Biography
Published in 2009
Fascinated as an adolescent by the writings of philologist Friedrich Max Müller and naturalist Charles Darwin, George van Driem (born in 1957) quickly began collecting languages. He is now fluent in almost a dozen.
For this professor of language documentation at Leiden University in The Netherlands, every language is precious, a door to culture and history. In order to save the many languages of the Himalayas, linguistically one of the world’s richest regions, van Driem has, for over two decades, spent months there each year with his researchers, documenting and recording as many languages as possible, particularly those at risk of disappearing.
His 1996 Rolex Award helped him to expand the Himalayan Languages Project, now the biggest language documentation programme covering the Asian heartland.
Since 2001, he and colleagues from Leiden University Medical Centre have also been researching the prehistory of Asia’s population groupings, using insights from linguistic phylogeny, archaeology, palaeontology, palaeobotany, palaeoclimatology and anthropology.
- Project Location
- Related Links
- Get Involved
Attend a Himalayan languages symposium
Learn More - Similar Projects
Julien Meyer
Revive whistled and drummed languages from remote areas
Eduardo Llerenas
Trace and record a rich musical heritage
- Other 1996 Associate Laureates
- Contact Information
Dr George van Driem
Himalayan Languages Project
Institut für Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Bern
Längassstrasse 49
CH 3000 Bern 9
Switzerland
