West Himalayish languages

The languages include:

• Kinnauri
  • Chitkuli Kinnauri
  • Kinnauri
  • Thebor: Sunam, Jangshung, Shumcho
• Lahaulic: Pattani (Manchad), Tinan
• Gahri (Bunan)
• Kanashi
• Rongpo–Almora
  • Rongpo
  • Almora (Ranglo): Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi, Rangas (extinct early 20th century), Zhangzhung

Zhangzhung, the sacred language of the Bon religion, was spoken north of the Himalayas across western Tibet before being replaced by Tibetan. James Matisoff (2001)[1] provides lexical and phonological evidence for the classification of Zhangzhung within West Himalayish.

Widmer (2014:47)[2] classifies the West Himalayish languages as follows. The recently discovered Dhuleli language has been added from Regmi & Prasain (2017).[3]

West Himalayish

• Western
  • Lahaul: Manchad, Tinan
  • Kinnaur: Kanashi, Lower Kinnauri, Standard Kinnauri, Chitkhuli, Jangrami, Shumcho
• Eastern
  • Central: Bunan, Sunnami, Rongpo; possibly Zhangzhung
  • Almora: Rangas, Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi

Widmer (2014:53–56)[2] classifies Zhangzhung within the Eastern branch of West Himalayish, and notes that it appears particularly close to languages of the Central subgroup (Bunan, Sunnami, and Rongpo).

Widmer (2017)[4] notes that many Tibetan varieties in the western Tibetan Plateau have been influenced by West Himalayish languages.

Widmer (2017)[4] lists the following lexical items that differ in the Eastern and Western branches of West Himalayish.

Widmer (2014:53-56)[2] classifies Zhangzhung within the eastern branch of West Himalayish, and lists the following cognates between Zhangzhung and Proto-West Himalayish.

• George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
• LaPolla, Randy. 2001. The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Uttar Pradesh.
• Widmer, Manuel. 2017. The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas: endangered minority languages as a window to the past. Presented at Panel on Endangered Languages and Historical Linguistics, 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23), San Antonio, Texas.
• Widmer, Manuel. 2018. The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas. Proceedings of the 51st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (2018). Kyoto: Kyoto University.