Contents -- Notes on contributors -- Introduction -- PART ONE: The Himalayas in history -- Lost in the sands of time somewhere north of the Bay of Bengal -- PART TWO: Phonology and script -- A key to four transcription systems of Lepcha -- Dialectal particularities of Sogpho Tibetan - an introduction to the "Twenty-four villages' patois" -- PART THREE: Semantics (words and word classes) -- On the Old Tibetan Term Khrin in the legal and ritual lexicons -- A functional analysis of adjectives in Newar -- PART FOUR: Morphology and syntax -- The role of animacy in the verbal morphology of Dongwang Tibetan -- The Sampang verbal agreement system -- Ergativity in Kundal Shahi, Kashmiri and Hindko -- Kenhat, the dialects of Upper Ladakh and Zanskar -- Index.