We are very pleased to present the fourth volume of papers in the North East Indian Linguistics series. The papers in this volume were presented at the fourth NEILS conference, held at the North Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya, from January 16–18, 2009, and organized by the Department of Linguistics, Gauhati University, in collaboration with scholars from the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University (Melbourne AU). All the papers in this volume have been peer-reviewed and then revised in close consultation with the editors. Final approval for the papers in this volume comes from the editorial staff of Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd. As in previous volumes our aim is to produce a volume reflective of both the linguistic diversity of the North East as well as the high quality of the current research.

The current volume is particularly representative of the diversity of the languages of the North East, the scholars working there, and the various research projects underway. Contributions range from renowned scholars of Tibeto-Burman linguistics to students from the North East making their first impact in the field of Linguistics. The articles in this volume cover four of the language families represented in North East India: Tai-Kadai, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, and Austroasiatic and come from scholars based in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Norway, and Australia, but with the majority of contributions being from Indian scholars themselves.