Raji language

Raji
Region	Nepal, India
Native speakers	3,800 (2011 census) [1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Raji–Raute Raji
Dialects	Barh Bandale Naukule Purbiya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rji
Glottolog	raji1240
ELP	Raji

Raji is a small Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal and Uttarakhand, India. Speakers were until recently nomadic.

Distribution

Raji is spoken in the following areas of southwestern Nepal: ^[1]

• Lumbini Province: Banke and Bardiya districts
• Karnali Province: Surkhet
• Sudurpashchim Province: Kailali and Kanchanpur districts

It is also spoken by Raji people of Uttarakhand, India, primarily living in Pithoragarh district.

In Pithoragarh district, Rastogi (2015) ^[2] reports that Raji is spoken in the hamlets of Kimkhola, Bhogtirua, Ganagaon, Chipaltara, Madanbori, Kutachaurani, Altodi, Jamtadi, Khirdwari and Chakarpur.

Dialects

Khatri (2008) ^[3] divides Raji into 3 main regional dialects, for which he also provides word lists.

• Barabandale: spoken in Jyotinagar, Katasi, Lalbojhi, Kuti, Bhuruwa, Solta, Khairehi, and Keodi of Kailali District; Sundarpur, Bandevi Sibir, Daiji, Krishanpur and Chela Sibir of Kanchanpur District; and Rajigaun, Galfa, and Babiyachaur of Surkhet District.
• Purbiya: Shankarpur, Machhagadh, Baniyabhar, Rambhapur, Dhakela, Dhadhawar, Sanoshree, Gulariya Municipality and Phanphena of Bardiya District.Also Speak in Chhinchu of Surkhet District.
• Naukule : Spoken in Jhil and Kuchaini of Chaumala, Shankarpur of Masuriya, Jarahi of Sadepani, Dhangaghi Municipality and Manera. All are located within Kailali District.

Phonology

Consonants ^[4]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	plain	p b	t d	ʈ ɖ	tʃ dʒ	k g
	aspirated	pʰ bʱ	tʰ dʱ	ʈʰ ɖʱ	tʃʰ dʒʱ	kʰ gʱ
Fricative			s			x	h
Nasal	plain	m	n	ɳ		ŋ
	preaspirated	ʱm	ʱn
Approximant	plain	w	l	r	j
	preaspirated		ʱl	ʱr	ʱj

Vowels ^[4]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
Mid	e ẽ	ə ə̃	o õ
Low	ɛ ɛ̃	a ã

References

1. Raji at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Rastogi, Kavita. 2015. Raji Orthography Development. Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 14(2): 39–48. doi : 10.5070/H914224947
3. Khatri, Ramesh. 2008. The structure of verbs and sentences of Raji. MA thesis, Kirtipur: Tribhuvan University.
4. Krishan, Shree (2001). Nagano, Yasuhiko; Lapolla, Randy J. (eds.). "A Sketch of Raji Grammar". New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages. 3. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology: 449–497. doi:10.15021/00002153.

External links

• Raji Language Resource collection of Raji language documentation in the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) archive