Kyirong–Kagate is a subgroup of

Tibetic languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...

spoken primarily in Nepal, with a hundred or so speakers across the border in Tibet. Varieties are:N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." ''Lalies'', 2005, n°25, p. 7–5

/ref> : Kyirong language, Kyirong (Lende), Kagate, Tsum,

Langtang Langtang valley is a Himalayan valley in the mountains of north-central Nepal, known for its trekking routes and natural environment. Administrative The Langtang valley lies in the Rasuwa district of the Bagmati Province in Nepal. Situ ...

, Yolmo (Helambu Sherpa),

Nubri Nubri ( Tibetan: ནུབ་རི; ) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by about 2000 ethnically Tibetan people living in Nubri Valley in northern Central Nepal, upper Gorkhā District of Gandaki Province. Nubri has at least three dialects as ...

, Gyalsumdo Although there is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between these varieties, they are considered separate languages by their respective speakers. There are also some major distinctions. For example, Kyirong has a three-tone system whereas Yolmo and Kagate have a two-tone system. The

Gyalsumdo language Gyalsumdo ( deva, ग्याल्सुस्दो) is a mostly undocumented Tibetic language spoken by an estimated 200 individuals of the Manang District in the Gandaki Zone of Nepal. In January 2018 the language was added to ISO 639-3 unde ...

variety spoken in the Manage district of Nepal shows strong similarities to Kyirong, as well as Nubri, and would therefore likely be classed in the "Kyirong–Kagate" group.

Terminological limitation

The language family is best considered to really be Kyirong–Yolmo. This is for a number of reasons; firstly, there are only around 1000 people who identify as Kagate, and many of these also consider themselves to be Yolmo. Secondly, Kagate is only regularly used to identify the community in Ramechhap, while Yolmo can be found in Melamchi, Helambu, Ilam, Lamjung and other places. Thirdly, the name Kagate is considered negative by many speakers, as it refers to the low-caste occupation of papermaking.

Variation between languages

These varieties are all clearly historically related, but some are more similar than others. Kagate and Yolmo share many common features, and can be considered mutually intelligible dialects. Nubri and Gyalsumdo also appear to be closely related, based on initial research. Although Yolmo and Kyirong are more similar to each other than they are to Standard Tibetan, they are different enough to be considered different languages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyirong-Kagate languages Languages of Nepal Languages of Tibet Central Bodish languages