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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Mustang</span> Northern area of Mustang District, Nepal

Upper Mustang is an upper part of Mustang District, which is located in Nepal. The Upper Mustang was a restricted kingdom until 1992 which makes it one of the most preserved regions in the world, with a majority of the population still speaking traditional Tibetic languages. Tibetan culture has been preserved by the relative isolation of the region from the outside world. Life in Mustang revolves around tourism, animal husbandry and trade.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kali Gandaki Gorge</span> Himalayan gorge in Nepal

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mustang District</span> District in Gandaki Province, Nepal

Mustang District is one of the eleven districts of Gandaki Province and one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal which was a Kingdom of Lo-Manthang that joined the Federation of Nepal in 2008 after abolition of the Shah dynasty. The district covers an area of 3,573 km2 (1,380 sq mi) and in 2011 had a population of 13,452. The headquarters is located at Jomsom. Mustang is the fifth largest district of Nepal in terms of area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurung language</span> Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal and India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lomanthang Rural Municipality</span> Rural municipality in Gandaki Province, Nepal

Lomanthang is a rural municipality in Mustang district in Gandaki Province of western Nepal. It is located at the northern end of the district, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north and Dalome rural municipality of Mustang in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jomsom</span> Town in Mustang, Nepal

Jomsom, also known as Dzongsam, is the centre of Gharapjhong rural municipality in Mustang district and a former independent village development committee situated at an altitude of about 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) in Gandaki Province of western Nepal. The soaring peaks of Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri form a backdrop to the town straddling the Kali Gandaki River, which flows right through the centre of Jomsom. Along the banks of the Kali Gandaki, black fossilised stones called shaligram, considered as an iconic symbol and reminder of the god Vishnu in the Hindu culture, can be found. Such stones are believed to be found only in the Kali Gandaki, and are considered holy by Hindus.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marpha</span> Village in Dhawalagiri Zone, Nepal

Marpha is a village in Mustang District in the Dhawalagiri Zone of northern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 1630 people living in 434 individual households.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tukuche</span> Village development committee in Dhawalagiri Zone, Nepal

Tukuche, sometimes spelt Tukche, is a village development committee in Mustang District in the Dhawalagiri Zone of northern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 652 people living in 166 individual households.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tharu languages</span> Indo-Aryan language group of Nepal and India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamangic languages</span> Sino-Tibetan branch of central-eastern Nepal

The Tamangic languages, TGTM languages, or West Bodish languages or Kaike-Ghale-Tamangic languages (Glottolog), are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in the Himalayas of Nepal. They are called "West Bodish" by Bradley (1997), from Bod, the native term for Tibet. TGTM stands for Tamang-Gurung-Thakali-Manang.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chhairo gompa</span> Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Mustang, Nepal

Chhairo Monastery was the first monastery of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism founded in Upper Mustang. It was established in the 16th century and is part of present-day Mustang District, Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shashi Dhoj Tulachan</span>

Shashi Dhoj Tulachan, called Guru Nawang Chhogyall Tenzin, is the spiritual leader of the Chhairo gompa, of Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism, having been given responsibility for the Gompa by the current incarnation who is not a practising lama. He is also responsible for three gompas in Tukuche, his home village on the right bank of the Kali Gandaki, and in the Annapurna trail:

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Varagung Muktichhetra, earlier Bahragaun Muktichhetra is a rural municipality situated in Mustang District of Gandaki Province of Nepal The rural municipality is situated on the southern part of the Mustang, surrounded by Dalome rural municipality on the north, Gharpajhong and Thasang rural municipalities on the south, Manang District on the east and Dolpa District on the west. The north-southern border of the rural municipality touches the Myagdi District boundary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibet–Nepal salt trade route</span> Ancient salt trading route

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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. http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/kailash/pdf/kailash_09_01_02.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  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.