Current position
Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Nazarbayev University (2020/08–present)
Faculty position with reaching, teaching, student advising, and administrative roles
Previous professional appointments
Visiting Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Nazarbayev University (1/2020 –7/2020)
Visiting position for linguistic research and teaching
Part-time University Lecturer, University of Helsinki (10/2019–12/2019)
Teaching of a graduate level course about the linguistic diversity of the Greater Himalayan Region
Researcher in the EVIDEGO-project, University of Helsinki (1/2018–8/2018)
Linguistic research on the grammaticalized epistemic system of the Geshiza language
Teaching Fellow and Research Assistant, Yale University (10/2013–5/2014)
Teaching and research positions in Japanese history of the Meiji era
Education and degrees awarded
PhD in General Linguistics, University of Helsinki (12/2019)
PhD dissertation: A Grammar of Geshiza: A Culturally Anchored Description, supervisors Prof. Matti Miestamo and Prof. Juha Janhunen
M.A. in General Linguistics, University of Tokyo (3/2013)
Specialization in General Linguistics and Old Chinese of the Shāng Dynasty written in the oracle bone script
B.A. in General Linguistics, University of Tokyo (3/2011)
Specialization in General Linguistics, Japanese linguistics, and Old Chinese of the Shāng Dynasty written in the oracle bone script
Academic certificates and diplomas
Diploma in Japanese Studies, Osaka University of Foreign Studies (3/2007)
One-year intensive studies in the Japanese language and culture
Intensive language training programs
Tibetan: Esukhia, Dharamshala (2015, 2019)
Chinese translation: National Taiwan University (2014)
Korean: Seoul National University (2012)
Russian: Moscow State University (2011)
Khmer: Khmer School of Language, Phnom Penh (2009)
Peer-reviewed scientific articles
Honkasalo, Sami. to appear. Negation in Geshiza. In Matti Miestamo & Ljuba Veselinova (eds.) Negation in the Languages of the World. Language Press.
Gates, Jesse, Honkasalo Sami and Lai Yunfan. to appear. From transitive to intransitive and voiceless to voiced in Proto-Sino-Tibetan: New evidence from Stau, Geshiza, and Khroskyabs. Language and Linguistics.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2020. Verb Classes in Horpa: A Study of Balang Geshiza and Poxiu Stau. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 43(2). 255–290.
Grünthal Riho, Sami Honkasalo, and Markus Juutinen. 2020. Language sociological trends in Ndebele communities: a pilot survey. Studia Orientalia. 17–62.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2017. Two Traditional Stau Stories. Asian Highlands Perspectives 44. 285–316.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2013. Formation of the Old Chinese Negative 弗 *put in the Light of the Shang Dynasty Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Tokyo University Linguistic Papers 34. 65–73.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2011. A Cognitive Approach to Character Formation in the Oracle Bone Script. Tokyo University Linguistic Papers 31. 67–77.
Non-refereed scientific articles
Honkasalo, Sami. to appear. Review of A Grammar of Japhug by Guillaume Jacques. Bulletin of SOAS.
Klu Thar Rgyal with CK Stuart and Sami Honkasalo. 2020. Last Memories (1929-1958): A mdo Tibetan Tribal Lives: Rdor Jag and Tang Ta. Asian Highland Perspectives 59.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. Review of The Phonetics and Phonology of Nyagrong Minyag, An Endangered Language of Western China, by John R. Van Way. Asian Highlands Perspectives 58. 569–574.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. On Describing Geshiza, a Horpa language. International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 1(1). 199–204.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2014. Review of Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice edited by Harold F. Schiffman. Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 34(2). 135–136.
Publications intended for professional communities
Honkasalo, Sami. 2015. Estonia and Asia: Proposal for a Strategic Framework in the 21st Century. Estonian Foreign Policy Institute Occasional Papers.
Theses
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. A Grammar of Eastern Geshiza: A Culturally Anchored Description. University of Helsinki, PhD dissertation.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2013. Negation in Shang Chinese: A Corpus-based approach. University of Tokyo, M.A. thesis.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2011. 甲骨文字における認知的なメカニズム[Cognitive Mechanisms in the Oracle Bone Script]. University of Tokyo, B.A. thesis.
Academic conference presentations
Gates, Jesse, Sami Honkasalo, and Lai Yunfan. 2019. Anticausative and caustive verbs in Horpa-Khroskyabs: Implications for Proto-Sino-Tibetan. 5th Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China, Tianjin.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. Imperatives in Eastern Geshiza. 5th Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China, Tianjin.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. “I know, but you probably don’t”: Engagement and the grammar of non-shared knowledge in Eastern Geshiza. ICSTLL52, Sydney.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2019. Kiinalaisen ja tiibetiläisen kulttuurin rajapinnalla: sosiolingvistinen katsaus geshizan kieleen [At the of crossroads of Chinese and Tibetan Culture: A sociolinguistic look at the Geshiza langage]. Kielitieteen päivät [Finnish Annual Conference on Linguistics], Joensuu, Finland.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2018. System of Negation in Geshiza. Syntax of the World’s Languages 8, Paris.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2018. Indiana Jones -stereotypia kenttälingvistiikassa [The Indiana Jones stereotype in field linguistics]. Kielitieteen päivät [Finnish Annual Conference on Linguistics], Helsinki.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2017. The Evidential System of Geshiza. Expression of knowledge: epistemicity and beyond, Helsinki.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2016. Verb Morphology in Geshizha Horpa. Fourth Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China, Seattle.
Selection of invited talks and lectures
Honkasalo, Sami. 2021. Shang Chinese language and the Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Chinese linguistics: Integrating comparative Northeast and Southeast Asian perspectives. Northeast and Southeast Asian Studies Network in Finland and Thailand (NSEANET, online).
Honkasalo, Sami. 2021. Linguistic Diversity and Change at the Crossroads of the Tibetan and Chinese Civilizations in Southwestern China. Online Global Campus: New Perspectives on Asia. Mahidol University, University of Helsinki, and Nazarbayev University (online).
Honkasalo, Sami. 2017. Kielitieteellisen kenttätutkimuksen haasteet ja modernin teknologian mahdollisuudet: Tapaustutkimus horpakielten kuvaamisesta Kiinassa, Dharamshalan pakolaisyhteisössä sekä virtuaaliympäristössä. [Challenges of linguistic fieldwork and potential of modern technology: A case study of describing Horpa languages in China, among the exiles in Dharamshala, and in a virtual environment] Melko yleistä kielitiedettä (MYK) XXI: Kenttälingvistiikkaa. Turku, Finland.
Honkasalo, Sami. 2015. Estonia and Asia: Proposal for a Strategic Framework in the 21st Century. Estonian Foreign Policy Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tallinn, Estonia.