Tamang language
{{Short description|Sino-Tibetan dialect cluster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Tamang
| nativename = तामाङ, རྟ་དམག་ / རྟ་མང་/
| ethnicity = Tamang/Moormi
| speakers = 1.4 million in Nepal
| date = 2021 census
| speakers2 = 20,154 in India (2011 census){{Cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language_MTs.html|title=Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011|publisher=Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India|website=www.censusindia.gov.in|access-date=2018-07-07}}
| ref = e27
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = Tamangic
| fam3 = Gurung–Tamang
| nation = {{flag|Nepal}}
- Bagmati Province & Madhesh Province (additional official)
{{flag|India}}
- Sikkim (additional){{cite web|url=http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |page=109 |title=50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India |date=16 July 2014 |access-date=6 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102211909/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf|archive-date=2 January 2018|url-status=dead}}
| script = Tamyig script, Devanagari, Tibetan
| lc1 = taj
| ld1 = Eastern Tamang
| lc2 = tdg
| ld2 = Western Tamang
| lc3 = tge
| ld3 = Eastern Gorkha Tamang
| glotto = nucl1729
| glottorefname = Nuclear Tamang
| notice = IPA|
}}
File:Nepal ethnic groups.png, Sherpa, Thakali, Gurung, Kirant, Rai, Limbu, Nepal Bhasa, Pahari, Tamang (note that Kulu Rodu (Kulung) territories are mistakenly marked as Tamu/Gurung territories in this map)]]
Tamangic language is spoken mainly in Tamangsaling Land in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal (Darjeeling) and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang (which is regarded as the most prominent) and other Tamang languages varies between 81% and 63%. For comparison, the lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is estimated at 89%.Ethnologue report for Spanish
Dialects
Ethnologue 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) — was having separate ISO code tmk, merged with tdg in 2023.{{Cite web |title=Change Request Documentation: 2022-001 |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/request/2022-001 |access-date=27 January 2023 |website=ISO 639-3 |publisher=SIL International}} Population 55,000 (1991 census). Spoken in the central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province.
- 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 language in Nepal.
Geographical distribution
Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.
Eastern Tamang
- Bagmati Province: Bhaktapur District, Chitwan District, Dolkha District, Kathmandu District, Kavrepalanchok District, Lalitpur District, Makwanpur District, eastern Nuwakot District, Ramechhap District, Sindhuli District and western Sindhupalchowk District
- Province No. 1: Okhaldhunga District, western Khotang District, and Udayapur District
Southwestern Tamang
- Bagmati Province: Chitwan District, southern Dhading District, western and northwestern Kathmandu District area and northwestern Makwanpur District
- Province No. 2: Bara District, Parsa District and Rautahat District
Western Tamang
- Bagmati Province: western Nuwakot District, Rasuwa District, and Dhading District
- central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province (Northwestern Tamang)
- northeastern Sindhupalchok District, Bagmati Province: Bhote Namlan, and Bhote Chaur, on Trishuli river west bank toward Budhi Gandaki river
- northwestern Makwanpur District, Bagmati Province: Phakel, Chakhel, Khulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, and Palung
- northern Kathmandu District, Bagmati Province: Jhor, Thoka, and Gagal Phedi
Eastern Tamang
- south and east of Jagat, northern Gorkha District, Gandaki Province
Grammar
Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:
- A canonical word order of SOV
- Use of postpositions;
- The genitives follow nouns;
- question word medial;
- It is an ergative–absolutive language;
- CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC;
Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.
Phonology
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|{{IPAlink|m}} | colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|n}} | | |{{IPAlink|ŋ}} | |
|---|
| rowspan="4" |Plosive/ Affricate |{{IPAlink|p}} |{{IPAlink|t}} |{{IPAlink|ts}} |{{IPAlink|ʈ}} | |{{IPAlink|k}} | |
| aspirated
|{{IPAlink|pʰ}} |{{IPAlink|tʰ}} |{{IPAlink|tsʰ}} |{{IPAlink|ʈʰ}} | |{{IPAlink|kʰ}} | |
| palatalized
|{{IPAlink|pʲ}} |{{IPAlink|tʲ}} |{{IPAlink|tsʲ}} |{{IPAlink|ʈʲ}} | |{{IPAlink|kʲ}} | |
| labialized
|{{IPAlink|pʷ}} |{{IPAlink|tʷ}} |{{IPAlink|tsʷ}} |{{IPAlink|ʈʷ}} | |{{IPAlink|kʷ}} | |
| colspan="2" |Fricative
| | colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|s}} | | | |{{IPAlink|h}} |
| colspan="2" |Rhotic
| | colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|r}} | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
|{{IPAlink|w}} | colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|l}} | |{{IPAlink|j}} | | |
= Vowels =
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! !Back |
| Close
|{{IPAlink|i}} {{IPAlink|iː}} |{{IPAlink|u}} {{IPAlink|uː}} |
|---|
| Mid
|{{IPAlink|e}} {{IPAlink|eː}} |{{IPAlink|o}} {{IPAlink|oː}} |
| Open
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|a}} {{IPAlink|aː}} |
Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a {{IPA|[ã]}} mark.
= Tones =
Four tones occur as high falling {{IPA|[â]}}, mid-high level {{IPA|[á]}}, mid-low level {{IPA|[à]}}, very low {{IPA|[ȁ]}}.Mazaudon (2003)
Writing system
Tamang language is written in prakriti.
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Perumalsamy, P. 2009 “ Tamang Language ” in Linguistic Survey
of India: Sikkim volume I, New Delhi: Office of Registrar General India, pp: 388-455 https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/LSI
- {{cite journal | author1= Hwang, Hyunkyung |author2=Lee, Seunghun J. |author3=P. Gerber |author4=S. Grollmann | year=2019 | title= Laryngeal contrast and tone in Tamang: an analysis based on a new set of Tamang data | journal= Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan |volume=23 | number =1 | pages= 41–50 | doi= 10.24467/onseikenkyu.23.0_41}}
External links
{{Incubator|taj|language=Eastern Tamang}}
{{Incubator|tdg|language=Western Tamang}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080828093538/http://www.tamangsamaj.com/Counting.php Counting in Tamang]
- ELAR archive of [http://elar.soas.ac.uk/deposit/0234 Tamang]
- [http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-documents/lsi/ling_survey_india.html]
{{Bodic languages}}
{{Languages of Bhutan}}
{{Languages of Nepal}}
{{Languages of Northeast India}}
Category:Subject–object–verb languages
Category:Languages of Bagmati Province
Category:Languages of Koshi Province
Category:Languages of Madhesh Province