Tamang (language)

Tamang (Devanagari: तामाङ; tāmāng) is a term used to collectively refer to a dialect cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal (Mainly Darjeeling Districts - पश्चिम बङ्गाल राज्यको दार्जीलिङ जिल्लाको बिभिन्न भूभाग), some parts of Assam and North East Region. 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% to 63%. For comparison, lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese, is estimated at 89%.[4] Tamang likely split from the Tibetan languages some time before the 7th century.[5]

Tamang
तामाङ, རྟ་དམག་ / རྟ་མང་
Native toNepal
India
Bhutan
EthnicityTamang
Native speakers
1.35 million in Nepal (2011 census)[1]
20,154 in India (2011 census)[2]
Tibetan script, Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
taj – Eastern Tamang
tdg – Western Tamang
tmk – Northwestern Tamang (not distinct)
tge – Eastern Gorkha Tamang
Glottolognucl1729[3]
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) — separate ISO code. Population 55,000 (1991 census). Spoken in the central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Pradesh.
    • 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 Gorkha Tamang

Grammar

Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:

Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.

Phonology

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

Tamangic languages use Tam-Yig which is similar to Tibetan scripts and Devanāgarī. In many situations, however, Tamang is written in Devanāgarī proper.

See also

References
  1. Eastern Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Western Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Northwestern Tamang (not distinct) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Eastern Gorkha Tamang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  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. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nuclear Tamang". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Ethnologue report for Spanish
  5. Zeisler, Bettina (2009). Aboh, Enoch; Smith, Norval (eds.). "Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness: Old Tibetan as a lingua franca and the development of the modern Tibetan dialects". Complex processes in new languages: 75–95.
  6. Mazaudon (2003)
  • Perumal Samy P. (2013). Tamang in LSI Sikkim, volume I Page Nos. 404-472. Published by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner,India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
  • Hwang, Hyunkyung, Lee, Seunghun J., P. Gerber and 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. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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