Rajbanshi language (Nepal)

Last updated

Rajbanshi
राजबंशी‎
Tajpuria
Native to Nepal
Region Jhapa District, Morang District
Ethnicity Rajbanshi
Native speakers
170,000 (2011) [1]
Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
rjs   Rajbanshi
kyv   Kayort
Glottolog rajb1243   Rajbanshi
kayo1247   Kayort

Rajbanshi (also called Tajpuria [3] ) is a Bengali-Assamese language spoken in Nepal. It is related to, but distinct from Rangpuri/Kamta in Bangladesh and India, which is also known by the alternative name "Rajbanshi", with which it forms the KRNB cluster. [4]

Contents

Phonology

This section is based on Wilde 2008.

Consonants

Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless pʈk
aspirated t̪ʰʈʰ
voiced bɖɡ
breathy d̪ʱɖʱɡʱ
Affricate voiceless ts
aspirated tsʰ
voiced dz
breathy dzʱ
Fricative s(ʃ)h
Nasal plainmŋ
breathy n̪ʱŋʱ
Trill plainr
breathy
Approximant lateral l
lateral br.
central (w)(j)

Vowels

Front Central Back
High iu
Mid eʌo
Low æ(ɐ)

In addition to these vowels, Rangpuri has the following diphthongs: /ie,iæ,iu,iʌ,ui,uæ,uʌ,ei,eu,æi,æu,ʌi,ʌu/.

Notes

  1. Rajbanshi at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Kayort at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. 1 2 Toulmin, Mathew W S (2006). Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: The Kamta, Rajbanshi, and Northern Deshi Bangla subgroup of Indo-Aryan (PhD). The Australian National University. p. 305.
  3. Toulmin 2009, p. 16.
  4. Toulmin 2009, p. 3.
  5. Wilde 2008, p. [ page needed ].

Related Research Articles

A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English L, as in Larry. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assamese language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in Assam, India

Assamese or Asamiya is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It serves as a lingua franca in parts of the Northeast India from a long time, in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland of India the Assamese language developed as a creole and pidgin language known as Nefamese and Nagamese creole which has became a lingua franca in Nagaland. It has over 15 million native speakers according to Ethnologue.

In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamarupi Prakrit</span> Middle Indo-Aryan language used in ancient Kamarupa, Indian subcontinent

Kamarupi Prakrit is the postulated Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) Prakrit language used in ancient Kamarupa. This language has been derived from Gauda-Kamarupi Prakrit and the historical ancestor of the Kamatapuri lects and the modern Assamese language; and can be dated prior to 1250 CE, when the proto-Kamta language, the parent of the Kamatapuri lects, began to develop. Though not substantially proven, the existence of the language that predated the Kamatapuri lects and modern Assamese is widely believed to be descended from it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palula language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Chitral District Pakistan

Palula and also known as Ashreti (Aćharêtâʹ) or Dangarikwar, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 10,000 people in the valleys of Ashret and Biori, as well as in the village of Puri in the Shishi valley and at least by a portion of the population in the village Kalkatak, in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Goalpariya is a group of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the Goalpara region of Assam, India. Along with Kamrupi, they form the western group of Assamese dialects. The North Bengali dialect is situated to its west, amidst a number of Tibeto-Burman speech communities. The basic characteristic of the Goalpariya is that it is a composite one into which words of different concerns and regions have been amalgamated. Deshi people speak this language and there are around 20 lakhs people.

Magadhi Prakrit (Māgadhī) is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali. It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rangpuri language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal

Rangpuri is an eastern Indo-Aryan language of the Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in Rangpur Division in Bangladesh, northern West Bengal and western Goalpara of Assam in India. Many are bilingual in Bengali and Assamese in their respective regions. According to Glottolog, it forms the Central-Eastern Kamta group with the Kamta language. Together with Rajbanshi and Surjapuri they form the Kamta group of languages.

The phonology of Bengali, like that of its neighbouring Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, is characterised by a wide variety of diphthongs and inherent back vowels.

Mal Paharia is a language spoken by 51,000 of 110,000 ethnic Mal Paharia in the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal in India, and regions of Bangladesh. The language is also known as Mal Pahoria, Malto, Malti, Paharia, Parsi, and Mal Pahariya. It has been variously regarded as a Bengali–Assamese language, a dialect of Malto, and a mixed Dravidian–Indo-Aryan language. There is a generally positive attitude among speakers of the language towards it, but it is considered vulnerable as some speakers have shifted to Bengali. Mal Paharia uses the Devanagari script and rules for its writing, reading, and speech.

The Gujarati language is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. Much of its phonology is derived from Sanskrit.

Hindustani is the lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan, and through its two standardized registers, Hindi and Urdu, a co-official language of India and co-official and national language of Pakistan respectively. Phonological differences between the two standards are minimal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Indo-Aryan languages</span> Language family of South Asia

The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Māgadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, which includes Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bengal region, Tripura, Assam, and Odisha; alongside other regions surrounding the northeastern Himalayan corridor. Bengali is official language of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak valley of Assam while Assamese and Odia are the official languages of Assam and Odisha, respectively. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Abahattha, which descends from Magadhan Apabhraṃśa and ultimately from Magadhi Prakrit.

Wadiyara Koli is an Indo-Aryan language of the Gujarati group. It is spoken by the Wadiyara people, who originate from Wadiyar in Gujarat; many of whom are thought to have migrated to Sindh in the early twentieth century, following the onset of famine. The Wadiyara people are affiliated with the Bhil people and Koli people, but are generally more inclined towards associating themselves with the Koli; they are often regarded as a subgroup of the latter.

Surjapuri is an Indo-Aryan language of the Bengali-Assamese branch, spoken in Eastern India including North Bengal, West Bengal, and some eastern parts of Purnia division of Bihar, as well as Jhapa District in Nepal, Goalpara Division of Assam in India and Rangpur Division in Bangladesh. Among speakers in some regions, it is known as 'Deshi Bhasa'. It possesses similarities with Kamatapuri, Assamese, Bengali, and Maithili.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KRDS lects</span> Indo-Aryan variety from eastern Indian subcontinent

KRDS lects are a cluster of modern lects that are phylogenetic descendants of the proto-Kamta language. The proto-Kamta language began differentiating after 1250 around Kamatapur, the capital city of Kamata kingdom, as the western branch of the proto-Kamarupa, whereas the eastern branch developed into proto-Assamese. Since the 16th century the proto-Kamta community has fragmented giving rise to the differentiated modern lects. The modern lects are: Kamta, Rangpuri (Bangladesh), Rajbanshi (Nepal) and Surjapuri (Bihar).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali–Assamese languages</span> Sub group of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent

The Bengali-Assamese languages is a grouping of several languages in the eastern Indian subcontinent. This group belongs to the Eastern zone of Indo-Aryan languages. The languages in this group according to Glottolog includes Assamese, Bengali, Bishnupriya, Chakma, Chittagonian, Hajong, Kharia Thar, Kurmukar, Lodhi, Mal Paharia, Noakhailla, Rajbangshi, Rohingya, Sylheti, Tangchangya and Surjapuri.

The voiceless retroflex trill is a sound that has been reported to occur as a diaphoneme of in the Maldivian language. Although the tongue starts out in a sub-apical retroflex position, trilling involves the tip of the tongue and causes it to move forward to the alveolar ridge; this means that the retroflex trill gives a preceding vowel retroflex coloration the way other retroflex consonants do, but the vibration itself is not much different from an alveolar trill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Assamese</span> Form of Assamese spoken from 1300 to 1600

Early Assamese or Proto-Eastern Kamarupa is an ancestor of the modern Assamese language. It is found in the literature from the 14th century to the end of 16th century in Kamata kingdom and rest the Brahmaputra valley of Assam.

References