what extent digital documents can be and have been institutionalised in archives and museums, how digital heritage can remain free from co-option by hegemonic groups, and the roles that exist for community voices. A valuable contribution to a fast-developing field, this book is required reading for scholars and students in the fields of heritage, anthropology, linguistics, history and the emerging disciplines of multi-media documentation and analysis, as well as those working in the field of literature, folklore, and African studies. It is also important reading for museum and archive curators.

Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 6: A Grammar of the Thangmi Language (2 vols)

This monograph is a grammar of Thangmi, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in central-eastern Nepal. Alongside a collection of glossed oral texts and a trilingual lexicon, an extensive ethnolinguistic introduction to the speakers and their culture is also provided.

Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance

Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: By David Bradley and Maya Bradley. eds. London. RoutledgeCurzon (Taylor and Francis Group). 2002.