Sichuan and abutting areas are home to a good number of little-explored Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects, including many Tibetan varieties, Ngwi (Yi) languages, and over a dozen little-studied languages tentatively classified under a putative ‘Qiangic’ branch. Many of the latter group contain certain interesting properties, including large segmental inventories, uncommon tonality systems, topography-based spatial deixis, prohibitive marking with dental-stop-onset prefixes, nominal classification via existential verbs, and grammatical structure governed by animacy hierarchy. Do these features point to a shared genetic relationship, or do they simply reflect deeply entrenched borrowings in a time-honoured linguistic area? These and other intriguing questions remain to be answered. The languages of this region are hence extremely important for the proper understanding of the linguistic history and typological diversity of the vast Tibeto-Burman family.

This workshop, dedicated specifically to Tibeto-Burman Languages of Sichuan, aims to foster international cooperation and stimulate cross-fertilization of research efforts by providing an arena for scholars actively engaged in field research on these languages to share research ideas, results, and methodology.