Mugom language, also known as Mugom-ket, is the Sino-Tibetan language of the
Mugali people of
Mugu district
Mugu District ( ne, मुगु जिल्ला ), a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Gamgadhi as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population (2011) of 55,286. ...
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 ...
(
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for i ...
:
mukGlottoCode: mugo1238.
Language name
Mugom speakers self-identify as ''“Moa,”'' and are referred to as ''“Mugali”'' by non-Tibetan peoples of the area. Mugom speakers simply refer to their language as ''“mugu jillako bhote bhasa,”'' lit. ‘the Tibetan language of Mugu district.’
Speakers
Mugom is spoken by roughly 500 people originating from the village of Mugugau along the
Mugu Karnali River in
Mugum Karmarong Rural Municipality.
[Japola, Mari-Sisco. (2002). Mugom Survey. United Mission to Nepal, Mugu Education Project internal report: unpublished.] The language is specifically associated with
Mugali people. A small diaspora community of Mugali exists in
Bouddha, in the northeast part of
Kathmandu
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.
Language vitality
In 2002, a sociolinguistic study found that Mugom speakers in diaspora consistently used their own language with each other, and that the language was being transmitted to children.
The
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 ...
has assigned
EGIDS
The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by Lewis and Simons (2010), measures a language's status in terms of endangerment
Endangerment is a type of crime involving conduct that is wrongful and reckless or wanto ...
level 6a “vigorous” to the
Mugom-Karmarong (ISO 639-3:
muk).
This level denotes oral use of Mugom is stable, and that the speaker population is not decreasing.
[Lewis, M. Paul, and Gary F. Simons. (2016). Sustaining language use: Perspectives on community based language development. Dallas, TX: SIL International.]
Resources
* Mugom primer
A clear reflection of Mugom: Book 1* Mugom primer
A clear reflection of Mugom: Book 2* Sociolinguistic Study: Japola, Mari-Sisco. (2002). Mugom Survey. United Mission to Nepal, Mugu Education Project internal report: unpublished.
Notes
There have been attempts to create health-education materials aimed at the
Mugali
The Mugali are a remote Tibetan Buddhist tribe in Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र ने ...
and
Karani that take into account their culture and levels of literacy specifically.
References
External links
Short summary on health education initiative
Languages of Nepal
Languages of India
Central Bodish languages
Linguistics
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