Nar Phu language

Nar Phu
Native to	Nepal
Region	Manang district
Native speakers	600 (2011)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tamangic Manang Nar Phu
Dialects	Nar (Lower Nar) Phu (Upper Nar)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	npa
Glottolog	narp1239[2]

Nar Phu, or ’Narpa, is a Sino-Tibetan variety spoken in the two villages of Nar and Phu, in the Valley of the Nar Khola in the Manang district of Nepal. It forms a dialect continuum with Manang and may be intelligible with it; however, the Nar and Phu share a secret language to confound Gyasumdo and Manang who would otherwise understand them.^[1]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ
Low	a	ɑ

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	ʈ		k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
Affricate	unaspirated		ts		tɕ
	aspirated		tsʰ		tɕʰ
Fricative			s		ɕ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Lateral	voiced		l
	voiceless		l̥
Rhotic	voiced		ɲ
	voiceless		r̥
Approximant		w			j	p

Tones

Nar Phu distinguishes three tones: high falling, high level, low rising murmured, and mid/low falling murmured.

References

1. Nar Phu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Nar Phu". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links

• The Nar-Phu Language & People