Gurung language

Gurung
Tamu Kyi
Spoken in	Nepal, India, Bhutan
Region	South Asia
Ethnicity	Gurung people
Native speakers	227,918 in Nepal  (date missing)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Tamangic Gurung
Writing system	Tibetan script, Devanagari script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: ggn – Eastern Gurung gvr – Western Gurung

Selected ethnic groups of Nepal; Bhotia, Sherpa, Thakali, Gurung, Kiranti, Rai, Limbu, Nepal Bhasa, Pahari, Tamang

Gurung (also, Tamu Kyi, Devanagari:तमु क्यी) is spoken by the Gurung people in two dialects with limited mutual intelligibility. Total number of all Gurung speakers in Nepal is 227,918 (1991 census). Perhaps, a distinction should be made between Gurung as an ethnic group and the number of people who actually speak the language.

Nepali, Nepal's official language, is an Indo-European language, whereas Gurung is a Tibeto-Burman language. Gurung are recognized as an official nationality by the Government of Nepal.

Classification

According to ethnologue, Gurung is two languages, Eastern [ggn] and Western [gvr].

Grammar

Some miscellaneous grammatical features of the Gurung languages are;

• SOV;
• postpositions;
• genitives;
• adjectives relatives before noun heads;
• numerals after noun heads;
• rising intonation in bipolar questions;
• 1 prefix on negative verbs;
• maximum number of suffixes 3;
• case of noun phrase shown by preposition;
• no subject or object referencing in verbs;
• split ergative system according to tense;
• causatives;
• benefactives;
• CV, CCV, CCCV;

Phonetically, Gurung languages are tonal.

Writing system

While there is no written form, Gurung languages can use Devanāgarī script to limited effect in approximating their phonetics.

See also

• Languages of Nepal
• Languages of Bhutan

References

• Ethnologue report
• Entry for Western Gurung at Rosetta Project
• Entry for Eastern Gurung at Rosetta Project