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
20 core words in Limbu
Water
ᤇᤘᤠ
/tʃʰwaː/
Fire
ᤔᤡ
/mi/
Sun
ᤊᤠᤶᤑ
/ɲaːmpʰʌ/
Moon
ᤗᤠᤒᤠ
/laːba/
Mother
ᤔᤠᤔᤠ
/aːmaː/
Father
ᤀᤠᤒᤠ
/aːbaː/
Eat
ᤆᤠᤔᤠ
/tʃaːmaː/
Drink
ᤌᤢᤴᤔᤠ
/tʰuŋmaː/
Love
ᤔᤡᤌᤡ
/mitʰi/
Heart
ᤛᤡᤰ
/sik/
Tree
ᤛᤡᤱ
/siŋ/
House
ᤜᤡᤶ
/him/
Dog
ᤁᤣᤳᤇᤡ
/keptʃi/
Cat
ᤐᤡᤛᤡ
/pisi/
Hand
ᤜᤢᤰ
/huk/
Eye
ᤔᤡᤰ
/mik/
Hello
ᤐᤣᤜᤢᤙᤣ
/peːhuːje/
Thank you
ᤐᤡᤍᤠᤱ
/pidaːŋ/
One
ᤌᤡᤰ
/tʰik/
Good
ᤏᤢᤒᤠ
/nuba/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern) languages
| Meaning | Limbu | Thulung | Kurtöp | Sikkimese | Ladakhi | Dzongkha | Khams Tibetan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ᤇᤘᤠ /tʃʰwaː/ | भु /bʱu/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | ᤔᤡ /mi/ | मे /me/ | mi /mi/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | ᤊᤠᤶᤑ /ɲaːmpʰʌ/ | नाम /nam/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | ᤗᤠᤒᤠ /laːba/ | लामी /lami/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Mother | ᤔᤠᤔᤠ /aːmaː/ | मामा /mama/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | ᤀᤠᤒᤠ /aːbaː/ | पापा /papa/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ |
| Eat | ᤆᤠᤔᤠ /tʃaːmaː/ | च- /tʃa/ | za /za/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | བཟའ /za/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | ᤌᤢᤴᤔᤠ /tʰuŋmaː/ | तुङ- /tʰuŋ/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ |
| Love | ᤔᤡᤌᤡ /mitʰi/ | सेय्यु /sejːu/ | ga /ɡa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡawa/ | དགའ་པོ /ɡapo/ |
| Heart | ᤛᤡᤰ /sik/ | सीक /siːk/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང་ /ɲiŋ/ |
| Tree | ᤛᤡᤱ /siŋ/ | सीङ /siːŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | ᤜᤡᤶ /him/ | खिम /kʰim/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ |
| Dog | ᤁᤣᤳᤇᤡ /keptʃi/ | ख्ली /kʰliː/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /tɕi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ |
| Cat | ᤐᤡᤛᤡ /pisi/ | पुसी /pusi/ | byila /bila/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ |
| Hand | ᤜᤢᤰ /huk/ | गुर /ɡur/ | lak /lak/ | ལག /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Eye | ᤔᤡᤰ /mik/ | मिक /mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hello | ᤐᤣᤜᤢᤙᤣ /peːhuːje/ | नमस्ते /nəməste/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | ཁམས་བཟང /kʰamsaŋ/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ་ལ /kuzu zaŋpo la/ | ཨ་རོ /aro/ |
| Thank you | ᤐᤡᤍᤠᤱ /pidaːŋ/ | धन्यवाद /dʱənjəbaːd/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰukdʑe tɕʰe/ |
| One | ᤌᤡᤰ /tʰik/ | कोङ /koŋ/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Good | ᤏᤢᤒᤠ /nuba/ | नुम्स /nums/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ལེགས་པོ /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ལེགས་ཤོམ /lekɕom/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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