Nar Phu, or ’Narpa, is a Sino-Tibetan variety spoken in the two villages of Nar and Phu, in the Valley of the Nar Khola in the Manang district of

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 ...

. It forms a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

with Manang and may be intelligible with it; however, the Nar and Phu share a secret language to confound Gyasumdo and Manang who would otherwise understand them.

Phonology

Vowels

The language lacks all middle vowels and the open mid vowel /ɔ/.

Consonants

Comparatively to the English language, the /g/ is not in the language.

Tones

Nar Phu distinguishes four tones: high falling, high level, low rising

murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...

, and mid/low falling murmured.

Language Patterns

Nar-Phu has a different vowel system than other Tamangic languages, due to the amount of front vowels. Nar-Phu is a four-tone language. Tones 1 and 4 are falling; tones 3 and 4 are murmured. Tone 2 is distinguished by its clear, high quality. Nar-Phu has no formal gendered language system, but some suffixes are used to describe animals, even castrated male animals. Honorific Noun phrases are used when there is not a noun in place for said words.

Swadesh List

* čhipruŋ - Nar * ŋêe min - my name is * cɦecuke - children * tɦosor - happy/happier/happiness * læ̂se/yarcʌkômpʌ - Yarsagompa * šiŋ - wood * kɦêpɛ - eighth month * ɦyâŋi - yaks * momori - momo * kɦeskʌ - gas * læ̂pa - cup * bɦaʈʈi - hotel * eki - again * mɦi - dies * molompapɛ - religious books * molom - worship

References

Bibliography

* Noonan, Michael (2003). "Nar-Phu" Sino-Tibetan Languages, edited by Randy LaPolla and Graham Thurgood, 336-352. London: Routledge. * Kristine A. Hildebrandt (2013). “Converb and aspect marking polysemy in Nar” Responses to Language Endangerment: In Honor of Mickey Noonan, edited by Elena Mihas, Bernard Perley, Gabriel Rei-Doval, and Kathleen Wheatley, 97-117. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. * Kristine A. Hildebrandt, D.N. Dhakal, Oliver Bond, Matt Vallejo and Andrea Fyffe. (2015). “A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Manang, Nepal: Co-existence and endangerment.”
NFDIN Journal
'' 14.6: 104-122. *''Mandala collections''. Nar-Phu , Mandala Collections - Audio-Video. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://av.mandala.library.virginia.edu/collection/nar-phu.

External links

Manang Languages Project of Kristine HildebrandtNar Phu Valley Trekking NepalNar-Phu language archive
at the University of Virgini
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
{{Bodic languages Tamangic languages Languages of Nepal