Mark Turin

Mark Turin (born 1973, London) is a linguist and anthropologist specialised in the Himalayas. After completing his BA in Anthropology and Archaeology from the University of Cambridge (1995), he documented the Thangmi (Thami) language spoken in Nepal and northern India for his doctoral research through the Himalayan Languages Project at the University of Leiden (PhD 2006). From May 2007 until May 2008, he was Chief of the Translation and Interpretation Unit in the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). He continues to direct the Digital Himalaya Project, which he co-established in December 2000, based jointly at Cambridge and Cornell universities. In 2009, he set up the World Oral Literature Project supporting the documentation and preservation of oral literatures and endangered cultural traditions, affiliated to the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Turin was elected to a Fellowship at Hughes Hall, Cambridge in March 2011. From August 2011, he also holds the post of Associate Research Scientist at the South Asian Studies Council, MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies, Yale University.

Selected bibliography

• in press. A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and their Culture. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 6. Leiden: Brill. [publication date: December 2011]. 996 pages, 2 volumes. ISBN 9789004155268.
• 2011. Himalayan Languages and Linguistics: Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax, edited by Mark Turin and Bettina Zeisler. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, 5. 323 pages. Brill: Leiden. ISBN 978 90 04 19448 9 & 90 04 19448 7.
• 2010. Language Documentation and Description, Volume 8, Special issue: Oral Literature and Language Endangerment, edited by Mark Turin and Imogen Gunn. London: Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, Department of Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies. 175 pages. ISBN 1740-6234.
• 2009. Grounding Knowledge/Walking Land: Archaeological Research and Ethno-historical Identity in Central Nepal, by Christopher Evans, with Judith Pettigrew, Yarjung Kromchain Tamu and Mark Turin. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. ISBN 978 1 902937 50 2. 223 pages, 116 illustrations, 12 tables.
• 2007. Linguistic Diversity and the Preservation of Endangered Languages: A Case Study from Nepal. 42 pages, maps, colour plates. Talking Points, 4/07, ISBN 978 92 9115 055 7 (printed) & ISBN 978 92 9115 074 8 (electronic).
• 2004. Nepali - Thami - English Dictionary, by Mark Turin with Bir Bahadur Thami. Kathmandu: Martin Chautari. ISBN 99933 812 4 1. 115 pages.

External links

• Mark Turin's website http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/projectteam/turin/
• Cambridge Ideas: Vanishing Voices Film http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1072741
• The Beckoning Silence, by Paul Bignell, The Independent on Sunday Magazine 13 December 2009, pages 10-17, http://www.oralliterature.org/uploads/WOLP_Sindy.pdf
• The Language Collector, Cambridge Alumni Magazine 59, pages 22-25. http://www.oralliterature.org/uploads/WOLP_CAM_59.pdf

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Name	Turin, Mark
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Date of birth	1973
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