Belhare language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Belhare | |
|---|---|
| Region | Dhankuta district, Nepal |
Native speakers | 3,500 (2002)[1] |
|
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | byw |
Belhare (Nepali: Belhāreor) is a Kiranti language spoken by some 2,000 people living on the Belhara hill, at the southern foothills of the Himalayas situated in the Dhankuta district in Eastern Nepal.
All speakers of Belhare are bilingual in Nepali, this results in frequent code mixing and a large amount of Nepali loan-words. Nevertheless, the grammar of Belhare has maintained its distinct Kiranti characteristics.
Like other Kiranti languages, Belhare is characterized by an elaborate morphology in both the nominal and verbal domain. Syntactically, Belhare has partly an accusative, partly an ergative pivot, but accusative syntax is more prominent in terms of frequency.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Apical | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p pʰ b (bʱ) p ph b (bh) |
t tʰ d (dʱ) t th d (dh) |
k kʰ ɡ (ɡʱ) k kh g (gh) |
ʔ ʔ | |
| Fricatives | s s |
h h | |||
| Affricates | ts tsʰ (dz) (dzʱ) c ch (j) (jh) |
||||
| Nasals | m m |
n n |
ŋ ŋ |
||
| Laterals | l l |
||||
| Trills | r (rʱ) r (rh) |
||||
| Approximants | w w |
j y |
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | i ĩ i ĩ |
u ũ u ũ | |
| mid | e e |
(ʌ) (ʌ) |
o o |
| open | a a |
The phonemes in parentheses only occur in loanwords from Nepali.
References
- ↑ Belhare reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
- Bickel, Balthasar. 1993. “Belhare subordination and the theory of topic.” In: Karen H. Ebert (ed.): Studies in clause linkage. Papers from the First Köln-Zürich Workshop. Zürich: ASAS
- Bickel, Balthasar. 1996. Aspect, Mood, and Time in Belhare. Studies in the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface of a Himalayan Language. Zürich: Universität Zürich (ASAS - Arbeiten des Seminars für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, 15)
- Bickel, Balthasar. 1999. “Cultural formalism and spatial language in Belhara.” In: Balthasar Bickel & Martin Gaenszle (eds.): Himalayan Space: cultural horizons and practices. Zürich: Museum of Ethnography. 73-101
- Bickel, Balthasar. 2000. “Grammar and social practice: on the role of ‘culture’ in linguistic relativity.” In: Susanne Niemeier & René Dirven (eds.): Evidence for Linguistic Relativity. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 161-92
- Bickel, Balthasar. 2003. “Belhare.” Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London: Curzon Press. 546-70
External links
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