- Belhare language
language
name=Belhare
region=Dhankuta district ,Nepal
speakers=2,000
familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
fam1=Sino-Tibetan
fam2=Tibeto-Burman
fam3=Kiranti
iso3=bywBelhare ( _ne. Belhāreor) is a Kiranti language spoken by some 2,000 people living on the Belhara hill, at the southern foothills of the Himalayas situated in the
Dhankuta district in EasternNepal . All speakers of Belhare are bilingual in Nepali, this results in frequentcode mixing and a large amount of Nepali loan-words. Nevertheless, the grammar of Belhare has maintained its distinct Kiranti characteristics. Like otherKiranti languages , Belhare is characterized by an elaborate morphology in both the nominal and verbal domain. Syntactically, Belhare has partly an accusative, partly an ergative pivot, but accusative syntax is more prominent in terms of frequency.Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
The phonemes in parentheses only occur in loanwords from Nepali.
External links
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=byw Ethnologue report on Belhare]
* [http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~bickel/research/projects/belhare/ A short introduction to Belhare and its speakers]References
*Bickel, Balthasar. 1993. “Belhare subordination and the theory of topic.” In: Karen H. Ebert (ed.): Studies in clause linkage. Papers from the First Köln-Zürich Workshop. Zürich: ASAS
*Bickel, Balthasar. 1996. Aspect, Mood, and Time in Belhare. Studies in the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface of a Himalayan Language. Zürich: Universität Zürich (ASAS - Arbeiten des Seminars für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, 15)
*Bickel, Balthasar. 1999. “Cultural formalism and spatial language in Belhara.” In: Balthasar Bickel & Martin Gaenszle (eds.): Himalayan Space: cultural horizons and practices. Zürich: Museum of Ethnography. 73-101
*Bickel, Balthasar. 2000. “Grammar and social practice: on the role of ‘culture’ in linguistic relativity.” In: Susanne Niemeier & René Dirven (eds.): Evidence for Linguistic Relativity. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 161-92
*Bickel, Balthasar. 2003. “Belhare.” Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London: Curzon Press. 546-70
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