West Himalayan languages

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The West Himalayan languages ( West Himalayan for short ) form a subgroup of the Tibetan Burman languages , a primary branch of Sinotibetic . The 14 West Himalayan languages ​​are spoken by around 110,000 people in the western Himalayan region , especially in northern India in the districts of Kumaon-Garhwal, Lahul, Kulu and Kinnaur and in neighboring western Tibet . The most important single language is Kinnauri (Kinauri) with 50,000 speakers.

Classification: subunits and individual languages

  • Sinotibian
    • Tibeto Burmese
      • West Himalayan
        • Kumaon Garhwal
          • Byangsi-Chaudangsi (3 thousand speakers)
          • Darma (Darmiya) (2k)
          • Rongpo (12k)
          • Rangkas †
        • Lahul
          • Tinan (20 thousand)   dialects: Tinan, Rangloi, Gondla
          • Bunan (Gahri) (4k)
          • Manchad (Manchati, Chamba Lahuli, Pattani) (15 thousand)
        • Kulu
          • Kanashi (Malani) (1k)
        • Kinnar
          • Kinnauri (Kinauri) (50k)
          • Chitkuli (1 thousand)
          • Tukpa (Nesang) (700)
          • Thebörskad (Tebor, Shumcho, Sumtsu, Jangiam) (2 thousand)
          • Sungnam (500)
        • Zhangzhung
          • Zhangzhung †   ritual language of the Bon religion

The classification and speaker numbers are based on the web link below.

literature

  • Beckwith, Christopher I. (Ed.): Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. Brill, Leiden - Boston - Cologne 2002.
    • In it: Takeuchi, Tsuguhito: The Old Zhanzhung Manuscript Stein OR 8212/188.
  • Benedict, Paul K .: Sino-Tibetan. A Conspectus. Cambridge University Press 1972.
  • DeLancey, Scott: Sino-Tibetan Languages. In: Bernard Comrie (Ed.): The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press 1990.
  • Hale, Austin: Research on Tibeto-Burman Languages. Mouton, Berlin - New York - Amsterdam 1982.
  • Matisoff, James A .: Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. University of California Press 2003.
  • Saxena, Anju (Ed.): Himalayan Languages. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 2004.
  • Thurgood, Graham and Randy J. LaPolla: The Sino-Tibetan Languages. Routledge, London 2003.
  • Van Driem, George: Languages ​​of the Himalayas. Brill, Leiden 2001.

See also

Web links