Tamang language
Tamang | |
---|---|
तामाङ, རྟ་དམག་ / རྟ་མང་/ | |
Native to | Nepal India Bhutan |
Ethnicity | Tamang/Moormi |
Native speakers | 1.4 million in Nepal (2021 census)[1] 20,154 in India (2011 census)[2] |
Tamyig script, Devanagari, Tibetan | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Nepal |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:taj – Eastern Tamangtdg – Western Tamangtge – Eastern Gorkha Tamang |
Glottolog | nucl1729 |
Tamang (
Dialects
Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility.
- Eastern Tamang: 759,000 in Nepal (2000 WCD). Population total all countries: 773,000. Sub-dialects are as follows.
- Outer-Eastern Tamang (Sailung Tamang)
- Central-Eastern Tamang (Temal Tamang)
- Southwestern Tamang (Kath-Bhotiya, Lama Bhote, Murmi, Rongba, Sain, Tamang Gyoi, Tamang Gyot, Tamang Lengmo, Tamang Tam)
- Western Tamang: 323,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows.
- Trisuli (Nuwakot)
- Rasuwa
- Northwestern dialect of Western Tamang (Dhading) — was having separate ISO code tmk, merged with tdg in 2023.[5] Population 55,000 (1991 census). Spoken in the central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province.
- Southwestern dialect of Western Tamang
- Eastern Gorkha Tamang: 4,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows.
- Kasigaon
- Kerounja
The Tamang language is the most widely spoken Sino-Tibetan language in Nepal.
Geographical distribution
Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.
Eastern Tamang
- Dolkha District, Kathmandu District, Kavrepalanchok District, Lalitpur District, Makwanpur District, eastern Nuwakot District, Ramechhap District, Sindhuli District and western Sindhupalchowk District
Southwestern Tamang
- Bagmati Province: Chitwan District, southern Dhading District, western and northwestern Kathmandu District area and northwestern Makwanpur District
Western Tamang
- Bagmati Province: western Nuwakot District, Rasuwa District, and Dhading District
- central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province (Northwestern Tamang)
- northeastern Sindhupalchok District, Bagmati Province: Bhote Namlan, and Bhote Chaur, on Trishuli river west bank toward Budhi Gandaki river
- northwestern Makwanpur District, Bagmati Province: Phakel, Chakhel, Khulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, and Palung
- northern Kathmandu District, Bagmati Province: Jhor, Thoka, and Gagal Phedi
Eastern Tamang
- south and east of Jagat, northern Gorkha District, Gandaki Province
Grammar
Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:
- A canonical word order of SOV
- Use of postpositions;
- The genitives follow nouns;
- question word medial;
- It is an ergative–absolutive language;
- CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC;
Phonetically Tamang languages are
Phonology
Consonants
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n
|
ŋ | |||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t
|
ts | ʈ | k | ||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | tsʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | |||
palatalized
|
pʲ | tʲ | tsʲ | ʈʲ | kʲ | |||
labialized
|
pʷ | tʷ | tsʷ | ʈʷ | kʷ | |||
Fricative | s | h | ||||||
Rhotic | r
|
|||||||
Approximant | w | l
|
j |
Vowels
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː |
Mid | e eː | o oː |
Open | a aː |
Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a [ã] mark.
Tones
Four tones occur as high falling [â], mid-high level [á], mid-low level [à], very low [ȁ].[6]
Writing system
Tamang language is written in
References
- ^ Eastern Tamang at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Western Tamang at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Eastern Gorkha Tamang at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) - ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). 16 July 2014. p. 109. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
- ^ Ethnologue report for Spanish
- ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2022-001". ISO 639-3. SIL International. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ Mazaudon (2003)
Bibliography
- Perumalsamy, P. 2009 “ Tamang Language ” in Linguistic Survey
of India: Sikkim volume I, New Delhi: Office of Registrar General India, pp: 388-455 https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/LSI
- Hwang, Hyunkyung; Lee, Seunghun J.; P. Gerber; S. Grollmann (2019). "Laryngeal contrast and tone in Tamang: an analysis based on a new set of Tamang data". Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan. 23 (1): 41–50. .
External links
- Counting in Tamang
- ELAR archive of Tamang
- [1]