Sunwar language

Sunwar
Region Nepal, India, Bhutan
Native speakers
38,000 (2011)[1]
Dialects
Sunuwar proper
Language codes
ISO 639-3 suz
Glottolog sunw1242[2]
Sunuwar greeting

Sunwar, Sunuwar, or Kõits (कोँइच; kõica; other spellings are Koinch and Koincha) is a Kiranti language spoken in Nepal by the Sunwar people. It was first comprehensively attested by the Himalayan Languages Project. It is also known as Kõits Lo (कोँइच लो ; kõica lo), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोँइच ; kirā̃tī-kõica), Mukhiya (मुखिया ; mukhiyā).[3][4]

Geographical distribution

Sunwar is spoken in the following locations of Nepal (Ethnologue).

Vocabulary

Seu+wa+la (Sewala)

Sunuwar English
Namsewal Namaste
Seu (Respect) / (Greeting) / I bow to you
Maar What
Dohpachaa How to
Dohshow How much
Dohmoh How big
Go I
Gopuki We are
Ge You (informal)
Gepukhi You are (informal)
Goi You (formal)
GoiPuki You are (formal)
Daarshow Beautiful
MaDarshow Ugly

Area

Sunwar is spoken in villages in the districts of Ramechap and Okhaldhunga, about 120 kilometers east of Kathmandu.[4]

Writing systems

Though Sunwar is most commonly written with the Devanagari script, a native writing system, Jenticha, has seen limited use since the 1940s.

Numerals and alphabet (Devanagari)

Numerals

1ichi/kaa 2ni/nishi 3sa/saam 4le 5nga
6ruku/roku 7chani 8sasi 9van 10gau

Vowels

a ā i ī u ū
e ai o au ang aha

Consonants

ka kha ga gha ṅa ca cha ja jha
ña ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa ta tha da
dha na pa pha ba bha ṭa ya ra
la va śa ca sa ha व्हhha

References

  1. Sunwar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sunuwar". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Ager, Simon. "Jenticha alphabet, and the Sunuwar language". Omniglot. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  4. 1 2 Borchers, Dörte (2008). A grammar of Sunwar : descriptive grammar, paradigms, texts and glossary ([Online-Ausg.]. ed.). Leiden: Brill. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9789004167094.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.