Raji–Raute is a branch of the
Sino-Tibetan language family
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. ...
that includes the three closely related languages, namely
Raji,
Raute, and
Rawat. They are spoken by small
hunter-gatherer communities in 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 ...
region 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 ma ...
and in neighboring
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...
, India.
Like some other Tibeto-Burman languages, Raji-Raute languages have
voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels ar ...
s.
Classification
Raute and Rawat are closely related; Raji is more distantly related.
[Fortier, Jana]
Creating an Orthography for the Raute and Rawat
Fortier classifies the Raji-Raute languages as follows.
Note that language varieties that classify within the Rawat subgroup are known by various names; Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula is taxonomically a Rawat language, and is not to be confused with
Raute proper.
;Raji–Raute
*Raute–Rawat
**
Raute (nomadic groups)
**
Rawat
***Rajwar (spoken in Khirdwari)
***Rawat
****Rawat (also known as ''Ban Raji'')
****Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula
*
Raji
**Naukule
**Bandale, Purbia
Schorer (2016)
Schorer (2016:293)
[Schorer, Nicolas. 2016. ''The Dura Language: Grammar and Phylogeny''. Leiden: Brill.] classifies Raji–Raute as part of his newly proposed
Greater Magaric
The Greater Magaric languages are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages proposed by Nicolas Schorer (2016). Schorer (2016: 286-287) considers Greater Magaric to be closely related to the Kiranti languages as part of a greater ''Himalayish'' branch, ...
group.
;
Greater Magaric
The Greater Magaric languages are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages proposed by Nicolas Schorer (2016). Schorer (2016: 286-287) considers Greater Magaric to be closely related to the Kiranti languages as part of a greater ''Himalayish'' branch, ...
*Dura
**''
Dura
Dura may also refer to: Đura such as, for example, Đura Bajalović
Geography
* Dura language, a critically endangered language of Nepal
* Dura, Africa, an ancient city and former bishopric, now a Catholic titular see
* Dura-Europos, an ancient c ...
''
**''
Tandrange''
*
Magaric: ''
Kham
Kham (; )
is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kha ...
'', ''
Magar''
*Chepangic-Raji
**
Chepangic: ''
Chepang'', ''
Bhujel
Bhujel or Gharti is a caste group in Nepal.
The inhabitants living near the Bhuji Khola river called Bhujel. Bhujel are divided into four subcaste – Bhujyal, Gharti, Nisel and Khawas. Most of the Bhujel of Nepal speaks Nepali language but some ...
''
**Raji-Raute
Fortier (2012)
A database of 700 words for items from households of Raute and Ban Rawat speakers (Fortier 2012) indicates a largely Sino-Tibetan language ancestry. Deep Root items include 58 words of Sino-Tibetan origin and 7 of
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
origin. Proto-family items include 281 morphemes of Proto-
Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spe ...
origin. Meso-root, or subfamily items include 34 words of Proto-
Kuki-Chin
The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...
origin, 23 of Proto-
Tani
Tani may refer to:
*Tani (letter), a letter in the Georgian scripts
*Tani people, a group of tribes in Arunachal Pradesh, India
*Tani languages, a group of languages spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, India
* Maiani language, also known as Tani, a langu ...
origin, 6 of Proto-
Tangkulic origin, and 1 of Northern Chin origin. The database omits most loans of
Indo-Aryan origin although 43 items were of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
origin. Work remains on identifying etymologies of the remaining 247 items in the Raute–Rawat database.
Distribution
Raji-Raute varieties are spoken in the following areas of Nepal and India.
*Dadeldhura/Darchula
Raute:
Darchula District
Darchula District ( ne, दार्चुला जिल्ला , a part of Sudurpashchim Province, is one of the nine districts of province and one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Khalanga ( Mahakali Municipality) ...
and
Dadeldhura District
Dadeldhura, a part of Sudurpashchim Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dadeldhura as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 126,162 in 2001 and 142,094 in 2011.
The region ...
, Nepal
*Ban Raji/
Rawat:
Pithoragarh District
Pithoragarh district is the easternmost district in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located in the Himalayas and has an area of and a population of 483,439 (as of 2011). The city of Pithoragarh, located in Saur Valley, is its headquarters. T ...
,
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...
, India
*Khirdwari Rajwar:
Champawat District
Champawat district is a district of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The town of Champawat is the administrative headquarters. The district of Champawat constituted in the year 1997. The district is divided into five tehsils: Barakot, L ...
,
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...
, India
*
Raute: nomadic, 10 districts of western Nepal
*Bandale
Raji:
Surkhet District
Surkhet District ( ne, सुर्खेत जिल्ला, ) is a district in Karnali Province of mid-western Nepal. Surkhet is the one of the ten districts of Karnali located about west of the national capital Kathmandu. The district's are ...
and
Kailali District, Nepal
*Naukule
Raji:
Kailali District, Nepal
*Purbia
Raji:
Bardia District, Nepal
Vocabulary
The comparative vocabulary lists of Raji and Raute below are from Rastogi & Fortier (2005). Rastogi & Fortier (2005) also provide Purbia Raji and Janggali Raute forms.
Swadesh list
The following is a 100-word
Swadesh list
The Swadesh list ("Swadesh" is pronounced ) is a classic compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatedness ...
from Rastogi & Fortier (2005).
Body parts
Rastogi & Fortier (2005) list the following body part terms.
Footnotes
References
* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill.
*Fortier, Jana (2012) "Annotated Dictionary of Raute and Rawat Languages
*Rastogi, Kavita and Jana Fortier. 2005. Daa, Nii, Sum/Khung: Comparative Vocabulary of the West-Central Himalayan Languages Rawati (Raji) and Khamci (Raute). Indian Linguistics 66. 105-115.
Further reading
*Fortier, Jana. 2019.
A Comparative Dictionary of Raute and Rawat: Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Central Himalayas'. Harvard Oriental Series 88. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
*Krishan, Shree. 2003. ''Darma, Chaudangsi, and Raji''. In: Randy J. LaPolla (ed.), Tibeto-Burman Languages of Uttar Pradesh, pp. 139-272.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raji-Raute languages
Raji–Raute languages,
Languages of India