Tamang language

Tamang (Devanagari: तामाङ; tāmāng) is a term used to collectively refer to a dialect cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal (Darjeeling) and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang (which is regarded as the most prominent) and other Tamang languages varies between 81% and 63%. For comparison, lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese, is estimated at 89%.[4]

Tamang
तामाङ, རྟ་དམག་ / རྟ་མང་/
Native toNepal
India
Bhutan
EthnicityTamang/Moormi
Native speakers
1.35 million in Nepal (2011 census)[1]
20,154 in India (2011 census)[2]
Tamyig script, Devanagari, Tibetan
Official status
Official language in
   Nepal
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
taj – Eastern Tamang
tdg – Western Tamang
tge – Eastern Gorkha Tamang
Glottolognucl1729
Selected ethnic groups of Nepal; Bhotia, Sherpa, Thakali, Gurung, Kirant, Rai, Limbu, Nepal Bhasa, Pahari, Tamang (note that Kulu Rodu (Kulung) territories are mistakenly marked as Tamu/Gurung territories in this map)

Dialects

Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility.

  • Eastern Tamang: 759,000 in Nepal (2000 WCD). Population total all countries: 773,000. Sub-dialects are as follows.
    • Outer-Eastern Tamang (Sailung Tamang)
    • Central-Eastern Tamang (Temal Tamang)
    • Southwestern Tamang (Kath-Bhotiya, Lama Bhote, Murmi, Rongba, Sain, Tamang Gyoi, Tamang Gyot, Tamang Lengmo, Tamang Tam)
  • Western Tamang: 323,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows.
    • Trisuli (Nuwakot)
    • Rasuwa
    • Northwestern dialect of Western Tamang (Dhading) — was having separate ISO code tmk, merged with tdg in 2023.[5] Population 55,000 (1991 census). Spoken in the central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province.
    • Southwestern dialect of Western Tamang
  • Eastern Gorkha Tamang: 4,000 (2000 WCD). Sub-dialects are as follows.
    • Kasigaon
    • Kerounja

The Tamang language is the most widely spoken Sino-Tibetan language in Nepal.

Geographical distribution

Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.

Eastern Tamang

Southwestern Tamang

Western Tamang

Eastern Tamang

Grammar

Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:

Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p t ts ʈ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ tsʰ ʈʰ kʰ
palatalized pʲ tʲ tsʲ ʈʲ kʲ
labialized pʷ tʷ tsʷ ʈʷ kʷ
Fricative s h
Rhotic r
Approximant w l j

Vowels
Front Back
Close i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Open a aː

Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a [ã] mark.

Tones

Four tones occur as high falling [â], mid-high level [á], mid-low level [à], very low [ȁ].[6]

Writing system

Tamang language is written in Tamyig script.

References
  1. Eastern Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Western Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Eastern Gorkha Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  3. "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). 16 July 2014. p. 109. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
  4. Ethnologue report for Spanish
  5. "Change Request Documentation: 2022-001". ISO 639-3. SIL International. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  6. Mazaudon (2003)

Bibliography
  • Perumalsamy, P. 2009 “ Tamang Language ” in Linguistic Survey

of India: Sikkim volume I, New Delhi: Office of Registrar General India, pp: 388-455 https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/LSI

  • Hwang, Hyunkyung; Lee, Seunghun J.; P. Gerber; S. Grollmann (2019). "Laryngeal contrast and tone in Tamang: an analysis based on a new set of Tamang data". Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan. 23 (1): 41–50. doi:10.24467/onseikenkyu.23.0_41.
Tamang language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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