Khaling language

Khaling
khāliṅ
खालिङ
Native to	Nepal
Region	Solukhumbu and Khotang districts
Ethnicity	Khaling Rai
Native speakers	14,467 in Nepal (2011 census) unknown number in India
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Mahakiranti (?) Kiranti Western Upper Dudhkosi Khaling
Writing system	Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	klr
Glottolog	khal1275
ELP	Khaling

Khaling (kʰɛ̂l brâː ख्या:ल् ब्रा:) is a Kiranti language spoken in Solukhumbu district, Nepal and Sikkim, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong in India. It is one of the few Kiranti languages with tonal contrasts, which are of secondary origin.

Khaling has approximately 15,000 speakers and is therefore considered a vulnerable language. Khaling has a complex system of stem alternations: as many as 10 distinct stems have to be posited for a word (Jacques et al. 2012). Khaling is very unusual in having an auditory demonstrative (see Jacques and Lahaussois 2014). Khaling is also known as Rai, Khalinge Rai, Khael Bra, and Khael Baat.

General information

Khaling is still being acquired by children who live in Khaling-speaking areas, as well as non-Khaling children who happen to live in that area.

Geographical distribution

Khaling is spoken in the following VDC's of Nepal (Ethnologue).

• Solukhumbu District, Province No. 1: Kanku, Basa, Waku, Buksa, Jubing, Pawai and Phuleli villages
• Khotang District, Province No. 1: Buipa Fuleli and Kharmi villages
• Udayapur District, Province No. 1: Triyuga Municipality Gaighat, Basaha, Belter, Rampur city.
• Sankhuwasabha District, Province No. 1: Tungkhaling village
• Sunsari District, Province No. 1: Dharan
• Ilam District, Province No. 1: Pang, Sumbek, and Mai Pokhari villages

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front		Central				Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	i ⟨इ⟩	iː	ʉ ⟨अ्यु⟩	ʉː			u ⟨उ⟩	uː
High-mid	e ⟨ए⟩	eː	ɵ ⟨अ्यो⟩	ɵː			o ⟨ओ⟩	oː
Low-mid	ɛ ⟨अ्या⟩	ɛː			ʌ ⟨अ⟩		oɔ ⟨अ्वा⟩
Low					ä ⟨आ⟩	äː

• Khaling language has rising-falling is denoted by using / ः/ while using Devanagari script.
• /ʌ/ and /oɔ/ doesn't have long vowel sound.
• Long vowel is denote by using /ऽ/.

Consonants

Khaling consonant phonemes

			Bilabial	Dental	alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal			m ⟨म⟩		n ⟨न⟩	ŋ ⟨ङ⟩
Affricate	voiceless	unaspirated	p ⟨प⟩	t̪ ⟨त⟩	ts ⟨च⟩	k ⟨क⟩	ʔ ⟨अ्⟩
		aspirated	pʰ ⟨फ⟩	t̪ʰ ⟨थ⟩	tsʰ ⟨छ⟩	kʰ ⟨ख⟩
	voiced	unaspirated	b ⟨ब⟩	d̪ ⟨द⟩	dz ⟨ज⟩	ɡ ⟨ग⟩
		aspirated	bʱ ⟨भ⟩	d̪ʱ ⟨ध⟩	dzʱ ⟨झ⟩	ɡʱ ⟨घ⟩
Fricative				s ⟨स⟩		h x ⟨ह⟩
Trill				r ⟨र⟩
Lateral				l ⟨ल⟩
Frictionless continuant			w ⟨व⟩		j ⟨य⟩

• Glotta stop [ʔ] is one of the consonants of Koyu/Koyee(Koi) language which is represent by using ⟨अ्⟩.
• To write Khaling language Devanagari lipi or Kirat Sirijungga lipi is used.

See also

• Rai people

Further reading

• Hale, Austin, editor. 1973. Collected papers on Khaling, Kulung, Darai, Newari, Chitwan Tharu. Nepal Studies in Linguistics, 1. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics and Institute for Nepal and Asian Studies. vii, 87 p.
• Jacques, Guillaume; Lahaussois, Aimée; Michailovsky, Boyd; Rai, Dhan Bahadur (2012). "An Overview of Khaling Verbal Morphology". Language and Linguistics. 13 (6): 1095–1170. ProQuest 1525426362.
• Jacques, Guillaume; Lahaussois, Aimée (22 August 2014). "The auditory demonstrative in Khaling" (PDF). Studies in Language. 38 (2): 393–404. doi:10.1075/sl.38.2.05jac.
• Jacques, Guillaume (2015). "Derivational verbal morphology in Khaling". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics. 8 (1): 78–85. doi:10.1163/2405478X-00801005.
• Jacques, Guillaume; Lahaussois, Aimée; Rai, Dhan Bahadur (8 July 2016). "Reflexive paradigms in Khaling" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 39 (1): 33–48. doi:10.1075/ltba.39.1.02jac. S2CID 124825481.
• Jacques, Guillaume, Aimée Lahaussois, Dhan Bahadur Rai & Yadav Kumar. 2015. Khaling-Nepali-English Dictionary, version 1.0. Paris: Projet HimalCo. http://himalco.huma-num.fr/.
• Toba, Sueyoshi and Ingrid Toba. 1972. Khaling phonemic summary. Tibeto-Burman Phonemic Summaries, 12. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics and Institute of Nepal Studies, Tribhuvan University. 73 p.
• Toba, Ingrid. 1973. "The Khaling verb." Nepal Studies in Linguistics 1: 1-14.
• Toba, Sueyoshi and Ingrid Toba. 1975. A Khaling-English, English-Khaling glossary. Kathmandu: Summer Institute of Linguistics and Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies. xiii, 86 p.
• Toba, Ingrid (1977). "Folk Art and Culture Change as Observed in a Khaling Village". Kailash. 5 (1): 13–27.
• Toba, Sueyoshi. 1981. Khaling texts. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa. 97 p.
• Toba, Sueyoshi. 1983. Khaling Texts. YAK 7. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
• Toba, Sueyoshi. 1984. Khaling. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
• Ross, Caughley (1996). "Review of: The structure of Kiranti languages: comparative grammar and texts, by Karen Ebert | SIL Nepal". Journal of Nepalese Studies. 1 (2): 243–246.
• Hansson, G. (1991). The Rai of Eastern Nepal, Ethnic and Linguistic Grouping: Findings of the Linguistic Survey of Nepal. Linguistic Survey of Nepal and Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University.
• Hodson, T. C. (1913). "Note on the Numeral Systems of the Tibeto-Burman Dialects". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 45 (2): 315–336. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00044592. JSTOR 25188969.
• Matisoff, James A. (2003). Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction. University of California Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.
• Michailovsky, Boyd; Mazaudon, Martine (1973). "Notes on the Hayu Language". Kailash. 1: 135–152.
• van Driem, George (1990). "The Fall and Rise of the Phoneme /r/ in Eastern Kiranti: Sound Change in Tibeto-Burman". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 53 (1): 83–86. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00021273. JSTOR 618970. S2CID 128967034.

External links

• Khaling Rai Song ; स्याल थन्न्य मो अो स्यो