Sherpa (language)

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sherpa

Spoken in

Nepal , China , India
speaker around 85,000 to 150,000 according to different sources
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639-3

xsr

Sherpa ( ཤེར པཱ , Devanagari script शेर्पा ; also Sharpa , Sharpa Bhotia , Xiaerba , Serwa ) is a language that  is mainly spoken by the Sherpa in the central and southern Himalayas - there in parts of Nepal and the border regions of China and India becomes.

It goes back to a Tibetan dialect that was spoken in the Tibetan province of Kham in the 15th century . From then on, it has developed independently for around 500 years. More recently she has been under the external influence of the Nepali and English languages , from which she has adopted a number of words.

The information on the number of speakers varies considerably. Ethnologue names a total of 86,200 speakers worldwide, 50,000 of them in Nepal (as of 2000), 30,700 in India (as of 1994) and 800 in China (as of 2000). In contrast, a census showed that in 2001 almost 130,000 people speak Sherpa as their mother tongue in Nepal alone . In the same year, Indian censuses found around 18,300 speakers in India, including around 14,000 in the state of Sikkim and 2,900 in the state of West Bengal ; in all cases Sherpa was the mother tongue. Based on the census data, the number of speakers in Nepal developed inconsistently: in 1952/54 around 70,100 speakers were counted, in 1961 it was around 84,200, in 1971 around 79,200 and in 1981 around 73,500. The next time it was recorded in 1991, the number jumped to around 121,800, and in 2001 again to 129,800. In India, the number of speakers increased by around 2,000 compared to the 1981 and 1991 censuses.

Sherpa is a non-written language. A widely accepted convention for textualization does not exist. Therefore it is not possible to translate it into the Latin alphabet . The spelling is usually created by simulating the spoken sounds and can therefore deviate from other spellings. There are efforts to develop a written form of Sherpa. One of the suggestions is to use the Tibetan script for this, since Sherpa has its origins in Tibetan. However, very few Sherpas can use this script. There is a tendency to fix Sherpa in Devanagari, especially among younger people . Like the Latin alphabet , however, this system of symbols has the disadvantage that it cannot represent all the sounds in the language.

See also

literature

  • Lhakpa Doma Sherpa, Chhiri Tendi Sherpa (Salaka), Karl-Heinz Krämer (Tsak): Sherpa Conversation & Basic Words . Ratna Books, Kathmandu 2006, ISBN 99933-58-02-9 ( sherwa.de [PDF; 1,2 MB ; accessed on June 17, 2011]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Lhakpa Doma Sherpa, Chhiri Tendi Sherpa (Salaka), Karl-Heinz Krämer (Tsak): Sherpa Conversation & Basic Words . S. 4 .
  2. ↑ Sherpa. In: Ethnologue . Retrieved June 19, 2011 .
  3. ^ Government of Nepal. Ministry of Health & Population (Ed.): Nepal Population Report 2007 . ( mohp.gov.np ( Memento from November 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) ( MS Word ) [accessed June 17, 2011]).
  4. ^ S. Ganesh Baskaran: Linguistic Survey of India . Ed .: Government of India. Ministry of Home Affairs. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Section 3. Sherpa, p. 149–151 ( censusindia.gov.in (PDF; 410 kB) [accessed October 7, 2012]).
  5. ↑ PART B: Distribution of the 100 Non-Scheduled Languages-India / States / Union Territories - 2001 Census. Government of India. Ministry of Home Affairs. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, accessed June 19, 2011 .
  6. ^ Yogendra P. Yadava: Population Monograph of Nepal . Ed .: Government of Nepal. National Planning Commission Secretariat. Central Bureau of Statistics. Volume I, Chapter 4. Language, p. 141 . cbs.gov.np ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ; PDF; 140 kB) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cbs.gov.np
  7. ↑ Growth of Non-Scheduled Languages ​​- 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001. ( Memento from September 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Government of India. Ministry of Home Affairs. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India
  8. ↑ James F. Fisher: Sherpas: reflections on change in Himalayan Nepal . University of California Press, 1990, ISBN 0-520-06941-2 , Note on Orthography and Sherpa Names, pp. XV ff .