The Tamangic languages, TGTM languages, or West Bodish languages, are a family of

Sino-Tibetan languages 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. ...

spoken in the Himalayas 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 ...

. They are called "West Bodish" by Bradley (1997), from ''Bod'', the native term for

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. TGTM stands for Tamang- Gurung- Thakali- Manang. Proto-TGTM has been reconstructed in Mazaudon (1994). Tamangic is united with the

Bodish Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym ''Bod'', is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that ...

and

West Himalayish languages The West Himalayish languages, also known as Almora and Kanauric, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages centered in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and across the border into Nepal. LaPolla (2003) proposes that the West Himalayish languages may b ...

in Bradley's (1997) "Bodish" and Van Driem's (2001)

Tibeto-Kanauri The Tibeto-Kanauri languages, also called Bodic, Bodish–Himalayish, and Western Tibeto-Burman, are a proposed intermediate level of classification of the Sino-Tibetan languages, centered on the Tibetic languages and the Kinnauri dialect cluste ...

Languages

The Tamangic languages are: *

Tamang The Tamang (; Devanagari: तामाङ; ''tāmāṅ'') are an Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group of Nepal. In Nepal Tamang/Moormi people constitute 5.6% of the Nepalese population at over 1.3 million in 2001, increasing to 1,539,830 as of the 2011 c ...

(several divergent varieties, with a million speakers) *

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung: ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurung people predominantly live around the Annapurna region in Manang, Mustang, Dolpo, Kaski, Lamjung, Gorkha, ...

(two varieties with low mutual intelligibility) * Thakali (including the Seke dialect; ethnically Tamang) *

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 indiv ...

language cluster: the closely related

, Gyasumdo,

Nar Phu 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. It forms a dialect continuum with Manang Manang ( ne, मनाङ) is a town in the Man ...

, and Nyeshangte languages. * Chantyal * Ghale languages (

Ghale Ghale is an indigenous group of Nepal. The Ghale speak Ghale language Ghale is a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. It belongs to the group of Ghale languages. The dialects of Ghale have limited intelligibility: (south) Barpak, Kyaura, Laprak, ...

and Kutang): spoken by ethnic Tamang, perhaps related to Tamangic. *

Kaike Magar Kaike is a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal. ''Ethnologue'' classifies it as a West Bodish language. Kaike is spoken in Shahartara, Tupatara, Tarakot, and Belawa villages of Sahartara VDC, Dolpa District, Karnali Province, Nepal (''Ethnolo ...

(moribund): may be the most divergent.

Footnotes

References

* Bradley, David (1997).
Tibeto-Burman languages and classification
. In ''Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. * George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill. * * Mazaudon, Martine. 1994. Problèmes de comparatisme et de reconstruction dans quelques langues de la famille tibéto-birmane. Thèse d'Etat, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. * {{st-lang-stub