Bantawa language

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The Bantawa language is an endangered language group. It is a Tibeto-Burman language, Eastern Kiranti languages family,[1] spoken in the eastern Himalayan hills of eastern Nepal by Rai ethnic groups.Bantawa speaking Population estimates vary between 20,000-60,000, though 35,000 speakers may be a more accurate count. It is experiencing Nepali language shift.

Contents

[edit] Dialects

  • Northern Bantawa (Dilpali)
Northern subdialects: Rungchenbung and Yangma
  • Southern Bantawa (Hatuwali, Hangkhim)
Southern and Northern Bantawa, similar, could be united as 'Intermediate Bantawa'.
  • Eastern Bantawa (Dhankuta)
. Eastern dialect is the most divergent. It is most closely related to Dungmali language, though also related to Puma language, Sampang language, and Chhintange language.
  • Western Bantawa (Amchoke, Amchauke)
Amchaucke dialects: Sorung and Saharaja
  • Wana Bantawa (also called simply Bantawa), spoken by the Bantawa subcaste

Bantawa is also reportedly in use as a lingua franca among Rai minorities in Himalayan India and Bhutan.

While the language is just being introduced in a few schools at the primary level (Year 1- Year 5) [2] using Devanagari script.[3] [4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Linguistic Lineage for BANTAWA. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
  2. ^ Jadranka Gvozdanovic. Morphosyntactic transparency in Bantawa (.pdf). Himalyan Languages: Past and Present, by Anju Saxena. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
  3. ^ The Bantawa Rai of Nepal. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
  4. ^ Bantawa, A language of Nepal. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.

[edit] Further reading

  • Winter, Werner. 2003. A Bantawa Dictionary. Trends in Linguistics - Documentation 20. Mouten de Gruyter: New York.

[edit] External links

Bantawa: observations of a threatened language

Languages