This paper shows that patterns of application for several phonological processes and constraints in Limbu (Kiranti, Tibeto-Burman) reveals the relevance of hierarchical prosodic domains, including the syllable, foot, phonological word, and phonological phrase. In particular, an appeal to the phonological word uniformly accounts for the distribution of otherwise idiosyncratic alternations between the lateral approximant /l/ and the trill /r/. A prosodic domains account also reveals a mis-match between nominal compounds and verbal bipartite stems, with compounds consistently parsed as a single phonological word, and bipartite stems as hybrid in their prosodic organization. Limbu is of particular interest from a theoretical perspective, as the different morphological information referenced by the multiple phonological words in Limbu stands as a challenge to specific assumptions within the Prosodic Hierarchy Hypothesis (e.g. “Clustering” and “Proper Bracketing”) . Typologically (within the Tibeto-Burman family), the prosodic alignments evidenced in Limbu are in some ways similar to those proposed for other related languages (e.g. the exclusion of prefixes from most prosodic domains), but also different in other ways (e.g. the organization of compounds).

The current volume arose from a one-day pre-meeting workshop entitled “How Grammar Encodes Space in Tibeto-Burman” at the 48th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, which was held at the University of California, Santa Barbara in August of 2015.

This report contains preliminary descriptive and comparative information on Gyalsumdo, a variety of Tibetan that is spoken in the lower Manang District of Nepal. Based on select lexico-phonetic data recorded from one speaker in 2009 and 2010, and on data available from other languages of Manang and nearby Gorkhā District, we hypothesize its location within Tibetic (Central Tibetan). Gyalsumdo shares more features with Nubri, but we also note additional similarities to Kyirong Tibetan, and to Tamangic languages with which Gyalsumdo has had regular contact over several generations.

This memoriam honors Barbara Frances Kelly, our friend and colleague, who passed away on 14 December, 2022.

This issue of Himalayan Linguistics marks twenty years for the journal. We reflect on the early history of Himalayan Linguistics, its contribution to the field, and the future of the journal.