Nubri language

Nubri
Kutang Bhotia, Larkye
ནུབ་རི, लार्क्या भोटे
Native toNepal
Native speakers
2,000 (2001 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Lho
  • Sama
  • Prok
None
Language codes
ISO 639-3kte
Glottolognubr1243
ELPNubri
Nubri is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Geographic distribution of Tibetic languages of Nepal (including Nubri)

Nubri (Tibetan: ནུབ་རི; Devanagari: लार्क्या भोटे) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by about 2000 ethnically Tibetan people living in Nubri Valley in northern Central Nepal,[2] upper Gorkhā District of Gandaki Province.[3] Nubri has at least three dialects as typified by the Prok, Lho and Sama village varieties.[4] Nubri is largely undocumented and undescribed, with the exception of a lexicon.[1][5] Nubri is perhaps most closely related to neighbouring Tsum language and the Kyirong variety of Tibetan spoken just across the border in Tibet. It has also been claimed to be closely related to Gyalsumdo. Like these languages it is tonal and shares many Tibetic grammatical features, but is uniquely different in many ways.

The Nubri language project started in 2017 at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) with the aim of studying and documenting this language. Recent work includes studies of the case marking[6] and tone[7][8] as well as a valley-wide sociolinguistic survey which confirmed its classification as "definitely endangered."[9][10] Building from this, a recent effort towards language maintenance involved initiating community discussions about a writing system for Nubri. This was carried out in May 2019 in conjunction with a cataract clinic funded by the same HKU Knowledge Exchange grant (PI Cathryn Donohue).

  1. ^ a b Nubri at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Glottolog 3.3 - Lho". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  3. ^ "Did you know Nubri is threatened?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  4. ^ Donohue, Cathryn (2019) A comparison of linguistics minorities in Hong Kong and Nepal. Invited presentation at the University of Chicago Workshop on Linguistic Minorities in Asia. 23 March 2019. https://www.uchicago.hk/events/workshop-on-linguistic-minorities-in-asia/
  5. ^ Dubi Nanda Dhakal (2018). A Nubri Lexicon. Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783862888597. OCLC 1023376430.
  6. ^ Donohue, Cathryn (2018). "Case marking in Nubri". Nepalese Linguistics. 33: 28–33. doi:10.3126/nl.v33i1.41078. S2CID 244879992.
  7. ^ Donohue, Cathryn and Mark Donohue (2018) Tone in Nubri. Paper presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of Nepal.
  8. ^ Donohue, Cathryn; Donohue, Mark (2019). "The complexities of tone in Sama Nubri". Nepalese Linguistics. 34: 18–25. doi:10.3126/nl.v34i1.41161. S2CID 244888196.
  9. ^ Evans, Lisa (2011-04-15). "Endangered languages: the full list". the Guardian. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
  10. ^ Donohue, Cathryn (2019). "A preliminary sociolinguistic survey of Nubri Valley". Nepalese Linguistics. 34: 10–17. doi:10.3126/nl.v34i1.41160. S2CID 244891521.