Tamang language
| Tamang | |
|---|---|
| तामाङ, རྟ་དམག་ / རྟ་མང་ | |
| Native to | Nepal, India, Bhutan |
| Ethnicity | Tamang |
|
Native speakers
|
1.35 million in Nepal (2011 census) 17,500 in India (2001 census) |
|
Sino-Tibetan
|
|
| Tibetan script, Devanagari | |
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
Sikkim, India |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: taj – Eastern Tamang tdg – Western Tamang tmk – Northwestern Tamang (not distinct) tge – Eastern Gorkha Tamang |
| Glottolog | nucl1729 |
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%. Tamang likely split from the Tibetan languages some time before the 7th century.
Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility.
The Tamang language is the most widely spoken Sino-Tibetan language in Nepal.
Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.
Eastern Tamang
Southwestern Tamang
Western Tamang
Eastern Gorkha Tamang
Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:
Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.
Tamangic languages use Tam-Yig which is similar to Tibetan scripts and Devanāgarī. In many situations, however, Tamang is written in Devanāgarī proper.
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Wikipedia