Tamang language
Tamang is a term used to collectively refer to a Sino-Tibetian language cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang and other Tamang languages varies between 81% and 63%. For comparison, the lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is estimated at 89%.
Varieties
Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following distinct languages due to mutual unintelligibility with each other.- Eastern Tamang: 759,000 in Nepal. Population total all countries: 773,000. Sub-dialects are as follows.
- *Outer-Eastern Tamang
- *Central-Eastern Tamang
- *Southwestern Tamang
- Western Tamang: 323,000. Sub-dialects are as follows.
- *Trisuli
- *Rasuwa
- *Northwestern dialect of Western Tamang — was having separate ISO code tmk, merged with tdg in 2023. Population 55,000. Spoken in the central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province.
- *Southwestern dialect of Western Tamang
- Eastern Gorkha Tamang: 4,000. Sub-dialects are as follows.
- *Kasigaon
- *Kerounja
Geographical distribution
Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.Eastern Tamang
- Bagmati Province: Bhaktapur District, Chitwan District, Dolkha District, Kathmandu District, Kavrepalanchok District, Lalitpur District, Makwanpur District, eastern Nuwakot District, Ramechhap District, Sindhuli District and western Sindhupalchowk District
- Province No. 1: Okhaldhunga District, western Khotang District, and Udayapur District
- Bagmati Province: Chitwan District, southern Dhading District, western and northwestern Kathmandu District area and northwestern Makwanpur District
- Province No. 2: Bara District, Parsa District and Rautahat District
- Bagmati Province: western Nuwakot District, Rasuwa District, and Dhading District
- central mountainous strip of Nuwakot District, Bagmati Province
- northeastern Sindhupalchok District, Bagmati Province: Bhote Namlan, and Bhote Chaur, on Trishuli river west bank toward Budhi Gandaki river
- northwestern Makwanpur District, Bagmati Province: Phakel, Chakhel, Khulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, and Palung
- northern Kathmandu District, Bagmati Province: Jhor, Thoka, and Gagal Phedi
- south and east of Jagat, northern Gorkha District, Gandaki Province
Grammar
Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:- A canonical word order of SOV
- Use of postpositions;
- The genitives precede nouns;
- question word medial;
- It is an ergative–absolutive language;
- CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC;