Languages of the Himalayas (2 vols)

The survey work Languages of the Himalayas provides a bird's eye view of Himalayan languages and language communities. It also constitutes a primary source for much new, hitherto unpublished data on several languages. The demographic mosaic of the Himalayas today is viewed in a historical and comparative linguistic perspective. The reader will find an outline of the historical and prehistorical developments that have determined the modern ethnolinguistic composition of the Himalayan region, involving various independent linguistics stocks or language families. Maps illustrate the distribution of language communities and trace the routes of ancient migrations. There is an illuminating discussion of grammatical features found in Himalayan languages.All volumes of the print edition are available in individual e-books: 9789004514928 (volume 1) - 9789004514911 (volume 2).

'...a bird's eye view of Himalayan languages and language communities…a primary source for much new, hitherto unpublished data on several languages.' Laurie M. Selters, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, 2002.

George van Driem, Ph.D. (1987) in Linguistics, is Professor of Tibeto-Burman linguistics at Leiden University. He has written four grammars of Himalayan languages and published extensively on Tibeto-Burman historical grammar and the linguistic archaeology of the Himalayan region.