Chepang language


Chepang is a language spoken by approximately 59,000 people in South-Central Nepal. The people are known as Chepang. In 2003, Randy LaPolla proposed that the Chepang may be part of a larger "Rung" group. Another group who speaks Chepang, living across the Gandaki river, call themselves Bujheli.

Phonology

Consonants

Phonetic Realizations

The glottal stop is realized in some contexts, though usually not as a full closure and is instead presented as falling pitch, laryngealization, re-articulation, or by lengthening of the segment before. Some example of possible occurrences are listed below:
  • Syllable Initial
  • * Full closure at the beginning of words —
  • * Re-articulation at the beginning of words —
  • * Laryngealization after a vowel and a glottal stop /ʔ/ —
  • * Lengthening of previous segment after non-glottal consonants —
  • Syllable Final
  • * Full closure at the end of words — or when following a vowel and preceding a voiceless consonant —
  • * Laryngealization following a vowel and preceding a glottal stop —
  • * And falling pitch in all other contexts The glottal fricative /h/ is realized in many ways and it is much more predictable in the environments that realizations occur. For example:
  • In the case of two contiguous segments, if at the beginning of a word the first phoneme becomes voiceless
  • If at the end of a word then the second phoneme becomes voiceless
  • * the word aal is phonemically transcribed as
  • * and the word samm is phonemically transcribed as
  • Strong aspiration occurs on voiceless obstruents
  • * the word phek is phonemically transcribed as
  • Breathy voice on the initial part of the syllable in the environment of voiced obstruents
  • * the word gaŋ is transcribed as
  • /h/ may become /s/ in fast speech when following /j/ and preceding /k/
  • /h/ may also become /x/ when contiguous to /j/ and preceding /ʔ/
The voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ is also realized as /ʃ/ before front vowels.
/w/ when directly next to front vowels is realized as the labio-dental approximant

Vowels

Research suggests that Chepang may have had a three vowel system at one point in time. Those vowels being /i/ /u/ and /ə/, this is uncommon for a three vowel system as commonly they consist of /a/ /i/ and /u/ as seen in Classical Arabic, Greenlandic and Quechua.

Syntax

Chepang can be described as having a basic word order of Subject Object Verb with some alterations due to context. The text below provides an example:
But it is difficult to define a subject and object for the language in Chepang and may be more accurately described as a verb-final language. The verb does, for the most part, follow its related noun phrases and other constituents. Though it is not uncommon to see the NP follow the verb used as an afterthought.

Geographical distribution

Chepang is spoken in the following districts of Nepal.
Dialects are Western Chepang and Eastern Chepang.