The Tharu ( Tharu: थारु, hi, थरुवा) or Tharuhat ( ne, थरुहट) languages are any of the

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, P ...

spoken by the

Tharu people The Tharu people are an ethnic group indigenous to the Terai in southern Nepal and northern India. They speak Tharu languages. They are recognized as an official nationality by the Government of Nepal. In the Indian Terai, they live foremost ...

of the

Terai , image =Terai nepal.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption =Aerial view of Terai plains near Biratnagar, Nepal , map = , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , biogeographic_realm = Indomalayan realm , global200 = Terai-Duar savanna a ...

region in Nepal, and neighboring regions of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

and

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

in India. Tharu languages are spoken in the Tharu community. This languages are similar to other neighboring languages. Tharu language is one of the major language spoken in Nepal. Although their own precise classification within Indo-Aryan remains uncertain, Tharu languages have superficial similarities with neighbouring languages such as Kumaoni,

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city ...

, Maithili,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Rajbanshi and

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

. The lexicon of certain Tharu households is indicative of an archaic, 'indigenous' substratum, potentially predating both

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. ...

or Indo-Aryan settlement. Tharu languages appear to be transitional within the context of Indo-Aryan. Chitwania Tharu is spoken by approximately 250,000 speakers east of the

Gandaki River The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and the Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area amounts to , most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, it is notab ...

, in and around the Chitwan Valley. Chitwania, as a whole, has superficial similarities with Awadhi. Nevertheless, certain Chitwania variants appear to have considerable lexical similarities with Manchad, a

language. Dangaura, Rana, and Buksa refer to a triumvirate of mutually-intelligible Tharu variants spoken west of the

, spoken by approximately 1.3 million people. Furthermore, an additional variant of Tharu, known as Sonha, is largely mutually intelligible with Dangauru. Kochila, a diverse Tharu variant, is also spoken by approximately 250,000 people, in regions of eastern Nepal. Kochila Tharu communities are not found in isolation, but live in districts intermixed with speakers of other languages. “In contrast with western Terai where the Tharus are the only and dominant ethnic minority, the eastern – especially the far eastern – Terai is inhabited by several ethnic groups with very different linguistic affiliation”. Many ethnic Kochila have adopted Maithili.

Phonology

The following consists mostly of the Daungara and Rana dialects:

Consonants

* can be heard as a palatal when preceding a palatal affricate. * /, / may be in free variation with trill sounds in the Rana dialect. * Palato-alveolar affricate sounds /, , , / are heard as alveolar affricate sounds , , in the Rana dialect.

Vowels

* Nasalization also occurs as /, , , , , /. * Vowels /, , , / are heard as , , when in lax form. * is heard as when preceding or following velar or glottal consonants. * can be heard as when following or as when following .

References

{{Uttarakhand Eastern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Nepal Endangered languages of India