Ajay Kumar at 16:21, 24 August 2023

2023-08-24T16:21:48Z

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{{Short description|Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal and India}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Gurung
| altname = Tamu Kyi, Tamu Bhaasaa
| image = Gurung language.svg
| imagecaption = The word "Gurung" (Tamu Kyi) written in Devanagari script
| states = [[Nepal]], [[India]], [[Bhutan]]
| ethnicity = [[Gurung people]]
| speakers = 325,622
| date = 2011 census
| ref = <ref>[http://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Summary-Nepali.pdf Official Summary of Census (2011), Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202145804/http://cbs.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Summary-Nepali.pdf |date=2012-12-02 }}</ref>
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = [[Tamangic languages|Tamangic]]
| script = [[Khema script|Khema]], [[Devanagari]] and [[Tibetan script|Tibetan]]
| iso3 = gvr
| glotto = guru1261
| glottorefname = Gurung
| nation = {{IND}}
*[[Sikkim]] (additional)<ref name="langoff">{{cite web|url=http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |page=109 |title=50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India|date=16 July 2014 |access-date=6 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102211909/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf|archive-date=2 January 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}

'''Gurung''' ([[Devanagari]]: {{Lang|gvr|गुरुङ}}), also known as '''Tamu Kyi''' ({{Lang|gvr|तमु क्यी}}, {{Transl|gvr|tamu kyī}}; [[Tibetan script|Tibetan]]: {{Lang|gvr|ཏམུ་ཀི}}) or '''Tamu Bhaasaa''' ({{Lang|gvr|तमु भाषा}}, {{Transl|gvr|tamu bhāṣā}}), is a language spoken by the [[Gurung people]] of Nepal. The total number of all Gurung speakers in [[Nepal]] was 227,918 in 1991 and 325,622 in 2011.

The official language of Nepal, [[Nepali language|Nepali]], is an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language, whereas Gurung is a [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] language. Gurung is one of the major languages of Nepal, and is also spoken in India, Bhutan, and by diaspora communities in countries such as [[Singapore]] and [[Hong Kong]].

==Geographical distribution==
Gurung is spoken in the following districts of Nepal and 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]], [[East Sikkim]]

== Classification ==
At higher levels, Gurung is a member of the [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] (or Trans-Himalayan) family. Robert Shafer classified Gurung within the [[Tibeto-Kanauri languages|Bodic division]], sub-grouping that into [[Bodish languages|Bodish]] and [[West Himalayish languages|West Central Himalayish]]. Within the Bodish "Section", he located "Bodish" languages (including the [[Tibetic languages|Tibetan varieties]]) and also the "[[Tamangic languages|Gurung Branch]]", including Gurung, [[Tamang language|Tamang]] (Murmi), and [[Thakali language|Thakali]] (Thaksya). Based on lexical cognates established by Shafer and updated by [[George van Driem]], Shafer constructed the Bodish sub-grouping into three sub-divisions: (1) Western, (2) Central and Southern (a.k.a. “old Bodish”, including Tibetan), and (3) Eastern (containing “archaic” languages like [[Monpa people|Mönpa]]) and mainstream languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shafer |first=Robert |date=1955 |title=Classification of the Sino-Tibetan Languages |journal=Word |volume=11 |pages=94–111|doi=10.1080/00437956.1955.11659552 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=van Driem |first=George |title=East Bodish and Proto-Tibeto-Burman morphosyntax |work=Current Issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics |publisher=The Organizing Committee of the 26th International Conference on SinoTibetan Languages and Linguistics |year=1994 |editor-last=Kitamura |editor-first=Hajime |location=Osaka |pages=608–617 |oclc=36419031}}</ref> Noonan referred to the Western sub-grouping within Bodish as [[Manang language|Manange/Nyeshangte]] and [[Nar Phu language|Nar-Phu]] and Gurungic (containing Gurung, Thakali and [[Chantyal language|Chantyal]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=David (Ed.) |first1=Bradley |last2=Randy (Ed.) |first2=Lapolla |last3=Boyd (Ed.) |first3=Michailovsky |last4=Graham (Ed.) |first4=Thurgood |date=2015 |others=CRCL, CRCL, Pacific Linguistics And/Or The Author(S) |title=Language variation: Papers on variation and change in the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in honour of James A. Matisoff |url=http://sealang.net/archives/pl/pdf/PL-555.pdf |journal=PL-555 |language=en |pages=22M, xii + 333 pages |doi=10.15144/PL-555}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/769188822 |title=Motion, direction and location in languages : in honor of Zygmunt Frajzyngier |date=2003 |publisher=John Benjamins |others=Zygmunt Frajzyngier, Erin Shay, Uwe Seibert |isbn=978-90-272-7521-9 |location=Amsterdam |oclc=769188822}}</ref> He noted that Chantyal is structurally deviant due to more extensive contact-induced language change from Nepali. Sten Konow classified Himalayan T-B languages into pronominalized and non-prominalized, where Gurung is located.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grierson |first=George |title=Linguistic survey of India Vol. III, Part 1 |publisher=Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass |year=1909 |location=Delhi}}</ref> This classification is similar to Voeglin & Voeglin (1965), but within a "[[Gyalrongic languages|Gyarung]]-[[Mishmi people|Mishmi]]" sub-family within Sino-Tibetan.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Voeglin |first1=C.F. |last2=Voeglin |first2=F.M. |date=1965 |title=Languages of the World: Sino-Tibetan Fascicle Four |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |volume=7 |pages=1–55}}</ref>

==Grammar==
Phonetically, Gurung languages are [[tonal language|tonal]].

Some miscellaneous grammatical features of the Gurung languages are:
* CV, CCV, CCCV syllables
* Maximum of three [[suffix]]es
* [[Subject–object–verb|SOV]]
* [[Postposition]]s
* [[Grammatical case]] expressed with [[preposition]]
* [[Genitive]]s
* [[Adjective]]s and [[Relative clause|relatives]] before [[Head (linguistics)|head noun]]
* [[Numeral (linguistics)|Numeral]]s after head
* [[Rising intonation]] in bipolar [[question]]s
* [[Prefix]] on [[negative verb]]s
* No subject or object [[Agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] in verbs
* [[Split ergativity]] based on [[Grammatical tense|tense]]
* [[Causative]]s
* [[Benefactive]]s

== Phonology ==
=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]/<br>[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Post-alv.]]/<br>[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! rowspan="4" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
!{{small|[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|{{IPAlink|p}}
|{{IPAlink|t}}
|{{IPAlink|ʈ}}
|
|{{IPAlink|k}}
|({{IPA link|ʔ}})
|-
!{{small|[[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]}}
|{{IPAlink|pʰ}}
|{{IPAlink|tʰ}}
|{{IPAlink|ʈʰ}}
|
|{{IPAlink|kʰ}}
|
|-
!{{small|[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|{{IPAlink|b}}
|{{IPAlink|d}}
|{{IPAlink|ɖ}}
|
|{{IPAlink|ɡ}}
|
|-
!{{small|[[Breathy voice|breathy]]}}
|({{IPAlink|bʱ}})
|({{IPAlink|dʱ}})
|({{IPAlink|ɖʱ}})
|
|({{IPAlink|ɡʱ}})
|
|-
! rowspan="4" |[[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
!{{small|[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]}}
|
|{{IPA link|ts}}*
|
|{{IPAlink|tʃ}}
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]}}
|
|{{IPA link|tsʰ}}*
|
|{{IPAlink|tʃʰ}}
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
|
|{{IPA link|dz}}*
|
|{{IPAlink|dʒ}}
|
|
|-
!{{small|[[Breathy voice|breathy]]}}
|
|({{IPA link|dzʱ}})*
|
|({{IPAlink|dʒʱ}})
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|({{IPA link|β}})
|{{IPAlink|s}}
|
|{{IPA link|ʃ}}
|({{IPA link|x}})
|{{IPAlink|h}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}
|{{IPAlink|n}}
|
|
|{{IPAlink|ŋ}}
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
|{{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|{{IPAlink|l}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|{{IPAlink|w}}
|
|
|{{IPAlink|j}}
|
|
|}

* *- Across dialects, palato-alveolar affricate sounds /tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, (dʒʱ)/ may phonemically occur as apico-alveolar sounds /ts, tsʰ, dz, (dzʱ)/, and then when preceding a /j/ they are then phonetically heard as palato-alveolar [tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, dʒʰ].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Glover |first=Warren W. |title=Sememic and Grammatical Structures in Gurung (Nepal) |publisher=The Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington |year=1974}}</ref>
* Breathy-voiced sounds [bʱ, dʱ, ɖʱ, ɡʱ, dʒʱ, dzʱ*] typically are heard from Nepali loanwords.
* /pʰ/ can also be heard as [f] when followed by front vowels.
* /kʰ/ can have an allophone of [x].
* /r/ can also be heard as a tap [ɾ].
* A glottal stop [ʔ] is heard when there is no initial consonant before a vowel.
* Sounds /p, t, k/ can be heard as unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] when in word-final position.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nishida |first=Fuminobu |title=A phonology of Syangja Gurung |year=2004 |location=In Reitaku Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 12 |pages=15-33}}</ref>

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|- align="center"
![[High vowel|High]]
|{{IPAlink|i}}
|
|{{IPAlink|u}}
|- align="center"
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPAlink|e}}
|
|{{IPAlink|o}}
|- align="center"
![[Low vowel|Low]]
|
|{{IPAlink|a}}
|
|}

* /i, e, a, o/ can have short allophones of [ɪ, ɛ, ʌ, ɔ].<ref name=":0" />

== Writing system ==
For indigenous languages of Nepal, including Gurung, the rise of pluralism and ethnic consciousness has resulted in movements to develop and deploy community orthographies, but it has also resulted in variation and disagreements.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Noonan |first=Michael |date=2008 |title=Contact-induced change in the Himalayas: the case of the Tamangic languages |url=http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/id/eprint/214 |doi=10.11588/XAREP.00000214}}</ref>

As Noonan (2005)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Noonan |first=Michael |date=2008 |title=Language Documentation and Language Endangerment in Nepal |url=http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/id/eprint/201 |doi=10.11588/XAREP.00000201}}</ref> reports, in Gurung, writing primarily has been done through the medium of another language, and so community orthographies tend to be based on pre-existing models of languages of wider communication. According to Glover (2004),<ref>Glover, Warren W. 2004. Ouch! Don't print that! Paper presented at the Asia Lexicography Conference, Chiangmai, Thailand, 24-26 May, 2004.</ref> attempts at developing an orthography in Gurung go back to 1976, with work to compile the first dictionary of the language.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Glover |first1=Warren W. |title=Gurung-English-Nepali dictionary |last2=Glover |first2=Jessie R. |last3=Gurung |first3=Dev Bahadur |publisher=ANU Department of Linguistics |year=1977 |location=Canberra, Australia}}</ref> Glover describes the different scripts that have been under consideration by the community, each with their own potential benefits and challenges. Four scripts have been proposed: a system based on the [[Tibetan script]], [[Devanagari]], a ''[[Khema script|Khemaa lipi]]'' script (also known as ''Tamu Khema Phri'' or ''Khema Phri''), which is a unique alphasyllabary adaptation of Tibetan and Devanagari,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Khema alphabet |url=https://omniglot.com/writing/khema.htm |access-date=2022-06-14 |website=omniglot.com}}</ref> and a [[Latin script|Romanized script]]. Glover reported that a plan was in place in 2002 for a forthcoming dictionary of Gurung which included both an (adapted) Devanagari script and also a Roman script, benefitting both literate Gurungs in Nepal and diaspora Gurungs (28-29).

Examples of Gurung language publications that employ orthographies include three books published by Tamu.<ref>{{Cite book |last=डिल्लीजङ तमु (Tamu, Dhillijang) |title=तमु (गुह्रङ)(Tamu (Guhrang)) |publisher=Jiwan Printing Sapritas Press |year=2000 |location=Kathmandu, Nepal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tamu, Dilijung |first=Dilijung |title=Let's learn Tamu (Gurung) Language |publisher=Jivan Printing Press |year=1997 |location=Nayaa Bazaar, Kathmandu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=डिल्लीजङ (Tamu) |first=तमु (Dhillijang) |title=तमु क्योए (Tamu Kyoe, Gurung Language) Nepali English Dictionary |publisher=Jivan Printing Press |year=1995 |location=Nayaa Bazaar, Kathmandu}}</ref> These use a modified Devanagari orthography, which include subscript dots for [[Nasal vowel|nasalized vowels]] and other special symbols for [[consonant cluster]]s and tonal and [[phonation]] distinctions that are found in Gurung, but not in Nepali. Also included is a 2000 Gurung-Nepali-English dictionary produced by the Tamu Bauddha Sewa Samiti Nepal (Gurung Culture Organization),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tamu Bauddha Sewa Samiti Nepal |title=Gurung-Nepali-English Dictionary. |publisher=Tamu Bauddha Sewa Samiti Nepal |year=2000 |location=Anamnagar Kathmandu, Nepal}}</ref> which also uses a modified Devanagari, and which also includes numerals (e.g., मी1 /{{IPA|mi}}/ 'eye' vs. मी2 /{{IPA|mi}}/ 'name') to indicate tone category for individual words. A 2020 Gurung-English-Nepali dictionary, based on the Sikkim variety of Gurung also makes use of a modified Devanagari script, but does not indicate tone.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mataina |first=Wichamdinbo |date=2020-05-20 |title=Wordlist elicitation from Bishnu Maya Gurung |url=http://dspace.cus.ac.in/jspui/handle/1/6571 |journal=Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Languages of Nepal]]
*[[Languages of Bhutan]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== 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." [http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/kailash/pdf/kailash_02_04_02.pdf ''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.” ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20160616212827/http://www.nfdin.gov.np/securi/ 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
*{{cite encyclopedia
| last = Nishi 西
| first = Yoshio 義郎
| author-link = Yoshio Nishi
| editor1-first = 孝 Takashi
| editor1-last = 亀井 Kamei
| editor2-first = 六郎 Rokurō
| editor2-last = 河野 Kōno
| editor3-first = 栄一 Eichi
| editor3-last = 千野 Chino
| encyclopedia = 三省堂言語学大辞典 The Sanseido Encyclopaedia of Linguistics
| title = グルン語
| trans-title = Gurung (=''LSI''), Gūrung; Gurungkura
| language = Japanese
| year = 1993c
| publisher = 三省堂 Sanseido Press
| volume = 5
| location = Tokyo
| isbn =
| pages = 135b–143b
}}

== External links ==

*[https://mananglanguages.isg.siue.edu/ Manang Language Project of Kristine A. Hildebrandt]
*[https://audio-video.shanti.virginia.edu/collection/manange Manange], [https://audio-video.shanti.virginia.edu/collection/western-gurung Western Gurung] at Language Archive at the University of Virginia's [http://www.thlib.org/ Tibetan and Himalayan Library]
{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Bodic languages}}
{{Languages of Northeast India}}
{{Languages of Bhutan}}
{{Languages of Nepal}}

{{Incubator|code= gvr}}

[[Category:Languages of Nepal]]
[[Category:Languages of Bhutan]]
[[Category:Tamangic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Sikkim]]
[[Category:Languages of Bagmati Province]]
[[Category:Languages of Gandaki Province]]
[[Category:Languages written in Devanagari]]

Gurung language - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 16:21, 24 August 2023