Professor Tim Bodt Delivers Special Lectures on Linguistic and Ethnographic Research at the Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies (AITS)

The Trinity Centre for Asian Studies (TCAS) is pleased to report that Tim Bodt, Associate Professor in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences and Deputy Director of TCAS, recently delivered two special in-house lectures at the Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies (AITS), Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), Doimukh.

Organised on 27 January by AITS, the lectures were titled ‘State of the Art in Linguistic and Ethnographic Research in Western Arunachal Pradesh’ and ‘Trinity College Dublin, the School for Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies and Possibilities for Academic Cooperation with RGU, Doimukh’. The sessions provided an overview of current linguistic and cultural research in western Arunachal Pradesh, identified major research gaps, and outlined potential research directions for postgraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral scholars.

Faculty members and research students engaged in discussion with Professor Bodt on key research themes in the region, opportunities for external funding, and the importance of developing collaborative research initiatives between Trinity College Dublin and Rajiv Gandhi University.

During the visit, Professor Bodt donated his book Proto-Western Kho-Bwa: Reconstructing a Community’s Past through Languages, which examines eight Trans-Himalayan language varieties spoken by approximately 6,000 people in western Arunachal Pradesh. The volume represents one of the first systematic efforts to document the phonology of these languages and contributes important ethnolinguistic and historical insights. Professor Bodt’s wider scholarly work also includes the compilation of dictionaries, the documentation of oral traditions, and extensive descriptive linguistic research.

In his lectures, Professor Bodt highlighted the challenges of language endangerment, noting the increasing shift among younger speakers towards Arunachalee Hindi. He discussed distinctions between language and dialect, the sociopolitical dimensions of classification, and the urgent need for comprehensive grammatical descriptions of highly endangered languages such as Bugun. He also addressed the phonological complexity of Hruso and the uncertain classification of Tsangla, emphasising the value of interdisciplinary approaches combining linguistics, ethnography, and anthropology.

The sessions concluded with an interactive discussion encouraging students and researchers to engage more deeply in the documentation and preservation of the linguistic and cultural heritage of western Arunachal Pradesh.

TCAS welcomes the strengthening of academic ties with AITS and Rajiv Gandhi University and looks forward to further collaboration in the field of Asian linguistics and ethnographic research.