थुलुङ

Thulung

Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Western)

FamilySino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Western) Speakers~33K ScriptDevanagari CountriesNepal (Solukhumbu, Khotang, Okhaldhunga) Official inNo (Nepali is sole official); recognized indigenous (Janajati) Vitalityvulnerable ISO 639-3tdh

Thulung is a Western Kiranti Sino-Tibetan language of the Solu-Khumbu and adjoining districts of eastern Nepal. The Thulung Rai are one of the constituent ethnolinguistic groups of the Kiranti (Rai) macrocluster, which forms a major component of Nepal's indigenous (Adivasi-Janajati) population. Allen (1975) "Sketch of Thulung Grammar" was the first systematic linguistic study; Lahaussois (2002) is the modern reference. Distinguished by complex polypersonal verb agreement and rich grammatical evidentiality.

Where it is spoken

20 core words in Thulung

Water

भु

/bʱu/

Fire

मे

/me/

Sun

नाम

/nam/

Moon

लामी

/lami/

Mother

मामा

/mama/

Father

पापा

/papa/

Eat

च-

/tʃa/

Drink

तुङ-

/tʰuŋ/

Love

सेय्यु

/sejːu/

Heart

सीक

/siːk/

Tree

सीङ

/siːŋ/

House

खिम

/kʰim/

Dog

ख्ली

/kʰliː/

Cat

पुसी

/pusi/

Hand

गुर

/ɡur/

Eye

मिक

/mik/

Hello

नमस्ते

/nəməste/

Thank you

धन्यवाद

/dʱənjəbaːd/

One

कोङ

/koŋ/

Good

नुम्स

/nums/

Sources

Words compared

Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Western) languages

Meaning ThulungLadakhiLimbuKurtöpSikkimeseKhams TibetanBalti
Water भु /bʱu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ᤇᤘᤠ /tʃʰwaː/ khwe /kʰwe/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/
Fire मे /me/ མེ /me/ ᤔᤡ /mi/ mi /mi/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/
Sun नाम /nam/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ᤊᤠᤶᤑ /ɲaːmpʰʌ/ ningpe /niŋpe/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/
Moon लामी /lami/ ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ ᤗᤠᤒᤠ /laːba/ lai /lai/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/
Mother मामा /mama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ᤔᤠᤔᤠ /aːmaː/ amai /amai/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/
Father पापा /papa/ ཨ་པ /apa/ ᤀᤠᤒᤠ /aːbaː/ apai /apai/ ཨ་པ /apa/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/
Eat च- /tʃa/ /za/ ᤆᤠᤔᤠ /tʃaːmaː/ za /za/ /za/ /za/ /za/
Drink तुङ- /tʰuŋ/ འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ ᤌᤢᤴᤔᤠ /tʰuŋmaː/ thung /tʰuŋ/ འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/
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