Introduction: Language Contact in the Amdo Sprachbund

This paper gives a brief introduction to the Himalayan Linguistics special issue Language Contact in the Amdo Sprachbund. It briefly reviews some of the scholarship regarding language contact in the region, and traces the history of recognition that Amdo should be considered a Sprachbund. It suggests that Campbell’s (2017) concept of a “trait-sprawl area” offers a good way to characterize this Sprachbund. The seven papers included in the volume are also briefly summarized