Languages of the Himalayas : : Volume 1.

• Superior document: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia ; 10/1
• Author: van Driem, George.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : Brill,, [2021]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia ; 10/1.; Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2-8: Asian Studies Online.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (488 pages)

This handbook is a survey of Himalayan languages and language communities, providing hitherto unpublished data on several languages and outlining ethnolinguistically relevant historical and prehistorical developments. Grammatical features of Himalayan languages are discussed, and detailed language distribution maps are included. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004103900).

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- PREFACE -- CONVENTIONS -- LIST OF FIGURES -- CHAPTER ONE KNOWN AND UNKNOWABLE PREHISTORY -- CONTINENTS IN COLLISION -- Ecce homo! -- The language-ready brain -- The language parasite and the symbiotic theory of language -- LANGUAGE AND CULTURE -- Original Sin and our virtuous nature -- The splitting of the symbol and the birth of syntax -- Culture and the antiquity of language -- The survival of languages and of implicit world views -- THREE VERSIONS OF PREHISTORY -- The monogeneticist time warp -- Gazing beyond the event horizon -- Mixed languages and the maternal strand -- Language change -- Global dispersals and Himalayan habitats -- CHAPTER TWO KINGS OF THE FOREST AND DISTANT HORIZONS -- SOUTH ASIAN RELICT GROUPS -- The Andaman Islanders -- The aboriginals of Serendip -- The Nahali -- Kings of the Forest -- AUSTROASIATIC -- The vacillating fate of Vietnamese -- Austroasiatic literary languages -- Ancient South Asians -- The people in the Abode of Clouds -- Austroasiatics of Southeast Asia and the Nicobars -- The Austroasiatic homeland -- BEYOND THE HIMALAYAN HORIZON AND BACK AGAIN -- Austronesian and more speculation on Austric -- Daic, Hmong-Mien and the Austro-Tai theory -- Scattered rice -- Daic languages in the Himalayan region -- CHAPTER THREE THE TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGE FAMILY -- FROM TURANIAN TO TIBETO-BURMAN -- Indo-Chinese outlives Turanian -- The precarious position of Thai, Karen and Himalayan languages -- Several theories about Chinese -- Other Tibeto-Burman subgrouping proposals -- NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE VÖLKERWANDERUNGEN -- Western Tibeto-Burmans and the Indian Eastern Neolithic -- Eastern Tibeto-Burman -- Northern Tibeto-Burmans and the Himalayas -- Southern Tibeto-Burmans.