Registration now open for 5th Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages

[Doug Cooper]

(Fwd on behalf of of Owen-Smith <thomasowensmith at googlemail.com>)
Enquires about the Programme:  Dr Nathan Hill, nh36 at soas.ac.uk


5th Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages Symposium

1 September 2010
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Keynote address

Word families in Burmese and explaining their origin
Professor Rudolf Yanson (St Petersburg State University)

The Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages
Now the majority of the world’s languages are under imminent threat of
extinction, thorough description of the hundreds of living
Tibeto-Burman languages is of great urgency. Along with this task,
research into the earlier stages of Tibeto-Burman languages with a
long written history is also vital. The older written Tibeto-Burman
languages, such as Bailang (1st cent), Tibetan (8th cent), Newar (9th
cent), Burmese (12th cent), Tangut (13th cent) and Manipuri provide a
diachronic depth to comparative, historical and typological studies of
contemporary languages, and are essential for solving many of the
puzzles which today’s tongues present.

This has been well understood in Indo-European linguistics for a long
time, and Indo-Europeanists are aware of the value of the classical
languages such as Hittite, Tocharian, Sanskrit and Greek in
deciphering contemporary phenomena. In Tibeto-Burman scholarship this
method has been less commonly employed, and the older languages of the
Tibeto-Burman family have been unjustly neglected.

The Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages Symposium
In 2000 Professor Christopher Beckwith of Indiana University initiated
the Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages Symposium with the aim of raising
the methodological rigour of Tibeto-Burman historical linguistics to
that of other language families such as Indo-European or Uralic.

The first three Symposia were organised as panels of the meetings of
the International Association for Tibetan Studies. The fourth
symposium was organized as a panel of the 41st International
Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics at the School of
Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London in September 2008.

The fifth Symposium will be held as a panel of the 16th Himalayan
Languages Symposium, on 1 September 2010 (also at SOAS).

The proceedings of the first three conferences have been published by
Brill, and the proceedings of the fourth conference will be out in
time for the fifth.

A major aim of this meeting is to stimulate interaction among scholars
working on different languages in Tibeto-Burman and approaching them
from different perspectives.

Papers of any kind dealing with primary texts in the older
Tibeto-Burman languages are welcome, whether the focus be linguistic,
philological, textual, historical or literary. Also welcome are
contributions on any Tibeto-Burman languages with a pre-modern
literary tradition. These include but are not limited to Bailang,
Burmese, Lepcha, Manipuri, Nam, Naxi, Tangut, Tibetan, Yi, and
Zhangzhung.

We would invite all participants to attend both Symposia. The full
schedule for both events will be published in due course.

For further information about the Symposia, including payment and
registration process, please see:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/himalayan-languages-symposium/ and
http://www.soas.ac.uk/tibeto-burman-languages-symposium/.


Symposium Fees

This year, as the two Symposia are being held as one event, the
registration fee for the Himalayan Languages Symposium will also cover
entry to the Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages Symposium.

Full registration fees for both Symposia (1-5 September):

£60 Standard
£40 Concessions*
£80 Late registration (Applications received after 31 August 2010) (no
concessions)

*Concessions are available for students and participants from
lower-income countries.

Registration fee for one day of either Symposium:

£20 day rate (no concessions)

The fees include access to all the Symposium sessions, as well as
snacks and light lunch. Unfortunately, the fees do not include the
cost for attending the Symposium dinner.
Please note that you can register on the day but we cannot guarantee a
place. Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Note: It is our policy to maximise the participation of scholars from
lower-income countries. A limited number of bursaries may be available
to help with travel costs for those (especially students) wishing to
attend from such countries. If you think you might qualify for a
bursary, please contact Nathan Hill (email below).
Enquiries

Enquires about the Programme
Dr Nathan Hill, nh36 at soas.ac.uk

Enquiries about the Registration
Centres & Programmes: centres at soas.ac.uk or Tel 020 7898 4892/3

Organised by: Centre of Chinese Studies , Centres and Programmes (REO)

________________________________________________________

Post to SEALANG-L:  send mail to sealang-l at listserv.linguistlist.org

Unsubscribe: send the message "unsubscribe sealang-l" to  listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org

Subscribe: send the message "subscribe sealang-l Your Name" to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org