Thakali language

Thakali is a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal spoken by the Thakali people, mainly in the Myagdi and Mustang Districts. Its dialects have limited mutual intelligibility.

Thakali
थकाली
Native toNepal
Ethnicity13,000 Thakali people (2001 census)[1]
Native speakers
5,900 (2002 – 2011 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Thakali
  • Tangbe
  • Tetang
  • Chuksang
Devanagari (modern)[2]
Tibetan script (historical)[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
ths – Thakali
skj – Seke
Glottologthak1245  Thakali
seke1240  Seke
ELPThakali
 Seke (Nepal)[4]

Seke (Serke, Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang) is sometimes considered a separate language.[1] Other names and dialect names are Barhagaule, Marpha, Panchgaunle, Puntan Thakali, Syang, Tamhang Thakali, Thaksaatsaye, Thaksatsae, Thaksya, Tukuche, Yhulkasom.[5] Seke (Serke) is spoken in the villages of Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang, Chaile, and Gyakar in Mustang District, northern Nepal. Martine Mazaudon has documented the Tangbe dialect of Seke as spoken by an expatriate speaker in Paris.[6] Honda (2002) also documented two other dialects of Seke, Tetang and Chuksang.[7]

Geographical distribution

Thakali is spoken in the middle of the Kali Gandaki River valley and in the upper part of the Kali Gandaki Gorge (also known as Thak Khola), in Mustang District, Gandaki Province. The Thakali area is bounded by Annapurna Himal on one side and Dhawalagiri Himal on the other, with Tatopani village in the south and Jomsom in the north (Ethnologue).

The Tukuche dialect is spoken from Tukuche to Thaksatsae, in 13 villages: Tukuche, Khanti, Kobang, Larjung, Dampu, Naurikot, Bhurjungkot, Nakung, Tithi, Kunjo, Taglung, Lete, Ghansa. Many live outside the area.

Seke is spoken by Gurung of Chuksang, Tsaile, Tangbe, Tetang, and Gyakar villages of Mustang District, Dhawalagiri Zone. There are only 700 native speakers of this language, 100 of whom live in New York City. Reportedly, half of the New York City speakers live in the same apartment building.[8][9][10]

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Thakali.

  • Tukuche (Tamhang Thakali, Thaksaatsaye, Thaksatsae)
  • Marpha (Puntan Thakali)
  • Syang (Yhulkasom)

Seke has the following dialects.

  • Tangbe
  • Tetang
  • Chuksang

References
  1. Thakali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Seke at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Vinding, Michael (January 10, 1998). The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography. Serindia Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780906026502 – via Google Books.
  3. http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/kailash/pdf/kailash_09_01_02.pdf
  4. Endangered Languages Project data for Seke (Nepal).
  5. "OLAC resources in and about the Thakali language". www.language-archives.org.
  6. Mazaudon, Martine. 2023. The name of the Se(r)ke language and the reconstruction of a final -s in proto-TGTM (Tamangish). 26th Himalayan Languages Symposium, 4-6 September 2023. Paris: INALCO.
  7. Honda, Isao. 2002. Seke phonology: a comparative study of three Seke dialects. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25(1): 191-210.
  8. Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko de (2020-01-07). "Just 700 Speak This Language (50 in the Same Brooklyn Building)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  9. Robbins, Christopher (2019-12-03). "Dazzling Map Shows NYC's Incredible Linguistic Diversity". Gothamist. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  10. "There's New Hope For Endangered Languages In NYC". 2020-01-09. Retrieved 2020-02-12.


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