Kiranti languages
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| Kiranti | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Nepal |
| Genetic classification: |
Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Mahakiranti Kiranti |
| Subdivisions: |
Eastern
Central
Western
|
The Kiranti languages (also called Bahing-Vayu in the terminology of Benedict (1972)) are a major family of Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Nepal by the Kirat people.
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[edit] Classification
The Kiranti languages are frequently posited to form part of a Maha-Kiranti family. Although specialists are not completely certain of either the existence of a Kiranti subgroup or its precise membership.[1]
[edit] The languages
There are about two dozen Kiranti languages. The better known are Bahing, Limbu, Vayu, and Kulung (Rai). Over all, they are:
- Limbu
- Limbu (affinities to Eastern Kiranti)
- Eastern Kiranti
- Greater Yakkha: Yakha, Belhare, Athpare, Chintang, Chulung
- Upper Arun River: Yamphu, Lorung, Meohang
- Central Kiranti
- Western Kiranti
- Midwestern: Thulung (perhaps a primary branch of Kiranti)
- Chaurasiya: Wambule, Jerung
- Upper Dudhkosi River: Khaling, Dumi, Kohi
- Northwestern (Sunwari): Bahing, Sunwar, Wayu
Kiranti verbs are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of portmanteau morphemes, crowded affix strings, and extensive (and often nonintuitive) allomorphy.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Matisoff 2003, pp. 5-6; Thurgood 2003, pp. 15-16; Ebert 2003, pg. 505.
[edit] References
- George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
- Bickel, Balthasar, G. Banjade, M. Gaenszle, E. Lieven, N. P. Paudyal, & I. Purna Rai et al. (2007). Free prefix ordering in Chintang. Language, 83 (1), 43–73.
- James A. Matisoff: Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. University of California Press 2003.
- Graham Thurgood (2003) "A Subgrouping of the Sino-Tibetan Languages: The Interaction between Language Contact, Change, and Inheritance," The Sino-Tibetan Languages. Routledge. Pp. 3-21.
- Karen H. Ebert (2003) "Kiranti Languages: An Overview," The Sino-Tibetan Languages. Routledge. Pp. 505-517.
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