Tamang (language)


Tamang is a term used to collectively refer to a dialect cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal, some parts of Assam and North East Region. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang and other Tamang languages varies between 81% to 63%. For comparison, lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese, is estimated at 89%. Tamang likely split from the Tibetan languages some time before the 7th century.

Dialects

Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility.
The Tamang language is the most widely spoken Sino-Tibetan language in Nepal.

Geographical distribution

Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang.
Eastern Tamang
Southwestern Tamang
Western Tamang
Eastern Gorkha Tamang
Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include:
Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a mark.

Tones

Four tones occur as high falling, mid-high level, mid-low level, very low.

Writing system

Tamangic languages use Tam-Yig which is similar to Tibetan scripts and Devanāgarī. In many situations, however, Tamang is written in Devanāgarī proper.