Gurung language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gurung
गुरुङ, ཏམུ་ཀི
Tamu Kyi, Manangi, Mustangi (Loke), Seke
Native toNepal, India
EthnicityGurung people
Native speakers
325,622 (2011 census)[1]
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Writing system
Khema, Devanagari, Tibetan, Khe phri
Official status
Official language in
 India
  • Sikkim (additional)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3gvr
Glottologguru1261
ELP

Gurung language (also known as Manangi, Mustangi (Loke), Tamu kyi, Seke) is spoken by the Gurung people of Nepal and in Sikkim, India. The total number of all Gurung speakers in Nepal was 227,918 (1991 census).

Nepal's official language Nepali, is an Indo-European language, whereas Gurung is a Sino-Tibetan language. Gurung is one of the official languages of Sikkim, India.

Geographical distribution[]

Gurung is spoken in the following districts of Nepal and districts of Sikkim, India (Ethnologue):

  • Gandaki Province: Kaski District, Syangja District, Lamjung District, Tanahu District, Gorkha District, Manang District and Mustang
  • Dhawalagiri Zone: Parbat district
  • Sikkim: South Sikkim, West Sikkim

Grammar[]

Some miscellaneous grammatical features of the Gurung languages are:

  • SOV
  • Postpositions
  • Genitives
  • Adjectives relatives before noun heads
  • numerals after noun heads
  • Rising intonation in bipolar questions
  • 1 prefix on negative verbs
  • Maximum number of suffixes 3
  • case of noun phrase shown by preposition
  • No subject or object referencing in verbs
  • split ergative system according to tense
  • Causatives
  • Benefactives
  • CV, CCV, CCCV

Phonetically, Gurung languages are tonal.

See also[]

  • Languages of Nepal
  • Languages of Bhutan

References[]

  1. ^ Official Summary of Census (2011), Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal Archived 2012-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "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.

Bibliography[]

  • J. Burton-Page. (1955). Two studies in Gurungkura: I. tone; II. Rhotacization and retroflexion. Bulletin of the Society of Oriental and African Studies 111-19.
  • Viktor S.Doherty. (1974). "The Organizing Principles of Gurung Kinship." Kailash. 2.4: 273-301.
  • Warren W. Glover. (1970). Gurung tone and higher levels. Occasional Papers of the Wolfenden society on Tibeto-Burman Linguistics III, Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal, Pt. I, ed. by Austin Hale and Kenneth L. Pike, 52-73. Studies in tone and phonological segments. Urbana: University of Illinois.
  • Warren W. Glover. (1974). Sememic and Grammatical Structures in Gurung (Nepal). Publication No. 49. Norman, OK: SIL Publications.
  • Warren W. Glover and Jessie Glover. (1972). A Guide to Gurung Tone. Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University and Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Warren W. Glover and John K. Landon. (1980). "Gurung Dialects." In Papers in Southeast Asian Languages No. 7, edited by R.L. Trail et al., 9-77. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Kristine A. Hildebrandt, D.N. Dhakal, Oliver Bond, Matt Vallejo and Andrea Fyffe. (2015). “A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Manang, Nepal: Co-existence and endangerment.” NFDIN Journal, 14.6: 104-122.
  • Pettigrew, Judith. (1999). "Parallel Landscapes: Ritual and Political Values of a Shamanic Soul Journey" in Himalayan Space: Cultural Horizons and Practices, edited by Balthasar Bickel and Martin Gaenszle, 247-271. Zürich: Völkerkundsmuseum
  • Nishi 西, Yoshio 義郎 (1993c). "グルン語" [Gurung (=LSI), Gūrung; Gurungkura]. In 亀井 Kamei, 孝 Takashi; 河野 Kōno, 六郎 Rokurō; 千野 Chino, 栄一 Eichi (eds.). 三省堂言語学大辞典 The Sanseido Encyclopaedia of Linguistics (in Japanese). 5. Tokyo: 三省堂 Sanseido Press. pp. 135b–143b.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""