Nar Phu language

Nar Phu
Nar Phu
Native to	Nepal
Region	Manang district
Native speakers	600 (2011)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tamangic Manang Nar Phu; ; ;
Dialects	Nar (Lower Nar); Phu (Upper Nar);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	npa
Glottolog	narp1239
ELP	Nar Phu
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Nar Phu, or ’Narpa, is a Sino-Tibetan variety spoken in the two villages of Nar and Phu, in the Valley of the Nar Khola in the Manang district of Nepal. It forms a dialect continuum with Manang and may be intelligible with it; however, the Nar and Phu share a secret language to confound Gyasumdo and Manang who would otherwise understand them.^[1]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ
Low	a	ɑ

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	ʈ		k
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
Affricate	unaspirated		ts		tɕ
Affricate	aspirated		tsʰ		tɕʰ
Fricative			s		ɕ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Lateral	voiced		l
Lateral	voiceless		l̥
Rhotic	voiced		r
Rhotic	voiceless		r̥
Approximant		w			j	ɰ

Tones

Nar Phu distinguishes three tones: high falling, high level, low rising murmured, and mid/low falling murmured.

References

^ ^a ^b Nar Phu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

Bibliography

Noonan, Michael (2003). "Nar-Phu" Sino-Tibetan Languages, edited by Randy LaPolla and Graham Thurgood, 336-352. London: Routledge.
Kristine A. Hildebrandt (2013). “Converb and aspect marking polysemy in Nar” Responses to Language Endangerment: In Honor of Mickey Noonan, edited by Elena Mihas, Bernard Perley, Gabriel Rei-Doval, and Kathleen Wheatley, 97-117. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kristine A. Hildebrandt, D.N. Dhakal, Oliver Bond, Matt Vallejo and Andrea Fyffe. (2015). “A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Manang, Nepal: Co-existence and endangerment.” NFDIN Journal, 14.6: 104-122.

External links

Manang Languages Project of Kristine Hildebrandt
Nar-Phu language archive at the University of Virginia Tibetan and Himalayan Library

[e18-1] Nar Phu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

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