Thakali language

Last updated
Thakali
थकाली
Native to Nepal
Ethnicity12,000 Thakali (2021 census) [1]
Native speakers
4,200 (2002–2021 census) [1]
Dialects
  • Thakali
  • Tangbe
  • Tetang
  • Chuksang
Devanagari (modern) [2]
Tibetan script (historical) [3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
ths   Thakali
skj   Seke
Glottolog thak1245   Thakali
seke1240   Seke
ELP Thakali
  Seke (Nepal) [4]

Thakali is a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal spoken by the Thakali people, mainly in the Myagdi and Mustang Districts. Its dialects have limited mutual intelligibility.

Contents

Seke (Serke, Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang) is sometimes considered a separate language. [1] Other names and dialect names are Barhagaule, Marpha, Panchgaunle, Puntan Thakali, Syang, Tamhang Thakali, Thaksaatsaye, Thaksatsae, Thaksya, Tukuche, Yhulkasom. [5] Seke (Serke) is spoken in the villages of Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang, Chaile, and Gyakar in Mustang District, northern Nepal. Martine Mazaudon has documented the Tangbe dialect of Seke as spoken by an expatriate speaker in Paris. [6] Honda (2002) also documented two other dialects of Seke, Tetang and Chuksang. [7]

Geographical distribution

Thakali is spoken in the middle of the Kali Gandaki River valley and in the upper part of the Kali Gandaki Gorge (also known as Thak Khola), in Mustang District, Gandaki Province. The Thakali area is bounded by Annapurna Himal on one side and Dhawalagiri Himal on the other, with Tatopani village in the south and Jomsom in the north ( Ethnologue ).

The Tukuche dialect is spoken from Tukuche to Thaksatsae, in 13 villages: Tukuche, Khanti, Kobang, Larjung, Dampu, Naurikot, Bhurjungkot, Nakung, Tithi, Kunjo, Taglung, Lete, Ghansa. Many live outside the area.

Seke is spoken by Gurung of Chuksang, Tsaile, Tangbe, Tetang, and Gyakar villages of Mustang District, Dhawalagiri Zone. There are only 700 native speakers of this language, 100 of whom live in New York City. Reportedly, half of the New York City speakers live in the same apartment building. [8] [9] [10]

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Thakali.

Seke has the following dialects.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thakali people</span> Ethnolinguistic group

The Thakali are an ethnolinguistic Tibeto-Burman ethnic group of Nepal. The traditional area of the Thakali community is called Thak-sat-se or the Thak Khola region and lies in the Kali Gandaki River valley in the Mustang District, Gandaki Province in western Nepal. According to the 2001 census, the Thakali population of around 12,973 constituted only 0.06% of Nepal's population. By the 2011 Nepal census, there were 13,215 Thakali people in Nepal.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Thakali at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Seke at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Vinding, Michael (January 10, 1998). The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography. Serindia Publications, Inc. ISBN   9780906026502 via Google Books.
  3. Manzardo, Andrew E. "Impression management and economic growth: the case of the Thakalis of Dhaulagiri zone" (PDF). himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk.
  4. Endangered Languages Project data for Seke (Nepal).
  5. "OLAC resources in and about the Thakali language". www.language-archives.org.
  6. Mazaudon, Martine. 2023. The name of the Se(r)ke language and the reconstruction of a final -s in proto-TGTM (Tamangish). 26th Himalayan Languages Symposium, 4-6 September 2023. Paris: INALCO.
  7. Honda, Isao. 2002. Seke phonology: a comparative study of three Seke dialects. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25(1): 191-210.
  8. Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko de (2020-01-07). "Just 700 Speak This Language (50 in the Same Brooklyn Building)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  9. Robbins, Christopher (2019-12-03). "Dazzling Map Shows NYC's Incredible Linguistic Diversity". Gothamist. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  10. "There's New Hope For Endangered Languages In NYC". 2020-01-09. Retrieved 2020-02-12.