Project summary

The project supported a 2010 research trip to Uttarakhand, India to continue and expand upon my documentation and description of the languages of the Rung people. Comprising three individual groups - the Darma, Bangba (Chaudangsi) and Byangkho (Byangsi) - the Rung live in the Dharchula sub-district bordering Nepal and Tibet. Like many other Tibeto-Burman languages, they are spoken, not written, and are losing ground to Hindi and English, which are associated with economic security and employment opportunities.

I spent a month in the Indian Himalayas making digital audio recordings of Darma and Bangba people. I had two goals: (1) to clarify questions about the grammar of Darma; and (2) to begin a documentation project on Bangba. Outcomes included conference presentations in the US and UK on the Rung people and their languages. I incorporated the Darma data into a revised version of my dissertation A Grammar of Darma for publication. In addition to recordings of natural discourse (historical narratives, folktales, songs), I recorded word lists to compare core vocabulary in Bangba with Darma and Byangkho.

This research has also had a positive impact on the Rung community who are impressed that an outside scholar has taken an interest their traditional ways of speaking and cultural practices.