Nar Phu, or ’Narpa, is a
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. ...
variety spoken in the two villages of Nar and Phu, in the Valley of the Nar Khola in the
Manang district
Manang District ( ne, मनाङ जिल्ला , a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Chame as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population (2011) of 6,538. ...
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 mai ...
. It forms a
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
with
Manang
Manang ( ne, मनाङ) is a town in the Manang District of Nepal. It is located at 28°40'0N 84°1'0E with an elevation of . According to the preliminary result of the 2011 Nepal census it has a population of 6,527 people living in 1,495 ind ...
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