ᤕᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴ
Limbu
Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern)
Limbu (Yakthung Pan) is an Eastern Kiranti language of eastern Nepal and adjacent Sikkim/Darjeeling. It is one of the few South Asian languages with its own indigenous script — the Limbu (Sirijanga) script, said to have been devised in the 18th century by Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe based on earlier Brahmic models, formally encoded in Unicode 5.1 (2008). Limbu has agglutinative verb morphology with biactantial agreement (subject + object/recipient marked).
Where it is spoken
31 core words in Limbu
Water
ᤇᤘᤠ
/tʃʰwaː/
Fire
ᤔᤡ
/mi/
Sun
ᤊᤠᤶᤑ
/ɲaːmpʰʌ/
Moon
ᤗᤠᤒᤠ
/laːba/
Star
ᤂᤧᤛᤧᤔᤡᤰ
/kʰɛsɛmik/
Mother
ᤔᤠᤔᤠ
/maːmaː/
Father
ᤀᤠᤒᤠ
/aːbaː/
I
ᤀᤠᤱᤃᤠ
/aŋga/
You
ᤂᤧᤏᤧ᤹
/kʰɛnɛʔ/
Name
ᤔᤡᤱ
/miŋ/
Eye
ᤔᤡᤰ
/mik/
Hand
ᤜᤢᤰ
/huk/
Heart
ᤛᤡᤰ
/sik/
Love
ᤔᤡᤌᤡ
/mitʰi/
Tree
ᤛᤡᤱ
/siŋ/
House
ᤜᤡᤶ
/him/
Dog
ᤁᤣᤳᤇᤡ
/keptʃi/
Cat
ᤐᤡᤛᤡ
/pisi/
Eat
ᤆᤠᤔᤠ
/tʃaːmaː/
Drink
ᤌᤢᤴᤔᤠ
/tʰuŋmaː/
One
ᤌᤡᤰ
/tʰik/
Two
ᤏᤧᤳᤇᤡ
/nɛtɕːi/
Hello
ᤐᤣᤜᤢᤙᤣ
/peːhuːje/
Thank you
ᤐᤡᤍᤠᤱ
/pidaːŋ/
Good
ᤏᤢᤒᤠ
/nuba/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern) languages
| Meaning | Limbu | Sikkimese | Ladakhi | Dzongkha | Kurtöp | Thulung | Classical Tibetan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ᤇᤘᤠ /tʃʰwaː/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | भु /bʱu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | ᤔᤡ /mi/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | mi /mi/ | मे /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | ᤊᤠᤶᤑ /ɲaːmpʰʌ/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | नाम /nam/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | ᤗᤠᤒᤠ /laːba/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | lai /lai/ | लामी /lami/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Star | ᤂᤧᤛᤧᤔᤡᤰ /kʰɛsɛmik/ | སྐར་མ་ /kaːma/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | སྐར་མ /kaːma/ | karma /karma/ | सोर्लुग /sorlug/ | སྐར་མ /karma/ |
| Mother | ᤔᤠᤔᤠ /maːmaː/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | amai /amai/ | मामा /mama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | ᤀᤠᤒᤠ /aːbaː/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | apai /apai/ | पापा /papa/ | ཕ /pʰa/ |
| I | ᤀᤠᤱᤃᤠ /aŋga/ | ང་ /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | ngat /ŋat/ | गो /go/ | ང /ŋa/ |
| You | ᤂᤧᤏᤧ᤹ /kʰɛnɛʔ/ | ཁྱེད་རང་ /kʰeraŋ/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeːraŋ/ | ཁྱོད /tɕʰøː/ | wit /wit/ | गन /gana/ | ཁྱོད /tɕʰø/ |
| Name | ᤔᤡᤱ /miŋ/ | མིང་ /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | ming /miŋ/ | नोङ /noŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ |
| Eye | ᤔᤡᤰ /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mik /mik/ | मिक /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hand | ᤜᤢᤰ /huk/ | ལག /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | lak /lak/ | गुर /ɡur/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Heart | ᤛᤡᤰ /sik/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | सीक /siːk/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ |
| Love | ᤔᤡᤌᤡ /mitʰi/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡawa/ | ga /ɡa/ | सेय्यु /sejːu/ | དགའ་བ /ɡawa/ |
| Tree | ᤛᤡᤱ /siŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | सीङ /siːŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | ᤜᤡᤶ /him/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | khim /kʰim/ | खिम /kʰim/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕʰim/ |
| Dog | ᤁᤣᤳᤇᤡ /keptʃi/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /tɕi/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ख्ली /kʰliː/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ |
| Cat | ᤐᤡᤛᤡ /pisi/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | byila /bila/ | पुसी /pusi/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ |
| Eat | ᤆᤠᤔᤠ /tʃaːmaː/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | བཟའ /za/ | za /za/ | च- /tʃa/ | བཟའ /za/ |
| Drink | ᤌᤢᤴᤔᤠ /tʰuŋmaː/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | तुङ- /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ |
| One | ᤌᤡᤰ /tʰik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | thê /tʰe/ | कोङ /koŋ/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Two | ᤏᤧᤳᤇᤡ /nɛtɕːi/ | གཉིས་ /ɲiː/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | གཉིས /ɲiː/ | zon /zon/ | नि /ni/ | གཉིས /ɲiː/ |
| Hello | ᤐᤣᤜᤢᤙᤣ /peːhuːje/ | ཁམས་བཟང /kʰamsaŋ/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ་ལ /kuzu zaŋpo la/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | नमस्ते /nəməste/ | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས /tʂaʃi deleks/ |
| Thank you | ᤐᤡᤍᤠᤱ /pidaːŋ/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕe/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | धन्यवाद /dʱənjəbaːd/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰukdʑe tɕʰe/ |
| Good | ᤏᤢᤒᤠ /nuba/ | ལེགས་པོ /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ལེགས་ཤོམ /lekɕom/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | नुम्स /nums/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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