Kiranti languages

Kiranti languages
Kiranti
Ethnicity: Kirat, Limbu, Rai, etc.
Geographic
distribution:		 Nepal
Linguistic classification: Sino-Tibetan
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.

Contents

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]

The languages

There are about two dozen Kiranti languages. The better known are Bahing, Limbu, Vayu, Lohorung and Kulung (Rai). Over all, they are:

Limbu
  • Limbu (affinities to Eastern Kiranti)
Eastern Kiranti
Central Kiranti
Western Kiranti
  • Midwestern: Thulung (perhaps a primary branch of Kiranti)
  • Chaurasiya: Wambule, Jerung
  • Upper Dudhkosi River: Khaling, Dumi, Kohi
  • Northwestern (Sunwari): Bahing, Sunuwar, 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.

Notes

  1. ^ Matisoff 2003, pp. 5-6; Thurgood 2003, pp. 15-16; Ebert 2003, pg. 505.

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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