Obituary Richard Keith Sprigg

Lingua, 112 (2): 79-102., 2002

Tibeto-Burman is one of the world's greatest language families, second only to lndo-European in terms of populations of speakers. Advances made in the course of the decade have led to a major paradigm shift in Tibeto-Burman historical linguistics and phylogeny. The numerous contributions to the field in the 1990s are reviewed in a statement on the current state of the art.

2006

Nepal is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious country. Its people reflect a wide range of cultural, linguistic and religious background. Ethnic diversity has enriched Nepali society. At present, 59 Indigenous Nationalities have been identified.

Himalayan Linguistics, 10 (1): 31-39., 2011

Several distinct strains of thought on subgrouping, presented in memory of David Watters and Michael Noonan, are united by a golden thread. Tamangic consists of Tamangish and maybe something else, just as Shafer would have wanted it. Tamangic may represent a wave of peopling which washed over the Himalayas after Magaric and Kiranti but before Bodish. There is no such language family as Sino-Tibetan. The term 'trans-Himalayan' for the phylum merits consideration. A residue of Tibeto-Burman conjugational morphology shared between Kiranti and Tibetan does not go unnoticed, at least twice. Black Mountain Mönpa is not an East Bodish language, and this too does not go unnoticed. k e y wor d s

This special issue of Himalayan Linguistics 10.1 is a tribute to Mickey Noonan and David Watters, both senior scholars of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal and members of the HL editorial staff, and both taken from us unexpectedly, too early, and just a few months of one another . The issue contains 13 journal articles on diverse subjects, primarily regarding Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal. The issue also contains a review of Chelliah and DeReuse's Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork. And notably this issue inaugurates the new publication category of field report. As always, HL is available free online, but there are plans to make this special issue available in hardcopy as well.

Language and Linguistic Compass, 2014

The Bodic group of Tibeto-Burman consists of close to 100 languages, fanned across the Himalayas, Tibet, and China. The existence of a 'Bodic' branch is somewhat contentious within Tibeto-Burman, though scholars do tend to agree that Tibetan and its closest relatives belong within this branch. This article assumes that the Bodic languages discussed in this article may eventually prove to be genetically related, but at present, this has not been proven. These languages show considerable diversity with regard to phonology and morphosyntax. The aim of this article is to provide a typological overview of these languages. Some of the more salient issues addressed include tonogenesis, ergativity, and evidential-like systems.

The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide, ed. by Hans Henrich Hock and Elena Bashir. [The World of Linguistics, Volume 7.] Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 130-154., 2016

Designed to be a brief introduction to the Tibeto-Burman languages of South Asia. Includes basic information and references on most languages as well as comparisons of current classification schemes of van Driem, Matisoff, Bradley, and Thurgood and LaPolla.

2003

There are more native speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages than of any other language family in the world. Our records of these languages are among the oldest for any human language, and the amount of active research on them, both diachronic and synchronic, has multiplied in the last decades. This volume covers the better-described languages, but with comments on the subgroups in which they occur. Ine addition to a number of modern languages, there ares on the descriptions of several ancient languages.

The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide, ed. by Hans Henrich Hock and Elena Bashir. [The World of Linguistics, Volume 7.] Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 130-154., 2016

Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Critical Concepts in Linguistics, 2018

This file is the combined front matter and introductions from a four-volume collection of important articles in Sino-Tibetan linguistics, with introductions contextualising the articles and talking about what has been done since the articles were published. This was done as a tribute to the earlier generation of linguists for their contributions, but also as a starting point for young scholars getting into the field and for veterans who just want to have easy access to classic articles.