The Bantawa Language (also referred to as An Yüng, Bantaba, Bantawa Dum, Bantawa Yong, Bantawa Yüng, Bontawa, Kirawa Yüng), is a

Kirati 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 Kir ...

spoken in the eastern Himalayan hills of eastern

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 ma ...

by Kirati Bantawa ethnic groups. They use a syllabic alphabet system known as Kirat Rai script . Among the Khambu or Rai people of

Eastern Nepal The Eastern Development Region (Nepali: पुर्वाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र, ''Purwānchal Bikās Kshetra'') was one of Nepal's five development regions. It is also known as Kirata region. It was located at the ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nep ...

and

Kalimpong Kalimpong (Hindi: कलिम्पोंग) is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The r ...

in India. Bantawa is the largest language spoken. According to the 2001 National Census, at least 1.63% of the Nepal's total population speaks Bantawa. About 370,000 speak Bantawa Language mostly in eastern hilly regions of Nepal (2001). Although Bantawa is among the more widely used variety of the Bantawa language, it falls in the below-100,000 category of endangered languages. It is experiencing language shift to

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

, especially in the northern region. Bantawa is spoken in subject-object-verb order, and has no noun classes or genders.

Dialects

Most of the Bantawa clan are now settled in Bhojpur,

Dharan Dharan ( ne, धरान) a sub-metropolitan city in Sunsari District of Province No. 1, Nepal, which was established as a fourth municipality in the Kingdom in 1958. It is the third most populous city in Eastern Nepal after Biratnagar and It ...

, Illam, and Dhankuta. Recent figures show most of them are settled in Dharan. Bantawa is spoken in the following

districts of Nepal Districts in Nepal are second level of administrative divisions after provinces. Districts are subdivided in municipalities and rural municipalities. There are seven provinces and 77 districts in Nepal. After the state's reconstruction of admi ...

(''Ethnologue''). *

Province No. 1 Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan, Sagarmatha, Birat and Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven provinces established by the new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The province covers an ...

: Bhojpur District,

Dhankuta District Dhankuta District ( ne, धनकुटा जिल्ला) () is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district covers an area of and has a population (2011) of 163,412. Dhankuta is the district headquarters of Dha ...

Ilam District Ilam district ( ne, इलाम जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. It is a Hill district and covers . The 2011 census counted 290,254 population. The municipality of Ilam is the district headquar ...

Jhapa District Jhapa ( ne, झापा जिल्ला; ) is a district of Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal named after a Rajbanshi word "Jhapa" meaning "to cover" (verb). The latest official data, the 2021 Nepal Census, puts the total population of the ...

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.Morang District Morang District ( ne, मोरङ जिल्ला ) is located in Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal. It is an Outer Terai district. It borders with Bihar, India to the South, Jhapa to the East, Dhankuta and Panchthar to the North, and Sunsa ...

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 ...

Panchthar District Panchthar district ( ne, पाँचथर जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern hilly region of Nepal. It is a Hill district of eastern Nepal. The district covers of area. The 2011 census counted 191,817 popu ...

Sunsari District , nickname = , native_name_lang = , image_skyline = , image_size = , image_alt = , image_caption = Night view of Dharan, Itahari & Tarahara :: Barahakshetra Temple: BPKIHS, Dharan :Dharan Clock Tower , image_map = Sunsari district loc ...

Taplejung District Taplejung District ( ne, ताप्लेजुङ जिल्ला ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Province No. 1. It is remotely located in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with Tibet to the north across the ...

and

Udayapur District Udayapur District ( ne, उदयपुर जिल्ला, is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district, with Triyuga as its district headquarters, covers an area of and in 2001 had a population of 287,689, in 20 ...

of India Dialects are as follows (''Ethnologue''). * Northern Bantawa (Dilpali) ::''Northern subdialects: Mangpahang, Raipachha, Awaichha, Rungchenbung and Yangma'' * Southern Bantawa (Chewali, Okhreli, Hatuwali, Hangkhim) ::''Southern and Northern Bantawa, similar, could be united as 'Intermediate Bantawa'.'' * Eastern Bantawa (Dhankuta) ::''Eastern dialect is the most divergent. It is most closely related to

Dungmali language Dungmali, or Dungmali-Bantawa, is a Kirati languages language spoken in Nepal. It is largely cognate with Bantawa language, but differs grammatically and phonologically. Locations Dungmali is spoken in eastern Bhojpur District, Kosi Zone, i ...

, though also related to Puma language,

Sampang language Sampang language is a subgroup of Central Kiranti languages. Geographical distribution Sampang is spoken in the following locations of Nepal (''Ethnologue''). *Khotang district, Province No. 1 (Khotang dialect): Tap Khola river villages, Baspa ...

, and Chhintange language.'' * Western Bantawa (Amchoke, Amchauke) ::''Amchaucke dialects: Sorung, Saharaja, Lulam, and Sukita'' *Wana Bantawa (also called simply Bantawa), spoken by the Bantawa subcaste. The Amchoke dialect is spoken in the Limbu area, especially in Ilam district. Bantawa is also considered as a superior clan in the Kiranti family. Bantawa is also reportedly in use as a ''

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

'' among Rai minorities in Himalayan

In India and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

. Meanwhile, the language is just being introduced in a few schools at the primary level (Year 1- Year 5) using

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

. The extinct Waling language attested from the late 19th century may have been a variety of Bantawa, or a closely related language, if not the Hatuwali dialect the Waling people speak today.

Bantawa language

Phonology

Vowels

* vowel comes in Bantawa due to influence of Nepali language and it is rarely used like in other Tibetan Burmese language. *nowadays some dialect or in region may pronounce // as []/[] or []. Example: mɨk (eye) pronounce as mʌk/muk, pɨ (snake) as pʌ/pu.

Consonants

* Glotta stop is one of the consonants of Bantawa language which is represent by using . * Dental consonant and Apico-alveolar does not make any difference while speaking. * To write Bantawa language either Kirat Rai script or Devanagari lipi is being used in Nepal.

References

External links

A Grammar of Bantawa

{{authority control Kiranti languages Languages of Nepal Vulnerable languages