Collaborative Research: Descriptive Studies of Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal

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This project has two aims. First and foremost is the aim of collecting data on four previously undocumented or poorly documented languages of Nepal. There are at least 130 languages spoken in Nepal and, of these languages, only about 25 have grammatical descriptions of any sort and many of these are rudimentary. Since no more than about three dozen of Nepal's language are spoken by more than 5000 people, since bilingualism in the national language, Nepali, is now almost universal for adults, and since economic factors typical of many undeveloped countries are operative in Nepal resulting in increasing migration to the cities, it seems unlikely that the majority of Nepalese languages can survive for more than a generation or two. It is imperative that linguistic fieldwork be conducted now while the majority of Nepal's languages are still spoken by whole communities. The second aim of the project is to provide training in fieldwork and TibetoBurman linguistics for four graduate students.