Chamling language
| Chamling | |
|---|---|
| Rodong | |
| Native to | Nepal, India, Bhutan |
Native speakers | 77,000 in Nepal (2011)[1] |
|
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
rab |
| Glottolog |
caml1239[2] |
Chamling is one of the Kiranti languages spoken by the Kiranti and Rai peoples of eastern Nepal. Alternate renderings and names include Chamling, Chamlinge Rai and Rodong (which means "Kirati").[1] It is closely related to the Bantawa (some Bantawa-speaking communities call their language "Camling") and Puma languages of the Kirati language family in eastern Nepal, and it belongs to the broader Sino-Tibetan language family.[3]
History
The Chamling language is one of the languages of the ancient Kiranti culture, which existed well before the arrival of Vedic period civilisation in South Asia.[4] Important versions of the Mundhum — the main religious text forming the religious foundation of the Kirant Mundhum religion and the cultural heritage of the various Kirati people — are composed in Camling; such versions are distinctive to the Camling-speaking tribes and a guide to their distinctive religious practices and cultural identity.[5]
Prevalence
The Chamling language is used by small communities in the Sagarmatha Zone, Khotang District, Bhojpur District and scattered areas in Udayapur District and a few more districts of eastern Nepal, the southeastern neighbour Indian state of Sikkim, the hill city of Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal and the kingdom of Bhutan.[3] Despite its geographic prevalence, the actual number of Chamling speakers is estimated to be 10,000, spread across small tribes and villages.[3] Many members of the Chamling ethnic and tribal communities are no longer fluent in the Chamling language, which is taught only in remote areas in the Udayapur District.[3] Like Bantawa, Chamling is an endangered language. Many people in these areas speak a variety of Chamling that is mixed with the Nepali language, which is the official language of Nepal.[3] Most Chamling-speaking people are Hindus or practitioners of Kiranti Mundhum.
Phonology and voice
- Phonology
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ɳ) | ||
| Fricative | f | ʃ | f |
- Voice
- Phuima = pluck
- Toma = see, experience
- Ityu = brought from above
- Dhotyu-cyu' = assembled them
- Bhuima = pound
- Doma = close
- Idyu = gave him
- Dhodyu-cyu = stabbed them[6]
See also
References
- 1 2 Chamling at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Camling". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Ethnologue report on Camling
- ↑ Cemjoṅga, Īmāna Siṃha (2003). History and Culture of the Kirat People. Kirat Yakthung Chumlung. ISBN 99933-809-1-1.
- ↑ Monika Bock, Aparna Rao. Culture, Creation, and Procreation: Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice. Page 65. 2000, Berghahn Books.
- 1 2 Phonology - The Rosetta Project Archived April 23, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
External links
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