The area extending from Nepal in the north to Orissa in the south has been suggested by Ebert (1993) to have developed common features in some of the languages of the four distinct families represented there (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman). The aim of my paper is to present a phonological survey of the languages of an enlarged area, extending in the east to the border of Burma, thus including the Indian states of West Bengal and of Assam, the eastern states of India, Bangladesh and Bhutan as well. ; Published version