Editing Sino-Tibetan languages (section)

===Fieldwork===
The descriptions of non-literary languages used by Shafer and Benedict were often produced by missionaries and colonial administrators of varying linguistic skills.{{sfnp|Matisoff|1991|pp=472–473}}{{sfnp|Hale|1982|pp=4–5}} Most of the smaller Sino–Tibetan languages are spoken in inaccessible mountainous areas, many of which are politically or militarily sensitive and thus closed to investigators. Until the 1980s, the best-studied areas were [[Nepal]] and northern [[Thailand]].{{sfnp|Matisoff|1991|pp=470, 476–478}} In the 1980s and 1990s, new surveys were published from the Himalayas and southwestern China. Of particular interest was the increasing literature on the [[Qiangic languages]] of western [[Sichuan]] and adjacent areas.{{sfnp|Handel|2008|p=435}}{{sfnp|Matisoff|1991|p=482}}