[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] Fwd: NEILS: Congratulations to Sikari Tisso and Mosyel Khaling!

[Randy J. LaPolla]

From: Linda Konnerth <linda.konnerth at ur.de>
Subject: NEILS: Congratulations to Sikari Tisso and Mosyel Khaling!
Date: 18 January 2021 at 6:30:51 PM SGT
To: Linda Konnerth <linda.konnerth at ur.de>
Cc: Chikari Tisso <chikaritisso at gmail.com>, Mosyel Syelsaangthyel Khaling <mosyel at gmail.com>


Dear fellow Northeast Indianists, dear fellow Tibeto-Burmanists, 
I'm writing with the wonderful news that Mr. Sikari Tisso from the Karbi community (Karbi Anglong, Assam) is the recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Community Linguistics Award of the Linguistic Society of America. He officially received the award last week during a Virtual Awards Ceremony. The following citation will appear on the website of the LSA soon:
Chikari Tisso is a native speaker and language activist of the Karbi language of Northeast India. He has been both documenting the traditional language, and developing the modern language, in particular through publishing books and articles, and audio/video-recording knowledgeable community members. Tisso has extensively served the Karbi Lammet Amei (Karbi Literary Organization) and co-founded the Centre for Karbi Studies. He was the primary Karbi collaborator for 'A grammar of Karbi' (2015 Association for Linguistic Typology Panini Award). Currently Tisso is documenting the Karbi song language and traditional lullabies, while also focusing on Karbi lexicology, both to edit a comprehensive dictionary of the Karbi language and as Chief Editor of a Multilingual Dictionary project (involving 8 indigenous community languages of the region).
With Sikari Tisso receiving the award this year, we all can be all the more proud that the Excellence in Community Linguistics Award of the Linguistic Society of America has gone to Tibeto-Burman language activists of Northeast India two years in a row. Last year, Mosyel Syelsaangthyel Khaling from the Uipo community (Chandel District, Manipur) highly deservedly received the award:
Mosyel Syelsaangthyel Khaling receives this year's Excellence in Community Linguistics Award for his long-term work to ensure the maintenance of his language Uipo-an endangered Southern Tangkhulic language-and his commitment to deep community engagement, what his nominator refers to as his "non-standard, highly valuable documentation methods." Facing the disappearance of Uipo oral traditions, he invented original methods for their documentation resorting to the collective memory of tribal elders. The duration- Mr. Khaling started work on his language in 1976 at age 17- and extent of his contributions are outstanding and he did this work without any external support for a number of years. Mr. Khaling's longstanding and continued efforts to document and increase literacy in Uipo are both admirable and commendable.
Congratulations to both Sikari Tisso and Mosyel Syelsaangthyel Khaling for your enormous achievements! I think I can speak on behalf of the North East Indian Linguistics and Tibeto-Burman Linguistics communities more generally to thank you for your dedication, activism, and service to your language and community, which represent crucial contributions to linguistics! We are incredibly lucky to have you in our midst. 
Linda


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