[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] CfP for Workshop on Ethnolinguistic contact across the Indo-Myanmar-Southwestern China mountains

[Randy J. LaPolla]

Dear all,

The JSPS-NTU/NUS Joint Research Project "Ethnolinguistic contact across the Indo-Myanmar-Southwestern China mountains: migration routes, intercultural interactions, and linguistic outcomes" (Principal Singapore Researcher: Alexander Coupe, Japanese Principal Researcher: Hideo Sawada) will hold its 2nd workshop (via ZOOM) on linguistic and cultural diversity in the Northeast India-Myanmar-Southwest China region.

This Project leverages on an unprecedented combined knowledge of Austroasiatic, Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai languages, dovetailing the expertise of specialists working in Southwestern China, Myanmar and Northeast India to explore from an innovative new research perspective how ethnocultural and linguistic histories are intertwined.

This project treats various issues related to the objective above, including lexicon (crop names, manufactures, ethnobotany, astronomical and metrological phenomena, place names etc.), data from oral traditions (migration history, origin legends, motifs of folklore etc.), language contact and borrowing, and linguistic convergence.

The following issues will  be discussed in the workshop:
- Plant Names: as a clue to exploring the homeland of the languages;
- Place Names: source, etymology and distribution of toponyms in the area;
- Language Contact: lexical/grammatical borrowings, also identification of donor languages;
- Linguistic Convergence: exploration of linguistic convergence involving genetically related and unrelated languages.

The following speakers are confirmed to make presentations:

- Alexander Coupe (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
- Atsuhiko Kato (Keio University, Japan)
- Keita Kurabe (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
- Randy LaPolla (Beijing Normal University, China)
- Kosei Otsuka (Osaka University, Japan)
- Hideo Sawada (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
- Muhammad Zakaria (JSPS Research Fellow, Osaka University, Japan).

Schedule:

Date: 28th-29th December 2021

Time (subject to change slightly):
- 28 Dec 10:30-16:30 (Japanese Standard Time) (Lunch Break 13:00-14:00)
- 29 Dec 10:30-16:30 (JST) (Lunch Break 13:00-14:00)

via ZOOM 

   If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please contact sawadah at aa.tufs.ac.jp by 23 December. We will send you the link to the meeting room a few days before the workshop.

We are ready to accept a couple more presentations. If you are interested in presenting (only in English) on the issues above, please contact the address above by 12 December. We apologize for the short notice.

We are also planning to submit a selection of papers from the two workshops as a a special issue of the journal Asian Languages and Linguistics (Benjamins). 

Best Wishes,
Hideo SAWADA
sawadah at aa.tufs.ac.jp