Fighting against language extinction
Linguistics expert George van Driem has made remarkable inroads towards fulfilling his ambition to record the indigenous languages of the Himalayan region. Through his Himalayan Languages Project, the 1996 Associate Laureate has documented, in detail, several dozen languages and has charted hundreds more.
"A language holds the key to the culture, history and prehistory of the region. Not only does the Himalayan Languages Project supply this key, we also use it to open the door.”
With an estimated two-thirds of languages never having been written down, and languages overall disappearing at the rate of one every fortnight, van Driem’s initiative is a key defence in the struggle against language extinction.
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Attend a Himalayan languages symposium
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- Contact Information
Dr George van Driem
Himalayan Languages Project
Institut für Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Bern
Längassstrasse 49
CH 3000 Bern 9
Switzerland
