Thakali language

Thakali
थकाली
Native toNepal
Ethnicity12,000 Thakali (2021 census)[1]
Native speakers
4,200 (2002–2021 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Thakali
  • Tangbe
  • Tetang
  • Chuksang
Devanagari (modern)[2]
Tibetan script (historical)[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
ths – Thakali
skj – Seke
Glottologthak1245  Thakali
seke1240  Seke
ELPThakali
 Seke (Nepal)[4]

Thakali is a Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal spoken by the Thakali people, mainly in the Myagdi and Mustang Districts. Its dialects have limited mutual intelligibility.

Seke (Serke, Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang) is sometimes considered a separate language.[1] Other names and dialect names are Barhagaule, Marpha, Panchgaunle, Puntan Thakali, Syang, Tamhang Thakali, Thaksaatsaye, Thaksatsae, Thaksya, Tukuche, Yhulkasom.[5] Seke (Serke) is spoken in the villages of Tangbe, Tetang, Chuksang, Chaile, and Gyakar in Mustang District, northern Nepal. Martine Mazaudon has documented the Tangbe dialect of Seke as spoken by an expatriate speaker in Paris.[6] Honda (2002) also documented two other dialects of Seke, Tetang and Chuksang.[7]

  1. ^ a b c Thakali at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
    Seke at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Vinding, Michael (January 10, 1998). The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography. Serindia Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780906026502 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Manzardo, Andrew E. "Impression management and economic growth: the case of the Thakalis of Dhaulagiri zone" (PDF). himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk.
  4. ^ Endangered Languages Project data for Seke (Nepal).
  5. ^ "OLAC resources in and about the Thakali language". www.language-archives.org.
  6. ^ Mazaudon, Martine. 2023. The name of the Se(r)ke language and the reconstruction of a final -s in proto-TGTM (Tamangish). 26th Himalayan Languages Symposium, 4-6 September 2023. Paris: INALCO.
  7. ^ Honda, Isao. 2002. Seke phonology: a comparative study of three Seke dialects. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25(1): 191-210.