Dr. Jean Robert Opgenort
Jean Robert Matheus Leonard Opgenort, a native of Limburg, wrote two grammars of different Kiranti languages during his affiliation with the Himalayan Languages Project, which began in 1996. The languages are Wambule and Jero. The Jero grammar also contains a reconstruction of Kiranti initial segments. Afterwards, Jean Robert also contributed immensely in Nepal to the project Languages and Genes of the Greater Himalayan Region.
In addition to his two major books, Jean Robert has authored numerous studies on related and less related themes, much of which can be either consulted or downloaded directly from his website. The publications bearing directly on his work for the Himalayan Languages Project are listed in the abridged bibliography below.
In 2008 and 2009, Jean Robert Opgenort was involved in UNESCO’s activities for safeguarding endangered languages. He contributed to the 3rd revised and updated edition of UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, in the capacity of a Regional Editor.
Selected publications
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2010 b. ‘Language Endangerment in the Himalayan Chain: The Impact of Nepali on the Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal, India and Bhutan’, pp. 154–165 in Endangered Languages in India. Kamalini Sengupta, ed. New Delhi: The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2010 a. [with co-author Stuart Blackburn] ‘India and the Himalayan chain’, pp. 59–63 in the 3rd edition of the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2007. ‘About Chaurasia’, pp. 203–224 in Linguistics of the Himalayas and Beyond. Roland Bielmeier, Felix Haller, eds. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2006 b. [with co–authors Thirsa Kraaijenbrink, Nirmal Man Tuladhar, George van Driem and Peter de Knijff] ‘Allele frequency distribution for 21 autosomal STR loci in Nepal’, in Forensic Science International, 168 (2–3): 227–231.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2006 a. [with co–authors Emma J. Parkin, Nirmal Man Tuladhar, George van Driem, Peter de Knijff and Mark Jobling] ‘Diversity of 26-locus Y-STR haplotypes in a Nepalese population sample: Isolation and drift in the Himalayas’, in Forensic Science International, 166 (2–3): 176–181.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2005. A Grammar of Jero. With a Historical Comparative Study of the Kiranti Languages. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Vol. 3. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2004 b. A Grammar of Wambule. Grammar, Lexicon, Texts and Cultural Survey of a Kiranti Tribe of Eastern Nepal (xxix + 900 = 929 pp., 16 illus.). Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Vol. 2. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2004 a. ‘Implosive and preglottalized stops in Kiranti’, in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Volume 27.1 (pp. 1-27).
Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2002. The Wāmbule Language. Grammar, Lexicon, Texts and Cultural Survey of a Kiranti Tribe of Eastern Nepal (xxix + 615 = 644 pp., 39 illus.). Amsterdam: Jean Robert Opgenort [Leiden University doctoral dissertation, 6 June 2002].