Bahing ancestors named Paiwa, Dungmowa, Rukhusalu, Waripsawa, Timriwa, Dhimriwa, Nayango, Dhayango, Khaliwa/Khaluwa, Rendukpa/Rendu, Rungbu/Rumdali/Diburcha/Thamrocha) is a language spoken by 11,658 people (2011 census) of the Bahing ethnic group in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

.Detailed language map of eastern Nepal, see language #4 near the map's north/south center and about 2/3 of the way from east to west
/ref> It belongs to the family of

Kiranti languages The Kiranti languages are a major family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Nepal and India (notably Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kumai) by the Kirati people. External relationships George van Driem had formerly proposed that the Kira ...

, a subgroup of

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

. The group Rumdali is also known as Nechali among some of them.

Names

''Ethnologue'' lists the following alternate names for Bahing: Baying, Ikke lo, Kiranti-Bahing, Pai Lo, Radu lo. Procha lo

Geographical distribution

Bahing is spoken in the following locations of Nepal (''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

''). *Northeastern

Okhaldhunga District Okhaldhunga District ( ne, ओखलढुङ्गा जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal. The district, with Okhaldhunga as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 156,702 ...

Sagarmatha Zone Sagarmāthā Zone ( ne, सगरमाथा अञ्चल) or Sagarmatha Anclal ( ne, सगरमाथा अञ्चल) was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal until the restructuring of zones into provinces. The headquarters of Sagarmat ...

Harkapur Harkapur is a Village development committee (Nepal), village development committee in Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of mid-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census, it had a population of 2499 living in 504 individual hou ...

, Ragdip, Bigutar, Baruneswor,

Okhaldhunga Okhaldhunga is the headquarters of the Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3761 living in 790 individual households. Background The name Okhaldhunga originates from " ...

, Rumjatar,

Barnalu Barnalu बर्नालु is a market in Siddhicharan Municipality in Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of mid-eastern Nepal. This village center was merged to the Municipality in May 2014. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The ...

, Mamkha, Ratmate,

Serna Serna is a village development committee in Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of mid-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Bureau of ...

Diyale Diyale is a village development committee in Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of mid-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Bureau of ...

, and Bhadaure VDC's (''Rumdali dialect'') *Mid-southeastern

: Ketuke, Moli, Waksa, and Ubu VDC's (''Tolocha dialect'') *Southern tip of

Solukhumbu District Solukhumbu District ( ne, सोलुखुम्बु जिल्ला , Sherpa: , Wylie: shar khum bu dzong) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. As the name suggests, it consists of the subregions Solu and Khumbu. ...

Necha Batase Necha Batase was a village development committee in Solukhumbu District in the Sagarmatha Zone of north-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Centra ...

and Salyan VDC's *

Khotang District Khotang District ( ne, खोटाङ जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district, with Diktel as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population (2021) of 206,312.Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'', Bahing consists of the Rumdali, Nechali, Tolacha, Moblocha, and Hangu dialects, with 85% or above intelligibility among all dialects. Bahing is best understood by the most people.

Documentation

The Bahing language was described by

Brian Houghton Hodgson Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himala ...

(1857, 1858) as having a very complex verbal morphology. By the 1970s, only vestiges were left, making Bahing a case study of grammatical attrition and language death.

Phonology

Bahing and the related

Khaling language Khaling (kʰɛ̂l brâː ख्या:ल् ब्रा:) is a Kiranti language spoken in Solukhumbu district, Nepal and Sikkim, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong in India. It is one of the few Kiranti languages with tonal contrasts, which are of se ...

have synchronic ten-vowel systems." target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="The difference of "monkey" vs. "human being" is difficult to perceive for speakers of even neighboring dialects, which makes for "an unlimited source of fun to the Bahing people" (

The_difference_of__"monkey"_vs.__"human_being"_is_difficult_to_perceive_for_speakers_of_even_neighboring_dialects,_which_makes_for_"an_unlimited_source_of_fun_to_the_Bahing_people"

.

_Morphology

Hodgson_(1857)_reported_a_Grammatical_voice#The_middle_voice.html" "title="ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090214091840/http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/deboer01evolvingSound.html de Boer 2002">The difference of "monkey" vs. "human being" is difficult to perceive for speakers of even neighboring dialects, which makes for "an unlimited source of fun to the Bahing people"

.

Morphology

Hodgson (1857) reported a Grammatical voice#The middle voice">middle voice In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the ...

formed by a suffix ''-s(i)'' added to the verbal stem, corresponding to reflexives in other Kiranti languages.

References

External links

Himalayan Languages Project
Kiranti languages Languages of Nepal Languages of India {{st-lang-stub