Kham language

Kham, Khamkura, Kamkura
खाम, खामकुरा, कामकुरा
Spoken in	Nepal
Region	Rapti Zone, Rolpa and Rukum Districts Dhaulagiri Zone, Baglung District
Ethnicity	Kham Magar
Native speakers	65,000  (date missing)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Himalayish Mahakiranti Magaric Kham, Khamkura, Kamkura
Writing system	Devanagari
Official status
Official language in	No official status
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3	variously: kif – Eastern Parbate Kham kgj – Gamale Kham kip – Sheshi Kham kjl – Western Parbate Kham
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Kham (Nepali:खाम) (also Khamkura खामकुरा or Kamkura कामकुरा) -- narrowly defined—is a complex of Tibeto-Burman Magaric languages spoken natively in isolated highlands of Rolpa and Rukum districts of Rapti and the westernmost part of Baglung district in Dhaulagiri Zone by western clans of the Magar tribe, called collectively Kham Magar or Northern Magars.

More loosely, Nepali speakers west of the Kaligandaki use Kham (etc.) for non-Indic languages indigenous to the Middle Hills and southern parts of the Himalayas. Thus Nepali speakers also subsume with Kham the separate languages Kaike -- spoken to the northwest in lower Dolpo—and Chantyal -- spoken to the northeast in Baglung and Myagdi Districts, when in fact these are only distantly related. The Nepali speakers then use the term Bhote (भोटे) for Tibetan dialects spoken in culturally Tibetan borderlands such as upper Dolpo and northern Humla.

Contents 1 Regional varieties 2 Sounds 2.1 Consonants 2.2 Vowels 2.3 Tone 2.4 Syllable 3 Grammar 4 References

Regional varieties

The language consists of 3 main lects with several sub-lects:

• Gamale - spoken in northeastern Rolpa along upper Lungrikhola, a tributary of the West Rapti River.
  • Tamali
  • Ghusbangi
• Parbate
  • Eastern Parbate - spoken north of Gamle: in western Baglung district along upper Nisikhola (western tributary to Gandaki) and around Dhorpatan in upper valley of Uttar Ganga (eastern tributary to Bheri River).
    • Nishel
    • Bhujel
  • Western Parbate - spoken west of Gamale and Eastern Parbate, in eastern Rukim district, watersheds of Sani Bheri, and lower valley of Uttar Ganga.
    • Wale
    • Gamale
    • Thabangi
    • Lugumel
    • Takale
    • Maikoti
    • Kole
    • Rangsi
    • Seema
    • Hukam
    • Mahat
  • The term Parbate is actually a cover term for all non-Sheshi/non-Gamale lects. The Takale variety is the prestige dialect and lingua franca of the Parbate group.
• Sheshi - spoken in a slightly disjunct area to the southwest separated by Nepali speakers
  • Tapanangi
  • Jangkoti

Sounds

The description below is primarily of Takale Kham.

Consonants

Takale Kham has 22 consonants:

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	kʰ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s
	voiced		d͡z
	aspirated		t͡sʰ
Fricative	voiceless		s		h
	voiced		z
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant	central		j	w
	lateral		l

• The rhotic /ɾ/ is realized as a trill [r] at the end words. Otherwise, it is a flap.

Vowels

Takale Kham has 25 vowels:

	Front					Central			Back
	unrounded			rounded					unrounded			rounded
	short	long	nasal	short	long	short	long	nasal	short	long	nasal	short	long	nasal
Close	i	iː	ĩː	y	yː				ɯ	ɯː	ɯ̃ː	u	uː	ũː
Mid	e	eː	ẽː	ø	øː	ə	əː	ə̃ː				o	oː	õː
Open						a	aː	ãː

• length
• nasalization
• diphthongs
• vowel harmony

Tone

• voice register

Syllable

Grammar

References

• Kansakar, Tej R. (July 1993), "The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal, A General Survey", Contributions to Nepalese Studies (Kirtipur, Nepal: Tribhuvan University) 20 (2): 165–173, http://www.thlib.org/static/reprints/contributions/CNAS_20_02_02.pdf, retrieved April 10, 2011 
• Lewis, M. Paul (2009). "Language Map: Languages of Nepal (western)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=NP&seq=30. Retrieved 2011-04-10. 
  • Detailed map of languages in western Nepal. Kham dialects are #35, 37, 94 and 115. Note that #95 (Sheshi) is misplaced. It should be just southwest of #115.]
• Lewis, op. cit.. "Kham, Eastern Parbate: a language of Nepal". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kif. 
• Lewis, op. cit.. "Kham, Western Parbate". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kjl. 
• Lewis, op. cit.. "Kham, Gamale". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kgj. 
• Lewis, op. cit.. "Kham, Sheshi". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kip. 
• Watters, David E. (2002), A grammar of Kham, Cambridge grammatical descriptions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-81245-3 
• Lewis, op. cit.. "Publications by David E. Watters". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_author.asp?auth=8255.