Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude goes out to the speakers of Kinnauri, Kinnauri Pahari and Navakat who provided me the opportunity to learn about their languages. This work would not have been possible without their encouragement, help and support.
Special thanks to Mrs. Santosh Negi and Mr. Padam Sagar (Giatso). I thank Santosh Negi for her patience and companionship during my fieldwork visits and for her insights about Kinnauri. I met Giatso by accident, which initiated my interest in documenting Navakat. He guided me in learning about Navakat, through his insightful comments about his language and his patience during many and long field sessions. A special note of thanks is also due to Mr. Vikram Negi and Mrs. Rameshwari for their insight about Kinnauri Pahari and for their help.
I would also like to thank my many other language consultants who have contributed to my learning in many different ways: Professor Sudesh Negi for welcoming me warmly during my first fieldwork visit and introducing me to many Kinnauri speakers and for her continous support and encouragement; Mrs. Santosh Negi’s family and relatives for their warm welcome to their homes; Mr. Chetan Negi, Miss Priya Negi and Mrs. Krishan Bhagti deserve a special note of thanks for teaching me about the more detailed nuances of the Kinnauri lexicon and for helping me understand the Kinnauri structure better. I also warmly thank the following for their help and support during various fieldwork visits: Mrs. Chhimet Dolma, Mrs. Yangzin Dolma, Mrs. Suraj Kumari, Mr. Bansi Lal, Mr. Sunder Lal, † Mr. Arjun Negi, Mr. B.J. Negi, † Mrs. Jwala Sukhi Negi, Mrs. Lakshmi Negi, Mr. Ramesh Negi, Mrs. Sneh Negi, Miss Sneh Negi, Miss Swati Negi, Mr. Vikram Negi, Mrs. Rameshwari, Mr. Chandar Sagar, Mr. Rattan Sagar, Mr. Devi Singh, Mr. Harvinder Singh, Mr. Mohinder Singh, Mr. Puran Singh, Mr. Bhim Sukh, † Mrs. Evi Dolma Tshering, and Mr. Gulab Tshering.
I would like to thank David Bradley, Stig Eliasson, Harald Hammarström and Lars Borin for their comments and feedback. Bettina Zeisler deserves special thanks for her numerous comments on the Navakat chapter, and also for many discussions we had about the languages of the Indian Himalayas in Tübingen, Uppsala and Gothenburg. Thanks to †Roland Bielmeier for sharing his unpublished manuscript with me.
Thanks to David Karlander, Anna Sjöberg, Freja Lindgren and Allahverdi Verdizade for project assistance, and to Ljuba Veselinova, Taraka Rama, Shafqat Mumtaz Virk and Anna Sjöberg for preparing the maps.
I would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which have improved the quality of this book, and Elisa Perotti at Brill for her co-operation and help with all the practical and adminstrative details in connection with manuscript preparation and submission.
The preparation of the present volume has been made possible thanks to the following research grants awarded by the Swedish Research Council, and which I hereby gratefully acknowledge: Digital areal linguistics: a lexical view of the Himalayan microarea (2010–2014, grant 2009–1448), South Asia as a linguistic area? Exploring big-data methods in areal and genetic linguistics (2015–2019, grant 2014–969), and Documentation of an endangered language: Kunashi (2015–2018, grant 2014–560). Part of the costs for open-access publication of the volume has been defrayed by a grant from Magnus Bergvalls Stiftelse (grant 2016–01329).
Last but not least I would like to thank Lars Borin for his constant encouragement and support.