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EBHR 42 Spring-Summer 2013
ARTICLES
Stability in Transition: Development perspectives
and local politics in Nepal
James Sharrock

9Struggling on Two Fronts During Nepal’s Insurgency:
The Citizens’ Movement for Democracy and Peace andthe meanings of ‘civil society’
Celayne Heaton-Shrestha and Ramesh Adhikari

39

Shaping a Livable Present and Future: A review of youth
studies in Nepal
Amanda Snellinger

75

Learning in a Guerrilla Community of Practice: Literacy practices,104
situated learning and youth in Nepal’s Maoist movement (1996-2006)
Ina Zharkevich
CONFERENCE REPORTS
The 13th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies 134
Fiona McConnell
History in Nepalese Chronicles: Report on a Workshop in Nepal
Astrid Zotter

138

Himalayan Connections: Disciplines, Geographies, Trajectories
Austin Lord, Andrew Quintman and Sara Shneiderman

140

The 16th Conference of the International Association for
Ladakh Studies
Martijn van Beek

144

Development Challenges in Bhutan
Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt and Line Kikkenborg

147

Report on the Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal
and the Himalaya 2013
Shaileshwori Sharma

150

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EBHR-42

OBITUARY
George Neilson Patterson (1920-2012)
Roger Croston
BOOK REVIEWS
Alex McKay and Anna Balikci-Denjongpa, eds.: Buddhist Himalaya:Studies in Religion, History and Culture.
Guntram Hazod and Mélanie Vandenhelsken

156

164

Bernardo A. Michael: Statemaking and Territory in South Asia:
Lessons from the Anglo-Gorkha War (1814-1816).
Saul Mullard

170

Francis Khek Gee Lim: Imagining the Good Life: Negotiating Culture andDevelopment in Nepal Himalaya
Martin Saxer

173

Charles Ramble: The Navel of the Demoness: Tibetan Buddhism and Civil
Religion in Highland Nepal.
Mark Turin

176

Sanjeev Uprety: Masculinity and Mimicry: Ranas and Gurkhas
Matthew William Maycock

182Mark Turin: A Grammar of the Thangmi Language
Heleen Plaisier185

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Book Reviews

185

A Grammar of the Thangmi Language
by Mark Turin
Leiden: Brill. 2012, 2 Vols, 958 pages, ISBN 978-90-04-15526-8, price 169 €.

Reviewed by Heleen Plaisier
The grammar of the Thangmi language is now documented by Mark Turinin a monograph that serves as a true monument to the Thangmi language
and culture. Linguists will greatly appreciate Turin’s exemplary linguistic
description, but this remarkable book is not merely of interest to thosespecialist colleagues. Turin’s expertise combines anthropology anddescriptive linguistics, and in this treasure trove of new information on
the Thangmi, Turin offers us the best of these two fields. The monographincludes comprehensive discussions of many aspects of Thangmi life andculture, so that much of this book will appeal to anyone who is interested
in the cultural and linguistic diversity of Nepal.
Thangmi is an endangered Tibeto-Burman language, which is spoken
in Dolakhā and Sindupālchok districts in Nepal, and in Darjeeling district in India. Overall, the Thangmi are represented by more than 40,000people, but it is estimated that just 20,000 people speak the Thangmi language. The Thangmi people designate themselves as Thangmi, though
their shamans call the group Thani, and in Nepali they are referred toas Thami. The monograph is based on Turin’s doctoral dissertation,
for which he undertook a series of fieldtrips between 1997 and 2004 to
Dāmārāṅ in Dolakhā and Cokaṭī in Sindhupālcok of Bagmatī zone in Nepal
and to Darjeeling district in India.
The first volume of this monograph starts out with a straightforward
discussion of the genetic affinity and linguistic classification of Thangmi,
which is followed by a discussion of the Thangmi ethnolinguistic context.
This part gives ample attention to the distribution of Thangmi speakers,
language status, dialects and multilingualism, the Thangmi mythologicalworld, religious beliefs, indigenous ethnonyms and place names and an
overview of the few previous studies on Thangmi. This chapter also discusses the complex details of the Thangmi clan and kinship system, which
can be regarded as reflections of the intricate nature of Thangmi sociocultural life. This ethnolinguistic chapter stands out by being much more

186

EBHR-42exhaustive than the cursory introductions found in most grammaticaldescriptions.
The chapters that follow present Turin’s linguistic description.
Thangmi has thirty-two consonants and six vowels and does not distinguish vowel length. There are also seven dipthongs, which are particularlycommon in loans from Nepali. Turin carefully describes and discusses
Thangmi phonology and some morphophonological regularities, giving
minimal pairs and further examples, including any possible influence ofNepali. The nominal morphology includes comprehensive descriptions ofnouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals. The grammatical cases distinguished in this grammar are absolutive, ergative, instrumental, genitive,locative, comitative, ablative and direct or indirect object markers. The
native Thangmi numeral system, which is losing ground in favour of theNepali numeral system, displays some intriguing features that include
numeral classifiers. The verbal morphology of Thangmi is extremelycomplicated, as it codes verbal agreement for agent or subject and object.
Turin’s analysis of this intricate system in Thangmi is followed by descriptions of verbal constructions and morphosyntax.
Turin’s detailed description of the complex verbal agreement system ofThangmi elucidates the linguistic position of Thangmi within the TibetoBurman languages. Thangmi is now convincingly shown to be closely
related to Barām, which is spoken in Gorkha district in central Nepal, andboth languages should be placed close to Newar. Thangmi is also related
to the complex-pronominalising Kiranti languages, which together with
Newar have been referred to as the Mahākirāntī group. Turin’s description shows that Thangmi is not canonically Kiranti. For example, in striking contrast to many Kiranti languages, Thangmi verbs on the wholeshow no paradigmatic stem alternations. Verbal agreement morphemes
are never superfluous and may not be dropped. Thangmi also exhibits apattern of split ergativity, which is similar but essentially different to thatof the Kiranti type.
The second volume contains translations and analyses of forty-fiveThangmi texts, which add up to an impressive three hundred pages. Thesetexts were recorded by Turin himself during his fieldwork and represent
a variety of speech styles, ranging from shamanic narratives and monologues to spontaneous colloquial conversations between Thangmi speakers. The texts are followed by an extensive Thangmi-English-Nepali

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dictionary, which includes example sentences and phrases. The second
volume concludes with appendices, a bibliography and an index to bothvolumes.
Turin recognises two dialects in Thangmi, one spoken in Dolakhā andanother in Sindhupālcok. He focuses on the dialect of Dolakhā, but frequently indicates differences between the two dialects. The Dolakhā dialect exhibits a verbal agreement system that appears to be more complete
and archaic than the verbal morphology of the Sindhupālcok dialect. Interms of nominal morphology, the Sindhupālcok dialect seems more complex, preserving a range of locative case suffixes and numeral classifiers
that are not present in the Dolakhā dialect. Turin also discusses how little
socio-economic interaction there is between the two dialect groups andhow Thangmi speakers place great emphasis on the dialectal differences
between the two groups.
Throughout the book, sample sentences are used to elucidate andcontextualise analyses, and the texts and dictionary that are provided
furnish the reader with further information. If there were one small criticism to make, it would be that not all parts of this monograph are evenly
balanced, as some sections go into considerably more detail than others.
Also, it would be interesting to read more on the different parts of speech,types of nominalisation and tense in Thangmi. These are only minor points
that do not diminish the magnitude of this work. Turin’s style is clear andcomprehensive, and his analyses are transparent and convincing. This
monograph documents and describes previously undescribed aspects of
the Thangmi language, clarifies earlier linguistic discussions and contains
new manifestations of the Thangmi language, which makes it an immensely valuable storehouse of information on Thangmi. Mark Turin’s wide
interests and extensive research have resulted in a magnificent grammarthat should serve as a compelling model for future descriptive linguists
and should be treasured by all those interested in the various linguistic
and cultural traditions of Nepal.