Tamang Language
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Tamang (
Devanagari 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 ...
: तामाङ; ''tāmāng'') is a term used to collectively refer to a
dialect cluster 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 ...
spoken mainly 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 ...
,
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 Siligur ...
,
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
(
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 Nepal, ...
) and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang.
Lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...
between Eastern Tamang (which is regarded as the most prominent) and other Tamang languages varies between 81% to 63%. For comparison, lexical similarity between
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
, is estimated at 89%. Ethnologue report for Spanish


Dialects

''
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 ...
'' divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility. *Eastern Tamang: 759,000 in Nepal (2000 WCD). Population total all countries: 773,000. Sub-dialects are as follows. **Outer-Eastern Tamang (Sailung Tamang) **Central-Eastern Tamang (Temal Tamang) **Southwestern Tamang (Kath-Bhotiya, Lama Bhote, Murmi, Rongba, Sain, Tamang Gyoi, Tamang Gyot, Tamang Lengmo, Tamang Tam) *Western Tamang: 323,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows. **Trisuli (Nuwakot) **Rasuwa **Northwestern dialect of Western Tamang (Dhading) — separate ISO code. Population 55,000 (1991 census). Spoken in the central mountainous strip of
Nuwakot District Nuwakot District ( ne, नुवाकोट जिल्ला, a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Bidur as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 288,4 ...
,
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
. **Southwestern dialect of Western Tamang *Eastern Gorkha Tamang: 4,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows. **Kasigaon **Kerounja The Tamang language is the most widely spoken
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. ...
language in Nepal.


Geographical distribution

''
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 ...
'' gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang. Eastern Tamang *
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
: Bhaktapur District,
Chitwan District Chitwan District (, , ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers . In 2011 it had a population of 579 ...
,
Dolkha District Dolakha, often known as Dolkha or Dholkha (Nepal Bhasa:दोलखा जिल्ला)), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Charikot as its district headquarters, covers an area of a ...
,
Kathmandu District Kathmandu District ( ne, काठमाडौं जिल्ला; Nepal Bhasa: ये: जिल्ला) is a district located in Kathmandu Valley, Bagmati Province of Nepal. It is one of the 77 districts of Nepal, covers an area of , and ...
,
Kavrepalanchok District Kavrepalanchok District ( ne, काभ्रेपलाञ्चोक जिल्ला; ) is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhulikhel as its district headquarters, covers an area of . It is a part of Bagmati Provinc ...
, Lalitpur District,
Makwanpur District Makwanpur District( ne, मकवानपुर जिल्ला; , a part of Bagmati Province, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Hetauda as its district headquarter, as well ...
, eastern
Nuwakot District Nuwakot District ( ne, नुवाकोट जिल्ला, a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Bidur as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 288,4 ...
,
Ramechhap District Ramechhap District ( ne, रामेछाप जिल्ला), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, known as wallo Kirat Ramechhap, with Manthali as ...
,
Sindhuli District Sindhuli District ( ne, सिन्धुली जिल्ला), a part of the Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Sindhulimadhi Kamalamai as its district ...
and western
Sindhupalchowk District Sindhupalchowk District ( ne, सिन्धुपाल्चोक जिल्ला ) is a part of Bagmati Province and one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, with an area of . The district's headquarters is in Chautara. In 2006, 336, ...
*
Province No. 1 Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat Autonomous State, Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan Rashtriya Morcha, Nepal, Khambuwan, Mount Everest, Sagarmatha, Virata, Birat and Koshi River, Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven Provinces of Nepal, province ...
:
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 ...
, western
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.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 ...
Southwestern Tamang *
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
:
Chitwan District Chitwan District (, , ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers . In 2011 it had a population of 579 ...
, southern
Dhading District Dhading District ( ne, धादिङ जिल्ला ), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhading Besi as its district headquarters, covers an area of , had a population of 338,65 ...
, western and northwestern
Kathmandu District Kathmandu District ( ne, काठमाडौं जिल्ला; Nepal Bhasa: ये: जिल्ला) is a district located in Kathmandu Valley, Bagmati Province of Nepal. It is one of the 77 districts of Nepal, covers an area of , and ...
area and northwestern
Makwanpur District Makwanpur District( ne, मकवानपुर जिल्ला; , a part of Bagmati Province, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Hetauda as its district headquarter, as well ...
*
Province No. 2 Madhesh Province ( Nepali/ mai, मधेश प्रदेश) is a province of Nepal that was formed after the adoption of the Constitution of Nepal. It is Nepal's most populous province, and smallest province by area. It borders Province N ...
:
Bara District Bara District ( ne, बारा जिल्ला ) is one of the seventy–seven districts of Nepal, located in the western part of the Madhesh Province. The district is third richest district in Nepal after Kathmandu and Morang with 3.3% sh ...
,
Parsa District Parsa District ( ne, पर्सा जिल्ला), a part of Madhesh Province in Terai plain, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Birgunj as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population ...
and
Rautahat District Rautahat District ( ne, रौतहट जिल्ला), a part of Madhesh Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district headquarter is Gaur, including municipalities like Garuda, Chandrapur, Paroha, covers an area ...
Western Tamang *
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
: western
Nuwakot District Nuwakot District ( ne, नुवाकोट जिल्ला, a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Bidur as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 288,4 ...
,
Rasuwa District Rasuwa District ( ne, :ne:रसुवा जिल्ला, रसुवा जिल्ला is one of 13 districts of Bagmati Province and one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhunche as its district headquarters, cover ...
, and
Dhading District Dhading District ( ne, धादिङ जिल्ला ), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhading Besi as its district headquarters, covers an area of , had a population of 338,65 ...
*central mountainous strip of
Nuwakot District Nuwakot District ( ne, नुवाकोट जिल्ला, a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Bidur as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 288,4 ...
,
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
(''Northwestern Tamang'') *northeastern
Sindhupalchok District Sindhupalchowk District ( ne, सिन्धुपाल्चोक जिल्ला ) is a part of Bagmati Province and one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, with an area of . The district's headquarters is in Chautara. In 2006, 336, ...
,
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
: Bhote Namlan, and Bhote Chaur, on Trishuli river west bank toward Budhi Gandaki river *northwestern
Makwanpur District Makwanpur District( ne, मकवानपुर जिल्ला; , a part of Bagmati Province, earlier a part of Narayani Zone, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Hetauda as its district headquarter, as well ...
,
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
: Phakel, Chakhel, Khulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, and Palung *northern
Kathmandu District Kathmandu District ( ne, काठमाडौं जिल्ला; Nepal Bhasa: ये: जिल्ला) is a district located in Kathmandu Valley, Bagmati Province of Nepal. It is one of the 77 districts of Nepal, covers an area of , and ...
,
Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provinc ...
: Jhor, Thoka, and Gagal Phedi Eastern Tamang *south and east of Jagat, northern
Gorkha District Gorkha District ( ne, गोरखा जिल्ला ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal, which is the fourth largest district (by area) of Nepal and connected historically with the creation of the modern Nep ...
,
Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ne, गण्डकी प्रदेश ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borde ...


Grammar

Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include: *A canonical word order of SOV *Use of
postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s; *The
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
s follow
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s; *
question A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammar, grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are inte ...
word medial; *It is an ergative–absolutive language; *CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC; Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.


Phonology


Consonants


Vowels

Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a mark.


Tones

Four tones occur as high falling , mid-high level , mid-low level , very low .Mazaudon (2003)


Writing system

Tamang language is written in
Tamyig script stub Tamyig script is used to write the Tamang language. The Tamyig script is a simplified version of the Tibetan script. The Tamang community has their own script which is known as ‘Tamyig’ script. Several literary books was published in Tam ...
.


References


Bibliography

* Perumal Samy P. (2013)
Tamang in LSI Sikkim
volume I Page Nos. 404–472. Published by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner,India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. *


External links


Counting in Tamang
*ELAR archive o
Tamang


{{Languages of Northeast India Languages of Nepal Tamangic languages Languages of Sikkim Languages of Bhutan Subject–object–verb languages