Most of The Essays in This Anthology Have Observed Change

Most of the essays in this anthology have observed change, i.e.
the
transformation of identity amongst the Kiranti people in the rugged hills of
eastern Nepal. Their ethnic, linguistic, cultural and sociopolitical metamorphosis A Focus on Kiranti-Kõits
seems like that of Gregor Samsa's physical metamorphosis in Franz Kafka's
fiction. All their original ethno-identity has been metamorphosed into exo(ethno)
-nyms like Mukhiya (Mukhia, Sun(u)war, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar, Surel), Rai
(Jimee, Jimi), Subba and Dewan (Majhiya) and so on. Almost for 200 years of
service (since the Anglo-Nepal War 1814-16) for the British Queen, Country,
People and the Union Jack, they have another new metamorphosis of identity,
e.g., the imperial term 'Gurkha' from Gorakhnath and Gorkha(li). Recently, a
road's neonym has also been born as 'Gurkha Road' at Blandford Forum, UK.
Their linguistic identity is also metamorphosed into Indo-Aryan Nepali
(formerly known as Khas, Parbate or sometimes Khariboli) and obviously the
'Gurkha Road' generation will tomorrow transform themselves into British
English. Back home to the hills, it is reported that 73% of the Kiranti-Kõits
speakers have lost their beautiful mother tongue; while the remaining 27%
speakers are, also gradually disowning mainly due to the thinning sociolinguistic
ecology. There are many such examples amongst other ethnic communities in the
hilly regions of Nepal from east to west. Correspondingly, their cultural-religious
faiths and practices such as shamanism, local pantheism and pantheons too have
been transforming into the powerful ones mainly yielding economic gains. Their
marginalized sociopolitical role, if any too has no sufficient voice to make a
difference in those spheres of nation till this day. Thus, this anthology is an –emic
tale (narrated from –emic perspective) on the vanishing ethnicity, languages and
cultures of Nepal or metaphorically that of Gregor Samsa. My role as Grete Samsa
(sister of Gregor) here is to narrate those vanishing but caring tales of the
metamorphosed subaltern IPs in Nepal.
Lal-Shyãkarelu Rapacha
Lal-Shyãkarelu Rapacha
9 78 9937 2 16708
Contemporary Essays on

Vanishing Ethnicity, Cultures Published by
and Languages of Nepal
A Focus on KirantiKõits
Research Institute for Kirãtology
................................................................................................................................
G P O Box: 5569
Kathmandu, Nepal

© Copyright
Author 2009

First published AD 2009
Yalamba (Yele) Thotse 5069
Vikram Samvat 2066
Nepal Samvat 1130
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the
purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be
LalShyãkarelu Rapacha, PhD reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

For information email to
kiranti.muru@hotmail.com
shyakarelurapacha@yahoo.com
kiranti.rapachalal@gmail.com
Contemporary Essays on
Vanishing Ethnicity, Cultures and Languages of Nepal
A Focus on KirantiKõits
ISBN 978 9937 21670 8
Logo concept and design
Lal Rapacha, Uttam Katicha and Sameer Kyabacha (Mukhiya)
Typing/layout
Research Institute for Kirãtology Lal Rapacha/Sahadev Maharjan
Kathmandu, Nepal Cover concept, illustration and design

Lal Rapacha, Lokpriya Khanal and Debendra Khapung
Maa Tara Offset Press
Jorpati, Kathmandu
Tel: 4912692
Printed in Nepal
Contents
................................................................................................................................

Preface vi
for Abbreviations, Terms and Symbols used xiv
My and our tami Animon Rapacha, tau Aristocha Humboldt Plates xvi
Rapacha Figures xvi
and the rest Kiranti future generations, Tables xvi
who will one day certainly ask themselves about their Boxes xvii
identity
P A R T O N E
Also in memoriam Ethnoidentity and Sociopolitical Crisis 168
of our Kiranti ancestors 1 Sunkosi’s phantom in ethnoidentity 2
Sirijanggahang Thebe (Rupihang Raya), 2 Seeking the Sunuwar identity 5
Lalsor Sendang, 3 Toni Hagen misunderstood Sunuwar 10
Imanxing Chemjong, 4 Evidence for Sunuwar as Kiranti 14
Falgunanda Lingden, 5 Demystifying the myths of Sunuwar 28
Lasahang, Bajhang Limbu, Kangsore, 6 Saroza's SunuwarJirel revisited 31
Additional Chief Secy. RB RujichaMukhia, 7 Ethnofederalism on its deathbed 37
Naradmuni Thulung, Buddhikarna Kebang (Raya), 8 Mismatching antiques and identity 44
Devi Jẽ:ticha, Karna Jẽ:ticha et al. 9 KirantiKõits identity crisis 50

P A R T TW O
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Books are the windows through
Issues on Historical and Cultural Identity 69110
which the soul looks outside. 10 A look on Chemjong's contributions 70
A home without books is a room without windows. 11 Writing unwritten ethnohistory 71
No man has right to bring up his/her children 12 Past, present and future of KirantiKõits 74
without surrounding them with books 13 Ageold socioanthropology of Nepal 88
If s/he has no means to buy them, it is wrong to his/her family. 14 Guardian angels of Sakela Sili 91
15 Three deities in KirantiKõits lore 95
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 16 The restoration of Sakela Sili 97
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty 17 Semantic aspects of Salaku in Sunuwar 100
bloodless substitute for life.
Robert Louis Stevension, Virginibus Puerisque
PART THREE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Languages, Grammars, Criticism and Folklore 111276
18 Nepali language matters 112
19 A preliminary sociolinguistic Survey of Sunuwar 113
20 Language planning for peace building 126
21 Sunuwar as an endangered language 129
22 KirantiYamphu grammar's face 137
iv
23 Model of linguistic autonomy 140 Preface
24 Commercialization of lesserknown languages 143 ................................................................................................................................
25 Notes on the typology of TB Kiranti languages 146
26 Overcoming linguistic discrimination 170 In a sense, this anthology of essays is an ancillary
27 Moribund linguospecies of Nepal 173 publication to my research project 'KirantiBayung Grammar,
28 Gurkha's sleepwalk Nagarchi's madness 176 Texts and Lexicon' since the KirantiBayung spoken by less than
29 Lt. Sunuwar as KirantiKõits textbook 179 2 thousand speakers, is one of the vanishing languages of the
30 Poet Bhattachan's creative anarchism 190 eastern hills of Nepal due to sociopolitical and economic
31 Of understanding Kiranti grammars 193 pressures. Sociolinguistic survey on Bayung (Lee et al 2005),
32 Whisper on poetry and identity 201 however, clearly indicates that the language attitude and vitality
33 Ethnocentrism in BP Koirala's Sumnima 204 are still hopeful amongst the speakers irrespective of adverse
34 KirantiBayung language vitality 207 and monolithic language policy imposed during the Panchayati
35 Aspects of pedagogy in KirantiSunuwar textbooks 210 Raj till 1990. The post1990 situation also has not improved
36 On multitongues of Nepal 223 much better yet.
37 Case suffixes in KirantiKõits 225 My present research project has also been directly
38 Folklore studies in Nepal 239 complemented by last year's work IndoNepal Kiranti
39 Teaching KirantiKõits with lexicosyntactic approach 243 Bhashaharu [IndoNepal Kiranti Languages (2008)] which has
40 Kiranti unity in ethnofolklore 253 surveyed 27 Kiranti languages, their literature, vitality, creative
41 Vanishing languages and knowledge of Nepal 256 and literary activities including sociolinguistic ecology in Nepal
42 Inclusion through multilingual education 271 and across the border in northeast India. Most of the Kiranti

Appendices languages in contemporary Nepal except for some bigger
languages (see Appendix A) like Yakthung (Limbu), Kirawa
Appendix A: Genetically related Kiranti languages 274
(Bantawa) and Rodung (Chamling) have been facing the danger
Appendix B: Sikkim Government Gazette No. 60 275
of extinction mainly because of thinning sociolinguistic ecology.
Appendix C: Sikkim Government Gazette No. 141 276

The essays in the present anthology have discussed several
References 277303 factors responsible for the tapering sociolinguistic ecology of
Index of languages 304306 Nepal. In order to explicate such factors here, I have organized
Subject index 307313 this work in three parts, viz. Part One–Ethnoidentity and
Index of names 314322 Sociopolitical Crisis, Part Two–Issues on Historical and
Cultural Identity and Part Three–Languages, Grammars,
Criticism and Folklore. A total of 42 essays in three parts
written from –emic perspective after the mid 1990s and until
recently have been amalgamated in 'Contemporary Essays on
Vanishing Ethnicity, Cultures and Languages of Nepal:
a Focus on KirantiKõits' for exploring and highlighting the
local and the subaltern realities in Nepal not so important to the
mainstream sociopolitics, media and academia.
Most of these essays included here had appeared
previously in several dailies, journals, magazines, periodicals,
v vi
books in Nepal and India. Some of them are personal and some in ethnic identity in a multiethnic context of Nepal), dress,
impersonal some short in length and some long as well. behaviour and choice of space, whose effect depends on their
However, almost all of them though written in different span of recognition by other social beings.
time after the fall of 30 year longPanchayati Raj in the country, Those elements or markers help to create the boundaries
to some extent, are based on research of considerable degree that define similarities or differences between the marker
along with life experiences rather than purely literary essays wearer and the marker perceivers; their effectiveness depends
alone. on a shared understanding of their meaning. In a social context,
All these essays, therefore selected for this title have dealt misunderstandings can arise due to a misinterpretation of the
with several problematic and frustrating issues of indigenous or significance of specific markers. Equally, an individual can use
ethnic peoples ('nationalities' in NEFIN and NFDIN's adoption), markers of identity to exert influence on other people without
cultures and languages of Nepal in general and focused on the necessarily fulfilling all the criteria that an external observer
KirantiKõits people's endangerment of ethnicity, ethno might typically associate with such an abstract identity.
identity, languages and cultures in particular. Some sociologists examine 'social identity' from the
'Ethnicity' as such in some sense can be understood as perspective of social and historical changes. Postmodernists
belonging to a group that shares the same characteristics, such view it as a function of historical and cultural circumstances.
as country of origin, language, religion, ancestry and culture. To They argue that all aspects of social reality are actually social
some extent, it can be a matter of biological and historical fact constructions created by historical facts and these constructs
and that cannot be changed by the culture in which a person have real consequences upon the lives and behaviors of human
grows up. However, sometimes it is difficult to pin point a clear beings. Specifically, in the case of Nepal, manipulated myths
cut boundary. rather than "historical facts" have real consequences upon the
What is 'culture' then? Culture simply depicts what people lives and behaviours of the marginalized, excluded and
develop to enable them to adapt to their world, e.g. language downtrodden Indigenous Peoples or Nationalities.
including gestures, tools to enable them to survive and prosper, In general 'social identity' is how people(s) function within
customs and traditions that define values and organize social many different social situations and relate to a range of other
interactions, religious beliefs and rituals, and dress, art, and people. Social groups may involve family, ethnic communities,
music to make symbolic and aesthetic expressions. It cultural connections, nationality, friends and work. They are an
determines the practices and beliefs that become associated important and valued part of our daily life. How one sees
with an ethnic group and provides its distinctive identity. Again himself/herself in relation to our social groupings defines ones
in a multiethnic country like Nepal, often 'distinctiveness' is a social identity. We will here reiterate Buff and Diaro's stories of
matter of complexity to be observed easily due to several mainly sociocultural identity from Armstrong and Slaytor
factors. (2001: 58 and 90) as follows:
But then 'identity' for social anthropologists is a 'volatile,
flexible and abstract thing'. Its manifestations and the ways in Buffy's story
which it is exercised are often open to view. 'Identity' is made "I wish my parents had encouraged me to learn about my
evident through the use of elements or indicators such as culture. They occasionally took me to Chinese restaurants to
language (an interdisciplinary social scientist like Parker (1991: have fried icecream. Chinese, Vietnamese it was all the same
55 and 267) also has focused on 'language' as an element of to them. They never talked to me about the fact that I am
ethnic identity and as an indicator of the character of cultural Vietnamese. Maybe they could forget, but I couldn't because I
negotiation, however it cannot be used as a measure of change
vii viii
am yellow and they are white. It would have made a difference if crises have also been welldocumented in my work Nepalko
I had met someone who looked like me before the age of 15." Adivasi Kiranti Jati Serophero: Wallo, Majh ra Pallo Kirant
[The Sphere of Indigenous Kiranti People of Nepal: Near,
Dairo's story Central and Far Kirant] (2009 in press) and in IndoNepal
"My parents have tried to give my sister and I an Kiranti Bhashaharu [IndoNepal Kiranti Languages (2008)]
understanding of our culture in their own little ways. When I both written in Nepali.
was younger, we used to go to picnics with other families who Eight essays in Part Two have focused on the main theme
have adopted children from Colombia. Our house got its share of historical and cultural identity of the Kiranti ethno
of wall hangings and ornaments from Colombia. I always liked indigenous people from all three Kirant areas of the past–
having these bits and pieces around me. They were a reminder Wallo 'near/hither', Majh 'mid/central' and Pallo 'far' Kirant.
of my roots, and there for my sister and I. Sure, my parents got The essays in this part also address some shared historical and
them because they liked them, but I know that they got them so cultural identity problems by IPs (indigenous peoples) or
that there would be a piece of where I came from for myself." nationalities in the country in general. Cultural symbols of
The stories from Nepal also differ in their own ways. I am Salaku, Surom, Sed, Nimlo and Sakela have been brought to
here particularly concerned about the linguistic, social and introductory descriptive discourse along with ethnohistory and
ethnic identity including ethonyms of the voiceless Kiranti Imanxing Chemjong in this part before they disappear into
people of eastern Nepal– their languages, their cultures, their oblivion.
history and issues regarding their interrelated roots and observe Some long and some short essays on languages,
how their multiple identities have been metamorphosed and grammars, criticism, folklore and related issues have been
mainly affected by sociopolitical factors. included in Part Three. This part comprises twentyfive such
In Part One, I have included nine collected essays which essays dealing from lesserknown languages and their
have focused on the ethnic identity crisis of one particular group grammatical features, typology, endangerment, discrimination,
known as KirantiKõits in their autoethnonym including the textbook writing, literarycriticism, pedagogy, Kiranti folklore
federal system desired by several ethnic groups. The Kiranti characters, vanishing indigenous knowledge (IK) to
Kõits have several exonyms like Sunuwar, Sunwar, Bhujuwar, participatory inclusion of those unfortunate lots in nation
Pirthwar, Mukhiya, Mukhia, Marpache etc following many building through multilingual education.
misnomers in Hindu misinterpretations. Such misnomer To sum up, in most of these essays what I have observed is
constructs have had real consequences (viz. identity crisis) upon their change, i.e. the transformation of identity amongst the
their lives in Nepal, where 'Nepal' does not mean only a Kiranti people in those rugged hills of eastern Nepal. Their
country's name but also 'a high caste Hindu Brahman (>Bahun ethnic, linguistic, cultural and sociopolitical
born from Brahma's mouth)' and 'Nepali' (mainstream media metamorphosis seems like that of Gregor Samsa's physical
does not prefer the 'Nepalese' spelling) does not signify the metamorphosis in Franz Kafka's fiction. All their original
citizens of Nepal only but also 'the same Hindu untouchable ethnoidentity has been metamorphosed into exo(ethno)nyms
caste/Dalit' born from Brahma's feet. Till this dichotomy still like Mukhiya (Mukhia, Sun(u)war, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar, Surel),
persists, the critical condition of ethnoidentity and Rai (Jimee, Jimi), Subba and Dewan (Majhiya) and so on in
discriminations will also prolong. And also the ongoing debates Nepal and around the world. Almost for 200 years of service
of state restructuring in federal framework on the basis of (since the AngloNepal War 181416) for the British Queen,
ethnic peoples' identity has drawn less attention of the
Country, People and the Union Jack, they have another new
mainstream political parties– hence sociopolitical crisis. Such
metamorphosis of identity, e.g. the imperial term 'Gurkha' from
ix x
Gorakhnath and Gorkha(li). Recently, a road's neonym has also institute (University of Leipzig), Deutschland (Germany). Some
been born as 'Gurkha Road' at Blandford Forum, Dorset or other institutions from where I am benefitted directly or
'Gurkha Square' Fleet Hampshire, UK. indirectly are– National Foundation for Development of
Their linguistic identity also has metamorphosed into Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN), Nepal Federation of
IndoAryan Nepali (formerly known as Khas, Parbate or Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), Chumlung, Yayokkha,
sometimes Khariboli) and obviously the 'Gurkha Road' or Chumma, Kõitsbu, Kirãt Welfare Society (Kirãt Federation or
'Gurkha Square' generation(s) will tomorrow transform Bakulochana Movement), Central Library of Tribhuvan
themselves into British English. Back home to the hills, it is Univeristy, Kirtipur and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
reported that 73% of the KirantiKõits speakers have lost their Delhi.
beautiful mother tongue; while the remaining 27% are also Many scholarly individuals to whom I am indebted to are–
gradually giving it up mainly due to the thinning sociolinguistic Prof Dr Balthasar Bickel (my host professor, University of
ecology. This trend extends to several other ethnic hill Leipzig), Prof Dr Novel Kishor Rai (CNAS, Tribhuvan
communities, e.g. amongst the Gurung (Parker 1991) of University), Prof Nirmalman Tuladhar (CNAS, Tribhuvan
Siddhapokhari eastern Nepal. My own observation is in my own University), Associate Prof Vishnu S Rai (IOE, Tribhuvan
village Katunje and in Rumjatar, Okhaldhunga district, where University), poetnovelist and critic DB Gurung, Prof Dr
the Gurungs have given up their mother tongue. There are many Madhav Pokharel (CDL, Tribhuvan University), Dr Dörte
such examples amongst other ethnic communities in the hilly Borchers (Himalayan Languages Project, Leiden University),
regions of Nepal from east to west. Visiting Prof Sueyoshi-Ingrid Toba and Prof Dr Werner M Egli
Correspondingly, their culturalreligious faiths and (Universität Luzern). Lately, Associate Prof Dr Anne Parker
practices such as shamanism, local pantheism and pantheons (Naropa University, USA), a Fulbrighter mainly focused on
too have been transforming into the powerful ones mainly Tibet, eastern Nepal and South Asia has enlightened me by
yielding economic gains. Their marginalized sociopolitical role, providing her unpublished PhD work 'Multiethnic Interface in
if any too has no sufficient voice to make a difference in those Eastern Nepal: Culture Change in Sidha Pokhari' (1991) in PDF
spheres of nation till this day. This anthology is an –emic tale digital format promptly. I owe a debt of gratitude to her.
(from –emic perspective) on the vanishing ethnicity, languages I sincerely have to thank BagAyagyami Yalungcha, MA
and cultures of Nepal or metaphorically that of Gregor Samsa. (Linguistics, Kirtipur), MA (English, Ratna Rajya) and Prem
My role as Grete Samsa (sister of Gregor) here is to narrate Phyak, MEd (English, Tribhuvan University), MA (TESOL,
those vanishing but caring tales of the metamorphosed Institute of Education, University of London), for reading the
subalterns which readers and the future researchers will find it earlier manuscriptdrafts of this anthology and pinpointing its
worth listening and reading as well as beneficial for analyzing errors with an eagle eye. Er Shyan Kirat Yalungchha, MTech
how disowning occurs. Hopefully, these Gregor tales will amuse (Computer Science, NITTN), Dr J Homibhaba Fellow) also has
them. assisted me in computerrelated technical field. Sameer
In this effort many institutions and individuals have Kyabacha (Mukhiya) was also initially involved very temporarily
assisted me. My sincere acknowledgement and thanks first of in my efforts. Mokusu Kormocha, MA (IDCE, Clark University,
all, go to the AvH Stiftung (Foundation) for providing me the Worcester, Massachusetts, USA) had attached me some useful
opportunity of postdoctoral fellowship to carry out research on photographs for the purpose of this work. Samala Badacha, BA
a vanishing language like KirantiBayung of Nepal under the (Journalism and English Literature), Nila Yalungchha and again
broader field of study– Asian Studies, Asian Languages and Prem Phyak are my logistic supporters in Kathamadu, Nepal
Cultures and linguistics as its additional field and to my host while I am still engaged in my research works in Leipzig.
Sahadev Maharjan of Sahadev Computer Service, Kirtipur has
xi xii
professionally worked for page layout and Lokpriya Khanal and Abbreviations, Terms and Symbols used
Debendra Khapung have designed its cover. I extend my deep
appreciation to all of you. 1 = first person
Finally, I express my fatherly love to our children tami 2 = second person
Animon Rapacha, tau Aristocha Humboldt Rapacha for their 3 = third person
patience when I was entirely engaged in this work since I could AD = Anno Domini
not play fungames with them and go sightseeing in this adj = adjective
beautiful city of music and love– and also scarcely had time for adv = adverb
going to the Opera and the Theatre for enjoying orchestra in the AGT = agentive
later life's career home of Johann S Bach from 1723 to 1750. ALL = allative
And my sincere thanks go for this peaceful Bach city Leipzig and AUX = auxiliary
the Leipziger(in) for providing me their world class academic b. = born
ecology. BSN = Bible Society of Nepal
ca. = circa
CAUS = causative
LalShyãkarelu Rapacha CBS = Central Bureau of Statistics
Beethovenstr. 15 cf. = compare
Institute for Linguistics CNAS = Center for Nepal and Asian Studies
University of Leipzig conj = conjunction
04107 Leipzig DAT = dative
Deutschland (Germany) DU = dual
September 2009 ELJ = executive, legislative & judicial
ERG = ergative
EXT = existential
f/m (m/f) = female/male
GEN = genitive
HES = Higher Education Supplement
HON = honorific
IA = IndoAryan
IAS = Indian Administrative Service
i.e. = that is
IMP = imperative
INF= infinitive
INST = instrumental
INTER =interrogative
IP = Indigenous People
Kõits = autoethnoym for exonym Sunuwar/Mukhiya
L1 = first or native language
L2 = second or foreign language
LSN = Linguistic Society of Nepal
xiii xiv
Lt. = lieutenant § = section
Majh = mid(dle), central ŋ = ng
MAN = manner = morpheme break
Mongoloid = no connotation of 'Down syndrome' here ε = e
N/Nep. = Nepali ã = AN
n = noun ɂ = glottal stop
NFDIN = National Foundation for Development of Nationalities ā = A
NEFIN = Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities c = ts
NPST = nonpast ә = a
Pallo = far, thither ( ) = optional
p/c = personal communication ɽ = flap
PART = particle ƥ (pw) = implosive stop
PCPL = participle
ɓ (bw) = implosive stop
PL = plural
N = in orthography means (˜) nasal
prn = pronoun

PSN = possession
Plates
PST = past
Plate 1: KirantiKõits IP of eastern Nepal 5
PUR = purposive
Plate 2: Image ID: 1125293, Sunwar 45
QGO = Queen's Gurkha Officer
Plate 3: Image ID: 1125294 Sunwar female 46
REC = reciprocity
Plate 4: Image ID: 1125295 Sunwar family 46
Retd = retired
Plate 5: Trident painted on Guĩduwa and Turung 105
RG = RomanGorkhali
Plate 6: Lotus painted on Guĩduwa and Turung 105
SASON = Sociological/Anthropological Society of Nepal

SCS = Sikkim Civil Service
Figures
SEQ = sequential
Figure 1: Phylogenetic family tree of Kiranti languages 75
Sg or SG = singular
Figure 2: Human existence as envisaged in KirantiKõits
SIL = Summer Institute of Linguistics
Guĩduwa and Turung 106
SOAS = School of Oriental and African Studies
Figure 3: Intersecting isogloss and dialect areas of Kiranti
Tamu = autoethnoym of Gurung
Kõits 116
TB = TibetoBurman
Figure 4: Genetically related Kiranti languages 274
TEMP = temporal

Text source: forthcoming (Rapacha)
Tables
TKP= The Kathmandu Post
Table 1: Summary of Nepali influence and
TRN = The Rising Nepal
loan words in KirantiKõits 120
TU = Tribhuvan University
Table 2: The consonants of ProtoTibetoBurman 148
UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Table 3: Intransitive agreement affixes in
Organization
Gyarong (Suomo dialect) 150
Wallo = near, hither
Table 4: Transitive verb affixes in Gyarong
/ / = phonemic/broad transcription
(Suomo dialect) 151
< > = morpheme
xvi
xv
Table 5: A and B. Vowel and consonant phonemes of
KirantiBayung 155
KirantiKõits 156
KirantiHayu 157
some Kiranti languages 158
Table 9: Case markers in KirantiKõits 236
Table 10: Case marking suffixes in Sunwar (Kõits) from
Borchers 237

Boxes
Box 1: Language and ethnicity 40
Box 2: Lt. Kyabacha (Sunwar) as chairperson in bold 182
Box 3: A dismal emessage conveyed to Hong Kong 184
Box 4: First two news on KirantiKõits Lo 186
Box 5: KirantiKõits identity and
glory conveyed to Hong Kong 187
Box 6: Second news on KirantiKõits Lo 188
Box 7: Regional distribution of Kiranti languages in
eastern Nepal 200
Box 8: The number of Nepal’s minority languages % 268
xvii
Ethnoidentity and Sociopolitical Crisis | 1 2 | V ani s h i n g Et h n i c it y, Cu l t u re s an d L an g u ag es o f Ne p al
1 Sunkosi’s phantom in ethnoidentity
In a sunny LeipzigWednesdaymorning of June 4, 2008,
my eyes fell over page 3 of The Kathmandu Post’s notice
regarding ethnicity nomenclature and its identity crisis. I
personally would like to thank the Post team and Kantipur
Publications for bringing such sensitive issues into public notice
and resolve ethnicity vs. caste conflicts at least among its
esteemed readers at a time when sociopolitical dynamics of
ethnoidentity is at the centre of public debate, whether or not
federal republic of Nepal along ethnic and linguistic lines.
Nevertheless, the 'notice' instead of clarifying what it tries
to mean, is erroneous in itself. I myself as a researcher and
representative of that particular Kiranti ethnoindigenous
community could not understand “the equal pronunciation” of
the terms spelled as Sunuwar or Sunwar vs. Sunar in that
notice. Sunuwar is Sunuwar for ethnicity’s sake; Sunar is Sunar
for Hindu caste’s sake, meaning "untouchable Dalit caste" and
means neither more nor less. There is no similarity or confusion
between orthography and pronunciation. The terms 'Sunuwar'
and 'Sunar' are different, signifying ethnicity vs. caste polarity
respectively.
Clearly, the former in ethnosociology is one of the Kiranti
ethnolinguistic communities of eastern Nepal traditionally
called Wallo 'hither, near' Kirant by the past invaders; whereas
the latter in Hindu sociology signifies one of the Hindu castes
having its roots in profession with gold works e.g., ornament
makers. They are not homophones either. Conversely, some
Nepali lexicographers in the past had ignorantly given entry in
dictionary for that Hindubias lexeme as Swornakar to mean
the synonymous of Sunwar. Toni Hagen also blundered for such
Hindubias semantics in 1961 Deutsch (German) and 1980
English versions of his controversial book–Nepal: The Kingdom
in the Himalayas.
This fateful exonym ‘Sunwar’ (if not 'Bhujuwar' and
'Pirthwar') to identify one of the Kiranti linguistic communities
was first etymologically traced by the QGO E. Vansittart in
1896. QGO Vansittart writes, “Sunwars or Sunpars, also called
Mukhias: The terms 'Sunwar' and 'Sunpar' are said to be
derived from the fact of these men residing either on the west or
east of Sun Kosi river Sunwar …West of Sun Kosi, Sunpar … individual and so on. Besides these aspects of semantics, these
East (or across) Sun Kosi”. Now, it is quite clear that the clanonyms are important morphologically in the Mother
exoethnonym ‘Sunwar’ and exoglossonym ‘Sunwar’ for their Tongue, which is the only identity of the tribe or ethnic group as
native tongue, said arbitrarily to have etymologicalgenesis to Mongoloid (Tibetonoid) or TibetoBurman speakers. These
this neoIndoAryan hydronym Sun =‘gold’ and Kosi =‘river’ clanonyms are also typical for clanexogamous marriage system
does not seem empirically valid argument. in Kiranti sociology.
Historically, the river name ‘hydronym’ for many centuries Mostly worshipped cultpantheons in their cultural and
after the fall of Kiranti dynasty from the Nepal valley and before religious practices are Surom, Nimlo, Yabre, Meselmi and Sida.
the ShahKhas colonization and hegemony of eastern Nepal was They call Pidarnamdar for worshipping in animishamanism
known as Ngakuma in KirantiBayung as well as in Kiranti concepts. Nhaso is their religious priest. Their shaman is known
Sunwar tongue. Then, a certain group of Kiranti people residing as Põibo (< Bonbo) for male and Gyami female. Their Mundum
on the westbank of Sunkosi were imposed a false identity as recitation starts from “Shang…shooo…” in all forms of worship.
Sunwar by the invaders. Like their original hydronym They dance two types of Shyãdar Shyil viz., Phol and Saliwa to
Ngakuma, their autoethnonym KirantiKõits was also gone observe two main cycles of season annually. The practice of
with the wind. Kirant Mundum, animishamanism once in the prehistoric ages
Thousands of KirantiKõits souls buried with false known as Bonism, can be traced back to Neolithic Yangshao
identity during those hegemonic days have today with the birth culture of the Yellow River valley. Their ethnoattire—
of new republic of Nepal, been humiliated by the unjustifiable Phyanarelphu and Klatori (see plate 1) are unique in Shyãdar
ghost of 'Sun', 'Sunar' and 'Kosiwar'. Those ‘Mukhi(y)a(s)’ Shyil or in some formal occasions.
(equivalent titles: Subba, Rai, Jimi, Dewan, Majhiya), in those Their mother tongue in its autoglossonym known as Kõits
politically suppressive days, by the same analogy had invented Lo is genetically classified in SinoTibetan family of Tibeto
Bhujuwar and Pirthwar also. Some of them along with Burman subfamily in Western Kiranti group of eastern Nepal.
‘Mukhiya’ still exist with BhujuwarPirthwar identity in trans Past and recent studies have indicated its very close sisterly
IndoNepal border. The prerepublic of Nepal under the banner relationship with the KirantiBayung, Wambule, Jerung,
of NFDIN had divided them in twohalves with another nym Khaling and KirantiThulung spoken in Okhaldhunga and
Surel is also bogus. Solukhumbu districts respectively. The KirantiKõits language
In reality, the sociopolitically and sociolinguistically was officially recognized as one of the Regional or Official
suppressed Kiranti linguistic community in its anthropological Languages of Sikkim in 1996. Recently in Nepal, the Curriculum
map belongs to Mongoloid (or Tibetonoid, cf. Chatterji 1974: Development Centre, Sanothimi has produced primary school
textbooks up to standard two for KirantiKõits children in
20 [orig. 1951], Debnath and Chaudhuri 2006) stock. Their
mother tongue education series.
autoethnony is Kõits meaningfully derived from their native
tongue kõitsa ‘to guide, show’ as verb and Kõits as noun is To sum up, our esteemed Post readers, any other writers,
‘guide or leader’. This original ethnonym nomenclature was journalists, researchers or noticeproviders having read this
replaced by the terrible exonym around when the native much of information about the KirantiKõits ethnolinguistic
hydronym Ngakuma was forbidden in favour of Sunkosi. community of eastern Nepal now should not again be terrified
or even trivialized by the phantom of Sunkosi river in their
Their typical clanonyms e.g., Binicha, Kormocha, Mulicha,
ethnoidentity.
Rapacha, Gongrocha, Tholocha, Susucha, Thangracha, Rupacha
etc have semanticloads in their own native tongue associated to
aponyms, culture, individual skills, attitude or attribute of an
though my papa and the only elder brother have been missing
here in India since the late 1960s. And I proudly can say that
this is the happiest moment of my life. However, at the same
time I am crying and I feel insecure because we are standing on
our own linguistic and cultural debris. Having "everything" we
have "nothing". We have no socioanthropological identity as
such. We hardly have our history and tribal identity. We almost
have become fairy tales. My popo5 Raghubir RujichaMukhia’s
recollection6 of his teachers’ remarks were absolutely true
whatever they remarked fifty years ago.
Our lossofidentify time and again makes me so sad. We
are the neglected people of our Lord Creator as the Jews claim
Plate 1: KirantiKõits IP of eastern Nepal to be the chosen ones. There is no Poetic Justice for whatever
Source: Kirant Sunuwar Welfare Society (Kõitsbu), UK, 2008 and has been written on our tribe by Dahichiure7 scholars. There
Google search 2007 are several of them who in one way or the other have
misinterpreted us. They are rather castebound politicians than
scholars. I have categorized them by giving some Nepali
adjectives as follows in alphabetical order.
4 August 2008, Monday, Leipzig They are: Nimnashreni scholar (Adhikari 1999), Sunare
Source: Online Nepali Literature Forum, UK, 16 October 2008, scholarEditor (Ananda 1987), Magare scholars (Bista 1967 and
Thursday Chemjong 1967), Sunare scholar (Hagen 1961), Gurungkure
Magarkure scholar (Anon. 1965, Ministry of Defence), Kinnare
scholar (Pokharel 1994), Sunare scholar (Subedi et al. 1994)
2 Seeking the Sunuwar identity and Okhar Pangre8 scholar (Vansittart 1906). Most of these
scholars are either bias or ignorant of the KirantiSunuwar
Eko tõnga Tõkucha,
tribe. Moreover, there are some other almale9 scholars whom I
Nelle Kõits ngawaloab nu ngamiyumpipiki do not want to mention here.
Dzemlathũ1 I always disagree with a rule of thumb unless one has
This is my unforgettable moment to address2 my kiths and scientific explanations and authentic evidence for proving what
kin, who have gathered here in Darjeeling today from several s/he claims to be true. A modern KirantiSunuwar lad or lass
parts of India and Nepal. Although I am a passerby guest, I feel educated in an English medium school around India or abroad
lucky enough to be with you here at this moment. I am lucky in may naturally comment, “Oh! This man really must be crazy
the sense that the Sunuwar/Mukhia Society of Darjeeling about his ethnicity. Why do we need all these identity stuff in
(formerly Dorjeling) for the first time came to my knowledge the 21st century?” One may easily dismiss and disclose the topic.
since its inception in 1980. But it is not the question of craze. This has to do with existence
of its own sort. The 21st century, besides being the age of
This has happened only after two decades’ waiting by Information Technology is also the age of ethnocide and
accident or by the grace of Shyãkarelu3 and Hemachiri4. Right linguistic genocide.
now I feel quite secure as a family member amongst you even
Of course, you might have read in your English medium Once, my Popo (in KirantiKõits means ‘father’s elder
schools about Moses, Christ, Marx, Sigmund Freud, Einstein brother’) in Gangtok advised me not to expect too much from
and another living man Noam Chomsky. You may have known the KirantiSunuwars. I guess, my Popom (‘m’ marks feminine)
about their contributions to the human civilization in different must have given her feedback to him and me. I never have
phases of the world history. If you ask me who they are, their expected too much of material gaining from my kith and kin.
identity is First, they belong to Jew’s family and only then to After all, man does not live by bread alone. Matter without
the world family. I have already mentioned them earlier that essence cannot be imagined in philosophical thoughts. It is also
they claim to be the chosen people by God. In many instances, it applicable in practical life. Rather I am in need of your soul not
seems to be true. First of all, there are people, who are proud of khol. The khol, what I mean to say is ‘body or cover’ and in
their ethnicity as well as of their language. In this connection, I philosophy it equals to matter. Soul is essence. The essence I
would like to ask a question. Are there any KirantiSunuwars expect from you throughout my Fieldwork in Sikkim and
today, who are actually proud of their ethnicity and language? Darjeeling is affection, compassion and endurance for
The answer may not be straight forward but some undertaking this challenging task of identityseeking. Miracles
examples can be drawn from history. Then, how many history can happen when these three concepts are united. It’s your
books have been written on KirantiSunuwars? The number of affection towards your family members and kith that really
history books written on the KirantiSunuwars is obviously zero. matters. It’s your compassion towards your family members
Now, let us peep into the world of tribal history how the British and kith that really matters. It’s your endurance towards your
imperialists once claimed, “The sun never sets in the British family members and kith that really matters. Out of which
Empire”. These ambitious people once ruled many parts of the comes purification of selfsoul. Then, we start living as a man
world. Who were such powerful people then? They were and we start living as a KirantiSunuwar. When we start living
Britons. The Britons were one of the tribes amongst the as KirantiSunuwars, no Dahichiure scholars can write false
Romans, Greeks, Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and the Danes. lines based on hearsays.
They were defeated several times and were ruled by the Greeks, The term ‘Sunuwar’ came into existence in foreigners’
Angles and the Saxons for several hundreds of years. After history only after the first half of the 19th century. If the term
licking the dust for several times, the Britons learnt their was coined when a particular tribe started settling on the west
strategy of butchery from their own victors/masters. Thus, they bank of the Sunkosi river, then who were these people before
became one of the most powerful rulers in the past. They calling themselves as Sunuwar? We call ourselves “go yo Kõits
changed their history from Britons to British; but standing upon nang” in our Mother Tongue to each other. What does the term
their own Briton roots. To be hopeful, there are several other ‘Kõits’ signify? One may claim, “It’s Sunuwar. Don’t you know
examples. this much simple thing also?” Then again what’s Sunuwar? “You
In this sense, the KirantiSunuwars must be proud of their must be mad.” It’s all muddle, muddle and muddle. These are
own language and ethnicity. We nevernever have to forget our all untrue Okhar pangre things. One interesting hypothesis I
motherly roots on which we are standing upon. Everything have explored during these days in Sikkim is – our origin is in
living or even nonliving things exiting on earth are subject to Panjab and our ancestors are Munda Punjabis10. This again is
change. Change is unavoidable. We must be adaptable and be another muddle until it is proved as a theory.
ready to change our history no matter whether it is dead or Recently, one thing generally accepted by linguists is that
living. Are you ready to join hand in hand? Are you willing to Sunuwar is one of the Kiranti languages11 of eastern Nepal.
join shoulder in shoulder? Sunuwar and Bayung (Bahing, Rumdali) are sister languages12.
Are they brothers then? The answer is “yes”. One of the
Ethnoidentity and Sociopolitical Crisis | 9 10 | V an is h i n g E th n i c i t y, Cu lt u re s an d L an g u ag es o f N e p al
Bayung/Bahing narratives13 has mentioned that the Sunuwars 10 The informant is my supposed grandfather Kumar Jespucha (52),

and the Bayungs are brothers. But this will be a hasty resident of Chhonge, East, Sikkim.
judgement, undoubtedly; however both of these languages have 11 Hanβon 1991 and it had been indicated since Shafer’s study
sisterly relationships linguistically. (1953).
12 Rapacha (1996), (2000) and several other papers.
As a research student I am also in muddle. Actually, I am
13 The narrator is Buddhi Hangucha Rai (56), a resident of Gorumare
fed up of all these untested hearsays. What shall I do? Who am
I? So, dear papa and grandpa and dear mama and grandma Bhanjyang, Okhaldhunga, Wallo Kirant. Dr. Maureen Lee and her
Research Assistant Bagdevi (BagAyagyami) Yalungcha had
would you please with affection, compassion and endurance tell
recorded the story in May 2001. I have adopted the story and
me what ‘Sunuwar’ [autoethnonym: Kõits] is. We have met each entitled it as ‘The BayungSunuwar Ancestor’.
other hundreds of years back. Kindly at this moment of our 14 A figurative translation of the Sunuwar [Kõits] expressing in
family reunion, do whisper on my ear ‘what Sunuwar [Kõits] English is ‘May you flourish!’
is.’

To conclude, although this conference fortunately
happened to be once in a blue moon, I believe that it will be a
watershed in our unwritten ethnotribal history of Darjeeling Source: Kõitsbu, slightly revised here
and Sikkim including that of Nepal as well. Cheredum.14

Notes 3 Toni Hagen misunderstood Sunuwar
1 A form of address etiquette in Kõits Lo: [KirantiKõits Toni Hagen (b. 17 Aug 1917), as I know him is the second
‘Sunuwar/Mukhiya’ language]. Columbus who has discovered and introduced Nepal when he
2 This address was delivered at the fifth Annual Conference of the authored Nepal: The Kingdom in the Himalayas (1961). His
Sunuwar/Mukhia Society, Darjeeling on the 23rd of September book on Nepal was published in his own home country
2001 prepared 3 days before the conference in Gangtok, Sikkim. Switzerland first in German. Oxford and IBH Publishing
Another alternative spelling of the term 'Mukhia' is also with 'y' as
Company had published the book's English version later in
in 'Mukhiya'.
3 1980. The translator of his book into English is Britta M
Male Lord Creator in Sunuwar myth suggested by my grandfather
Charleston. Almost all Nepalese who know him are proud of
Kumar Jespucha (52), a resident of Chhonge, East Sikkim.
4 Toni Hagen for his Herculean efforts and love of Nepal. His
Guardian angel and the golden bird in KirantiKõits (Sunuwar)
encyclopedic knowledge about Nepal and the Nepalese people
myth.
5 perhaps is unquestioned although he is a geologist.
The Sunuwar term for greatfather [father’s elder brother].
6 Chief Guest’s address delivered at the 5th Annual Conference of However, Dr Hagen has some faulty misconceptions
the Sunuwar/Mukhia Society, Darjeeling, 23 September 2001. regarding the Sunuwar ethnoindigenous people of eastern
7 A figurative expression used in Nepali for those people, whose Nepal in his book Nepal (1980: 87 and 123) in which he has
remarks at any point cannot be relied up on. described the ethnoSunuwar people as, "…the principal
8 All these italicized Nepali adjectives are used for thematic settlement area of the Sunuwars lie on the upper course of the
description of these scholars on the TibetoBurman KirantiKõits Sunkosi river. They have made a name for themselves as
or Sunuwar tribe. excellent smiths and goldsmiths, and they have been associated
9 Hesitant or hearsay ones. to for a special smiths' caste calling themselves the Kamis". My
god! What can be the more horrible thing than this for an
ethnoindigenous people of Nepal amongst 80% Hindu nation? I
could not believe myself that Dr Hagen himself has written this Historical evidence
false interpretation. If I should not believe, it has been written There are many important and reliable clues of kinship
there in Black and White. It gave me a shock as I come from an underlying among Sunuwars, and the rest Kiranti linguistic
ethnoSunuwar community of Okhaldhunga. Neither my communities including Limbus (Yakthung, Tsong) based on
community members' name, their profession for themselves fits historical, linguistic and cultural facts. Historians like
as "excellent smiths, goldsmiths and Kamis" nor do I. I Mabohang and Dhungel (1954) opine that the Sunuwar, Hayu
pondered and repondered time and again. What could I do? It and Chepang tribes are the modern generation of Suhachepang,
has hurt me and my people deeply, which is either incurable or who was one of the ten sons of Kirant Ingwa. Yakkha (1998) has
irrecoverable in the history of their identity. supported Mabohang and Dhungel's opinion. Rai (1992) has
After all Hagen's knowledge about Nepal is unquestioned clarified that the superordinate term 'Kirant' signifies Sunuwar
as I said earlier. He first ventured to Nepal with his father in (exonym), Rai (exonym) and Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong) in
1950. The government of Nepal appointed him as a geologist in modern sense of the term. Similarly, Khambu (1995) observes
that the Khambus of Sunuwar branch have descended from
1952 then. He was the first geological reconnaissance surveyor
Khinchihang, who was supposed to be the second son after the
of Nepal from 1953 to 1959. Then, he was the Director of Basic
death of Sekrohang the son of Jumhang. Our folklore and
Survey Department of Nepal in 195960. Furthermore, he was folknarratives (cf. Rapacha 2005, 2008) narrate this story as
the second cultural ambassador for Nepal. He is best known as well.
"Nepali Janatako ankhako tara"1. Having this background in
On the basis of these historical and folkloric facts, one can
Nepal, Hagen might have visited almost every exotic
come to a conclusion that the tribal name and title like Sunuwar
countryside and people in his lifetime. He might have observed
(Mukhiya), Rai (Jimi) and Limbu (Subba) as such are lately
many more landscapes and people than he has photographed or
coined title names given to the first Hang or Kirant dynasty of
printed the landscape images in his book. Why did he have such Nepal. The dynasty, in course of time was driven out from the
misconceptions and misunderstanding about the Sunuwar Nepal valley to the remote hills of eastern Nepal, where the
ethnicity? Or is it mistranslation? Was this done so Hang remnants occupied several riverbank areas in the name of
intentionally? Thus, my head was full of questions while reading Kipat (Communal Land). There was no contact among them for
the book. hundreds of years due to the geographical inaccessibility. Then,
Meanwhile, I was very excited to read the fourth edition they were destined to be divided into dozens of different
(1998) of the same book published by Himal Books revised and languages, 47 unspecified clanodialects (cf. Hanβon 1991) and
updated by Deepak Thapa. Once I rushed to the Bookstore at several tribes out of the same Kirant(i) dynasty.
Patandhoka. To my expectation, I found nothing except the
index page numbers 100 and 113. The whole description on Anthropological evidence
Sunuwars was gone. Does this mean revised and updating? The Sunuwars amongst other Kiranti linguistic
Again questions piled up in my mind. communities are one homogenous group anthropologically on
In this regard, I must enlighten Toni Hagen by forwarding the basis of their clanonym or kindred names (Debnath and
evidence on ethnoSunuwars as one of the Kiranti tribes rather Chaudhuri 2006 for gentic study). There are many hyponyms
than "goldsmiths or Kamis". Probably his mind must be active and cohyponyms under the same superordinate terms
'Sun(u)war' or 'Rai' (both are exonyms). The clanonyms like
to know some undeniable and bare facts on Sunuwars as George
Mulicha, Mukacha, Kingmucha, Mupucha, Baramacha,
Bernard Shaw wrote Far Fetched Fables when he was 93. Now,
Yalungchha etc. fall under Sunuwar, Wambule, Athpare,
Toni Hagen is only 82 years. Bayung, Bantawa, Chamling, Dumi, Jeralung, Khaling, Kulung,

Lohorung, Sotang, Sampang, Thulung and Yantamba Kiranti Toponymic evidence

linguistic communities of eastern Nepal. The morphological Besides these facts, toponyms like Pokali, Chulepu, Lispu
form cha (rf in RG) or –chha (5f in RG) and hang >ng ( or Lisup, Kespu (more examples are provided elsewhere here)
xfª >ng ª) have many significant semantic and grammatical etc are another strongest evidence of ethnoSunuwar as one of
relationships between them and their tribal languages spoken in the ethnoindigenous Kiranti people(s) of Nepal. Farewell to
several parts of the eastern hills of Nepal. After all, there are less misunderstanding and ignorance forever.
demarcations between the ethnoSun(u)war and the rest Kiranti
linguistic communities, particularly very close with Kiranti Note
Bayung (cf. Opgenort 2005 and Rapacha 2008), underlyingly 1 Nepali expression for something important or literally the pupil of
on the basis of their clanonyms and cultural practices except for
the eyes
geosocial differences. Of course, some basic linguistic and
cultural variations occur due to geographic and communicative
gaps amongst them in the past. It prolongs till this date.
Source: Nagarik/Citizen, II, 3, 2000b: 810, slightly revised and note
Linguistic evidence added here
As in regional variations, the ethnoSunuwar and the rest
Kiranti languages vary from one place to another. Though they
vary each other, Sunuwar is one of the Kiranti languages next
4 Evidence for Sunuwar as Kiranti
kin to KirantiBayung (cf. Opgenort 2005, Rapacha 2008). The 1. Background
linguistic classification of ethnoSunuwar as one of the Kiranti Nepal is a sui generis and rich Himalayan country
languages is one of the strongest knots, which binds the ethno culturally and linguistically in South Asia. Its glory rests upon
Sunuwar and the rest of the Kiranti linguistic communities in multirace, multilingualism and multiculturalism. On the
many respects. contrary, her glory as such has been decaying one after another
each day. Such is her plight. The process of linguistic and
Cultural evidence cultural degeneration, leading to complete extinction is taking
Besides their linguistic knot of sisterhood, there is place speedily even after the restoration of socalled democracy
similarity in culture between the ethnoSunuwar and the rest in the year 1990. In many instances, lesser known tribes like
Kiranti linguistic communities albeit it differs from one place to Kusunda, Raute, Raji, Athpahariya (Sananggo), Polmocha (?),
another. Their common Kirant(i) culture is reflected in Hayu and other minority tribes are disappearing without any
Baishakhe Purnima's Bhumipuja 'landworship' dance. This special attention.
traditional dance in our tribal languages is known as 'Shyãdar Along with them, their languages and cultures are facing
Shil, Sakela Sili, Sakenwa, Sakala, Tosi' and so forth. This the danger of extinction. The Kusunda tribe has already become
dance is conducted under our religious priests like 'Na:so (also a myth without any significant anthropological research. Their
Nhaso), Nokso and Nokchhung' etc. These priests and shamans mother tongue till today is a language isolate. There are several
are religious authorities to conduct sociocultural rites and assumptions about the number of languages spoken within the
rituals in our respective communities. The Na:so, Põibo and national boundary. Linguists have not yet come to a single
Shyãdar Shil are representative elements of the Kirant(i) authentic conclusion regarding such varied assumptions.
religion even in our contemporary community to bind us in one Historians' and anthropologists' hearsays or faulty assumptions
complete unity. have badly affected in ethnic and cultural identity. Such
tendency has given birth to further complications in the social There are some groups of historians or writers, who
status of lesser known nationalities in the Nepalese society. One identify the Kõits people's kinship with the Hang or Kirant
of such socially underestimated nationality or ethnoindigenous dynasty. Undoubtedly, their knowledge about the people is
group is 'Sunuwar' firstly known as Kõits in their indigenous based upon their real life experience and folk narratives of their
mother tongue. forefathers. Such narratives are more reliable than a priori
On the one hand, NortheyMorris (1927), Chemjong assumptions made by historians and etymologists in the past.
(1967) and Bista (1967) assume that the Sunuwars' kinship One of the obvious reasons for relying upon folklore is that
resembles to Gurung and Magar. Their assumption seems the Kiranti languages and folkore(s) have been orally
bizarre only due to personal introspection lacking empirical transmitted to the new Kiranti generation since time
observation. Utterly, their overgeneralization without scientific immemorial. Underlyingly, there are many significant and
evidence is prone to criticism. On the other, the term 'Sunwar or reliable clues of kinships hidden amongst the Kõits and the rest
Sunuwar' according to Vansittart (1896) and SalterGurung of the Kiranti linguistic communities including Limbus
(1996), etymologically has been derived from Sunkosi when the (Yakthung, Tsong) in their history, languages and cultures.
tribe started residing on the east or west bank of the river. Then, Mabohang and Dhungel (1945: 41, 43, 45) opine that the
there must be a distinct ethnic identity before residing on those Sunuwar (Kõits), Hayu and Chepang are modern generation of
bank areas for several hundreds of years. My conclusion Suhachepang, who was one of the ten sons of Kirant Ingwa.
regarding the Kõits ethnicity in my thesis 'Sunuwar Language: A Similarly, Yakkha (1998: 6, 12) supports Mabohang and
Sociolinguistic Profile' (1996) and research articles 'Sunuwar as Dhungel's opinion based on folklore. According to Rai (1992)
an endangered language of Nepal' (1997) and 'Demystifying the the superordinate term 'Kirant(i)' signifies Sunuwar (exonym),
myths of Sunuwar' (1998) is that they are one of the remnants Rai (exonym) and Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong) in modern sense of
of Kirant(i) ancestry having based on historical, the term. Furthermore, Sunuwar (1953), Sunuwar (1956),
anthropological, cultural, linguistic and toponymic grounds. Sunuwar (1990: 2332), MulichaSunuwar (1990: 69),
MukhiyaSunuwar (1992: 27) Sunuwar (1995: 3650), Sunuwar
2. Hostorical base (1995: 7073), Sunuwar (1999: 1316), Sunuwar (1999: 8386)
Yet no historians have written any authentic or and Sunuwar (1999: 2122) assure that the Kõits's kinship with
linguisticallybased history of Kirant(i) ancestry in Nepal. the rest of the Kiranti linguistic communities including Limbu
Similarly, no history of Sunuwar (autoethnonym: Kõits and under the Kirant(i) umbrella. Khambu (1995) observes that the
hereafter Kõits refers to Sunuwar) has been written till this Khambus of Sunuwar branch has descended from Khinchihang
moment. Of course, there are some underestimated propaganda (also cf. Rapacha 2005 for folklore narratives), who is supposed
by historians and etymologists (cf. Rapacha 1996, 1997). One of to be the second son after the death of Sekrochang the son of
the pundits like Pokharel (1994) has defamed the term Jumhang. These views are equally potential for further research
'Sunuwar' as 'Sunar' or 'Kinnar'. This misinterpretation has on Kõits's deeprooted kinship with the Hang dynasty.
negative impact why Sunuwars hesitate to identify themselves These facts and ideas stated here prove that the
as Sunuwar. Their number officially recorded was 17,299 in exoethnonym and titles like Sunuwar (Mukhiya), Rai (Jimi,
1952/54, 13,362 in 1961, 20,380 in 1971 and 10,650 in 1981 Dewan, Majhiya) and Limbu (Subba) as such are lately coined
(CBS); whereas the number was zero in 1991's census. The false titles given to the defeated Hang dynasty. Similarly, the
Sunuwars have invisibly existed since the time of Srijunga Hang ethnonym 'Limbu' ends with Lilimhang's history. The dynasty,
(AD 880915) and Yalambar Hang of Nepal before reaching and in course of history was driven out to the remote hills of eastern
residing on the west bank of the Sunkosi river. Nepal, where the Hang remnants occupied several riverbank
areas in the name of Kipat (communal land). There was no
contact among them for hundreds of years due to the Ngawacha Na:socha Preticha Phaticha
geographic and communicative inaccessibility. Then, they were Pargacha Rapacha Rawacha Rupacha
destined to be divided in more that 2 dozens different Ruticha Susucha Sochulcha Sapracha
languages, 47 unclassified dialects (Hanßon 1991: 112113) and Thugucha Tõkucha Thangracha Teppacha
groups out of the same Hang dynasty. Tursucha Yatacha …etc.

(Morris 1933, Rapacha 1996 and 2005)
3. Anthropological base in clanonyms

Their clanonyms having ethnolinguistic importance Further clanonyms in Kiranti linguistic groups
amongst them are one of the most reliable sources for
socioanthropological understanding of the Kiranti people KirantiAmbole (Wambule, RaDhu)
amongst more than two dozens of linguistic communities. Bhawacha Mukacha Naksocha Sudimcho
However, the Kõits people is almost misunderstood and Sallocha Tilapacha Dwarongcha …etc.
misinterpreted along with the passage of time as said earlier.
Chemjong (1967 trans. 1996: 89, 14) has claimed that the KirantiAthpare
languages of Sunuwar and BayungRumdali (also known as Kigmuchha Tumchha
Bahing/Rumdali) and Nechali (dialect of KirantiBayung) are
similar. His claim is authentic and valid linguistically from KirantiBayung/Bahing (Rumdali, Pwai, Necha, Hangucha,
comparative point of view. The people might have spoken only Rokecha)
one language in the past merely when we reconstruct
historically. Recent linguistic studies (viz. cf. Opgenort 2005, Bramlicha Debucha Derpacha Dilingach
Rapacha 2005, 2008) have proved Chemjong's claim valid. Dungmocha Hãgocha Hadulacha Hajupacha
Kharailch Khariyulacha Litumicha Munaricha
Contrary to Chemjong's claim, I disagree with his
Mupucha Moblocha Mersacha Neplecha
anthropological view on Kõits. One finds no kinship proximity
Namersacha Prongmocha Parocha Piyacha
between twelveclanSunuwar (Hindu dichotomy of 10 vs. 12)
Ralicha Richa Rallocha Rakecha
and Gurung or Magar which was already overgeneralized by
Rildicha Rinamcha Seshocha Sechocha
Northey and Morris in 1927. The demarcation here of 10 vs. 12
clan is another false assumption mainly based on the Hindu Tholacha Tigmurcha Tembocha Tangdocha
Thamrocha Yumbucha Geralcha Kareilcha
caste sociology as a matter of Sanskritization or Khasization1.
Namerecha Ralecha Rumbacha Rinamsocha
The Kõits and other Kiranti linguisitic groups' clanonyms' –cha
Yegbucha
(/cā/, [tsā]) or –chha (/chā/, [tshā]) suffixes can be
reconstructed anthropologically and linguistically from the
following regular clanonym morphemes. KirantiKirawa (Bantawa, Bontawa)
Baramachha Namercachha Naupuchha Chingchangchha
KirantiKõits or Sunuwar clanonyms Biranchha Kãgmãchha Rãgmãchha Rugbuchha
Bangdecha Bigyacha Binicha Bramlicha Temachha Yãgmachha Yewitchha Pakmachha
Khyõpaticha Darkhacha Dausucha Debbacha Ripugchha …etc.
Durbicha Gaurocha Jẽ:ticha Jijicha
Jespucha Kyabacha Kyuĩthicha Kormocha KirantiRodung (Chamling)
Khulicha Katicha Linucha Laspacha Agbuchha Awalchha Badachha Barchha
Lukhicha Lõkucha Mulicha Nomlicha Bhimchha Bujahichha Biklukchha Brajachha
Boyegechha Boyonchha Bumachha Bumakhamcha KirantiKulung

Busirichha Butepachha Chalichha Buchinamchha Topchha Mopochha Sekachha Naupachha
Chandachha Charichha Chiplinechha Chachha Rulupachha
Darbalichha Dibogchha Damdihõchha Dibuglechha
Dikulachha Dinalichha Dilichha Dibuchha KirantiLohorung
Dobalichha Dogdewachha Elungchha Gwachha
Rampõgcha
Haideugchha Horosuchha Homaichha Homdemchha

Homewachha Horachha Icharachha Hongdarachha
MAGRIHANG
Hopohugchha Howabugchha Kalegchha Khereschha
Kheresogchha Kerupugcha Karmichha Khamtelchha Tagpigphuchha
Kosõgchha Kolachha Kotwachha Kharaichha
Kuwasagchha Lapihõchha Likuwachha Lugbochha KiranitNawahang
Lugumachha Maidanchha Mairajachha Marwachha Kawachha
Malchha Meharichha Molochha Mehrahatichha
Malepuchha Menuhachha Mongchha Mompalãchha KirantiSampang
Mosimchha Napidirchha Nabohuichha Mukumuracha Bekumchha Damrikchha Dumagchha Kartamchha Muluhagchha
Namnoncha Ninumchha Pibregchha Namragwacha Ratuchha Randochha Samsãgechha Tammagchha Wanmachha
Ninabungcha Normanacha Porugchha Napchorpacha
Palagmuchha Pumbochha Polumochha Pogumsochha SERALUNGCHHA
Pokasagchha Puntechha Rannochha Patisigsanacha Birachha Plomachha
Pungwecha Radolichha Rakimachha Rasognachha
Rakochha Ringlugcha Rolechha Sahamiaugchha KirantiThulung
Rohochha Ronkunchha Salibirchha Sapsaramchha
Sarachha Saterogcha Senamcha Sasarchalicha Hadikamchha Mokechha Ninambãchha Wayãgchha Halachha
Sakoramchha Saksmagchha Sigdachha Sasarchalicha Moksumchha Peypuchha Hastichha
Silõgchha Sogdolchha Sunmechha Soupthãgchha
Tabrechha Thigachha Tiligchha Tamukhachha YANTAMBA
Thiguachha Tiluchha Tirikhechha Thugleniechha Babauchha Chãgechha Chaurachha Dilãgchha Dimachha
Watenchha Wabohochha Yõgherchha Walemugdachha Hospucvha Kurdachha Nambochha Moksumchha Malekumchha
Waliggirichha Yatimchha Yõgchechha Yogocharchha Nardauchha Padarechha Plembrchha Homodimchha
in Deusa in Jubu Utepachha Regulaunchha Rochinagachha
Nanacha Hasticha Lache (Morris 1933, cf. also Rapacha 1995, 2005)
KirantiDumi The clanonyms or kindred names cited here necessarily
Hodicha Satmacha need not be accurate phonemically or phonetically since the
RomanGorkhali orthography had been adopted in those days.
Jeralung Some clanonyms like Dilpali or Jubile also cannot be considered
Dumkicha as a separate clanonym today since their etymological link is in
loconyms. There are many other clanonyms, which do not end
KirantiKhaling in 'cha' /cā/ [tsā] or –chha /chā/ [tshā] suffixes as well. The
Niracha Rapcha morphological shape 'cha' forms one homogenous group
amongst them. It has very significant semantic or grammatical
relationships amongst the Kiranti linguistic communities and NorthWestern subgroup

their languages2. It also functions as infinitive marker in Kõits. Southern Lorung=Lo(h)rung khap, Yakkhaba,
The morpheme <cha> /cā/ [tsā] in RomanGorkhali Northern Lorung= Lo(h)rung khanawa, dialect: Biksi(t)
orthography is realized as /cā/ and /chā/ in Kõits and the rest Yamphu(e) = Yamphu kha, Newahang, Yakkhaba
Kiranti linguistic communities (cf. Rapacha 2005, Rapacha
2008 Chap 5 for a detailed comparative study) respectively II. Central or mid Kiranti group
possibly is a single infinitive marker while analyzed historically. Southern subgroup
This relationship is also highly reflected in their tribal languages Bantawa=dum, ying, yong, cepma, yung
spoken in several parts of the eastern hills of the country. After Main dialects: eastern or Dhankuta, Southern with
all, there is no distinct demarcation amongst them underlyingly Hangkhim, Northern with Dilpali
on the basis of their clanonyms. Of course, some basic linguistic Western (mainly in Khotang), Yangma, Amchoke,
and cultural variations occur because of geographical or Rongmahang (Dilpali)
communicative gaps amongst them for ages in the past and Puma=pima, (ka) la (Rokong, I added)
even in recent times. Chamling= Camling La (Rodung, I added)
Main dialects: Kharmeli, Laphyang, Dumsa, Yongcher,
4. Linguistic evidence Kho(ng)cha, Ratanchha, Balamta and other localaties
As in their clanonyms' homogeneity or heterogeneity cases (I added Balamta and Ratanchha)
amongst them, their languages vary from one place to another. NorthEastern subgroup: MeohangSaam
Though they vary each other, Kõits is one of the Kiranti Mewahang group: Eastern Meohang= khanawa, Jimi
languages, closeknit of KirantiBayung. The linguistic grouping Western Meohang= khanawa (Hodgson's Balali?)
of Kõits as one of the western Kiranti languages is one of the Saam group (perhaps one language SAAM; Newahang not
strongest knots, which binds Kõits with the rest Kiranti a separate language but abusive term cf. Rapacha
linguistic communities in many respects. Their linguistic 2008: 278279)
grouping as shown below is genetically valid till today. Eastern subgroup=Sambya, Eastern Kulung
Western subgroup: Pongyong = Samakulung = kulung pun
Classification of Kiranti Languages (nearly extinct)/ Lingkhim (Sama kha) (nearly extinct)
I. Eastern Kiranti Group (LimbuLohorung nucleus) Bungla (nearly extinct; clanonym of Newahang and
1.A. South Western subdialect B. Chhathare Limbu Newahang linguistic group, I added)

Limbu (Yakthungba pa:n) Yakthungba pan Nothern intermediate subgroup: Chukwa (clanonym of Lohorung?
Tamar Kholea (Taplejung)
my question) = Ring = Pohing = kha (nearly extinct?)
Yangrupe= Yangrokma
Panchtharey/Phedape dialects (more separate against the other NorthWestern subgroup: KulungSampang
dialects) Sampang= Sangpang gung, ging, kha
2.A. South Western subsubgroup B. Chhilling Cluster Main dialects: Ranohõchha Halumbung = Wakchali,
(YakkhaAthpahariya Cluster) Chhulung Rung: dialect Phanju Samarung, Bhalu, Tongeccha (no data), Phali (=
Athpahariya Ring 1 ChhintangTeli Sangpang) Khartamche, Western dialects (Khotang)
Belhariya Ring 2 Byangsi: no data (extinct?)
Mugali=Lambichong Ring Chongkha: no data (extinct?) Kulung: (Kuluring)
Phaingduwali poTi Longaba: no data (extinct?) Main dialect groups: Mahakulung, Tamachhang, Pilmang
LumbaYakkha=Yakkhaba cea (Gringmayam?)
Yakkha, Yakkhaba sala, Dewan sala, Dewan, Jimi
Associated dialect groups: Chhapkoa (Chhupkuwa clanonym Unclassified (insufficient data)
of Lohorung? my question), Pidisoi (clanonym of Kulung 1. Polmocha (Chamling, Kulung) 2. Angtep 3. Asmali/Asbhali
in Chhemsi dynasty or lineage, I added) (Chhilling group?) 4. BalaSama 5. Barung (Kulung) 6. Bartam
Sublanguage: Sotang (sottoring, sataring (also
7. Chhula=Chula 8. Damdiyocha (Damdihõchha? my question)
Nacchhering); seems a dialect of Kulung on the basis
9. Dangwa 10. Dikpali (?) 11. Dukhun (speak now Bantawa) 12.
of Swadesh wordlist comparison cf. Rapacha 2008)
Dumjali (?) 13. Hanggelume 14. Haribung (Kulung) 15. Hawi
Nachering: Nac(h)ering ru, tum (also Nathereng,
Nacchhering, Nasring etc. "Bangdale (Bangdel tum) (speak now Nepali) 16. Huwayo (=Wayu?) 17. Kunglecha 18.
Sublanguages: Dimali, Parali, Dedangpa "Sangpang" Khakhang 19. Khimdun (speak now Bantawa; Khimdung
(nearly extinct) clanonym of Kirawa; I added) 20. Laidong 21. Magrehang (
Marinal subgroup: Dungmali group (ArthareKhesang) Magrhang, Magrayang; most of them speak Bantawa) 22.
Dungmali: puk; tribal subgroups: Arthare, Hangbang, Mampuchi 23. Mangpang 24. Mangphom 25. Membageni 26.
Pungwai, Sotang, Waitpang, Tuncha Mumlunh 27. Namlung (e) (perhaps a dialect of Kulung) 28.
Sublanguage: Khesang(e) Phaksung 29. Phaling(e) 30. Pikhauli (now speak Bantawa) 31.
Waling and Khandung (nearly extinct; very scanty data) Rajalim 32. Rarahang (speak now Bantawa) 33. Ratku (speak
now Bantawa) 34. Rukuponne 35. Rupabung (clanonym of
III. Western Kiranti (KoiWayu) Kirawa? my question) 36. Sohon 37. Sukita (speak now
Bantawa) 38. Tampile 39. Tengga 40. Thungmaram (Kulung)
Southern sub group: Umbule = Chaurase (er, yor; also
Wambule, I added) 41. Tilpung 42. Timta 43. Ukkhang 44. Uling (=Yakkhaba from
Jerung (zero or jero mala) Uling (Yamphe) ?) 45. Walang 46. Yalkha (?) 47. Yangkhrung
Marginal dialect: Badanchha (Hanßon 1991: 112113)
Eastern subgroup: Thulung (thululuwa, thululoa; also Dusali) On the basis of this linguistic taxonomy (see Appendix A's
Lingkhim (not exactly known; cf. Rapacha 2008: 21, 200 Figure 4 for genetically related Kiranti languages), Kõits is one
1, 390, 401, 432, 439, 490, 538) of the remnants of the single Kiranti language family. The
Western subgroup: Bahing (Bayung, Bahing lo; also Baying, western Kiranti group's tribal prototype can be 'Kõi' rather
Bainge etc) than 'Koyu, Wayu/Hayu and Kõits'. Their linguistic protoform
Main dialects: Rumda(li), Necha(li) for language is 'Lo' rather than 'La, Luwa, Bra or Bro'.
Sunwar (Kwoico (sic) lo; Kõits lo, I added) Another best instance of linguistic reconstruction amongst
Sublanguage: Surel Kiranti languages is Shafer's 'East Himalayish' (1953) in which
Marginal Northern subgroup: Khaling (Khaling bra, bat) Shafer has reconstructed based on Hudgson's 'Bahing~Bayung
Dumi (dumi boɂo, dumi bro) Vocabulary' (1857) and 'Comparative Vocabulary of Languages
Main dialects: Eastern (with Sotmali), Western (Makpa), of the broken Tribes of Nepal' (1858). In his reconstructive
Southern (nearly extinct) with Bramsi analysis, Bahing~Bayung and Kõits seem almost one language
(clanonym) rather than two different languages. Michailovsky (1975a) is
Koi: Koyu (koi boɂo, boɂ) another best example of mutual intelligibilty between the
Marginal Western subgroup: Wayu = Hayu = Wayo Bahing~Bayung verbs with Kõits at least in verb imperatives.
(wayodobu) There are many similar cognate features between the two
Marginal Halesidanda group: Tilung (tilung blama) languages (cf. Rapacha 2008 Chap 5).
Choskule (no data)
Dorungkecha (no data)
5. Cultural evidence Toponym B: Without alternations and change
Besides similar linguistic genetics, one finds Bẽber Blesnailu Chulepu Chuparu Chyokhadi
homogenousness in cultural practices of Kõits amongst the Disil Dhajadim Jirgu Grusithem Kyõkurpala
Kiranti linguistic communities albeit it slightly differs from one Kãitru Kashdim Kholmodim Kothdim Kidadim
place to another. Their common cultural practice is reflected in Kagru Koloru Kespu Khuspu Kasga
Baishakhe Purnima's Landworship or Fertility Dance. This Kerwa Koshpola Kyamkirtek Kubu Limti
traditional dance in their tribal language is known as 'Shyãdar Lise Lorkhĩ Lãkadu Lãkathem Lispu~Lisup
Sil, Sakela Sili, Sakenwa, Sakala, Tosi' and so forth. Masru Maitru Maladim Mugkaph Myudu
Semantically, it signifies the fertility myth of the broken tribes. Pokali Nalodim Okhaldim Pakanthel Palathem
The terminologies mean ritual or fertility dance in all linguistic Paloru Phesdim Photru Peperu Pithru
communities. Their homogenous cultural belief underlies in it. Pospu Palapu Puldim Grududim Rasdim
They practise shamanism and animism in accordance with their Rajup Saipu Lasdim Sabra Sedapũkhi
religious priest 'Na:so/Nhaso, Nokso, Nokchung and Nochung'. Tispu Sekhrebot Sertewak Sotokaph Samjru
The priests recite Salaku Mundum and Risiya Mundum Darkha Palati Tãddim Sushdim Thinkep
incantations while worshipping in Kõits and the rest Kiranti Yesdim
cultures from Wallo 'hither or near' to Pallo 'far' Kirant areas.
Again such practices differ from one place to another A set of loconyms 'simply local place names' in Kiranti
geographically and linguistically. Their cultural practice of Kõits tongue collected above in Toponym A, has undergone
shamanism and animism is inseparable element of the some phonemic changes in course of time. However, another set
Mundum. Kõits's 'Shyãdar Sil' represents one of such elements of loconyms in Toponym B, has retained typical Kõits feature
in the main stream of the Kirant Mundum even in since the Kõits tribe occupied Wallo 'hither or near' Kirant, viz.
contemporary society. Okhaldhunga (formerly Chuplu) and Ramechhap (formerly
Kirantichhap) districts as their Kipat 'communal land'. These
6. Toponymic evidence toponyms naturally may sound alien or exotic to different other
speech communities only because they are christened in Kõits
In order to carry out research on Kõits as one of the
remanants of Kiranti ancestry, last but not least ground can be for the first time since they were the first settlers in those
toponyms in their mother tongue as a poof of first settlers in places. Furthermore, these topoethnolinguistic data have
those areas. Many such instances are found in Kõits also as in several semantic interpretations deeprooted in the Kõits
the rest Kiranti linguistic communities including Yakthung or community as in other tribal or communal areas of Rai
Limbu people. Some of the following names cited here have (exonym) and Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong), which also supports to
undergone historical changes or remained the same in Kõits prove the Sunuwars' underlying origin in Kirant ancestry since
throughout the different shreds of history from the past to the these topoloconyms are closeknit of KirantiBayung in its
present day scenario. neighbourhood.

Toponym A: Undergone sound alternations and change 7. Conclusion
Buch(j) >Bhuji Charnailu>Charnalu Cheredum >Cherdum To conclude, the Sunuwar (autoetynonym: KirantiKõits)
Dampatek >Dampate Hãm >Hãba Jirit >Jiri is one of the remnants of Kirant(i) ancestry of the past and of
Khĩchi >Khiji Kasthel >Kasthali Khĩtim >Khimti contemporary Nepalese Kiranti society rather than any other
Kat >Kati Lik >Likh >Likhu3 Ragan >Ragani4 falsifying and misleading accounts of some authors discussed
Pletti >Pirti Prapch >Prapcha5 Rasanailu >Rasnalu earlier relying upon historical, anthropological viz. clanonyms,
Phot >Photi6 Tanwa >Tanari7
cultural, linguistic and toponymic facts produced, presented 5 Demystifying the myths of Sunuwar

and discussed here. Besides, the KirantiBayung folklore
migrationnarratives' characters, e.g. Khinchihang and Paihang There are several falsifying myths regarding the Kiranti
(KõitsBayung ancestors) are also additional and supportive Kõits (exonym: Sunwar) tribe in Nepal. Historians and writers
evidence to the facts discussed in this essay. like Subedi et al1 have expressed inauthentic assumptions about
them. The common fallacy of the tribe as 'goldsmith' is an
Notes example of scholarly myopia and deafness. On the contrary,
1 Salter and Gurung affirm the Kõits as one of the mongoloid
M.N. Srinivas first propounded the Theory of Sanskritization in
Nepalese tribes. After the unification of Nepal in 1768, the tribe
his D.Phil. thesis at Oxford University. His theory mainly deals
received its Kipat 'communal land' on the west bank of Sunkosi
with a process by which "a 'low' or middle Hindu caste, or tribal or
other group, changes its customs, ritual ideology, and way of life in in the Likhu and Khimti valleys of Okhaldhunga (formerly
the direction of a high and frequently 'twiceborn' caste. Generally Chuplu) and Ramechhap (formerly Kirantichhap) districts
such changes are followed by a claim to a higher position in the respectively.
caste hierarchy than that traditionally conceded to the claimant Vansittart2 has mentioned that the traditional title
class by the local community". He says the words karma, dharma, Mukhiya 'headman of the communal land' was given to the
papa, maya, samsara and moksha are the most common 'Sunwar or Sunpar' tribal people historically. He further has
Sanskritic theological ideas which become common in the talk of
elaborated that the name 'Sunwar or Sunpar' as such are said to
people who are sanskritized. This phenomenon has also been
observed in Nepal among the Khas, Newar and Magar people over
be derived from these people residing either to the east or west
the centuries. Some equivalent terms like "Khasization, of the Sunkosi River. The division is thus Sunwarwest of
Nepalization, Hinduization, Aryanization, Bahunization" are also Sunkosi and Sunpareast or across Sunkosi.
in use amongst writers. Similarly, Salter and Gurung3 also opine that 'the Sunkosi
2 See Rapacha's colloquium lecture ‘cā and hwāŋ in Kiranti River suggests a link between the name of the river and that of
clanonyms beyond morphosemantics’ lectured at the University of the tribe. Thus, this semantic interpretation of the Sunwar
Leipzig, 16 October 2008, Leipzig, Deutschland (Germany) and ethnicity always is in question who they were before residing on
presented also at Oakfarm Pavillion Club, Farnborough, 3 January the west of Sunkosi. Farwell4 has regarded their tribal ethnicity
2009, UK for comparative details and semantic interpretations in
historical perspective.
'nestled between the Rais and Limbus.' Apart from the eastern
3 Lik changes into Likh and /u/ is inserted in Likhu probably via
tribal relationship with them, Northey and Morris5 have pointed
contact situation with the lingua franca Nepali out their ethnic relationship to the western tribes, especially
4 Ragan changes into Ragani with /i/ insertion probably via contact
with Magars and Gurungs. Consequently, Bista concludes,
situation with the lingua franca Nepali 'some people believe that Sunuwars are the off shoots of the
5 Magars.' Fournier and Allen also have mentioned a
Prapch changes into Prapcha with /a/ insertion probably via
contradictory point whether the Sunwars are Kiranti or not. It
contact situation with the lingua franca Nepali
6 is, therefore, essential to unfold the mystery of these falsifying
Phot changes into Photi with /i/ insertion probably via contact
myths regarding the Sunwars through ethnolinguistic evidence.
situation with the lingua franca Nepali
7 Tanwa changes into Tanari by way of Nepalization inserting /i/ in The first and foremost identity is their tribal language
the final position known as Kõich lo [Kõits lo:], which is one of the Kiranti
languages, according to the International Encyclopedia of
Linguistics, vol 2, 1992: 277. Linguistically, speaking Kõits and
Bayung are two sister languages. This proximity with Kiranti
July 2000, slightly revised and notes added here Bayung is further elaborated by Morris based on the complex
pronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns with both /i/ and regained its plural marker pik and nasalization
agents and patients in the case of transitive verb) languages generally used in the Kõits lo: today. This is the process of loss
spoken by the rest of the Kiranti languages along with Yakthung and gain how languages of the world change and develop.
(Limbu, Tsong) which are genetically affiliated to the same Another linguistic evidence of demystification is their
TibetoBurman or SinoTibetan language family. Other clanonym or kindred names which morphologically end in cha
comparative linguistic studies from Shafer to Hanβon (i.e. orthographically in RomanGorkhali and /ca/ phonemically.
Hansson) have proved Kõits as one of the Kiranti languages. Morris and Rapacha have mentioned such clanonyms in their
In addition to their common linguistic repertoire of works. KirantiKõits, Umbule (Wambule), Bayung (also Bahing
sisterhood, Kõits or Sunwar and the rest of the Kiranti linguistic or Rumdali), Rodung (Camling), Dumi, Khaling, Kulung,
community share a common culture of Shyãdar (Nep. 'Chandi') Sanango (exonym Athpahare), Sampang and Thulung have cha
Sil (also Shyil) or Sakela (Tosi) Sili. The terminologies, Sil and ending morphemes which are also infinitive marker in the Kõits
Sili, mean ritual dance of land or nature worship in all linguistic lo: proper.
and cultural groups. Semantically, it signifies the fertility myth Along with these linguistic, cultural and anthropological
of the people. Their homogenous cultural belief underlies in it. commonalities, there are local cases of intermarriage among
They practise shamanism according to their religious priest the Kõits and the rest Rũku7 linguistic and cultural groups in the
Na:so or Nhaso and Nokso. Such practice differs geographically vicinity of Okhaldhunga and other parts of eastern Nepal.
and slightly culturally. However, the Kõits is one of the disappearing linguistic and
Having discussed the linguistic and cultural homogeneity, cultural groups of the country. Further ethnolinguistic study
let us clarify the misleading tribal label 'Sunuwar' which was would assist for the development of the disappearing Kõits,
coined when the wandering Mongoloid Kiranti tribe resided on their language and culture as a whole.
the west bank of the Sunkosi River in the past. Who were the
Sunwars before residing on the river bank? One cannot be Notes
cocksure for the exact fact of the query because no historian or 1 See RR Subedi et al's Our Social Studies (1996: 84 and 88, 3rd in
say socioanthropologist has written on them. All these myths Nepali) published by Curriculum Development Centre as a
are merely hearsays. By the way, Kõits lo: as one of the textbook for schools
remnants of pronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns 2 See Eden Vansittart's Notes on Nepal (with an introduction by
with both agents and patients in the case of transitive verb) H.H. Risley)
languages among the the rest Kiranti languages, is the strongest 3 See J. Salter and H. Gurung's Faces of Nepal
evidence to solve this Sphinx riddle of the KirantiKõits 4 See Byron Farwell's The Gurkhas: A history of the Finest
ethnicity albeit one may meet his destiny like that of Oedipus. Infantrymen in the World
In their tribal language, Sunwars identify themselves as 5 See W.B. Northey and C. J. Morris's The Gurkhas: Their Manners,
Kõits. The literal translation of the term Kõits is not 'Sunwar' Customs and Country
6 Now it seems that the resemblance between Kõich [Kõits] and
but one of the linguistic and cultural groups of Mongoloid
Kiranti. Recently, linguists have discovered one new linguistic Koichi is a matter of chance only
7 Rũku, a term used in KirantiKõits lo: for the closest Kiranti kin
group known as Koi (Koyu or Koyee) according to the
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, page 278 in the linguistic groups
southern part of Khotang. The term Koi can take the plural
marker chi in order to derive Koichi (linguistic groups). Both of

these terms Kõich or Kõits and Koichi6 have their underlying
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 15 Mar 1998, Sunday and Travelogue,
form as Koi undoubtedly. But the term Kõits lost its high vowel
slightly revised and notes added here
6 Saroza's SunuwarJirel revisited since its civilization started millions of years ago in central Asia.
If it exists at all amongst the Kiranti linguistic and cultural
Saroza Pradhan's article 'The Sunuwars and the Jirels…' communities, that is only after the dominated proselytization of
published in the Weekend Review on 2430 May, 2002 made Mongoloid Kiranti people into the orthodox Hinduism. We will
me believe that her knowledge about the SunuwarJirel discuss their religious and cultural practice after some
Mongoloid Kiranti tribes (however Jirel is not a Kiranti paragraphs later. First of all, let us observe some relevant
language) is not more than that of WB Northey and CJ Morris1, linguistic data here. Lowercase numbers in Jirel4 indicate tone.
DB Bista2 and Imansing Chemjong3. These authors have
KirantiKõits Bayung Manger Jirel
ignorantly underestimated or humiliated or hurt the
a) w(ɓ)a:ku w(ɓ)a:ku di chyu1 'water'
SunuwarnessJirelness sentiments of the SunuwarJirel tribes.
b) mi mi mhe me2 'fire'
Saroza also has continued to hurt them deeply. S/he has re
c) muru muru bharmi chu mi2 khyoo3 'man'
written hearsays ignorantly on such a sensitive issue. It seems d) lo: lo: dhut baat2 baasaa4 'language'
as if her critical faculty has not been aware of the sphere of e) po po wa:k phaakpaa3 'pig'
history, anthropology, mothertongue, linguistics, sociology, f) tami ta:mi mica phumu2 phijaa4 'daughter'
ethnography, culture and toponym. I myself as a student of g) khǝpi kha:pi jha sabi2 'soil'
ethnolinguistics, ethnography and folk literature, therefore h) berma: birma: suth bermaa2 'cat'
under this topic will clarify all valued readers of the Weekend i) bubu bubum boc kaarmu3 'white'
Review on these two tribes and lead Saroza to enlightenment if j) na:ɂso nokso kuwa:ra: la:ma: 'tribal priest'
s/he aspires to carry out further research on them. k) eko em/yako hose di2 'this'
l) laca: la:co nungke Dwaapla2 'to go'
My main ground upon which I provide data for evidence m) ga:ɂca: gokco wa:ke kaamba3 jubaalaa4 'to walk'
will at least be linguistic, anthropological and cultural apart n) la:u(o) la:u(o) a:nna Dwaa… 'go'
from historical and toponymic evidence for the purpose of o) gya:mi5 selemi la:ma: phombo2 'f/m shaman'
clarification. Any readers can apply contrastive, comparative Now, Saroza and other readers can compare and analyze
and analytic method of critical reading on the data provided the above elicited data of the four languages and decide
here. themselves whether Kõits (Sunuwar) resembles to a dialect of
Before observing such evident proof, it is relevant here to Manger. Kõits as one of the TB languages, has its close cognate
point out some misconceptions in Saroza's article. Firstly, the relationship with KirantiBayung (also Bahing), Surel and
SunuwarJirel tribes are never "related to the Mangers" W/Hayu as Rodung (Chamling) with Kirawa (Bantawa) and
(Manger=Sikkim Herald's spelling). Secondly, neither of the Kirawa with Yakthung (Limbu, Tsong). Available linguistic
Sunuwars are "offshoot of the Mangers". Thirdly, the Kõits Lo: studies so have further indicated and in a way proved that the
or 'Sunuwar language' never seems "only slightly different Kõits along with Yakkha, Kirawa, Rodung and Yakthung
language" from the Magar. Lastly, but most importantly no languages is one of the prominent Kiranti languages of Wallo
Sunuwars and Jirels are inclined traditionally. They are two Kirant, eastern Nepal.
distinct Mongoloid Kirant tribes (though Jirel linguistically is The main source of KirantiBayung data elicited here is
not Kiranti), who do not classify as ba:ra (ba:rssho 'high or from Brian H Hodgson6, Manoj Diburcha (age 41) and Suku
elite;) and das (do:sho 'low') thars among themselves. If they do
Rumda(li) (means Bayung, age 43). It is further crosschecked
so, that is due to the mainstream Hindu influence.
by Tej Diburcha (age 22). Similarly, the Manger data are elicited
A false concept of Sa:noThulo dichotomy is not the from Dr HB Bura Magar's dictionary7 and Pangni Aley Manger
characteristics of the whole Mongoloid Kiranti linguistic groups (age 37) of Bhusuk bridge, East Sikkim recently. A limited
number of Jirel words are elicited from Suman Krishna Jirel's whereas on the East (or across) of the river are 'Sunpar'. His
book8. In this work Suman Jirel has claimed that Kõits and Jirel hypothesis seems erroneous because there is no tribe called
are two separate tribes genotypically and phenotypically. 'Sunpar' as such into existence in the whole contemporary
Similarly, the Jirel and Sherpa are two closer different anthropological domain of research in Nepal and abroad.
languages of the TB family irrespective of some cognate Even the IndoAryan lexeme 'Sunkosi' has its semantic
lexicon. From genetic point of view, KirantiKõits (also Surel), interpretation in KirantiKõits tongue, which is purely a matter
Bayung, W/Hayu, Wambule9 and Thulung10 were one language of chance resemblance with this IndoAryan hydronym. It
rather than different languages during the period of 1400600 means su='who', nu= 'with', ko=verb root of ko:ca:= 'to look'
BC11, whereas Manger as one of the TB languages of mid and si= 'dual number marker+present participle' is an
Western Hills of Nepal is very close to Kham and Gurung. interrogative sentence Sunu kosi?= 'with whom you two looked
Without a deeper understanding of these tribes' mother ?'. The vowel phoneme /u/ of nu is dropped out while in
tongue, no researchers, authors and journalists can make a speech. This process in morphophonemics is known as apocope.
hasty judgments and generalizations. Toponyms and As a result, it is pronounced as sun kosi instead of sunu ko:si?
ethnonyms, for instance are of vital importance to explore However, its written or standard form is sunu ko:si merely. At
anthropological and sociological meanings of Sunuwar. This least in the KirantiKõits lexicon, it has no connection with the
'Sunuwar' terminology, as MM LaspachaSunuwar12 opines, Sanskrit > KhasNepali word Sun='gold' and kausiki > kosi=
has been derived from a phrase in Sunuwar such as sunu wārc 'river'. And the myth of availability of gold in the river derived
paca:? And hence the term sunuwar (su='who', nu='with', its name Sunkosi is invalid.
warc= 'friend' and paca:='to do'). In course of time, The Sunuwars have one more autoethnonym known as
morphological changes took place linguistically in Sunuwar. The Kõits also. 'Mukhia' (Mukhiya) is their title as Rai, Jimi, Dewan
term 'Sunuwar' came into existence when the final /c/ and Subba. When a Sunuwar speaker encounters another
phoneme and the disyllabic word paca: were dropped out in Sunuwar (and guess or be cocksure if s/he is a Sunuwar), they
the language. His hypothesis of the process of deriving the introduced to each other as go yo Kõits nang 'I am also a
ethnonym from a phrasal expression in the language is yet Sunuwar' (Kõits). But the term 'Sunuwar' here is not a direct
blurred by the hydronym Sunkosi river which seems a matter of translation of Kõits as such. On the contrary, Kõits as a nominal
chance resemblance. agent signifies 'guide, head and leader.' It is normally used in
There is another jocking term for the people known as speech or spoken from. Its written form is Kõitsa: = 'to show,
ma:r pa:che also by outsiders. As a matter of fact, ma:rpa:che lead'. This word obviously is a transitive verb. It has its root Kõi
has been derived from ma:r = 'what' and paca: = 'to do' (cf. > kong (imperative command 'look') which signifies the entity
Rapacha elsewhere) in the KirantiKõits tongue. The first of action and ca: signifies infinitive marker. Again if we dissect
morpheme ma:r has no change at all here, however the second the same verb further into two parts kõ and ica:, the first
morpheme pa ‐> pa: and ca: ‐> che in Nepali speakers' morpheme means 'uncertainty particle' and the latter means 'to
(outsider) tongue. That is how a corrupted form of ethnonym come down from a vertical direction'. Its geovariation is hitsa:
ma:rpa:che was coined after Sunuwar. also.
Contrary to this linguistic fact, Eden Vansittart13 has put

In Sunuwar, there are about fifty other hyponymy
clanonyms like Mulicha, Tõkucha, Ngawacha, Rapacha,
forward a hearsay hypothesis that the ethonyms 'Sunuwar and Kormocha, Rujicha and Rapacha etc (cha= RomanGorkhali
Sunpar' are said to be derived from the fact of the tribe residing spelling but phonetic transcription of cha is [tsā] and
either to the west or east of the Sunkosi river. The people phonemic transcription is /cā/) and so on end in the infinitive
residing on the West bank of the river are known as 'Sunwar'
marker cā. All these hyponymy ethnonyms have various genesis that the Sunuwar(s) and Bayung(s) are descendents of
semantic aspects related to culture, quality, duty or traits of an Khinchihang Paihang respectively while both of these ancestors
individual. Let us take an example of the term 'ra:paca:', which were brothers of one single family15.
means ra:='a transitive verb root of ra:ca:=' to get rotten' and
paca:='to do something' and its spoken realization ra:pac as the Their religious and cultural practices are also very much
nominal agent signifies 'catalyst' and its meaning is one who alike. The KirantiBayung and KirantiKõits including the
acts as a catalyst. Kiranti linguistic communities practise animishamanism or
animism and shamanism as a token of their religiocultural
In the case of the Jirel ethnonym also applies the same identity. Their cultural rites and rituals are conducted by Na:so
origin of toponym in their mother tongue. It has been derived (also Nhaso) vs Nokso 'tribal priest' and GyamiPõib(o) vs
from Ji or dzi 'dense' and ri 'forest/jungle'. This toponym Jiri
Selemi 'tribal shaman' whereas of the Jirels by Phombo
gave birth to another new enthnonym Jirel 'people settling or
'shaman' and La:ma: 'tribal priest'.
dwelling in Jiri'. Unlike in Jirel, Jiri has been derived from
Sunuwar Ji:ri:ca: (ji= 'onomatopoeic particle' and ri:ca:= 'get The yearly cultural practice of the Sunuwar is Shyãdar
darker')> ji:ri:t (past tense of Ji:ri:ca:)= 'got darker in the Shyeeli (also Shyil > sili) 'worship of nature i.e. land and
evening' > Jiri then is a toponym. It is therefore necessary to ancestor' which is known as Sakela/Sakewa, Sakenwa Sili in
have a better command of the language of a particular tribe some other Kiranti linguistic communities. This Shyili > Shyil
before writing on them, makhala? (in Saroza Pradhan's mother is never performed by Mangers. Instead Ghãtu is the main
tongue) means 'isn't it so?' cultural identity of the Mangers and Gurungs as well. There are
We have already seen earlier in our selected linguistic data no historical traces of the Ghãtu practice in the KirantiKõits
that KirantiKõits and KirantiBayung languages are almost community and the rest Kiranti linguistic communities to date
mutually intelligible. The speakers are related to each other not in eastern Nepal.
only linguistically but also socioanthropologically. It happens to In conclusion, NortheyMorris, Bista, Chemjong and
be so in their closely similar hyponymy clanonyms or kindred Saroza Pradhan's claim "Sunuwars and Jirels are related to the
names which symmetrically end in cha /cā/ [tsā] morpheme, Mangers" seems an erroneous cliché. Actually, one should here
such as: ponder seriously and compare the facts provided and analyzed
KirantiKõits (Sunuwar) KirantiBayung (Bahing) here comprehensively to find out the truth for themselves
Tholocha Tolocha before jumping into a hasty overgeneralization.
Susucha Sesecha
Mulicha Moblocha Notes
Dirgacha Diburcha 1 See WB Northey and CJ Morris's The Gurkhas: Their Manners,
Thangrocha Thamrocha Customs and Country.
Rapacha Ripacha etc. 2 See DB Bista's People of Nepal for detail.
One can raise a question here, "Why do the Tholocha(s) 3 Iman S. Chemjong's History and Culture of Kirant People (1967)
identify themselves as Sunuwar and Tolocha(s) as Rai?" There for detail.
must definitely be some historical connections here. The 4 The Jirel data included here are provided by Sueyoshi Toba via e
Bayung and Sunuwar speakers do speak much more similar mail on the 2nd of July, 2009. Also he has noted that "…it seems to
languages in many respects14. Correspondingly, the tribes also me that the Jirel language is basically a kind of Tibetan related
should not have much difference anthropologically since their language. Romanization may be clear but I used 'aa' low central
historical connection has clearly been stated and proved by vowel and D in retroflex sound". I sincerely acknowledge his
Buddhi Hangucha's Mundum story of their migration and priceless help here.
5 gya:mi vs. põibo (f/m here). Federal political systems hence often viewed as combining
6 See Brian H Hodgson's 1957 Journal of the Asiatic Society of 'unity with diversity' as in the motto of the US, e pluribus unum
Bengal, XXIV: 317 and ff (contains a Bahing vocabulary on pp 350 ‘one from many’.
ff); 486 and ff (a full Bahing vocabulary; 1858, XXVII: 393 ff While reading Prof Lok Raj Baral's 13paged scholarly
(Bahing Grammar).
7
paper2 on the recent debates of restructuring of state and choice
His dictionary was published in 1993.
8
of political governance entitled "Nepal: Federalism in a Divided
See Suman Krishna Jirel's book The Jirels of Nepal. Society" (hereafter NFDS), I myself including thousands of
9 See Abhinath Dwarangcha Rai's Wambule Rai Dictionary. thousand minority ethnoindigenous citizens from Terai to the
10 See Dodikha:m Traima:sik (2001) edited by Kirãt Subuhang. mountain of our ShangriLa country feel dislocated or still
11 cf. WW Glover's 1974 classification in Semantic and Grammatical invisible to inclusively participate with identity and dignity in
Structures in Gurung (Nepal) building a true Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal beyond
12 p/c with MM Laspacha (Sunuwar) in 1999. rhetoric.
13 See Eden Vansittart's book Notes on Nepal (with an introduction Prof Baral's scholarship in NFDS deserves thanks for its
by H.H. Risley) originally published in 1896 and Indian reprint in indepth Socratic knowledge and wisdom in proposing
1992 by Asian Educational Services.
14
"Cooperative Federalism" (hereafter CF) as the future model of
cf. Jean R Opgenort's A Grammar of Jero with a Historical
political governance and restructuring a New Integrated or Re
Comparative Study of the Kiranti Languages and LalShyãkarelu
unified peaceful and prosperous Nepal, however lacks Socratic
Rapacha's IndoNepal Kiranti Bhashaharu.
15 courage in seeing the naked Truths and telling those Truths
See LalShyãkarelu Rapacha's JNU PhD thesis A Descriptive
frankly to the local, national and global community hence
Grammar of KirantiKõits.
suffers from 'dislocation and invisibility' limitations. I'll briefly
discuss it with examples later. Another inadequacy of the paper
is misreading or misinterpreting Nepal's true history regarding
June 2002 the socalled Great King PN Shah. As I see this, the socalled
"territorial unification" excluding the unification of peoples'
Source: Weekend Review, 2002, 1. 10, 1218 July, slightly revised here
national sentiments and feelings in 1768 was not actually done
and notes added
by the King himself but by the ethnoindigenous nationalities
mainly the Gurungs and the Magars from Midwestern Nepal
whose history along with their contributions in expanding the
7 Ethnofederalism on its deathbed territory if not purgatory of Nepal has ironically remained
In federalism according to Iain McLean and Alistair unrecorded and unacknowledged let alone the colonized ones in
McMillan1, everybody can be satisfied (or nobody permanently many fronts of the country.
disadvantaged) by nicely combining national and Pages of our deadliving history are evident that there was
regional/territorial interests within a complex web of checks not only suppression as well as discrimination against those
and balances between a general, or national, or federal colonized ethnos together with Madhesis along the line of
government, on the one hand, and a multiplicity of regional ethnicity, language and culture or sometimes along the height of
governments, on the other. It is furthermore…powersharing the nose or skincolour but heinous assassination. To recall one
across different levels of governance (centreregion) and, at the of such horrors of Nepohistory, for instance is Kiranti Sirijunga
same time, the integration of different territorial and socio Hang Thebe's (also mentioned as Rupihang Raya) assassination
economic units, cultural and ethnic groups in one single polity. only on the basis of different language and ethnicity in the
eastern front of the country. Meanwhile, all those invaded other critics have acrimoniously criticized the same line of
peoples on the basis of caste with the rise of Janga Bahadur MadhesiNEFIN's political demands labeling as "evil,
Rana's Hitlarian style of oligarchy were imposed Hinduism with sectarianism" or even "warlordism". What they have failed to
caste dissection and discrimination in the name of Civil Code see is the actual reality of this land and the oppressed voices of
(see Höfer 2004). Therefore, the case of "Dalits" or these ethnoindigenous and Madhesi people(s) for centuries by
untouchables and gender issues should always be attached to the eliteracism. For knowing Nepal and the Nepalese folks in a
Hinduism not with ethnos. In the cultural fronts the great real sense of the term no Western or Elite glasses can be helpful.
invader PN Shah largely with the help of his ethnoArmy had Let me begin by quoting my Reader Response Letter sent to the
made palm and footprints of blood mandatory on their (read Post and to Prof Bohora in the following box:
Kirantis') doors during 15 days Dashain (i.e. of Hindu
synonymously known as dashaa 'omen or death' for ethnos) Box 1: Language and ethnicity
festivity. Dr Alok Bohora's article (4 April; including earlier articles) is
In this backdrop after 238 years of stonysleep, nations another American intervention in Nepal's linguistic plus ethnic
and nationalities now within and without the nationalpolitical reality. No one can deny our multiidentity. Linguistic right is
boundary with the Maoist Rebellion and Peoples' MovementII integral part of human rights. How can one preserve Nepal's ethnic
have awakened to relocate and make themselves visible in the and linguistic pride, promote economic cooperation and preserve
the environment or logosphere merely rhetorically for the benefit of
political affairs of their battered home earned through their own
everyone without considering language and ethnicity in his proposal
'blood and perspiration'. So restructuring of Nepal's socio of cooperative regional federal states of new Nepal?
political, ethnic, linguistic and religiocultural boundaries for
devolution of executive, legislative and judicial (hereafter ELJ) Adjustment of language and ethnicity in either four tiers:
centre, state, region, and villages mean inclusive and participatory
powers has become one of the most debated issues here and
democracy for building a peaceful and prosperous Nepal really safe
now. from ethnolinguistic genocide. If we again as in the past regimes
Also the first amendment of Interim Constitution2006/7 exclude and marginalize those ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups
has confirmed "federalism" as the best suited model of from political arena, Nepalese dreams will perennially remain
governance and article 148 (3) of the amended Constitution nightmares.
concerning restructuring of state (i.e. into autonomous nation After all our diverse ethnicity, languages and cultures make us
states are envisaged) and federalism mentions that the final richer than bread alone. So those groups having their own distinct
decision will be made by Constituent Assembly (CA). ethnicity, languages and cultures should be given special
recognition in CA, Constitution and politics for their participation
Keeping this distant decision of CA aside let me now in nation building.
concentrate on whether those dislocated and invisible Nepalese
Dr LalShyãkarelu Rapacha
ethnoindigenous nationalities and Madhesi folks or in another
Katunje2, Okhaldhunga
phrase—MadhesiNEFIN's political demands can have equal
share of ELJ powers in all units/communes/villages, 5 April 2007
cantons/regions/states and federation/centre of the political Thursday (sent to: bohara@unm.edu and kpost@kantipur.com.np)
framework of CF as a model of governance.
The Post on the 7th of April in its reader's section
There are in our present context two main scholars viz.
published the letter in a little bit distorted version and Dr Alok
Prof Lok Raj Baral (Nepal) and Prof Alok Bohara (America) Bohara, professor of Economics; University of New Mexico, US,
writing on the model of CF3 in which they reject the base of on the 6th of April emailed me—
federalism as ethnicity, language, culture and religion. Some
Dear Rapacha, for all Nepalese—be they Madhesis, Janajatis or Bahuns—for all
Thank you for your email. It is good to have a healthy debate by the time to come. It can best be panacea for this ailing nation4.
bringing in different views based on various factors such as ethnic, CF's conditional introduction of "proportional
geographic, ecological, resource, political, efficiency, and economic representation" for most minority ethnoindigenous nationalities
realities of the country. Thanks for your input. like Bakulochana (i.e. Bantawa, Bayung, Kulung, Lohorung,
Sincerely, Chamling, Nachhiring and Yamphu), Hayu, Raute, Chepang,
Alok Bohara Kusunda and so on will surely be 'big fish, small fish'
Professor, UNM phenomenon and its safest choice would be mandatory "equal
rather than proportional representation" everywhere in ELJ
Yet again, it is another electrocuting shock that the model arena irrespective of their ideology or the number of population
of CF is a mere ladder for the meritocratic elite groups for in order to preserve them and promote their unique languages,
usurping ELJ powers excluding the true nation builders. Some cultures and indigenous or traditional knowledge together with
best models of restructuring bases e.g. ethnic, linguistic and biodiversity. Of course, twentyfirst century's Nepal will respect
cultural besides geographical, regional, ecological and economic CBD Convention in global perspective as a form of democratic
through which one can best understand and address the political process.
Madhesi and enthoindigenous nationalities' problems and
Language in recent times has become one of the major
silence them for permanent peace building. Their main
concerns of many sections of the global society as well.
demands and debates such as proportional representation of
Menacingly, English is swapping many lesserknown languages
their community in CA along with powersharing in the arena of
of the world including KhasNepali and many other ethno
ELJ on the basis of their ethnicity, language and culture sound
Nepalese languages of our soil. At the time of this politico
reasonable. They should be allowed to ethnic, linguistic, cultural
linguistic crisis the best way of safeguarding the KhasNepali
and regional autonomy with the right of selfdetermination in a
language in this country would be linguistic recognition,
federally restructured Democratic Republic of Nepal which
secularism and autonomy for the Madhesi and ethnoindigenous
according to Prof Baral is not the main characteristics of CF
people(s) since the future of KhasNepali is very strong as a
where 'cooperative' synonymously means 'shared', 'inter
lingua franca throughout New Nepal rather than as the
locked', 'intertwined', and 'creative federalism' mean nothing to
imposed language of the rulers. Local languages are one of the
the demands of the hour and age.
key factors to understand the local peoples, their problems and
Our answer to some of our spiteful critics fearing 'federal their developmental discourse(s).
structure' with regional autonomy of selfdetermination
In addition, every language truly in the word of OW
containing seeds of secession of the country as a whole would
Holmes is "a temple in which the soul of those who speak it is
be—in DB Gurung's crystal clear vision—first generates a sense
of nationalism while being discreetly different by virtue of enshrined". It is now obvious that Madhesis and ethnos are not
ethnic, religious or cultural backgrounds. Second, it creates a ready to survive scarecrows without their soul. It would be wise
sense of competition among the federal units for development. to bestow them their glory back, their soul back making
Third, this system creates opportunities for the backward, languages as part of our political agenda since language is the
underprivileged and neglected groups or individuals. Fourth, most important medium of political discourse and power. There
there will be an absence of "common enemy", frequently lies our future nation's soul. A nation without her soul keeps on
referred to Bahuns (the only socalled cakeeaters) by non burning, bleeding and whining like it is happening for around
Bahuns. "Unity within diversity" can be best phrase to cherish fifteen years now. Accepting diversity, safeguarding and
promoting their survival with the right of selfdetermination
mean harmonious survival of each and every section of our Notes
becoming New Nepal. CF if best suited model of governance in 1 See Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan (eds.), Oxford Concise
Prof Baral's discussion should have space for Nepalese peoples' Dictionary of Politics (Indian Edition 2004), New Delhi: Oxford
soul compulsorily. University Press.
2 A comment peper on Prof Lokraj Baral's paper in a National
This crafts them feel their belongingness in the soil of
tomorrow's nation towards national unity and integrity which Workshop 'Discourse on Inclusion in the Context of Federalism'
28 April 2007, Saturday organized by Friends for Peace,
should be the ultimate purpose of restructuring the state and
Kathmandu, NEPAL.
governance modality. It also ensures folkocracy (means 3 See 'Sajhedari sanghiya pranali' (Cooperative federalism),
folk/people's democracy) where every citizen inclusively can be Kantipur, 14 March 2007/ 30 Phagun 2063 and 'Cooperative
equal with equal opportunities as part of the stronger nation regional federal states: A workable solution?', The Kathmandu
union. Post, 4 April 2007 for conceptual readings.
4 Source: www.telegraphnepal.com. I am thankful to DB Gurung
Stronger nation's stronger citizens in stronger spirit at this
moment have to transform our future Nepal soon from a false who had/has provided me some Xerox copies of his seminal
telegraph paper 'National integration and peace through
'potato' metaphor sandwiched between two boulders into 'iron' federalism' and interview on the 19th of April 2007, Thursday
metaphor sandwiched between two software and hardware afternoon.
giants. 5 cf. Dr Birendra Pandey's article 'Nepal within representation
Also, it is now necessary to transform Nepal from the towards culture of rhetoric(s)', The Kathmandu Post, 10 March
garden of 'castecastration' into the garden of blooming peoples 2007, Saturday.
and their matchless languages and cultures for everlasting peace
by equally participating in nation building. We need that model
of governance urgently more than any other hollow CF without Source: Shrijanshil Shahitya (Creative Literature) 2007, 1, 1: 135140
containing our diverse grassroots. They are now their own and note added here
centers and their own boss.
Finally, I would like to conclude my comments here

recalling Maya Angelo— 8 Mismatching antiques and identity
"You may write me down in history This topic deals with 3 antique photographs (dated
With your bitter, twisted lies, 186875) and its identification as 'Sunwar' in email letter
You may trod me in the very dirt form including the letter's eresponses. It runs—
But still like dust, I'll rise."
The actual unification of Nepal, we time and again Dear CP1,
emphasize will be reborn only when the country gives up the Seu taakine2.
tradition of monologue in favour of a culture to listening to a I've copied and pasted 3 photoplates here for making you
multiplicity of voices5 while restructuring state and adopting smile and prove your IndoAryan theory of Hinduism to
federal structure of peoples' own choice for inclusive and equal interpret our KirantiKõits ethnoindigenous people or
New Nepal. nationalities and the rest 26 Kiranti linguistic communities (27
including ours) as Hindus and nothing more than that.
Certainly, these pictures of Sunwar (see plates 2, 3 and 4 below)
prove your theoretical assumptions and assertions right. And
yet our language and culture do not prove it to be so. Things are
still to be investigated rather than taking it for granted. I'm
always alert what our ancestors made us.
By the way, I had gone through your article in
Limbuwanblogspot in which you've included Yalungcha also in
our clanonym, which is not true. It's from KirantiRodung of
Majh Kirant. And also I had gone through your former Kirant
Hindu article again in BeaconDarjeeling homepage. Now, please
include these photos to prove that the Sunwars are actually
TharuHindus of the Terai belt. Wishing you all the best.
It has really upset me though has made you smile. Now,
I've to perhaps head towards The New York Public Library
to check and carry out further research to find out the reality
whether our ancestors were like the ones shown in those three Plate 3: Image ID: 1125294 Sunwar female (subHimalayan origin),
plates here. Cheerio. Nipal (186875)
Searched results for: "Sunuwar (South Asian people)"
Plate 4: Image ID: 1125295 Sunwar family (subHimalayan origin),

Nipal (186875)
Source: The New York Public Library, Digital Gallery Picks
Plate 2: Image ID: 1125293, Sunwar (subHimalayan origin), Nipal Google accessed on 27 May 2009, Wednesday
[Male] (186875) Request to our American KirantiKõits murupiki3
Dear American KirantiKõits murupiki, From: kirankabi@hotmail.com (Kedar Sangket)
I've clearly stated its (pics above) source. Now, we've to Dear Sir,
find out the real source of these digital photographs for further
Many thanks for all your docs. These are knowledgeable to me
research on the part of our ancestors' identity. So, you can do a
lot since you're there. If you need my assistance I'm always with and as well as to all KirantiKõits those who are not well known
you and ready to work with you at any moment. We have to act about ourselves/themselves.
now and today for tomorrow it'll be too late.
Tseredum4. Regards,
Kedar Sunuwar
Inke aam mur5/Respectfully yours, ……………….

LalShyãkarelu Rapacha From: dborchers9@web.de (Dr Dörte Borchers)
University of Leipzig
Date: Fri, May 29, 2009 at 1:27 AM from Kathmandu, Nepal on
Deutschland (Germany)
her field visit on Surel
Dated: 27 May 2009, Wednesday
Leipzig, Deutschland (Germany) Dear Lal,
Thank you very much for sending the interesting photographs. I
Email responses do not believe that just from the physical features I could say
From: cpsunuwar@hotmail.com (Chandra Prakash Sunuwar) who comes from a Koinc [Kõits] background and who not.
To: kiranti.rapachalal@gmail.com When I see a person I might think he or she looks Koinc [Kõits]
Date: Fri, May 29, 2009 at 1:27 AM or Bahun/Chetri or Gurung or Newar to me and I might often
Subject: RE: File that makes you happy and makes me upset be right. On the other hand, I have met Bahuns with Kiranti
looks and Kiranti people with Bahun/Chetri looks. This is no
Dear Rapacha, surprise as there was probably always intergroup marriage. As
Thank you for finding out this picture. I am really upset to the Surel, I know a family with a daughter looking Chinese
which cannot be a Sunuwar picture. This is completely false. with very small eyes while her brother has very big, round
Can you please try to find out the person, who posted this? And European looking eyes. So, just from the faces in the pictures I
we together need to take action on him. This is really alarming. would say: they could certainly be Koinc [Kõits], say could have
Can you believe this picture is of Sunuwar? No way, please other backgrounds.
chase it. The people in the pictures wear seemingly homemade clothes
This is your great personality what normally you are and have some ornaments. As you know yourself, people in the
famous for. Once again I am sad for this picture and I don't villages nowadays buy the same clothes and ornaments as their
mean that Tharu are Sunuwar. Anyway, please try to find this nonKoinc [Kõits] neighbours'. I do not know what ornaments
silly person, who posted Tharu picture as Sunuwar. and clothes Koinc [Kõits] did wear at the time the photographs
had been taken. The very big nose ring looks Indian to me. In
Looking forward to seeing you. case that is so, the woman could still be Koinc [Kõits] as such
………………. items came thanks to the army to Nepal. But this is just
guessing. I really don't know a thing about traditional Koinc
Date as above [Kõits] ornaments.
In Suri, I asked the older women about clothes people did wear 3 KirantiKõits term murupiki for 'manPL' denoting 'men'.

5060 years ago. The seventyyearold women told me that in 4 KirantiKõits term for saying 'thanks' or 'best wishes for progress'.
their childhood came the change to Nepali clothes, but that they 5 KirantiKõits term for saying 'your relative'.
remember the production of clothes made out of nettle and men
wearing summer and winter just nettle cloth fabric loinclothes,
not covering the legs. The Newar in the village raised sheep and
produced woollen fabric, but the Surel for lack of money or
9 KirantiKõits identity crisis
other means couldn't easily buy woollen fabric. This suggests Abstract
that the people in the third picture do not come from the village KirantiKõits as one of the TibetoBurman Mongoloid
of Suri. (Tibetonoid) tribes of Wallo ‘Hither/Near’ Kirant, eastern Nepal
It might be interesting for you (or did I write this already?) that is also known as ‘Sun(u)war’ and quite often as ‘Mukhi(y)a’ in
while I was in Suri, the Surel studied the old contracts which its exoglotonyms, whereas ‘KirantiKõits’ itself is an auto
proved that they had sold their land for nothing to Bahun and ethnonym. The same autoethnonym ‘KirantiKõits lo’ suggests
Chetri settlers. They were disappointed, when they couldn't find glossonym too. It is classified under one of the Western Kiranti
a document in which they were Surel. In all documents they languages in the TibetoBurman subfamily. In recent past and
were either Sunar or Sunuvaar (Sunuwar). Of course, we know contemporary use, the exoglotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ [< hydronym
where the Sunar comes from. After all, the Surel were not Sunkoshi as its genesis] has gained a wider recognition
literate at that time and the writers of the contracts didn't know popularly among researchers instead of their autoethonym.
any better. However, the exoglotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ has undergone
I hope this helps, even though it doesn't solve the riddle of the several problematic semantic transformations since the late
identity of the people in the pictures. I think, what one could do, 1960s resulting in the people's identity crisis presently. This
is check the reliability of other, provable, parts of the books essay’s* main aim thus is to explore several pejorative semantic
because that might show how much effort the author took, to transformations of the term ‘Sun(u)war’ in relation to the
get the facts correct. In case he didn't work sloppy, I would Gurkha imperial title ‘Mukhi(y)a’ and other related nyms for
simply assume that also the pictures show what the captions shedding light on misconceptions as well as misinterpretations
say. in the past literature by digging out ethnolinguistic
paleontological facts in order to salvage the KirantiKõits
I am suffering by the way again from my paratyphoid high people/tribe’s legitimate identity through ethnolinguistic
fever, headaches, slowness in the head and body. I just hope the observations.
antibiotics work properly this time.
An introductory outline
Please give my regards to Bag (yesterday I met her sister Samala
at the Indigenous Film Festival, by the way) and Animon. KirantiKõits (autoglotonym or autoethnony and
glossonym; spoken in Wallo Kirant, ‘Hither/Near Kirant’
Greetings, eastern Nepal) and Sikkim as one of the TibetoBurman (TB)
Dörte Borchers languages, has a large number of indigenous clanonyms still
overlooked by anthropolinguists, are morphosemantically
Notes significant, which richly contribute to its lexicon. Most of these
1
clanonyms, unfortunately scarcely heed to the native speakers
Here CP stands for Chandra Prakash Sunuwar. of KirantiKõits themselves except in occasional functions as in
2 KirantiKõits term for saying 'accept my greetings'.
marital ceremony (usually less often these days) only because of Similarly, the autoglotonym or autoethnonym Kõits [sf]FOr]

clanexogamous practice among the community members, are as noun means ‘a guide, leader’ has been derived from Kõitsā
almost obsolete and threatened of extinction since most of these [sf]FOrf] (v.t) ‘to show, guide, lead’ (cf. Rapacha 2002). This verb
clanonyms have been replaced by the problematic exonym
can be dissected in two free morphemes as kõ [sf]]F ‘probability
‘Sun(u)war’. Those clanonyms (see end note 6) in morpho
semnatic terms have indigenous structural symmetry of their particle’ and itsā< hitsā (v.i Orf< lxrf) ‘to come down from the
own1. As in Thangmi (Shneiderman and Turin 2000c), one of upper level, verticality’ in which [tsā rf] or /cā, rf/ is ‘infinitive
the ‘GreaterKiranti’ (Driem 1992, 2001, 2004, Turin 2004 or marker’, whose conventional RomanGorkhali (hereafter RG)
elsewhere, Shneiderman and Turin 2000c or elsewhere) orthography popularly written, at least amongst the South Asian
members of the TB languages, KirantiKõits also has at least common readers’spelling is ‘chā rf’ (RG) and its minimal
three morpheme combinations in their ethnonym and pair ‘chhā 5f’ (RG) right down from the Queen’s Gurkha
clanonyms. Officer (QGO) Lt Col Vansittart’s (1896) writing for Kiranti
The blanket term Kiranti has developed from the Sanskrit Kõits and other Kiranti tribes like Bāɂyung (>Bāhing due to
“Kirata” according to Chatterji (1998: 2738 [orig. 1951]) and linguistic change), Rodung (also Cāmling) and Kirāwā or
Driem (1993: XXI, 2) etymologically. However, there is another Bo(ā)ntawā (>Bāntawā due to linguistic change). Therefore, in
possibility of its accidental development from “Oirat” (cf. the morpheme ‘chā’ of –hichā >ichā [hitsā>itsā], the prefix <
Rapacha 2004) a Mongoloid2 tribe (see Rupen 1983: 359360 hi>i> is a reduced stem of the verb meaning ‘to come down
[EAC 1924]) elsewhere in Mongolia, Inner Mongloia (China) (especially from up level, vertical)’.
and other parts of China) to “Kirant >Kiranti” (also a Clanonyms, such as “rapacha” (/rā:pәcā/) ‘make/cause
Mongoloid/Tibetonoid tribe), which is discussed moderately in something rot’, while in spoken form “rapach” /rā:pәc/ means
Rapacha (2004: 2125, See also Gaenszle 2000: 215) regarding ‘a catalyst’ is the combination of two verb roots and /cā rf/ as
its genesis. infinitive marker, which is a near cognate of KirantiBāɂyung
The autoethnonym (i.e. “the name used by members of an (Bayung; Nepalized Bāhing) /co rf]/ (Rapacha 2000 and
ethnic group to refer to themselves or their language” Michailovsky 1975, KirantiRwāDhu or Wāmbule /cām rfd\/
(Shneiderman and Turin 2000c: 5)) kõits [sf]FOr] is more (Opgenort 2002 and Dwarangcha 2000 [VS 2057]), /co rf]/
commonly known by an exonym or glotonym (UNESCOterm;
‘person’ in e.g. /cāco rfrf]/ ‘grandson, one’s son or daughter’s
Toba et al 2002; hereafter exoglotonym) and a hydronym
son’ (Opgenort 2002: 456) and Early Classical Newa(r)(i)) /cә;
“Sun(u)war” [N ;'g'jf/ Sunuυār] (mainly Hodgson (1847),
Konow (in Grierson 1909), Schulze (elsewhere in her
r/ (Tamot 2002: 1326 and 169184) infinitival suffix
morpheme. Other ethnonyms like Jirel (Gurung and Salter
description), Bieri3 (elsewhere in her description) and Hale
1996: 59) and Surel (a branch of TibetoBurman KirantiKõits
(1982 and elsewhere), Egli (1999 and elsewhere) and so on or its
speech community) also have this /cā rf/ suffix in their
offensive or derogatory interpretation as Sunar (N in IA or
Indic) ‘goldsmith, untouchable’ (Hagen 1961 [1980: 123 Indian clanonyms whereas KirantiKirawa (Bantawa or Bontawa) and
rpt. English version] and so on); whereas “Kõits” is an KirantiRodung (Camling) in their clanonyms have [tshā] /
autoglotonym or autoethnonym for the people themselves and chā/ <chā> in place of KirantiKõits [tsā] /cā/ <cā>
for their language. Another common exonym for the same is morpheme. All these varied forms, which, in turn, are
“Mukhia” (or less common is “Mārāpāche”) widely used in homonymic with each other and are closely related cognates in
Darjeeling, Sikkim and further in Bhutan. TibetoBurman protoform *tsa ‘child, grandchild’ (Benedict
1972: 208) sociohistorically and linguistically, which signifies
as ‘±male /person’ marker (e.g. sәrәchā ‘son’, mārichā Turin (2003: 71) reviewing the previous literature
‘daughter’ and mәchā ‘daughter’s husband’) in Kiranti comments, “Sadly, much of the early writing on the Thangmi is
Rodung’s modern vocabulary as well. erroneous and betrays the ignorance and prejudices of the
writers more than it informs the reader about features of this
Exoglotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ and its ultimate fate important Himalayan population and their littleknown
The term ‘Sun(u)war’ is an exoglotonym or exo(ethno)nym language.”
[N ;'g'jf/ Sunuυār] having several other derogatory implications This problem (1980: 123 [1961, first edition in German]
(See below), which sprang out of the blanket term ‘Kiranti’ cited earlier) is quite more serious in ‘Sun(u)war’ [N ;'g'jf/
hyphenated with ‘Kõits’ (also known as ‘Mukhia’ and Sunuυār] than it is in Thangmi (a GreaterKiranti member).
‘Marapache’) when the tribe started settling on the east or west Thus, we shall here provide a semantic survey of the exo
bank of the Sunkoshi river (cf. Meaning as hydronym below), is glotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ and its anthroposociological traits
a twice Nepalized i. e. IndoAryanized glotonym signifying the
described in its earlier literature.
TB speakers/tribes autochthonous to Sikkim, Pallo ‘Far’

Kirant, Majh ‘Middle’ Kirant and Wallo ‘Hither/Near’ Kirant,
eastern Nepal. Obviously, for a member of the International Meaning as hydronym
Bible Society (New Testament in Sunuwar 1992) or for a QGO Lt Col Vansittart (1896 and 1909) for the first time
hardcore linguist such as a phonetician or a syntactician or has evidently mentioned the etymology of the term ‘Sun(u)war’
historian or a commoner, the use of the exoglotonym as follows,
‘Sun(u)war’(autoethnonym ‘KirantiKõits’ definition as cited “Sunwars or Sunpars, also called Mukhias: The names
earlier) may not really matter (since there exist discrimination Sunwar and Sunpar are said to be derived from the fact of
and humiliation in the Hindu caste system) in a real sense of the these men residing either on the west or east of Sun Kosi
term. But from ethnoindigenous and interdisciplinary point of river Sunwar …West of Sun Kosi, Sunpar … East (or across)
view, for instance socioanthropolinguistics, the exoglotonym Sun Kosi” (1992: 177 [1st edition 1896]).
‘Sun(u)war’ [N ;'g'jf/ Sunuυār] has several other problems as in
Thangmi (a GreaterKiranti member). Anthropolinguists like Note that the two morphemes wār [N ‐jf/~jf/L
Shneiderman and Turin (2000: 4) on the Thangmi (a Greater ‘nearer/hither side’] and pār [kf/~kf/L ‘farther/thither side’]
Kiranti member) tribe observe, suffixed to sun [N ;'g‐ ‘gold’] are of IA (Indic) Nepali origin
“…many Thangmi pass themselves off as belonging to other associated with the socalled hydronym ‘Sun(u)war’ derived
more prominent ethnic groups such as Tamang, and less from Sunkoshi [N ;'gsf]zL] when the tribe came to settle either
frequently, as Gurung or Rai. The reason that they give for on the west or east bank of the river (cf. also Yadava 2003: 144,
this is simply that since few people in administrative
Dahal 1985). Tikaram Mulicha and Tankaraj Susucha (1987 [VS
positions have ever heard of the ethnic group admitting to
being Thangmi may unwittingly result in a stream of 2044: 33 and 45]) also have supported the idea of this
questions about who they are and where they come from, derivation without any further critical comments and
such as inquiring whether Thangmi are low caste Hindus inventories. Ghatak’s (1993: 161171) explanation of its
or indigenous Kiranti people. Moreover, when Thangmi (Sun(u)war) etymology (cf. Adhikari and Bhattarai 2005: 1021,
introduce themselves to strangers, they are often mistaken Bam Rai 2001 [2058: 3940]) also does not differ from that of
for undesirable groups such as kami [N] ‘blacksmiths’ or Vansittart (ibid) and Mulicha and Susucha (1987) anymore.
[dhami N] ‘folkhealer’, due to similar sounding nature of
their name.”
Shadows of misconceived meanings “Walnut and chestnut”, the intention being to convey thereby
that they are as closely related as one nut to another”.
There are quite often many available misinformed or
misconceived meanings of the exoglotonym/exoethnonym Undoubtedly, Vansittart in both of his works Notes on
‘Sun(u)war’ such as Sunar, [N ;'gf/] Kami, [N sfdL] and Nepal and Gurkhas: A Handbook was tricked and misinformed
Sornakar [N :j0f{sf/]. The IndoAryan KhasNepali4 word (or his impressionistic observation was erroneous) when he
Sunar/Kami or Sornakar means ‘goldsmiths, blacksmiths or describes Sunuwar, Gurung and Magar ambiguously as
untouchable caste’ and also for the exoglotonym/exoethnonym “okharpangro baldyangro” [N] which may mean that all these
‘Sun(u)war’ Hagen (1980: 123; [1st edition in German 1961]) three tribes are of similar category. But on the contrary, these
tribes are of different linguistic and cultural TB groups, for
overgeneralizes,
instance linguistically, the KirantiKõits language, which is one
“…the principal settlement area of the Sunuwars lies on the of the TB Kiranti in indigenous languages and culturally the
upper course of the Sunkoshi river. They have made a name Magars and Gurungs celebrate Ghãtu Nach ‘Ghãtu Dance’
for themselves as excellent smiths and goldsmiths, and they whereas the Sun(u)war celebrate Shyãdar Shyil equivalent to
have been associated to for a special smiths caste calling
Sakela Sili ‘Sakela Dance’ in other Kiranti speech communities.
themselves the Kamis.”
Their ancestors according to folklore studies are Langlewa (Rai
Following Hagen’s erroneouslymisinformed description 2005: 7), Wakudung (ChamlingRai 1998: 68 and 140),
of the TB KirantiKõits tribe (See Rapacha 2000: 810, 2002 Khinchi(hang) (Khambu (1995 [VS 2052]), Lee (2005: 183185)
and 2003 [VS 2060], Ananda (1987), Subedi et al (1998: 88 [VS and Harkabung/Khinchihang (ChamlingRai 2061: 4 and 6).
2055]; 1994 1st edition [VS 2051), Parajuli et al (eds.1983: 1359
Furthermore, two other QGOs, Northey and Morris (1987:
and 1392), Acharya (1994), Prapannacharya (1993: 471475;
257 [orig.1927]) have continued the same sociosemantic
who does not differentiate between the two spellings Sun(u)war
tradition of Vansittart. They note thus,
vs. Sunar, which is also repeated or reiterated by Aryal (2003:
9194 [VS 2060]), Shrestha and Bhattarai (2004) have also “…the Bara thar [fallacious because no TibetoBurman tribes
reduplicated the same offensive misinformation. This IA have such caste/class hierarchy as in Hinduism as pointed
(Indic) KhasNepali caste Kami or Sunar/Sornakar as an over out earlier; my personal note added, See Gurung (2004: 32
generalized exoglotonym or exonym for the KirantiKõits 33) also], or twelve tribes, have become almost entirely of the
Hindu faith, and the priests who officiate at their religious
people/tribe is either obviously unwarranted or unjustified
ceremonies are said to be, nowadays, exclusively composed
information as for Thangmi discussed earlier analogically.
of Brahmans, of the Upaddhe class, although some of their
tribes of the Magars and Gurungs, and are considered to
Ethnicity mismatch with Manger and Gurung resemble those tribes in many respects. The resemblance to
The exoglotonym or exoethnonym ‘Sunuwar’ [N ;'g'jf/ the Magars and Gurungs is not strong, however, and the
Sunuυār], furthermore mistakenly has been associated with two Sunwars retain, to a large extent, the characteristics and
other more prominent ethnic groups such as Gurung and manners of the other main races of Eastern Nepal, the
Manger (Sikkim spelling and Nepal spelling Magar) by QGO Lt Limbus and Rais, into the latter of which many of their
Col Vansittart (1992: 177179 [1st edition 1896]). He notes, subdivisions are, it is said, rapidly being absorbed.”
“In appearance and physique they (Sun(u)war) very much Then in the mid sixties, Bista (1967), who is credited as the
resemble the ordinary Magar and Gurung. They are most founderfather of Nepalese socioanthropology, also has without
undoubtedly of Mongolian descent …The Magars, Gurungs, acknowledgement paraphrased those Gurkha officers’
and Sunuwars are often called in Nepal “Duwal bandi”, “two impressionistic observations (to such an extent that “…they
bound together”, and sometimes “Okhar Pangro”, viz. (Sun(u)war) are offshoots of the Magars…Sunuwar language
seems only slightly different from the Magar dialect…1967: 64) …Sunuwar Bahun purohit calaune Kshetriya bargakai ek

and even the Kirant historian and culture specialist Chemjong nimna shrenika hun.
(1967) has adopted the same meaning as Bista does without any æ…;'g'jf/ jfx'g k'/f]lxt rnfpg] If]lqo ju{s} Ps lgDg >]0fLsf x'g\ .Æ
original critical observation. Following them, Ukyab and
Akhikari (2000: 57; translated version from Nepali into (…The Sunuwar are one of the low status Kshetriya classes
English) misleadingly have noted exaggerating, employing the Bahun [Brāhmin] priest My translation)
“Because of their adherence to the Kirant (actually they are Neither any anthropological nor sociocultural research
not adherence; my note added) religion, they are considered until today to my mind has classified the Sun(u)war [Kiranti
closer to the Rais. However, sociologists opine that they are Kõits] people/tribe [one of the TibetoBurman speakers] as low
more akin to the language and culture of the Magars with status Kshetriya class. This claim blatantly lacks scientific
whom they also share similar physical resemblance.” explanations whether KirantiKõits tribe is a low Hindu
Contrary to their exaggerated claim, the term ‘Rai’5 as an Kshetriya caste.
exonym or exoethnonym having imperialpolitical implication,
does not connote or even denote ethnonym of the multiKiranti Identity mismatch with Kinnar
ethnolinguistic tribes and Vansittart’s (1992: 177179 [orig. Pokharel (1994 [VS 2051: 4344]) relying upon his late
1896]), Northey and Morris’s (1987: 257 [orig.1927]), Bista’s father Sharada Pokharel’s verbatim opines that the word
(1967) and Chemjong’s (1967) impressionistic generalization ‘Sunuwar’ (does not differentiate between Sunuwar vs. Sunar)
seems to be a priori (cf. Rapacha (2002) for linguistic and has been derived from ‘Kinnar >Kunar >Sunar’. Additionally,
cultural details) conclusion without providing concrete Sunu dalit (but the SanskritNepali Brihat Shabadadosh
linguistic, anthropological and cultural evidence. (2000: 1423 [VS 2057]) defines the ‘Sunu’ word as paani or jal
‘water’), Sundas and Suncikri later developed as Sunuwar
Linguistic identity mismatch with Mangar and Gurung according to his subjective and a priori presupposition.
Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Ministry of Defense in On the contrary, he has not provided a single clue about
1965 anonymously published a book entitled Nepal and the Kinnauri/Kanwari (cf. Saxena (1992), Riaboff (2005)) tribe,
Gurkhas from London. According to the claim of this book the who speak their own Mother Tongue genetically classified to
Sunuwar kura [N] ‘Sunuwar talk/speech/language’ is said to TibetoKinnauri, one of the TibetoBurman languages spoken in
resemble (actually not; my note added) the Gurung and Magar Himachal Pradesh. Kinnauri, here can be one of the best clues
kura [N]. Ukyab and Adhikari (2000) have inclined towards this for this association with Kinnar because some recent
generalization without acknowledging the source and anthropological surveys/studies viz., Sarkar (1996:336; in
comparing or providing evidence. If one compares linguistic Singh, Gen.ed.) has mentioned referring legends that those
descriptions available on those languages, s/he may not find Kinnauris were “born from Brahma’s [a Hindu deity] toe”,
validity or even justifiability of this claim (cf. also Rapacha which obviously seems to be a purely mythological rather than
(2002) for a basic interdisciplinary ethnolinguistic concepts or anthropological description of those people. Therefore,
linguopaleontological facts among the Sunuwar, Jirel and Pokharel’s speculation is hardly justifiable regarding the genesis
Manger [Sikkim spelling]) tribes and their mother tongues. of the term ‘Sunuwar’ from ‘Kinnar >Kunar >Sunar’.

Meaning as ‘low caste’ Kshetriya Hindu Meaning as Kshetriya or Khas
Adhikary (1999: 860) has claimed unusually that the Some other scholars, for instance, Prapannacharya (1993
Sunuwar(s) belong to one of the Hindu low castes, thus, [VS 2050], 2000 [VS 2056]) and Pokharel (ibid. also cf.
Adhikary 1999: 860) without providing ethnoanthropo ancestors of the KirantiKõits people rather than mythical
linguistic facts (cf. Turner 1987: 64 [orig. 1927], Northey 1998: generations of the ‘Sun’ as such.
9394 [orig. 1937], Gurung and Salter 1996: 59, Hutichinson
Encyclopedia 2001: 642, Gurung 2004 [VS 2061]) claim over The term ‘Mukhia’ for ‘Sun(u)war’
generalizing that the Sun(u)war are Kshetriya or Khas, which Another equivalent exoglotonym/exoethnonym used for
hardly holds its ground of empirical strength as discussed ‘Sun(u)war’ [N ;'g'jf/ Sunuυār] is ‘Mukhia’. Regarding the
earlier.
‘Mukhia’ term, Lt Col Vansittart (1896) indicating its political

implication writes,
Meaning as Suryavamshi ‘solar dynasty’
“Mukhia is the name given by the Gurkha conquerors, and
Unfortunately, some of the KirantiKõits tribe members corresponds exactly with Subah, or Rai, meaning chief”
like KatichaSunuwar (1999: 7071[VS 2056]), Sunuwar (1953 (1992: 177 [orig. 1896]).
[VS 2010]) and Sunuwar (1956 [VS 2013]) themselves have
Conversely to this emperiopolitical implication of the
reiterated the ‘Sunuwar’ as Suryavamshi ;"o{j+zL ‘solar dynasty’;
exoglotonym ‘Mukhia’, Driem (2001: 724) has observed its
whereas KirantiKõits (Kirantbamshi ls/ftj+zL cf. Pradhan social implication as ‘used by or applied to the Sunwar
1999) as one of the members of Mongoloid stock (cf. Turner hypocoristically’; however for Vansittart (ibid.), it has political
1987: 64 [orig. 1927], Northey 1998: 9394 [orig. 1937], Gurung implication of the Gurkha imperialistconqueror(s). As ‘Subba’
and Salter 1996: 59, Hutichinson Encyclopedia 2001: 642, and ‘Rai’, the equivalent term ‘Mukhia’ instead of Sun(u)war
Gurung 2004 [VS 2061]) anthroposociologically do not fit into has been popularly used in Bhutan, Darjeeling, Sikkim,
this ‘solar dynasty’ depiction and classification. It is obviously Dehradun and possibly in some other parts of India and eastern
nothing more than the impact of Hinduization as discussed by Nepal (also cf. Adhikari 1999). During my fieldwork in Sikkim, I
Chelliah (2005: 169216) on the Meitheis of Manipur, Northeast found that the nomenclature(s) such as ‘Pirthwar’ and
India. ‘Bhujuwar’ are also in use instead of ‘Mukhia’. Both of these
assumed ethnonyms are merely coinages in analogy with the
Meaning as ‘Kirant dynasty’ ambiguous exoglotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ in accordance with the
Hopefully, there are other groups of scholars like Sunuwar process of Khasization over their language and culture.
(1990: 2332 [VS 2047]), Hanβon (1991), Rai (1992 [VS 2049]),
Khambu (1995 [VS 2052], YakkhaRai (1998 [VS 2055]), The equivalent term ‘Marpache’
YakkhaRai (2002 [VS 2059]), Pradhan (1999), CamlingRai Fundamentally, the term ‘marapache’ [obviously
(1998 [VS 2055]), Rai (2001 [VS 2058]), CamlingRai (2004 Nepalized form from mār ‘what’+pә+tsā (in KirantiKõits
[VS 2061]) and Kandangwa (2050: iv) and many more who mother tongue) ‘to do’] implies an outsider’s (mainly Bahun
opine that the Sun(u)war(s) belong to the Kirant dynasty. Chetri KhasNepali speakers) joking phraseology to the
Linguistic, cultural, religious, historical, anthroposociological, Sun(u)war(s) currently. As suggested here by its compounded
folklore and toponymic (cf. Rapacha 1999 and elsewhere) etymology in the big brackets, a KirantiKõits speaker utters the
evidence(s) prove this classification authentic (also cf. Gaenszle phrase, mAr patsA /mār pә.cā/ -df/~d/ krf_ ‘what to do?’ when
2000: 215, Gurung 2003: 10). Particularly, Kiranti folklore s/he is in dilemma or in such confusing or troublesome
(Rapacha 2006 and forthcoming) is another reliable source and situation. In course of time, the common KirantiKõits people
proof as well for tracing their ethnohistorical identity as Kiranti started themselves identifying as ‘Marapache’ inadvertently.
linguistic and ethnoindigenous tribal group e.g. Khinchihang,
Harkabung, Wakudung, Langlewa, Suhacheppang are true
Contrary to these aspects of several generalized, Thangmi brothers and adopted as the eighth and youngest
degenerated and falsified meanings, KirantiKõits people have Thangmi sister.”
their own language internal systems of clanonym As cited in the language internal oral history of Thangmi
nomenclature6, which have multiple connotations morpho (a GreaterKiranti member), KirantiKõits also have several
phonemically and morphosemantically (see Rapacha 2004 and ethnoclanonyms and their morphosemantic aspects while
2005 for morphophonemic and semantic details along with interpreting in the mother tongue as in Thangmi (ibid.) related
written and spoken forms) as briefly indicated at the beginning. to several conceptual meanings in KirantiKõits on the basis of
The same KirantiKõits <cā; rf> ethnoclannyms’ morphosemantic structures of the ethnoclanonyms (See
morpheme (cf. Gurung and Salter 1996: 59) provided in Rapacha 2005 for further details on morphosemantic
footnote 4 frequently occur providing cognaterelationship in interpretations) also as discussed at the beginning.
other TB Kiranti tribes such as KirantiBayung/Bahing (Wallo These language internal systems of nomenclature and
‘Hither/Near’ Kirant) as <cā; rf>, KirantiRwaDhu/Wambule their morphosemantic details and provenance in the Kiranti
(Wallo ‘Hither/Near’ Kirant; cf. Opgenort 2002: 1516 ) as <cā; Kõits clanonyms suggest that these clanonyms are very genuine
clues for their linguistic, cultural, historical, ethnological and
rf> or <-co; rf]> (also in KirantiKulung), KirantiRodung/ anthroposociological identity as Oirat >Kirant (cf. Rapacha
Cāmling (Majh ‘Middle’ Kirant) as <cha 5f>, KirantiBantawa 2004: 2125) rather than all other messy and pejorative
(Pallo Kirant ‘Far Kirant’) as <chā 5f> or <cā rf> and <cho meanings of their clanonym nomenclature.
5f]> less frequently in some other ethnoclanonyms (cf. E.
Vansittart 1896 and 1909, C.J. Morris 1933, G. Khambu 2000 Conclusions
[VS 2057]). There is an obvious remoterelationship with /cә; In this essay, we examined and discussed several
r/ of Early Classical Newa(r)(i)) (Tamot 2002: 1326 and 169 problematic meanings and classifications of the exoglotonym
184), one of the members of GreaterKiranti. ‘Sun(u)war’ as opposed to the ancient KirantiKõits tribe
These ethnoclanonyms in KirantiKõits (footnote 6) as in classified in the Mongoloid stock (cf. Northey 1998: 94, Gurung
Thangmi (a GreaterKiranti member) as one of the TB tribe 2004) anthroposociologically. By way of analogy, we have cited
particularly having the bilineal male clan (viz., akal, kyangpole, examples of the problematic meanings from Thangmi
areng, dumlam dhungguri, mosan thali and jaidhane) and (Shneiderman and Turin 2000: 4), another member of the
female clan (viz., bũdati, yantesiri, khatusiri, caltasiri, altasiri, GreaterKiranti family. From the cultural and linguistic point of
bampasiri, khasasiri and apansiri) structure; whereas in view based on the earlier stated evidence, KirantiKõits tribe are
KirantiKõits it is only male, is very interesting in its semantic very closer to KirantiBayung, Wambule [RaDhu], Jerung and
aspects of the oral history in Thangmi. Shneiderman and Turin others7 and vice versa. We have hinted other Kiranti ethno
(2000c: 15; website print page) write, clanonyms also by providing morphoetymological relationships
among <cā; rf>, <cā; rf> or <co; rf]> (also in KirantiKulung
“The male clan names are said to have derived from the
archery contest among the original seven Thangmi brothers of Wallo Kirant ‘Near/Hither Kirant’), KirantiRodung/Camling
and are largely related to tree or plant names. The first seven (Majh Kirant ‘Middle Kirant’) as <cha 5f>, KirantiBantawa
female clan names are based upon the work implements (Pallo Kirant ‘Far Kirant’) as <chā 5f> or <cā rf> and <cho
which the original seven Thangmi sisters are said to have 5f]>. These ethnomorphological variations of clanonyms do
used, while the eighth name, apansiri, derives from the word have very close relationship also with Early Classical
apan (T), (ban Mānche N), ‘jungle person’, and refers to a
Newa(r)(i)) <cә; r> as well and is a closely related cognate of
baby girl found abandoned in the woods by the seven
TibetoBurman protoform *tsa ‘child, grandchild’ (Benedict Several Kiranti folklore(s) also have pointed out (cf. Lee et

1972: 208) having sociohistorical and linguistic relationship, al 2005, Khambu 1995, Chamling (Khambu) n.d., ChamlingRai
which signifies as ‘±male /person’ marker (e.g. sәrәchā ‘son’, 2004: 4 and 6, Vartaman 1998, SampangRai 2005: 24,
mārichā ‘daughter’ and mәchā ‘daugher’s husband’) in YalungchaRai 1998: 68 and 140, Thomros 2000: 31, Rai 2005:
KirantiRodung’s modern vocabulary. 7) them as one of the ethnoindigenous Kiranti tribes. They
The ethnoexoglotonym ‘Sun(u)war’ as presupposed to be belong to the PanKiranti linguistic and cultural group based on
derived from the hydronym ‘Sunkoshi’ found in my relics of Kirānt ancestry, linguogenetics SinoTibetan→Tibeto
investigation not to be developed/derived earlier than the 14th Burman →Himalayish →Nepal →Eastern Nepal having 76% (cf.
century (i.e. 1325 AD; See Egli 1999, cf. YakkhaRai 2002 [VS Opgenort 2005 also for higher cognate percentage) Swadesh
2059]: 858) in the ethnological literature and history of Nepal lexical cognate with KirantiBayung including phonological,
available until recently. Their ethnic or linguistic identity morphological, verbal lexeme and grammatical similarities,
lumped in Gurung and Magar, irrespective of their same Mundum~Mukdum~Mundhum, tribal priests such as nāɂso
Mongoloid9 or Tibetonoid stock, has been found false while [nhaso, nokso, nakso, nochung, nakchong, nagchong, nokcho
comparing linguistic data and cultural facts (cf. Rapacha 2002). etc in other Kiranti linguistic and cultural group of Wallo, Majh
Similarly, the rest of the meanings: Mukhia, Suryavamshi ‘solar and Pallo Kirant areas eastern Nepal], their tribal shaman
dynasty’, Kshetriya or Khas ‘IndoAryan tribe’, Kinnar, ‘low põibo [related to Bonbo of Bonism], their tribal festival Shyãdar
caste’ Kshetriya Hindu and Sunar/Kami ‘goldsmith’ except for Shyil [Sakela Sili, Sakewa, Sakle, Sakhewa+ Sili], linguistic
Marpache [KirantiKõits in origin], are all misnomers of the paleontological evidence e.g. sub/clanonym morpheme cha
KirantiKõits people/tribe. and hang [other variations of cha include cho, chha, che,
chu, chi, chung, ku, su, pu] and folk literary evidence like
As on Thangmi (Turin 2003), much of the earlier writing Khinchihang, Harkabung, Wakudung, Langlewa and
on the KirantiKõits is “erroneous and betrays the ignorance Suhacheppang.
and prejudices of the writers more than it informs the reader
about features of this important Himalayan population [Oirat To neglect these pertinent facts mean the
>Kirant; belonging to the Mongoloid stock [cf. Turner 1987: 64 institutionalization of Western and Hindu hegemony of
[orig. 1927], Northey 1998: 9394 [orig. 1937], Gurung and semantic degenerative discourse framed for undermining the
Salter 1996: 59, Hutichinson Encyclopedia 2001: 642, Gurung KirantiKõits tribe’s original identity so as to absorb them in
2004 [VS 2061]; information added] and their littleknown singular Hindu identity. This suggests sabotage and depravity of
language”. Their ethnonym ‘KirantiKõits’ in their own Mother ethnohistory; glory and identity mainly based on "misinform
Tongue and those morphosemantically significant auto and mislead" principle or a mere propaganda or gossip at work
clanonyms genuinely make them different from any other for hiding the actual reality of ethnoindigenous peoples of Nepal
misinterpretedmeanings mentioned earlier related to the Indo including that of KirantiKõits from the eastern hills of the
Aryan sociology handed down from Manu because KirantiKõits country.
as one of the TibetoBurman language speakers fall outside the
hierarchical ‘caste’ or any ‘jāti’ [IA or Indic] system (cf. Abbi Notes
2008, Joshi 2003: 334). Their language internal autoethno * This essay is mainly based on my Doctoral (PhD) dissertation’s (A
clanonyms are meaningfully significant for their own ethnicity Descriptive Grammar of KirantiKõits (2005), Centre for
and identity rather than other falsified, ‘ignorant and Linguistics and English, School of Language, Literature and
prejudiced’ (as in Thangmi (Turin 2003)) meanings. Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi110 067)
some important discussions on ethnology of the KirantiKõits tribe
in Chapter One. It has been updated and revised for three times (also cf. Leewine 2004: 67) at any degree. Another synonym for
since its submission. the same term is Jimdar (Konow (in Grierson (ed.) 1990 and 1994:
1 A recent discussion similar to KirantiKõits clanonyms is 58 [orig. 1909] also Dewan) My comment added]. Under the term
Chelliah’s (2005: 169216) ‘Meitheism’ in which she has explored Rai the following languages and dialects are included (to name the
and interpreted personal name choices among the Meitheis (a more representative ones): Athpare, Bahing (Rumdali), Bantawa,
TibetoBurman tribe/language) of Manipur, Northeast India. The Chamling, Khaling (Dumi), Kulung (Sotang), Lohorong, Thulung,
main sociopsychopolitical basis in such personal name choice is: and Yamphu (Ketra). This is a narrow traditional grouping;
a nativeMeithei style, a Hindu style introduced with the 18th c however, from a linguistic standpoint, Sunwar has to be included
adoption of Hinduism by the Meithei, and a “resistance” style with the Rai languages also (Glover 1974)… Some Tibeto
typified by previously unattested structures and clan names Burmanists use the term ‘Kiranti’ as a cover term to include Rai as
according to Chelliah. This revivalist concept of Meithei is suitably well as Limbu and some other languages in the area. I decided
applicable in KirantiKõits and other ethnoindigenous people of against the use of this term because it is used both by historians
Nepal as well. and anthropologists in a very broad and general sense to refer to
2 On the Mongoloid tribes Chatterji (1974: 20 [orig. 1951]) the mountain people, so that it would be misleading in the
paraphrasing Grierson notes that they “represent at least three framework of this thesis.” Contrary to Toba’s framework, I
distinct physical types the primitive longheaded Mongoloids, preferably have used the generic hyphenated specific
who are found in the subHimalayan tracts, in Nepal and mostly in nomenclature with the generic one such as ‘KirantiKõits’ in order
Assam; the less primitive and more advanced shortheaded to specify the TibetoBurman tribe (ethnonym) and language
(glossonym) of Wallo ‘near/hither’ Kirant, eastern Nepal along
Mongoloids, who are found mostly in Burma and have expanded
from Burma through Arakan into Chittagong; and finally the with the majority of TibetoBurman linguists (e.g. Bradley 2003:
TibetoMongoloids, who are fairly tall and have lighter skins and 122, 2002: 8182; Driem 2004: 413416, 2001, 1997, 1992;
appear to be the most highly developed type of the Mongoloids, Thurgood 2003: 1516; Ebert 2003: 505532), historians and
who came to India. These TibetoMongoloids are the linguistically anthropologists (cf. Gaenszle 2000: 215) use this ethnonym
characterized Tibetans and their various offshoots who arrived in ‘Kiranti’ particularly for the tribes of the eastern hills of Wallo [N]
India through the Himalayas, in comparatively recent times, ‘Near/Hither’ Kirant, Majh [N] ‘Mid/Central’ Kirant and Pallo [N]
spreading from Bhotan and Sikkim to Ladakh and Baltistan.” ‘Far’ Kirant, Nepal and also taking the post90’s movement of the
3 indigenous peoples of Nepal into consideration. During the survey
M. Schulze and D. Bieri are together working on the KirantiKõits
period of Grierson (1909), the traditional term ‘Khambu’ also was
(under the exoglotonym Sunwar) since the late 1960s till today and
in use, where 16 dialects have been mentioned/listed.
have translated the New Testament in the mother tongue 6
including many other linguistic descriptions. Such clanonyms include: Binicha, Bigyacha, BujichaI, Bramlicha,
4 Malla (1989: 456) citing Bandhu regarding the etymology of the Darkhacha, Dasucha, Debbacha, Digarcha, Durbicha, Faticha,
term ‘Nepali’ writes, “…was used and made popular by the Gaurocha, Gongrocha, Jespucha, Jijicha, JyentichaII, Katicha,
missionaries and British scholars… The feeling of Nepali linguistic Khunlicha, KyabachaIII, Khyõpaticha, Kyuinticha~Chuinticha,
nationalism that grew in India was able to replace the terms like Kormocha, Laspacha, Linocha, Lõkucha, Lunk(h)icha, Mulicha,
Khasa Kura, Parbatiya or Gorkhali by Nepali in India. It also Nasocha, Ngawocha, Nomlicha, Pargacha, Pretticha, Rapacha,
influenced the authorities in Nepal and the first word of Gorkha RapichaIV, Rawacha, Rudicha or Ruticha, Rujicha, Rupacha,
Bhasha Prakashini Samiti [Gorkha Language Publication Shyochu(l)cha, Susucha, Teppacha, Thangracha, Tholocha,
Committee] was changed to Nepali.” Cf. also Gurung (1997: 175). Tõkucha, Thungucha, Turshucha, WangdechaV, and YatachaVI.
5 Toba (1983: 11) regarding the terms ‘Rai’ and ‘Kiranti’ writes thus, Also cf. Vansittart (1896, 1909), Morris (1933), Sunuwar and
“The name ‘Rai’ is given to a number of tribes or clans in the area Kormocha (1990: 1617), Mukhia (1998: 127129), Rapacha (1996,
as a generic term. ‘Rai’ means ‘chief’ or ‘headman’ (Vansittart 1999), Egli (1999: 789), Khambu (2000), Sunuwar (2004) and
(1992: 177 [orig. 1896], Bista 1972: 32) [If the meaning of ‘Rai’ is Sunuwar (2004: 44) [VS 2057]).
‘chief or headman’, it cannot represent and signify ‘ethnonym’
7
Lokpriya MulichaSunuwar and Uttam Katicha (Sunuwar) (1998: 128) mentions some other subgroup clanonyms such as
informed me that all the Kiranti tribes claiming Rai such as Sabracha, Kholma(cha), Dinu(cha), Dalwa(cha) Palwa(cha) and
Bayung (Rumda(li) [clans: Thamrocha, Dilingpacha, Hajupacha, Baruwa(cha). On the contrary, Vansittart (1992: 181 [orig. 1896])
Diburcha], Pai/Rinamsacha [clans: Tolacha, Moblocha, has listed thirteen different subgroups, which are hardly accurate,
Ripa(o)cha, Nambersacha, Sechacha, Rallacha, Luticha], as the author himself believes them to be inaccurate or
Necha(li), Hangu and Roke cf. Lee 2005), Wambule and Jerung of incomplete. The morpheme ‘*cha /ca/’ in slashes is my own
Wallo Kirant at present were KirantiKõits (Sun(u)war) in the past reconstruction because it has decayed historically in most of these
(p/c 2002). However, the Bayung migration mythological text as clanonyms.
narrated by Buddhi Hangu(cha) relates their proximity with 6.III The Kyaba(cha) clan have further been divided into two sub
KirantiRodung of Majh Kirant (cf. Maureen Lee and Bag groups viz., Ralali(cha) and Bagale(cha) according to Lokpriya
Ayagyami Yalungcha (unpublished 2001 and published later in MulichaSunuwar (p/c 2004, cf. also Egli (1999: 789)). The
2005) adapted by Rapacha (2002). morpheme ‘*cha /ca/’ in slashes is my own reconstruction
8 YakkhaRai (2002 [VS 2059]: 85) paraphrasing Panta (VS 2045 because it has decayed historically in most of these clanonyms.
2050: 850 Part 3) notes that the term ‘Sun(u)war’ for the first 6.IV My information on this clanonym is based on B.B. Jẽ:ticha
time, was documented officially on 27 August 1797.
9 Nesturkh (1966: 26) notes that “Among the specific features of the Mukhia (p/c 2002, cf. Vansittart 1896: 180; Egli 1999: 789).
6.V The Wangde(cha) clan has been subgrouped under “ten clan
many anthropological types of this race [Mongoloid] are the
following: a broad face that projects moderately, the broad, Sunuwar(s)” by Eden Vansittart (1896; cf. also Egli (1999: 789))
projecting cheekbones giving it a flat appearance, the eyes are but this grouping as “ten and twelve” clan is a later development
brown, the eye slit is medium in the majority but narrow in many when the KirantiKõits people came in contact with the Indo
cases; in some individuals external angle of the eye is disposed Aryans. The morpheme ‘*cha /ca/’ in slashes is my own
higher than the internal angle; there is a welldeveloped fold on reconstruction because it has decayed historically in most of these
the upper eyelid that in many cases extends to the cilia and crosses clanonyms.
the lower lid, completely or partially covering the internal angle of 6.VI The Yata(cha) clan have further been divided into five subgroups
the eye, including the lacrimal bay, to form the epicanthus; the viz., Garshi(cha), Bamna(cha), Okhy(cha), Gutka(cha) and
nose is of medium width, slightly projecting and usually with a low Namadi(cha) according to Lokpriya MulichaSunuwar (2004; cf.
bridge; in the majority of cases the nostrils are in the medium with also Egli (1999: 789)). The morpheme ‘*cha /ca/’ in slashes is
their long axes at an angle of about 90° to each other: the lips are my own reconstruction because it has decayed historically in most
thin or medium; …the chin ridge has medium development’ in of these clanonyms. However, the term like ‘garshi’ has its own
very many individuals the head is mesocephalous. The skin is meaning in KirantiKõits related to botany. Other terms except for
lighter in colour and the hair is black and not always stiff. The ‘Gutka’ are related to toponyms or most of them are meaningless
beard is scanty” (cited in Toba 1992: 8). in KirantiKõits and Gutka in the language simply means ‘coop’.

Auxiliary Notes to Note 6
6.I
The Bujicha clan have further been divided into four subgroups
viz., Gaurocha, Mulicha, Nasocha and Nomlicha according to Source: Social Sciences in a Multicultural World (2008) 97110 and a
Lokpriya MulichaSunuwar (p/c 2004, cf. also Egli (1999: 789)). somewhat different version appeared in Nepalese Linguistics
The morpheme ‘*cha /*ca/’ in slashes is my own reconstruction (2006), 22: 177206. It has slightly been revised with new
because it has decayed historically in most of these clanonyms. updates here.
6.II The Jye˜ticha clan have further been divided into six subgroups
viz., P/Halwa(cha), Hambacha, Mulicha, Namadi(cha) and
Ratwa(cha) and Satwa(cha) according to Lokpriya Mulicha
Sunuwar (2004; cf. also Egli (1999: 789)). Additionally, Mukhia
Issues on Historical and Cultural identity | 69 70 | V an i s hi n g E t h ni c i t y, Cu l t u re s an d L ang u ag es o f N e p al
10 A look on Chemjong's contributions
Contemporary historian Dr Ramesh Dhungel is currently
digging out the dubious history of eastern Nepal at SOAS,
University of London mainly within Brian H Hodgson's
collections from the IndoNepal borders before and during the
Victorian Age. Since Dr Dhungel's research adventure, two
interesting terms like sampriti and niti have reemerged
unknown and unwritten for 238 years in the Nepalihistory of
modern Kiranti regions of eastern Nepal. The sampriti were
those KirantiYakthung(s) 'Limbu/Tsong/Subba' who
surrendered to Gorkhali power and cultural traditions, while the
niti maintained their own traditions. The Gorkhali authorities
according to Dr Dhungel naturally favored the former, killing
the latter or forcing them to flee their lands. As a result, much of
the niti population migrated towards Sikkim and Bhutan.
Historian, Kiranti grammarian, literati and culture
specialist or Kirantologist Iman S Chemjong's fore/fathers
probably belonging to niti were exiled in Kalimpong, where
Kiranti peoples' history had to evolve synonymously with the
name of Iman S Chemjong on January 1, 1904. Every January 1,
since 1977 two years later of his last gasp is observed as
Chemjong's Memorial Day in order to commemorate his
invaluable contributions to the Nepalese peoples' history of
modern Nepal.
As usual, I myself for the first time ardently participated
on his 104th Commemoration Day at the Bar Association's Hall
since I used to read his history on the Kiranti people(s) and
cultures critically, essentially for founding and justifying
Kirãtology as a scientific field of study by incorporating Kiranti
languages, literature(s), cultures, scripts, history,
ethnoanthropology, archaeology and folklore.
Chemjong in his life time worked for 15 years with
I/CNAS, Tribhuvan University during the 1950s and 60s as
Kirant specialist immensely producing works on Kirant
Mund(h)um, History and Culture, History of Kirant Literature,
Philosophy, Folktales, Kiranti Script and Vijayapur's History.
Besides, he was a selftrained lexicographer and had prepared
dictionaries of KirantiYakthung Pa:n and Rong 'Lepcha'.
Furthermore, he has written dozens of pedagogical materials
and creative writings in the KirantiYakthung Pa:n as his
contributions in the bulk of regional Nepalese literature.
Sirijungahang Thebe also historically known as Rupihang bureaucracy, nepotism, corruption, degradation, religion, and

Raya and Phalgunanda Lingden, who revived the Kiranti Script culture while reading. Most importantly, the gist, content and
and Religion Satyahangma or Yumaism respectively in their pragmatics of the novel centre around one type of Rose named
life time, are two such Kiranti personalities indivisible from the “Johnny Gurkha”, the first generation in the prologue
name of Iman S Chemjong. Chemjong himself as a researcher represented by old Ghondey from a Tamu (autoethnonym of
and reformer had to carry out Sirijungahang and Phalgunanda's Gurung, ‘Ghondey’ one of their clanonyms) hamlet and the
legacy of glorious linguistic and religious history. second generation’s young Ghondey throughout the novel till he
hears the natives speaking after his dreams for change.
During the Dark Ages of Kirant(i) history, he was the only
luminary to read out written materials in Kiranti Scripts and Meanwhile, the novel is also a serious work of art as well
had learnt lessons from Hodgson's activities of importing as grim reality useful for contemporary historians like Dr
Nepal's history to London from the Pan(ch)thar hamlets of his Surendra KC interested in the outside/inside discriminatory
native homeland. His immortal contributions and activities for stories of the history of Gurkhas. Thus, novelist Gurung’s art
selfdetermination, autonomy and prosperity in the multi depicts the inside bizarre stories of a Gurkkha from the Tamu
dimensions of Nepal's regional history, languages, literature(s), community and his young generation Gagan, who has luckily
and religion on this day and ever will be remembered as been given pen in his hands rather than machinegun and
nation's dignity and glory. actually pays a heavy price for his “filthy Western ideas of rights
and equality”.

Any forthcoming history on Gurkhas would remain either
tasteless or incomplete without alluding events of the inside
2 January 2007, Tuesday stories of a young alienated Gurkha generation from EOS. It is
also pertinent from historical perspective because there are
several bold and serious historical questions raised and
11 Writing unwritten ethnohistory explained by Bajra Lama in the novel regarding Hinduization of
the temples of Pashupatinath and Manokamana.
Poetnovelist DB Gurung’s novel Echoes of the Himalayas
[EOH] is the first beginning chapter of unwritten Nepalese This is one of such best examples of treacherousvillainy in
ethnohistory since Nepal’s inception as a nation, where Nepalese religious history how those ethnopantheons were
ethnoindigenous nationalities have either no role or proselytized into Hindudeities is actually a form of genocide.
insignificant participation in nation building. Most of them are The story of treachery extends beyond religion in every sphere
denied of their historical, social, political, cultural, religious and of not only Nepalese but also of South Asian societies. Take for
linguistic identity or existence so much so that they are deprived example the corrupted and degenerated bureaucracy in which
of citizenry in their own country of origin. everything can be bartered with bribe whether in cash or
commodity as Akash fumes, “Only this afternoon, his [Gagan’s]
Gagan Ghondey, the son of a Gurkha, rebellion and job in the Ministry of Education was confirmed! It’s taken me
freedomfighter, is one of such symbolic characters in the novel, weeks to set this up for him. Now the Director wants to see the
who is starved of Nepalese citizenship in his own boy personally at his office tomorrow, and the boy’s gone! So
birth/motherland and is sent to jail instead charged mainly of what am I supposed to do now? Turn up in his place? Quit my
speaking for his rights. Young Ghondey as a fictional character own job? My time, that carpet, several bottles of good whisky,
is real representation of day to day Daniel Lepchas and many those country chickens, that expensive ghee and honeyall
others. wasted! …he’s gone to Nepal to see his great, great, great
EOS as a work of art masterfully provides Umbertian taste grandfather!” This was that old Ghondey’s dull world in Sikkim
as in The Name of the Rose. Readers can easily see their own whereas in the Charkhal Adda, Kathmandu, the capital city of
reflections of Nepalese history, society, race, politics, his own soil, where young Ghondey has to pay forty thousand
rupees as bribe for getting his citizenship paper which he flatly 12 Past, present and future of KirantiKõits

rejects. As a result, he is humiliated by nepoticbureaucracy
sending him to jail. Abstract
In addition to this narrative of sociopolitical oppression, This essay1 accounts the KirantiKõits (exonyms: Sunuwar
young Ghondey undergoes racial oppression and discrimination or Mukhia etc) language from diachronic and synchronic point
including his father’s generation consequently, “The godgiven of view exploring its present position and future prospects. In
duty of your entire race is to safeguard the Brahmins, the King the first part, we will pinpoint its phylogenetic and cognate
and the Masters. That’s what your kind is supposed to do. It’s a
relationships with the rest of the languages in the family. Then,
crime against our ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and our longstanding
in the second part, we will observe and review its literature
traditions for a ‘matwali’ to become a teacher or a preacher”.
The only options for those Gurkhas are: leave the country, be a dividing in historical periods, viz., Prehistoric or Dark Age
soldier, prove your courage. Kill or be killed. Die bravely. (around before 1847 or 1850), Comparative or Discovery Age
(from 18501900), Grammar, Text and Classification Age (from
That’s how young Ghondey’s “ancestors had been sold out
to England and India, thereby bringing in huge royalties in 19001960), Proselytization Age (from the end of 1960s2000)
foreign currency and conveniently keeping them away from including PreMandalization Era* (pre1978) and Post
politics, and virtually excluding from any meaningful Mandalization Era (post1978) and finally Vanishing and the
participation in governmental or social activities”. Those Present Age (from 2000 onwards). The last two parts, critically
Gurkhas’ identity outside like inside their own country has been observe on the multilinguistic situation of Sikkim and the
distorted as Bajra Lama cites from Collins English Dictionary problems faced by KirantiSunuwar. Lastly, we will propose
hence, “a member of a Hindu people descended from Brahmins some short and long term proposals for preserving and
and Rajputs, living chiefly in Nepal, where they achieved promoting the multilinguistic heritage of Sikkim in particular.
dominance after being driven from India by the Muslims”.
These falsifying myths are the turning points, where the 1. Introduction
remaining chapters of Nepalese ethnohistory after the first Sunuwar is one of the eleven languages of Sikkim
chapter of novelist Gurung in EOH should start.
recognized in 19962 by the Government of Sikkim. The term
One of such important chapters in Nepal’s unwritten
‘Sunuwar’ is an exonym, which refers to the name of a particular
ethnohistory is the chapter on linguistic discrimination against
tribe as well as specific language. It includes two other terms
those Gurkhas mostly of Mongoloid stock speaking more than
sixty TibetoBurman mother tongues as one of the critical viz. ‘Koincha’ [Kõits; see Appendix B] and Mukhia3.The first
characters Arjun Rai points out, “Those idiots on the education terminology is the autonym of the same exonym ‘Sunuwar’
board who passed the resolution making Sanskrit a compulsory whereas the latter is a title signifying ‘a headman designated for
subject must have been bitten by mad pigs in their dreams”. collectting landtax of a Kipat or communal customary system
Making “Sanskrit a compulsory subject” here implies digging up of tenure (Forbes 1996: 39). Thus Kõits Lo: [Sunuwar language]
of the pastsuppressed ethnolinguistic revolts in the people’s as one of the Kiranti members (see Figure 1 below and Appendix
unwritten ethnohistory of Nepal rightly addressed by novelist A) is phylogenetically affiliated to a TibetoBurman branch in
Gurung echoing through his powerful imaginarycharacters in the SinoTibetan family.
Echoes of the Himalayas.

Thursday, 2 Feb 2006
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 26 February 2006
Figure 1: Phylogenetic4 family tree of Kiranti languages 2. Historical account
SinoTibetan Grierson (1909: 1) in his ‘Introduction’ to his magnum
opus Linguistic Survey of India (hereafter LSI) notes that the
history of linguistic inquireis on the languages of India dates
TibetoBurman Chinese back to about 1030 A.D. Albiruni was the first foreigner to speak
of Sanskrit during that time. But their serious study as Grierson
claims is not more than three hundred years old. Thus from
historical perspective KirantiKõits as a Mother Tongue can
Western Eastern ideally be divided into the following five broad periods.
(Baric, Sal, Kamarupan) 2.1 Prehistoric or Dark Age (around before 1847 or 1850)
2.2 Comparative or Discovery Age (from 1850 to 1900)
2.3 Grammar, Text and Classification Age (from 19001960)
Northern Southern 2.4 Proselytization Age (from the end of 1960s2000)
2.5 Vanishing and the Present Age (from 2000 onwards)
Now we will breifly outline the achievments on the
NorthWestern NorthEastern KirantiKõits language throughout different periods in its
(Bodic) linguistic history. It will suffice to say that Kõits~Sunuwar as
one of the Kiranti Languages has hardly been discribed by
linguists in any form of a grammar for exploring the
possibilities of its development in order to preserve the multi
Himalayan Bodish linguistic heritage of Sikkim.

2.1 Prehistoric or Dark Age

Kiranti Newar Dhimal Generally, this period dates around or before 1850 after
1832 (the passage of the First Reform Bill) and 1839 (the
accession of Queen Victoria) in Great Britain (Abrams 1993:
153). No Kiranti languages had been an object of interest for
Western Central Eastern foreigners till Hudgson authored an article on the 'Languages,
literature and religion of the Baudhas of Nepal and Bhot (Tibet)'
in 1828 (Asiatic researches, vol.xvi). Hudgson was the only
foreigner who had laid the foundation stone through his essays
Hayu Bantawa Dhankutic NorthWest East (1847) on the IndoNepal broken tribes only after and around
Kõits Rodong Athpare Lohorung Limbu
the late 1850s. Before the 50s of this century no Kiranti tribes
Bayung Mewahang Belhare Yamphu(e)
Jerong Kulung… Chulung (Panthare) and their alien tongues were known to the worldoutside except
Wambule Phangduwali (Phedappe) their animishamanistic ancestorcult entailing animal sacrifice
Thulung Mugali (Tamarkhole) (Student's Britannica India 2000: 159) as their identity. No
Khaling Yakkha… (Chathare) linguistic identity as such had been discovered during the pre
Dumi… historic age.
(Source: after Bickel 1996: 22)
2.2 Comparative or Discovery Age (C/DA) already present historically as a protoform in the language. So
Hodgson's (1847) essay 'on the aborigines of the sub the classification of Sunuwar under nonpronominalized group
Himalayas' gave rise to the C/DA for the first time on those is erroneous. Later in the 1950s Shafer advanced on
alien tribes and their tongues. Hodgson in his seminal work phylogenetic and comparative study after Grierson, who for the
Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal first time indicated Sunuwar and Bahing towards their
and Tibet (Indian reprint 1874) has recorded vocabulary of sisterhood relationships.
KirantiSunuwar along with other Himalayan languages with
gloss in English. However, his main motivation was not for 2.4 Proselytization Age (PA)
linguistic reconstruction but his study has leftout traces towards The PA further has been subdivided into two specific eras
reconstruction. Beams and Resley were other two figures during i.e. 2.4.1 PreMandalization Era (till 1978, cf. 2.4.3 for the
the C/DA to mention the KirantiSunuwar language and tribe genesis of the term) and 2.4.2 PostMandalization Era (post
respectively. The former author has collected some numerals in 1978) for a neater presentation of the literature available in the
Outlines of the Indian Philosophy with a Map of the IndoNepal scenario during this age.
Distribution of Indian Languages (1867) whereas the latter has 2.4.1 PreMandalization Era (till 1978)
provided critical evidence on the migration route of the tribe
originally migrated from Kashmir (1891: 2021). This period in Till this year, most of the tribal languages of India and
its actual sense was the Age of Discovery of these alien broken Nepal were under investigation by the SIL linguistis. Since the
tribes and their tongues of IndoNepal Himalayas. late 1960s, they adventured to providing the NT in those tribal
languages only to make them a civilized man. In India William
2.3 Grammar, Text and Classification Age Carey of Serampore had for the first time translated the NT into
Nepali, a reading text for the grassroot readers.
This age noted for the Griersonian Renaissance of the
linguistic inquiry in India. Grierson's (1909) magnum opus, LSI In addition, Lehman (1970) under the auspices of the
in its third volume has described an outline of the Kiranti Wolfenden Sciety of TibetoBurman Linguistics has studied on
Sunuwar grammar based upon the traditional framework of the tonal system and collected some folklore texts available in
'parts of speech'. Data for his outline has been drawn from 'The those TibetoBurman tribal languages. Lexicostatisticians like
prodigal son,’ New Testament (NT) translated into Kiranti Glover (1970c) also have worked on the Swadesh framework.
Sunuwar. The same text has been used for all other tribal 2.4.2 PostMandalization Era (post1978)
languages as a source of grammatical outline. LSI not only The postMandalization era (pME) is the tribal
provided the grammatical outlines of these languages but also renaissance ever witnessed by the grassroot Indians all over the
proved to be a fundamental work for phylogenetic classification. country in general and by the Sikkimese in particular. It is here
One thing which I would like to point out heere is that the relevant to outline the pME in order to highlight some crucial
KirantiKõits language still today has the pronominal suffix ng activities held by the Sikkim Sunuwar (Mukhia) Kõitsbu
or /ŋ/. However, Grierson on the grammatical feature (SSMK) after 1978 in Sikkim.
comments that in Hodgson's days Sunuwar was a
pronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns with both 2.4.3 Background
agents and patients in the case of transitive verb) language, but In 1978 the Central Government of India, had decided to
if the specimens received for the Survey are to be trusted it is so constitute a commission in order to pinpoint socio
no longer. Certainly the specimens collected on Sunuwar are not anthropological and economic status of the people all over
reliable due to the compensatory lengthening (CL) between India. The Government's decision constituted the commission
vowels. In absence of CL, the pronominal suffix /ŋ/ is always
known as Mandal Commission under the chairmanship of B.P. Secondly, there is a lack of protective plans and policies to
Mandal, exMP on 20 December 1978. preserve, promote and revitalize a minority group like the
The commission's task force had visited Sikkim only in KirantiKõits~Mukhia.
1980 from May 22 to 24 for achieving its main objectives. Till 2.4.3.1.2 Activities of struggle
this date no Association as such existed to represent the Kiranti 2.4.3.1.2.1 Phase I
Kõits~Sunuwar (Mukhia) community in Sikkim.
In the first phase of their activities, they had to struggle for
Along with the passage of time all the Kiranti the registration of their Kõitsbu (Association) officially. Their
Kõits~Mukhia members realized to preserve and promote their prayer of 18 September 1990 to register the Kõits Bu was heard
everfast dying indigenous language and culture. The Mandal by the authority of Sikkim only on 30 May 1991.
Commission had a direct impact upon the exploration of their
innerself. In the multilinguistic and multicultural situation of 2.4.3.1.2.2 Phase II
India, a member of any community or KirantiKõits~Mukhia The official registration of their Association in very
would be a scarecrow without its linguistic and cultural identity. awkward situation paved the path for the OBC status in the
This identity has its direct relationship to human dignity. second phase. Only after three years of redtape hedge, their
To a greater extent, all these multilinguistic and multi community was granted the aforesaid status on 2 June 1994.
cultural heritage of the country are our national pride and asset. 2.4.3.1.2.3 Phase III
These are symbols of unity which contributes to 'hamara Bharat Although the OBC status was granted, their mother tongue
mahan'. Due to these reasons all the KirantiKõits~Mukhia did not see the broad daylight till 15 October 1996. They had
community members had held several meetings first at the several delegations after delegation until the Sikkim Legislative
Mukhia Bhawan on 13 August 1990 under the chairmanship of Assembly introduced Amendmend Bill for the official
late Shri R.B. Mukhia, IAS (Retd.) and at the local levels in recognition of Sunuwar~Mukhia on 24 September 19965.
Chyakung, Rhenock, 2nd MileGN Road and Baghekhola later.
Their meetings had conceived the ideas of constituting a body 2.4.3.1.2.4 Phase IV
able for preserving and promoting their mother tongue and By utilizing a meagre grant provided by the Government of
culture. The following are some of the programmes and Sikkim, they started investigating their speech community and
activities launched by the SSMK community members given in cultural practices and rituals for documenting them. As a result,
chronological order. the Association was able to publish one volumenous work
2.4.3.1 Struggle for identity entitled Kirantbamshi Sunuwar (Mukhia) Kõits (1999) by B.M.
Pradhan under late R.B. Mukhia's guidance and support along
Demographically, the KirantiKõits~Mukhias are one of with related literature. The publication has dug out their
the minority tribes of Sikkim. Their number is very scanty linguistic and cultural history of one decade and of prehistoric
comprising 0.33% of the total population of Sikkim. They are period in Sikkim when its veil was lifted up by the promotional
going to commit linguistic and ethnic harakiri very soon. There policy of the Government of Sikkim in 1996. They were also
are two main reasons of this trend. fortunate enough to participate in the multicultural plethera of
Firstly, the unjustifiable remarks and descriptions on the India to observe the Golden Jubilee of Independence, 1998 in
people's ethnonym by E. Vansittart (1896), Toni Hagen (1967), New Delhi and here in Sikkim on behalf of the SSMK
Ministry of Defence (1965), Dor Bista (1967), Iman S. Chemjong Association of Sikkim. Similarly, they have been participating in
(1967), JP Ananda (1987), Bal K Pokharel (1994), Raja R Subedi several programmes organized by the official organizations in
(1994), and Ramlal Adhikary (1999) have blurred their identity. the State regularly. In Septmber 2001, they participated in the
Annual Conference of the Sunuwar (Mukhia) Society, Rai (exonym), Sherpa, Newa(r)(i)) (see List 1 below in
Darjeeling, West Bengal. decending order for sociolinguistic use) in terms of their tribal
2.4.3.1.2.5 Phase V status. The main criterion of this position is the demographic
figure of vote banks rather than speakers of a particular Mother
In its beginning phase, the Association was able to have a
Tongue. After all for several reasons (viz., bureaucracy, media,
great leap from its identity to the linguistic development of
KirantiKõits in Sikkim. Notably in December 2001 the tourism and education) English is at the heart of every people
Association had prepared two manuscripts viz. 1. 'KirantiKõits and holds its nucleus position in the linguistic scenario of
aa The:si Khyopat' [Elementary Reader of KirantiSunuwar] Sikkim. Amongst these eleven languages of the State, Kiranti
and 2. 'KirantiKõitsaa The:si Tarando' [Elementary Grammar Sunuwar is the most endangered language as mentioned in
of KirantiSunuwar] for publication. Since the dawn of the year section 2.5 above.
2002, the Association has already to compiling a comprehensive
dictionary of the language. To add another recent achievment of List 1: Languages of Sikkim and their position on basis of social
the community members regarding linguistic revival is the motivation
publicaton of Sikkim Herald in the vernacular available in their 13. KirantiSunuwar (Kõits, Mukhia)
own indigenous script. These activities have clearly assisted 12. Gurung (Tamu)
resistance towards linguistic genocide and against proselytization. 11. Manger (Nepal spelling Magar)

10. Newa(r)(i))
2.5 Vanishing and the Present Age
9. Sherpa
Irrespective of those activities mentioned above in 8. KirantiRai (mainly Bantawa, some Rodung and Kulung)
2.4.3.1.2, the linguistic situation of KirantiSunuwar in Sikkim 7. Tamang
has been declining steadily. It will perhaps set tomorrow around 6. KirantiLimbu (Yakthung, Tsong)
at four or five o'clock without promising its dawn leaving a 5. Bhutia
blackhole traces in the multilinguistic heritage of the beautiful
4. Lepcha
mountainous State on the lap of the Kanchendzunga. Then, the
3. Nepali
language will be extinct forever from the list of eleven remaining
2. Hindi
only obviously ten languages.
1. English
3. Multilinguistic situation of Sikkim
4. Historical profile of the speakers of KirantiSunuwar
This section examines the present day multilinguistic
situation of Sikkim in relation to the position of Kiranti LSI (1909) has recorded 4,435 speakers in Darjeeling, 555
Sunuwar. Sikkim has eleven languages viz., Nepali, Lepcha, in Sikkim, 259 Assam, 52 Lakhimpur, 43 Lushai Hills and only
Bhutia, Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong), Tamang, Rai (exonym), 36 speakers in Jalpaiguri. After Grierson's Survey no linguistic
Manger (Nepal seplling Magar), Gurung (Tamu), Newa(r)(i)), demography is availabe on the tribe. Mark Turin's Linguistic
Sherpa and Sunuwar (Kõits, Mukhia) recognized officially. Survey of Sikkim (LSS) is an ongoing project and its survey
Nepali presumeably holds the first position as a language of results on the number of speakers and sociolinguistic aspects of
communication as well as lingua franca. English, however the languages of Sikkim are yet to come for the public
without official recognition is the language of bureaucracy, readership.
media, tourism, and education. So is the position of Hindi.
Lepcha, Bhutia, Limbu and Tamang have a better position than
5. Recent problems after recognition unsympathetic attitude towards KirantiSunuwar, it is in a state
When the Government of Sikkim recognized Kiranti of everfast decaying language of Sikkim.
Sunuwar as an official language, Sikkim Sunuwar (Mukhia)
Kõitsbu (SSMK Association) has remained the only sole agent 5.4 Lack of opportunity leading to language disloyalty
for the preservation, promotion and the development of the Nar Sunuwar is the only one Government employee as a
language all over Sikkim. Recently, another hope for all translator at the Sikkim Legislative Assembly in the name
Linguistic Associations including the KirantiSunuwar is the KirantiSunuwar~Mukhia language till this date. This is a clear
inception of Sikkim Akademi (2002). The SSMK Association indication towards linguistic harakiri only for the sake of bread
has been facing the following problems of conducting its and butter and then why one should be a loyal learner or
linguistic activities and preserving the multilinguistic heritage speaker of that maneater mother tongue. Some years back, the
of Sikkim. language has been introduced in primary schools for the
KirantiKõits school children as an optional mother tongue.
5.1 Financial crisis Hopefully, some primary school teachers in KirantiKõits have
The Association since its inception has been facing a been appointed by the Government of Sikkim.
severe financial crisis and is unable to produce pedagogical
meterials, e.g. primer books, reference materials (viz. picture 6. Proposals and recommendations
books, translation etc.), grammar, dictionary, literature, audio In order to overcome the aforesaid problems and continue
visual materials, and thesaurus and so on. Due to the financial the multilinguistic heritage of Sikkim the following short and
crisis, the Association is almost defunct in launching long term proposals are proposed and recommended.
programmes like informal adult literacy education programme,
workshop, seminar and linguistic awareness meet etc. 6.1 Short Term Proposals (STPs)
The STPs can be helpful in achieving immediate goal in
5.2 Lack of language experts and planning the case of minority and endangered language like Kiranti
Albeit the language has its official status, no corpus Kõits~Sunuwar~Mukhia for its maintenance such as,
planning has been prepared yet. Language maintenance 6.1.1 Biannual adult literacy programme (BALP)
programmes cannot be successful unless proper planning is
done. In planning any language in a multilingual country like A child first learns his/her mother tongue or any language
India or a State like Sikkim, it cannot be done successfully in the family. Needless to say that learning begins at home.
unless we have experts viz.; phoneticiansphonologists, Therefore, any activity of the adult members in a family
sociolinguists, grammarians, dialectologists, pedagogists, pertaining to a specific language plays a crucial role for the
consultants and lexicographers of a specific language and linguistic habit, which determines linguistic fate of a child.
languages in general. Adults’ participation motivates their own children. In the south
Asian or Indian context, one can hardly imagine of a
5.3 Minority votebank and endangered languages monolingual environment. So it is unfair to acquire only English
and Hindi or Nepali at the cost of one's own mother tongue
From linguistic point of view, a language is language whose vernacular is other than English and Hindi or Nepali.
irrespective of its speakers' number whether more than a billion Therefore, BALP can be fruitful in the case of the only
or only one. Therefore, the language having one speaker should endangered languages in Sikkim or anywhere.
first be much more sympathized than having a billion, only for
maintaining multilinguistic heritage. Due to this
6.1.2 Publication of literacy materials in media, education and bureaucracy such as appointment of
translator for continuous publication of Sikkim Herald in
BALP's one of the supporting factors is its reading KirantiSunuwar, immediate appointment of some language
materials. The SSMK Association is always already willing to teachers and reservation in Sikkim Civil Service.
produce such literacy materials under generous auspices of
Sikkim Akademi and the Government of Sikkim. 6.2.3 Language Institute/Departments for research
6.1.3 Funds or financial support Sikkim Akademi (SA) has to have Institute/Departments
of all eleven languages languages as its body for conducting
For an endangered and minority language like Kiranti research, formulating language policy, planning, train language
Sunuwar, there must be mandatory funds to support whatever teachers, grammarians, dictionarymakers, pedagogical
other short term programmes like Teacher Education (TE), material writers, translators and so on. The Departments should
symposium, workshop, seminar etc. have or invite experts like fieldlinguists, phoneticians
phonologists, lexicographers, dialectologists, pedagogists,
6.2 Long Term Proposals (LTPs) consultants, grammarians and sociolinguists from all over India
The LTPs can be helpful in determining the future of a viz., CIIL, CIEFL, CLEJNU (CLE now has become two different
language and languages in a country like India or a State like centres, i.e. Centre for Linguistics and Centre for English), DL
Sikkim for national unity in diversity but not integration and DU, BHU, University of Calcutta, University of Baroda, Pune
assimilation. The linguistic history of India since the dawn of and NCERT. If SA's true intention is to preserve, promote and
civilization has been proved to be the only best Model of multi develop all eleven State languages in their own right, it is
lingualism for ages without integrating and assimilating one to necessary to interact and learn from those experts. A language
the other. For this reason the following LTPs have been without having a scientific study and descriptions cannot be rich
proposed and recommended. only with some available translations, creative writings,
6.2.1 Implementation of Mother Tongue education textbooks and teachers etc alone at hand.
Almost except KirantiKõits~Mukhia all other ten 6.2.4 Encourage research students
languages have privilege to start their mother tongue as an SA should coordinate with undergraduate and
optional language in primary or secondary or college levels and postgraduate institutions in the State in order to encourage the
the Government of Sikkim has appointed teachers on those students to write research term papers or thseses on the
respective languages. This will also be a watershed in the history languages of Sikkim. Therefore, ‘linguistics’ as a discipline can
of an endangered and minority language like Kiranti be popular within the State for preparing its future manpower
Kõits~Mukhia if the Government immediately appoints some towards developing languages as science and aesthetics at the
language teachers of Sunuwar in Chyakhung, Rhenock, 2nd same time. Those students can also be encouraged for further
MileGN Road and Baghekhola area where the speakers are advanced research, Translation Studies, lexicography etc. They
densely populated. can also participate to undertake the 'Linguistic Survey of
6.2.2 Special privision for endangered languages Sikkim'.
As stated above in the Vanishing and the Present Age of 6.2.5 Resource centre
KirantiSunuwar, it is one of the vanishing languages in the The SA's Language Departments should be wellequipped
sense that without providing a special provision by law, it will with all modern technological equipments and facilities. Then,
vanish from the multilinguistic heritage of Sikkim any second these Departments can activate members of the respective
or tomorrow. Some special provisions may include: opportunity speech community towards sustainable language maintenance
for preserving the multilinguistic heritage and develop as a the Project Officer Mokusu Kormocha (Mohan Sunuwar) for his
Model State for language maintenance in the linguistic history generous technical assistance in every respect.
of India where more than 1,652 (Pattanayak 1976: 18) mother
tongues (including geosociodialects) are spoken. The Notes
Departments also should grow stronger financially conducting * The term coined after B.P. Mandal. The process of Mandalization
language research projects to act as resource centres for those for some scholars creates disunity amongst the Nepalese
officially recognized languages then gradually a language starts communities in India (cf. topic 18 in this anthology).
its developmental processes such as graphization, codification, 1 I had first presented this paper at a twoday seminar on
standardization and modernization. The resource centres Second/Regional Languages of Sikkim jointly organized by Sikkim
themselves can conduct the 'Linguistic Survey of Sikkim' to find Akademi and National Book Trust (NBT), held on 910 July 2003
out the actual present linguistic situation all over the four Gangtok, Sikkim when I was persuing my MPhil/PhD Course at
districts for a better language planning. the Centre of Linguistics & English, School of Language, Literature
and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi110
7. Conclusion 067.
2 See Sikkim Government Gazette, No. 141, 28 October 1996,
In this essay, we have sketched a brief history of Kiranti Gangtok: Law Department in Appendix C.
Kõits~Sunuwar~Mukhia, one of the official languages of Sikkim 3 See Sikkim Governmnt Gazette, No. 60, 2 June 1994, Gangtok:
recognized by the Government of Sikkim in 1996. We also Welfares Department in Appendix B.
compared the language with the present multilinguistic 4 The term ‘phylogenetic’ has preferably has been used by Nettle
scenario of the State. We further said that the future prospects (1999: 115) after Nicholas’ (1990) term ‘genetic’ in order to avoid
of KirantiKõits~Sunuwar~Mukhia language is very gloomy confusion with genetics in the sense of mtDNA.
leading to a total extinction in the near future. One may very 5 See Proceedings of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly (5th Assembly
indifferently dismiss the SOS call on the ultimate death of a verbatim, Vol. I) 1228 September 1996.
linguistic heritage only because there is no political gain from

the minority speakers of the speech community. But if the SA
and other concerned authorities turn deaf to their SOS call, one
should start counting down the seconds to blot out the name of Source: Seminar on Problems and Prospects of 11 State Languages of
the language from the list of eleven languages. Then, one Sikkim, 2003: 7082.
symphony of the linguistic orchestra of Sikkim will be missing
from the total harmony of linguistic ecology. After its ultimate

demise one should not dare to ask a question like 'whose turn 13 Ageold socioanthropology of Nepal
next?' Obviously, "yours" as says Ernest Hemingway,
When one deeply ponders into the dynamics of redefining
'Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, socioanthropological identification of the Nepalese
It tolls for thee.' ethnoindigenous communities, s/he needs to be very critical
and precautious about the trends of classification and literature
Acknowledgements available on them. Ageold or impressionistic rather than
scientific notions of ethnological descriptions of those
I acknowledge Surya K. RudzichaMukhia, SCS (Retd) and
Purnakala NgawachaMukhia, exteacher’s financial and moral
communities prevail as customary amongst the native/foreign
support individually while preparing this paper. I owe a great deal to researchers and experts till today.
One of such commonest instances is Professor DB Bista's The same faulty Hagennotion has been imitated and
ethnological descriptive efforts about the Nepalese communities reiterated by the native scholars like JP Ananda, RR Subedi et
in the 'People of Nepal', though magnum opus is often taken for al, K Parajuli et al, MR Acharya, S Prapannacharya, Dr DP Aryal
granted by researchers and experts in the history of socio and Nanda R Shrestha/Keshav Bhattarai blindly in their
anthropology of Nepal. Many critics and reviewers have had voluminous works with out any rectifications or justifications.
praised his academic achievement at such a time of its This scholarly copycattrend demonstrates that socio
publication when no one could think of such present pluri anthropology as the science of society the mankind seems to be
ethnic groups in the country. worn out and needs to be revised in the true spirit of empirical
Although Prof Bista is credited as the founderfather of science in presentday Nepal's context.
socioanthropology in Nepal, his knowledge on the people of Socioanthropology in Nepal facing much more criticisms
Nepal now has seriously been questioned in an International these days is the classification and recognition of till unknown
Conference organized by Sociological/Anthropological Society ethnic groups by National Foundation for Development of
of Nepal (SASON) held on 1113 December 2006 in Nationalities (NFDIN) since sociologists/anthropologists are
Administrative Staff College, Lalitpur. The Conference's main involved in the process exclusive of linguists. The recognition of
theme was 'Social Sciences in a Multicultural World: Addressing KirantiSurel as a separate ethnoindigenous group having no
the Persistence of Deprivation, Conflict and Violence' with separate language other than the dialect of KirantiKõits of its
several other subthemes like 'Ethnicity', 'Perspectives on own has posed problems in the defining criteria of the term
Conflict and Social Movements', 'Development Practices 'nationalities' whereas the KirantiBakulochana (Banatawa,
Observed', 'Political Transition, Democracy and Development', Bayung, Kulung, Lohorung, Chamling, Nachhiring and
'Gender', 'Cross Cutting Issues', Human Rights and Mental Yamphu) Movement has been voicing for a separate identity
Health, 'Language and Culture', 'Resource Management', recognition based on the criteria of their exclusive languages
'Perspectives on Agriculture and Development' and so forth. and cultural practices. Simply one Chepang ethnic group's
It was in the 'ethnicity' subtheme where Prof Bista, T. division into three groups such as Praja, Chepang and
Ukyab and S. Akhikari and Kirãtologist Iman S Chemjong were Bankariya seems nothing more than ethnopoliticization since
inquired and criticized bitterly for claiming the KirantiKõits the term Praja as an ethnic group was coined by King
(hydroexonym: Sunuwar) as "offshoots of the Magars" and Mahendra's Model of Democracy. Bankariya is a recent
their Mother Tongue slightly differing from "the Magar dialect". phenomenon as is Surel. Furthermore, Dewans are also
Actually their claims were the replica of Queen's Gurkha claiming as separate ethnic group either from Kirant Yakkha or
Officers such as E. Vansittart, W. B. Northey and C.J. Morris's KirantYakthung in eastern Nepal. The same problem of
writings on the KirantiKõits/Sunuwar during the British classification and recognition of some major tribes in the
colonial imperialism. Socioanthropology scarcely smells in western hills of the country has remained as nationalities'
their observations. Another most serious criticism in the riddles and even experts of sociology and anthropology are not
conference was on Toni Hagen's definition of the exactly getting through it.
ethnoindigenous Sunuwar people of Wallo Kirant, eastern The practice of socioanthropology in Nepal at Tribhuvan
Nepal "as excellent smiths and goldsmiths". Dr Hagen, who University (TU) for more than four decades now is nothing
introduced Nepal with his work 'Nepal: A Kingdom in the more than cramming the definitions and explanations of
Himalayas' has described them with such unscientific and 'society' and 'humans with certain sets of behaviors/features'
inaccurate description on page 123 of the English version provided by the Western scholars and Xeroxed in Nepal. There
published in 1980 by IBH Publishing Co. exists no laboratory for genome/mtDNA sampling observations
and comparative analysis of anthropology as science.
Anthropological linguistics as one of the most essential module her university education, she switched over to dancing. She
in socioanthropological studies has not yet been introduced in admits that dancing provides aesthetic pleasure for her.
the Masters course as inseparable component of Dancing is one of the best medium of human expressions of
Sociology/Anthropology in the University. inner feelings.
As a result, most TUproducts majoring Socio Besides, dancing has remained as a sociocultural identity
anthropology are not easily motivated towards the innovative of mankind since the beginning of human civilization. It depicts
research in anthropology as such yet very useful and relevant a certain activity and religious sanctity of the people also. Her
discipline for Nepal. Its main impacts are visible as darkness in main aim of life is to identify herself through the folk dances of
the case of ethnopoliticization among ethnoindigenous peoples Nepal. To preserve the folk cultures and popularize them
of Nepal mocking science as puppet in the hand of crooked throughout Japan is her another mission.
politicians if not politics. Doing innovative research is Ever smiling Okamoto developed a keen interest to visit
indispensable in order to understand and solve the riddles of Nepal as far back as 1985. She visited Indonesia and Papua New
nationalities' identification and recognition for their inclusive Guinea to learn ethnoindigenous dances before she came across
participation in political spheres demanded by the Federation of a panoramic photograph that depicted Nepalese dances which
Nationalities. It should firstly be started with restructured and have enchanted since then. Okamoto vowed to visit Nepal and
renovated paleontological ideas rather than from ageold socio learn Nepali before she could take to ethnofolk dances of Nepal.
anthropological practice of Nepal. This makes SASON's She fell in love with Fishtail for the first time in her life while
international conference meaningful or socioanthropology visiting the Chhomrong village in western Nepal.
worthpracticing epistemologically as empirical science for the
sake of human society free from deprivation, conflict and When Okamoto came across the life style of the Gurungs
violence. in Chhomrong, she was magnetized with it. Her elementary
education in the ethnocultures of Nepal started there. She has
been learning almost all Nepalese folkdances and classical
dance as well since 1990. Last year, she attended the Proficiency
11 January 2007, Thursday Certificate Level Examination majoring Music and Dance from
Padma Kanya College, Tribhuvan University. She has impressed
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 21 January 2007, slightly revised here
and inspired by her classmates and teachers at the college as
well.
She has learnt Gurung, Magar, Tharu, Jhangad, Bhojpuri,
14 Guardian angels of Sakela Sili Sherpa, Newa(r), Tamang, Chudka, Kauda, Charia, Jhyaure
There are two Japanese myths popular in Nepal known as dances of Nepal. If Nepal has to show something to world
Kondo and Kakimi. They are Lord Fathers of the needy, community, its cultural identity can be the real asset. Okamoto
disabled, helpless, orphaned, discarded, downtrodden and has still to find out cymbal, Chyabrung, all percussion
after all underprivileged people of Nepal. They have done a instruments, and paddy dance of eastern Nepal. She is on the
great deal for us. They have proved themselves as one of the right track. It is a better move from Sakela Sili.
best champions of humanitarianism. Sakela Sili nachauna ho,
Undoubtedly, if they are our Lord fathers, Yuko Okamoto Purkhako reeti bachauna...Shyamunani la hai…
and Bagdevi Yalungcha are the guardian angels of Sakela Siliin
the multicultural settings of Nepal. Okamoto was born in 1964, (Let us dance Sakela and preserve our ancestral
in FunabashiTokyo, Japan. She is an MA in Economics. After heritage…)
Along with the rendition of folk songs, Okamoto delighted There has been a slight modernization in the city Sakela
the audience with accurate physical postures last December at compared to the one as it has been danced in the rural
the Royal Nepal Academy Hall during "KirantRai Musical neighbourhoods. While religious sanctity is maintained in the
Night" organised by Kirant Rai Yayokkha one of the umbrella villages, it is not so in the cities. The history of city Sakela goes
organizations of more than two dozens of Kiranti back to 1981. Yagluncha has been participating frequently in
ethnolinguistic communities. How did she then come to learn such programmes organized by Yayokkha. Okamoto also does
all about Sakela Sili? It is very interesting and surprising for so in collaboration with the Yagluncha family annually and
her. She met one of the Yalungcha members at the PK College. occasionally in special programmes organized anywhere.
All of a sudden Shanti, Neela and Bagdevi Yalungcha taught her Because of her deeper interest in Nepalese cultures,
the movements and postures of the Sili, rigorously. Okamoto has founded a dance school called "Surya Tarph"
Subsequently, Okamoto became a lover and admirer of Sakela. (Towards the Sun) in Japan. She has more than fifteen
She wants also to dance it in the rural settings than in Japanese students in her school. As a dance teacher and
cities because the underlying syntax of Sakela is endemic to the founder, she has been teaching her students about Nepalese folk
setting. Her destination in the near future is Ratanchha, and classical dances in the school for more than seven years.
Khotang or elsewhere in Khotang, where KirantiRodung or She wishes to dance up to her hundredth birthday.
Chamling are densely populated. Okamoto loves bicultural relationship between Nepal and
Bagdevi Yagluncha is one of the members of Kiranti Japan. Though Japan isn't rich in language and culture as
Rodung, who wants to continue and preserve her ancestral Nepal, Okamoto draws a parallel between Bondori cultures of
language and culture. Human life and its evolution have a Japan which comes closer to Sakela. Obviously, there are
deeper meaning in KirantiRodung cultural which is on the fundamental differences between them. But the most basic
verge of being buried with the passage of time. Sakela Sili is one commonality is that they are human cultures. They are worthy
of them. It is based on the fertility and vegetation folk myth of of respect. Her friend Yagluncha, who grew up in the
Kiranti people conventionally known as Limbu, Yakkha, Rai multicultural and multilingual setting also loves coexistence
(exonym) and Sunuwar (exonym). amongst multilingual and multicultural society which can be
In essence, the dance is meant to pay reverences to the likened to the concept of vasudhaivakutumbakam or 'world
Lord Sakela on the full moon evenings of every November brothersisterhood'. Both of them are metaphors of the Kiranti
December and AprilMay as asked by their Lord creators community and of Nepal. The dancerangels are the real
Paruhang, Sumnima or Tageraningwaphung and Yuma. These messengers, who safeguard and glorify human culture. The
full moon evenings are significantly concerned with plantation feelings of patriotism, nationalism and friends can be
and harvesting. Moreover, their tribal identity stands upon heightened through such undertakings. Let us wish all the best
"Sakela", as trees on their roots. for their successful mission of life at present and in the future as
well.
That is why Yaluncha and Okamoto want to safeguard
Sakela Sili for the generations to come. Yagluncha, who
observed the ritual of Sakela Sili in the past in Ratanchha, is
nostalgic about it. One decade ago, she met a tragedy of Source: The Kathmandu Post, 6 September 1998, Sunday, slightly
dislocation from the village, where she used to dance the "Sili" revised here
in its aboriginal style. She has been dancing "Sakela" in the city
since then.
Lines are drawn out of maize flour on the Kholma. Other
15 Three deities in KirantiKõits lore ritual goods required are sixteen bread of millet, Jirma beer, a
KirantiKõits (exonyms: Sunuwar, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar, sickle in bag, seasonal fruits and edible. A pure piglet is
Mukhiya) is one of the ethnoindigenous people of Nepal. From sacrificed for the Kholme goddess. The sacrificed pork, liver,
anthropological and linguistic point of view, they belong to one Pod Khame 'a type of cooked rice', wine and Jirma are offered
of the subgroups of Kiranti family. The tribe has been residing in the presence of Põib(0) 'tribal shaman' and Na:so or Nhaso
on the northwest bank of the Sunkosi, namely, Likhu and 'tribal priest'. They invoke the Suroms by reciting Pidar
Khimti river areas of the Okhaldhunga (formerly Chuplu) and namdar (formulae incantations in the form of Salaku). The
Ramechhap (formerly Kirantichhap) districts about two devotees ask for favour of the Suroms. If one eats the sacrificed
centuries ago. Although their population is demographically pork secretly, his/her death within a year is unavoidable. This is
thin and scanty, they are rich culturally and linguistically. There why one should not be negligent about Suroms. In this case,
are many deities ritually observed and worshipped on different they are the symbol of destruction. But it is believed that there
occasions. Only three types of guardian deities of Crops, Fruits will be no famine if they are happy.
and Vegetables and Door are described here briefly. Second, the Nimlo or Guardian God of Fruits and
First, the Surom or Guardian Goddess of CropsThere are Vegetables—Nimlo is famous for safeguarding fruits and
sixteen sisters of Surom. They are a) Kholme Surom, b) Dewa vegetables in the garden. It is worshipped and prayed without
Surom, c) Ingi Surom, d) Kelo Surom, e)Melo Surom, f) Nadi blood sacrifice. They are sixteen brothers as Suroms are also
Surom, g) Padi Surom, h) Lipkyo Surom, i) Kuli Surom, j) Muli numbered sixteen. In order to worship them, water and bitter
Surom, k) Thangra Surom, l) Daini Surom, m) Blala (Dobate) plant is put into a bamboo pipe. The pipe is decorated with red
Surom, n) Duma Surom, o) Badem Surom and p) Kothe Surom. and white pieces of clothes. Along with the rice and incense,
These goddesses' main duty is to safeguard crops. It is sixteen leaves of Latte 'plant variety', tobacco, the Latte flour,
believed that the ensuing crops can be bountiful if they are the juice of Jirma beer in a white pot, sixteen breads of millets
and fruits are offered. Then, all sixteen Nimlo brothers are
happy. The goddesses are worshipped while harvesting. If one
invoked through incantations by Põib(0) and Gyam(i) 'a female
tries to steal the planted crops, s/he will be disabled or may die
shaman'. Particularly, incense of the maize flour is desirable for
within six months. Thieves may suffer from paralysis and other
them.
physical deformities. Therefore, people are afraid of stealing
crops from the field of the Kõits household even today. So much They safeguard friuts and vegetables from the act of
so that the owners also have to worship and pray the goddess to stealing by outsiders. If an alien tries to neglect them, s/he
utilize their crops. Otherwise, the goddess troubles in the family becomes the victim of Nimlo. Even the owners should not go to
household. the garden any time they like. The syndromes of Nimlo victims
are pox, constipation and so forth. Any Nimlo victims may
The practice of worshipping and praying the sixteen
even die if Nimlo is not worshipped properly. To avoid troubles,
Surom sisters is the same for all. But there are some differences
it's better to avoid the act of stealing from the gardens of any
also. In order to worship and pray them, one has to make two
KirantiKõits family household.
storeyed Kholma 'a type of shrine'. A Chalnu 'a filter basket
made up of bamboo' is put on it. One needs a sped, a sickle, Third, the Sed or Guardian God of the Door is
sixteen pieces of Lipkyo, sixteen leaves and sixteen tip of the worshipped as the guardian god of the door in KirantiKõits
Lipkyo plant. Subsequently, sixteen pieces of Titepati (a bitter ritual. The god guards the family and saves them from any
plant), rice and water are put into sixteen bamboo pieces. casual and unpleasant happening. It also guards the family
house from theft or robbery. It is the god of peace, prosperity,
happiness and regeneration. As Surom and Nimlo, Sed's
number is also sixteen. The god like Surom is worshipped by not only on the part of the government but people themselves.
offering blood sacrifice. In order to worship Sed, a white he Accordingly, there is a strong need for unity among people.
goat, white cock, white goose, white pigeon, white flower, white In this context, Kirant Rai Yayokkha is one of the umbrella
piece of cloth, white eggs and rice are essential. organizations under which more than two dozens of Kiranti
It guards every corner of the household in the form of a linguistic communities can have equal opportunities to preserve
white serpent. In KirantiKõits society, it is prohibited to look at and promote their distinctive languages and cultures of the
the door straight forward because the Sed victimizes the Kirant land. Byron Farwell in his book The Gurkhas (1984)
onlookers. Another restriction is that no one should stand or sit remarks that "The Rais (exonym; my note) are divided into
in front of the door and enter the house. Someone should stand many subtribes and have no common tribal language; instead
or sit on the side of the door and enter the house. Some there are ten separate languages and some seventy dialects. It is
syndromes of Sed victims are backbone pain, white excreta a Nepalese joke that every Rai has his own language"1. Truly
and sterility. speaking, it isn't only the language that differs from clan to clan
In conclusion, SuSeNi (Su= Surom, Se=Sed, Ni=Nimlo), in accordance with the geographical distance but have cultural
the tribal deities, are harbingers of safety, peace, prosperity, differences also. Farwell's presupposition of joke is a reality for
happiness, wellbeing and regeneration if worshipped and us even in the present context of Nepal. Their linguistic and
prayed in its aboriginal style amongst the KirantiKõits cultural diversities are the symbol of unity amongst the Kiranti
community. people.
Fortunately, I happened to be an eyewitness of such
Note unique ethnic unity on the evening of December 14, 1997 at the
This topic is based on Lokpriya Mulicha's (originally from Khĩchi, Royal Nepal Academy. The umbrella organization Yayokkha
Chandeshwori, Okhaldhunga (formerly Chuplu), Wallo Kirant, eastern had organized a programme "Kirant Rai Musical Night" on the
Nepal) sketch on the KirantiKõits people's indigenous cultural occasion of Sakela for the winter season under the programme
practices sketched both in KirantiKõits language and Nepali in July coordination of Kiranti J.B. Rai. Many artistes from the eastern
1998 for the participation of World's Indigenous Cultures programme Himalayas (Bagdevi, Neela, Shanti Rai and others) and Japan
in America. Purna Sunuwar was one of the willingparticipants for the (Yuko Okamoto) revivified one of the most popular ethnofolk
aforesaid programme as I was told. dances of the Rais known as Sakela Sili. The evening again and
again reverberates to my ears as
Shakela Shili nanchauna ho,
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 4 October 1998, slightly revised Purkhako reeti banchauna…
including the title and note added here
(Let us dance the Sakela Sili,
Let us save our ancestral heritage…)
16 The restoration of Sakela Sili This dance is significant culturally because the ethnic
Multiculturalism is the first and foremost identity of the identity stands upon Sakela as trees in their roots. It is based on
Nepalese peoples and Nepal as is multilingualism. All round the fertility folk myth of the Kiranti (see Shiva K. Shrestha
development of Nepal therefore depends on the holistic (1990) Kiranti Folk Tales for a detailed narrative) people. In
development of different ethnoindigenous peoples' cultural essence the dance is devoted to the Lord Sakela or land on the
heritage as well as languages. The responsibility of full moon evening of NovemberDecember and AprilMay every
development, promotion, and preservation of such heritage lies year as asked by their lord creators Nayuma, Paruhang,
Sumnima or Tageraningwaphung and Yuma. Therefore, they
Issues on Historical and Cultural identity | 99 100 | V an i s h in g E t h n i ci t y, Cu l t u re s an d L an gu age s o f N e p al
could have a successful and better harvest of the year. In in every heart of the whole mankind and particularly in Nepal's
another sense, Sakela is paying homage to ancestors also. The cultural heritage of the Kiranti people.
terminology Sakela ('Chandi' in Nepali but not exact and On the whole, Yayokkha should bear one thing in mind
accurate) differs regionally as 'Shakewa, Shakenwa, Shakhewa, that our age is the age of linguistic and cultural degeneration. In
Shyãdar, Tosi; and Bhumi Puja (Worshipping of the Land) order to minimize this tendency, Yayokkha should fill the gulf
according to geographical locations either on the bank of between the Sakela and Rapadhi postmodernist pop culture.
Dhudhkoshi, Sunkoshi, Likhu, Khimti, Tamor or Arun Rivers. Our Sakela cannot be preserved unless the new generation
And the 'Sakela Dance' itself differs from place to place among retains its ethnoindigenous languages. Once we understand the
different linguistic communities. language, we understand the culture as such. Only then, we can
Along with the main attraction and restoration of Sakela regain the lost paradise of our languages and cultures where
Sili on the stage, the programme covered wideranging folk hundreds and thousands of Kiranti(s) and Okamotos can freely
songs of Kulung and Bantawa languages under the musical co dance Sakela for glorifying human culture. It is necessary
ordination of Jiten Dumi (Rai). A thrilling voice of Bag and because Sakela is the root of all the branches of modern Kiranti
Parvati Rai 'Dirchi akam neccho nani sep chhumchi linguistic communities. Farewell to cynicism and hypocrisy.
bayanmke' composed by Dilliser Harimbu and 'Biyinne Once again
yawachi lamune anko yngochhamchi' by the Rai (exonym) Shakela Shili nachauna ho,
artistes from Ilam, were soothing to my ears as English music to
Janga Kũwar in Belayat or Great Britain. Purkhako reeti banchauna…Shyamuna ni la hai…

Modern and folk Nepali songs by the Sotangs, Thulungs Note
and other artistes delighted the audience very much. Teens were 1
obsessively moved by the Rapadhi (Rajesh Payal+Dhiraj) pop This joke mainly recorded from Farwell's BritishGurkha soldiers
songs. Other ethnic cultures, for instance, 'Ghãtu Dance' by has now undergone a drastic sociosemantic and political change
and has been questioned by Bakulochana Movement (see Rapacha
Shanti, Neela Rai and Yuko Okamoto and 'Tamang Selo Dance'
2008 and elsewhere) since the late 1990s in Nepal.
by Govinda and Radha Rai were a vivid representative
performance in a single cultural mosaic of Nepal. Lastly, a
patriotic and nationalistic song 'Yo timrai mato ho timile
tekeko' (this is your soil you've trodden) composed by Bhupal
Source: Travelogue, 3, 1, January 1998, slightly revised and note
Rai, blew up a trumpet call for the sons of the soil to unite for added here
linguistic and cultural nationalism.
To be precise, all the steps taken by Yayokkha for the
promotion and preservation of different linguistic and cultural
heritage of Nepal are praiseworthy. Specially, I'd like to thank 17 Semantic aspects of Salaku in Sunuwar
the members and artistes of Yayokkha heartily for providing me Abstract
such an unforgettable moment of 'Sakela Sili' for the first time The cultural term Salaku (also Salak in spoken form) in
in my life. I could easily imagine the over drunk Kiranti people
KirantiKõits (exonyms: Sunuwar, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar,
from a remote village of Ratanchha or Chinamkhung dancing
Mukhiya) signifies Mundhum/Mugdum or Mundum, an oral or
the Sakela Sili in Dionysian frenzy on the Academy stage. The
unwritten texts of the Kirant(i) people known as Sunuwar, Rai
Kiranti people including Japanese vividly restored and revived
the human as a whole and ancestral 'Sakela' in particular. (exonym), Yakkha and Limbu people for signifying their
Certainly, the restoration and revival of 'Sakela' is cultural religious text. There are several names given for the same term
renaissance among them and us. I wish the Sakela Sili's survival in different tribal mother tongues of the Kiranti people of
eastern Nepal. While conducting any Kõits ritual, Pidār Salaku is most probably an ancient KirantiKõits ritual in

Nāmdār 'prayer' is unavoidable part of it. The sacred language transSiberian shaman culture. The KirantiKõits are one of the
of such cultural practice is known as Salaku. In another word, it ethnoindigenous tribes within the Kiranti linguistic
is the text of mantras or formulae. Its purpose is to provoke the communities, and that their religious, cultural and linguistic
power of spiritual healing or pacification of ancestors. Salaku is identity is reflected and preserved in Salaku. Although there is
strictly pratised by a Kõits Põib(o) 'shaman' and Na:so (also no exactly recorded historical date of the KirantiKõits people in
Nhaso) 'priest'. On the contrary, Salaku performed by the Kõits the Nepal Himalayas, they have been transmiting Salaku is
shaman differs from that of Na:so. The Na:so is supposed to be completely orally since the dawn of Kirant(i) civilization in
the man of importance in the KirantiKõits community. He is Nepal's history with Yalambar Hang. At present, it is an
the man of knowledge and conductor of ritual. However, in important piece of the national heritage of the country and is
order to carry out the ritual mission of spiritual healing or threatened with extinction in the religious ecology of
pacification, the Na:so needs assistance from Põib(o)s. There is proselytization.
some basic difference between the ways they perform the act of
reciting Salaku. Similarly, their functions in the KirantiKõits 2. Types of Salaku
ritual are also different. Accordingly, this essay aims at One can classify Salaku into three categories according to
examining some possible aspects of meaning of Salaku in its cultural practice and purpose amongst the KirantiKõits
KirantiKõits. Salaku, thus, is an oral text fundamentally. I have community, such as (a) simple prayer, (b) mantra or formulae
in this paper extracted some written textual lines for the incantations and (c) divine power as believed in folklore and
purpose of semanticopragmantic interpretation of it. folk practices.

1. Introduction 'Salaku' as a simple prayer heals when recited during the
food and incense offering ceremonies to their ancestral spirits
Salaku (also Salak in spoken form) is an oralreligious and before new harvest in the househlod of the community. This
sacred text of the KirantiKõits (exonyms: Sunuwar, Bhujuwar, prayer can be conducted either by Na:so or Põib(o) or by both
Pirthwar, Mukhiya) ethnoindigenous people of eastern Nepal. of them jointly. As a mantra or formulae incantation, Salaku is
The text is generally referred to as Mundhum or Mugdum, an conducted by Põib(o), who exorcises an evil spirit affecting a
umbrella term for the religious practices of Kirant(i) people(s) sick person in the family our in the neighbourhood family
such as the Sunuwar (exonym), Rai (exonym), Limbu household of the KirantiKõits family. By exorcising the the evil
(autoethnonyms: Yakthung, Tsong) and Yakkha (similar four in spiritpossession, the Põib(o) psychologically heals his/her
post1990s' movement, linguistically one Kiranti family). In patients. The third category of Salaku is also practised while
another sense, Salaku is a series of mantras or formulae attempting to achieve divine power (magic, miraculous power)
performed by the Põib(o) 'shaman' and the Na:so (also Nhāso) by a Na:so or tantric, and it is populary believed that through
'priest'. Salaku has different underlying meanings when the practice of Salaku power, a practitioner can jump several
conducted by these two different religious practitioners or yard farther than a normal person jumps.
agents in the KirantiKõits community. While the Põib(o) can
conduct Salaku in the form of mantras, the Na:so conducts The divine power in the hands of a Na:so is of a great
Salaku in the form of pidarnamdar 'prayer'. The latter usually importance in the annual Shyãdar Shil festival of the Kiranti
occurs during seasonal festivals such as Shyãdar Shil or Kõits lore. Alongside this Shil, another animistic Shil known as
generally translated as 'Chandi Nach' (Chandi dance) in Nepali Kash Shil or 'the porcupine dance' is also conducted with the
and not necessarily equivalent of it. explicit aim of guaranteeing a good harvest for the future in
nature's cycle. During the porcupine dance, a KirantiKõits
dancer should literally act like a porcupine. He is then shot dead pattern is symbolised by the trident and the lotus painted on the
by a Na:so using an arrow full of Salaku power. However, the sides of the drums and appears to exist in binary structure.
Na:so must be able to open and shut the gates to the divine Extract B [where means a= ә, aa= ā and ŋ= ng]
world by reciting his Salaku. If he fails in his practice, the Kash
dancer gets forever locked up in the divine world in which the …iŋgilaalomi doho
dancer has no hope of life again. Consequently, the porcupine iŋgi sagaarmi doho
dance is one of the riskiest Salaku Shil forms and is rarely loho thaammi doho
performed due to its underlying risk to human life. sunai caanomi doho
cirmir thapomi doho
3. The structure and pragmatics of Salaku badzeli thapomi doho
khade thapomi doho
The deepest meaning and power of Salaku is sound, and saŋgal thapomi doho
its communicative purpose is accomplished by rhythmic halphaami de
patterns of words and sounds. Such patterns are directly related iŋgi laalomi de
to the Dzasi 'male' and the Dumaa 'female' sides of the iŋgi brapõibmi de
Guĩduwa (drum) symbolised by the trident and lotus. The iŋgi muilaami de
following is an extract of the Salaku text. iŋgidaaraami de
Extract A: [where means a= ә, aa= ā and ŋ= ng] dumimũilami de
…saŋ saŋ saŋ… saŋ so sunai daaraami de
cuplu hopo, duplu hopo bisayaa gadaami de
thalo hopo, muso hopo dumo nimlo hopo
sariŋ hopo sariŋ nimlo hopo
meselmi baani, kaat gyaami gowaa nimlo hopo
das gyaami, bage baani, ragin gyaami bukum nimlo hopo
põib(o) baani, sariŋ muli dzatnaamũili phomi nimlo hopo
saŋ haaĩsen, gauhaaĩsen sermaa nimlo hopo
mulaati inkali bubuthaathaa sorai nimlo hopo….
pashyaa gešo nani
cek khuye dadelaalomi doho
race pane cemaa pane iŋgi thaammi doho
suro tokene gašo tokene sunai thaammi doho
daail mapane kuilmapane… iŋgi caanumi doho
ole thapomi doho
(Sunuwar 1995: 2831) dobaa thapomi doho
This textual discourse here is interesting as regards to iŋgi gaaromi doho
independent lexemes rather than syntactic structures. These gilph aammi de
lexemes establish a discourse between the addresser and dumo laalomi de
addressee, even though the addressee is always absent. The narubra põibomi de
sounds created from the Guĩduwa are mixtures of male and dumo muilaami de
female sounds of the Turung (Nep. Dhengro) 'Põib(o) drum' sunai muilaami de
and the Guĩduwa 'Na:so drum'. This malefemale sound iŋgi gadaami de
iŋgi daaraami de
huɂsel haɂsel…
muli nimlo hopo
pharegocaa nimlo hopo
lowc nimlo hopo
kohore nimlo hopo
sorai nimlo hopo
mahaa nimlo hopo…
(Sunuwar 1995: 2831)
The pragmatic function in both extracts (A) and (B) is the
Salaku's divine force by which the communicative purpose is
accomplished. Its effectiveness depends on the rhythmic effects
of the sounds of the Guĩduwa and the Turung (see photo plates
5 and 6 and also Figure 2). The Põib(o) and Na:so's divine force
can largely be classified as belonging to expressives and Figure 2: Human existence as envisaged in KirantiKõits Guĩduwa and
directives acts of speech. Turung from Rapacha (2003) digitized by Mokusu
Kormocha

From directives point of speech acts view, welcomes and
greetings are quite common in extract A, e.g., …saŋ saŋ saŋ…
saŋ so greets and welcomes gods or ancestral spirits,
apparitions and evil spirits as well. Similarly, the Salaku's
directive acts which include requests, invitations and
commands are common functions of communication with an
absent addressee, as in lines 813 of Extract A and lines 19 of
Extract B extracted here.

Plate 5: Trident painted on Guĩduwa and Turung 4. Symbolic classification of Salaku
Fournier (1974, also cited Egli 1999: 300) has classified
the roles of the Na:so and Põib(o) on the basis of a set of
binarity, as illustrated below:
Na:so Põib(o)/Gyami1
male male/female
hereditary nonhereditary
right left
sacrifice trance
Plate 6: Lotus painted on Guĩduwa and Turung daytime nighttime
Source: Mokusu Kormocha (Mohan Sunuwar) had attached for this ordinary male dress specific female dress
purpose here for me on the 12th of July 2009 all the way from lifecycle deathcycle
America. living spirit
normal death abnormal death Brewer (1981). In Salaku, the lotus symbolizes also creation;
gods, ancestral spirits ghosts, evil spirits whereas the trident symbolizes destruction. The presence of
auspicious inauspicious both these symbols indicates the existence of mankind, as the
private part of the house public part of the house inseparable sides of the Turung and the Guĩduwa are
training inside the village training inside the jungle projections of the structure and history of the human
Sunuwars multiethnic civilization as a whole.
sacred profane On the one hand, the spiritual meaning of Salaku relates
dhol; lalutsub dheŋro; phurb(u) to its position as a sacred text relating to the spiritual life of a
buried standing up buried sitting up KirantiKõits Na:so and the community, while the Na:so being
These binary oppositions in the KirantiKõits cultural largely malecentred is not necessarily hereditary, and tantric
practices provide clues to understanding Salaku's pragmatico men and any KirantiKõits women also can practise Salaku for
semanticity and its aspects of meaning. their spiritual salvation on the other.
The social meaning of Salaku relates to its position as
5. Semantic aspects of Salaku integral part of the socioritual life of the KirantiKõits
While exploring semantically, Salaku has symbolic, community. The community's social identity rests on the Salaku
spiritual, social, cultural, ritual and religious dimensions as its and thus it is a dominant symbol of socioriligious unity within
interpretations. We shall discuss such dimensions briefly in the community.
some paragraphs here to clarify what it actually means for the Similarly, the cultural meaning of Salaku further relates
KirantiKõits people's cultural identity. primarily to their tribal dance known as Shyãdar Shyil (Nep.
The symbolic meaning of Salaku is associated with the 'Chandi' dance). This Shyil is known as Sakela, Sakenwa Sili in
Dzasi 'male' and the Dumā 'female' (see Figure 2) sounds and KirantiKirawa and Rodung communities, is a primary cultural
rhythms of the Turung and the Guĩduwa drums. According to identity amongst the 27 Kiranti linguistic communites (cf.
my informants (e.g. Lokpriya Mulicha etc.), Fournier's labelling Rapacha 2008) in different local names linguistically. In this
of the male and female faces of the dheŋro as 'Põib(o) drum' sense, Salaku is a cultural element which belongs specifically to
(1976: 109) is doubtful as usually assumed in the shamanic the KirantiKõits community.
practice (see Plates 5 and 6). Two cross tridents are painted on Furthermore, Salaku has an important ritual role.
the male side of the Turung, and lotus on the female side of the According to Fournier (1974), the task of a Na:so and Põib(o) is
Guĩduwa. The sounds and rhythms produced on the male side to conduct the birth and death rituals in the Sunuwar
are stressed and strident, whereas on the female side, the community. Thus, the whole lifecycle of a KirantiKõits man or
sounds and rhythms produced are unstressed and mellow. woman, from the cradle to the grave, is guided by Salaku for
Accordingly, Salaku incantations accompany the prosodic those who still practise their indigenous way of cultural life.
harmony of the drums. From the religiousmeaning's point of view finally, Salaku
Historically, the painted tridents and lotus on the sides of forms a sect of the Kirant(i) religion in general known as
the drums have meanings in human mythology of the past Mundhum (also Mundum, Mugdhum, Mukdum as sketched
civilizations. In Roman mythology, Neptune and Britannia carry below). Ranging from sacrifice to trance, Salaku is best
tridents as a symbol of their power over the sea (Brewer 1981), practised by the Na:so and Põib(o) or Gyami, and it is therefore
while the Hindu god Shiva (Sanskritized name for Ruwahang or an integral part of their religious lives. The Na:so and Põib(o) as
Paruhang of the Mongoloid Kiranti people) carries a trident to social agents for transmitting Salaku to their new generation
symbolize the power of destruction (Comte 1988). A lotus in the these days have menacingly become a disappearing or rare
form of water lily also has a mythological significance 'the species. There now exists hardly a few as the last generation in
motion of the intellect' or 'intellectual sovereignty' according to the community.
A synoptic sketch in hierarchical order 6. Conclusion
Salaku Salaku with its unique semantic aspects is an exclusive
expression of human culture and the one which needs to be
nurtured and preserved by the KirantiKõits people.
Mundhum/Mugdum Unfortunately, it is disappearing overnight from their
community. With a slight reformation of this integral socio
cultural practice within the KirantiKõits community if any
Kirant(i) Religion would be better than its complete disappearance because of
external proselytisation or cultural assimilation in the socalled
dominant Hindu or Christian cultures. Salaku as a whole is a
Prayer Mantra Incantations Divine Power part of the KirantiKõits community's collective heritage or
collectiveconscience, and would cause irrecoverable cultural
trauma if it extincts with no continuity efforts in the community
Na:so Põib(o)/Gyami for their future generation.

Note
guĩduwa (dzasiduma) turung (dzasiduma) 1 The female shaman is Gyāmi >Gyām in the KirantiKõits mother
tongue. Fournier's spelling is slightly different from what I have
noted here.
Priest's drum Shaman's drum

Source: Themes in Himalayan Languages and Linguistics (2003:
Sound and Rhythm 279286) edited by TR Kansakar and Mark Turin, is slightly
revised and note added here

Stressed and strident Unstressed and mellow

Meanings

Symbolic Religious
Spiritual Ritual

Social Cultural

Languages, Grammars, Criticism and Folklore | 111 112 | V an i s h in g E t h n i ci t y, Cu l t u re s an d L an gu age s o f N e p al
18 Nepali language matters
A threeday linguistic seminar of 12th Himalayan Language
Symposium and 27th Annual Conference of the Linguistic
Society of Nepal is recently over with much grave concerns on
languages spoken in South Asia and its regions. Apart from
some papers on endangered ethnoindigenous languages of the
SinoTibetoBurman family spoken in the Nepal Himalayas, a
total of 81 papers discussed a variety of themes including the
IndoAryan Sanskrit, Nepali and others.
Renowned foreignnative linguists working on several
aspects of linguistic science including sign language and human
genome stressed on the need of preserving linguistic diversity of
Nepal and Nepalese languages since any human knowledge is
hidden in their languages and expressed through their
languages.
Two papers viz. by Samar Sinha, Jawaharlal Nehru
University and Dr Durga Aryal, Banaras Hindu University
raised the gravest concerns over Nepali Language
endangerment, Nepali nationality and after all Nepali identity
outside Nepal in North East and Banaras. I would like to add
here another scholar Dr Binod Luintel’s similar idea particularly
based on Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh case published in the
Annapurna Post of 21 Kartik 2063. All three of these scholars
argue that the Nepali language is the only knot for integrating
multiethnoindigenous peoples’ Nepali nationalityidentity in
India and elsewhere. Therefore, it is necessary to preserve and
revitalize Nepali in several parts of India since it is the language
included in the 8th schedule of Indian Constitution.
Scholar Sinha sturdily advocates against Mandal
Commission (a process of Mandalization) and its grievances
amongst the Nepalese communities of India. He further mocks
on the way many ethnoindigenous communities seeking the way
“how to be tribal” having based on Sara Shneiderman and Mark
Turin’s article published in the Himal Southasian of March
April 2006. In this regard, all efforts for preserving multi
linguistic situation of Sikkim, where 11 ethnoindigenous
languages are recognized officially in his opinion are futile and
mere political tool. Annual budget allotment of 50 thousand for
primary mother tongue education in those languages is pocket
money and nothing more since languageecology except for communities of Ramechhap (formerly Kirantichhap) and
Nepali is rare. That is why Nepali language matters since it is Okhaldhunga (formerly Chuplu) districts for daily
the only symbol of nationality, unity and identity. communication within households, locality and so on if not in
This monolithic view may not matter much in South Asian education and mass media. Moreover, Kõits is divided into two
pluralcontexts. The point is of the adoption of the principle of dialect areas viz. Okhaldhunga and Ramechhap dialects on the
equality and equity in practice. There is a strong need to basis of Nepali influence in the lexicon of the language.
preserve our multilinguistic, multiethnic and multicultural Similary, the dialect areas differ based on isophonological
heritage in order to manage conflicts in this region. It lets variations of the speakers in speech. Sociolinguistically, the
eternal peace prevail. speakers are conscious of their ethnic identity and language
When governments can annually allot billions or even loyalty which can be promoted if the democratic governments
trillions of budgets on Sanskrit with dubiousecology both in can adopt a consistent policy in language planning for the
India and Nepal, why on earth our politicians and planners preservation and development of a minority and an endangered
cannot allot a single penny on those multiethnoindigenous language like Kõits within the multilingual settings of Nepal.
languages? These languages also do matter much for them as
matters Nepali for others. Providing these Nepalese Introducing Kõits
ethnoindigenous languages equal opportunity within the Generally, the language is referred to as "Sunuwar
national border of Nepal strengthens Nepali language, identity language" according to the speakers' own exonym "Sunuwar or
and unity outside Nepal. Sunwar". Its autoglossonym is Kõits Lo: for the native speakers.
It is one of the Kiranti languages of 'Western Kiranti or 'Koi
Wayu' (Hanβon 1991) group. The speakers of the language have
their own distinct ethnicity and culture, which keenly resemble
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 7 December 2006 to Bayung in their locality of the Okhaldhunga district and its
neighbours. Linguistically speaking, Kõits and Bayung are sister
languages.
19 A preliminary sociolinguistic Survey of Moreover, Hanβon (1991) states the language to be 'a
Sunuwar slightly more distant relative of Thulung, Chaurase or Jerong'
(1991: 95). Their proximity is further elaborated by Morris
Abstract (1993) depending on the complex pronominalized (i.e. complex
Sunuwar [Kõits] is one of the Kiranti languages of western agreement patterns with both agents and patients in the case of
Kiranti or 'KoiWayu group' (Hanβon 1991) having very high transitive verb) language spoken by the rest of the Kiranti
cognate with KirantiBayung affiliated to the SinoTibeto linguistic communities including Limbu and genetically
Burman language family. The number of Kõits speakers affiliated to the same SinoTibetoBurman language family.
mentioned in various Census Reports is 17,299 (19524), Today, Kõits is fairly heavily influenced or even replaced
13,362 (1961), 20,380 (1971), and 10,650 (1981). Although the by the national lingua franca IndoAryan Nepali or 'Nepalized
Kõits language is not recorded officially as a Mother Tongue in and Hinduized (Hanβon 1991) and consequently such
1991 (CBS)1, it is one of the prominent languages among the pronominal feature as such has become scarce in the language.
western Kiranti group. Nevertheless, their tribal ethnicity is 'nestled between the Rais
One of the main objectives of this essay is to investigate, and Limbus' (Farwell 1984). He further points out the Sunuwar
record, and analyze the data of the language usage in the ethnic relationship to the western tribes especially with Gurung
and Magar but resemblance is not so strong. At this point, here 1991). According to the Census Report, there are only four
I disagree with his observation because the Sunuwars, Rais and districts such as Ramechhap (4,929), Sindhuli (1,188), Dolakha
the Limbus differ only in terms of their traditional titles such as (1,084) and Okhaldhunga (706) significant from the speakers'
Mukhiya, Rai/Jimee (exonym), Dewan (exonym) and Subba point of view. Except in 12 out of 75 districts, the number of
(exonym). Otherwise, they are more common in many respects speakers is thinly scattered all over the country.
linguistically, culturally and socioanthropologically than the Surprisingly, after a decade in the Census Report of 1991
Gurungs and Magars. (CBS 1993), Kõits as a mother tongue has not been recorded
Although the number of Kõits speakers is very scanty and officially. Beyond the border in India, Grierson (1909) mentions
scattered in several parts of the country and abroad, Kõits is 5,365 as the total number of the Kõits speakers mainly
spoken quite often in the family or in the market place and for concentrated in Darjeeling and Sikkim. This thin and tentative
other purposes. Usually the language is confined to their locality number of speakers indicates the language is endangered
of Okhaldhunga, Ramechhap, Dolakha, and other districts in seriously. To be hopeful, there are some households where Kõits
eastern Nepal. At present the speakers are basically bilingual is still spoken.
because of limited use of Kõits locally. Nepali is commonly used In my research, I found the Kõits language mainly divided
as a lingua franca in the community. Consequently, the in two basic areas as core and peripheral. This division is
language is much more influenced by Nepali while compared to created based on geographical distance of the spoken language
new and modern vocabulary, which I shall discuss in Section 2 variations in phonological features. The isogloss as such is
later. demarcated on the basis of northwest and northeast of the
There is no such practical orthography of the language Likhu rivulet as shown in Figure 3 here.
developed yet. It has no written tradition and any significant
literature although is rich in oral literature and in its folklore.
Native speakers like the late Karna Jẽ:ticha had tried to develop
the indigenous script known as Kõits Brese but it is not
generally accepted for numerous reasons. Until now the
Devanagari script is used for writing and the New Testament is
internationally published in the same script. Neither activities
like language maintenance programme in schools nor in the
community have been organized nor any other 'official support
and financial backing' (quoted in Wardhaugh 1986) are
provided for further development of the language. Irrespective Figure 3: Intersecting isogloss and dialect areas of KirantiKõits
of this prevailing assimilative situation, there are traces of the originally from Rapacha (1996, 1999)
Kõits language use in their community.

1. Language speaking areas The rivulet bridges the border of Okhaldhunga and
Ramechhap districts also. Comparatively, the Kõits population
Kõits is geographically located in Wallo 'hither/near'
is denser in these areas than in other parts of the hills. The bank
Kirant viz. on the banks of the Khimti, Likhu, Yolung, Malung,
area is identified as the core of the language spoken during the
and Solung rivulets of Dolakha, Ramechhap, and Okhaldhunga
districts respectively in the eastern hills of Nepal. Upto 1981 the period of survey for this study. As we go further from the bank
total number of speakers officially recorded is 10,650 (CBS areas, the number of speaker becomes thinner. Then, there
appear isophonological differences amongst the speakers'
speech as 'the water changes every five miles, and the dialect A sample of the data elicited for the purpose of this study
every two' (quoted in Blair 1990: 22). Consequently, the is given below.
peripheral area is heavily influenced by Nepali so much so D1 (Peripheral) D2 (Core)
that the speakers lose their typical accent of Kõits. In particular, 1. dzwõi (N I*) cәiwā 'sonin law'
I shall compare the data from the BhujiGupteshwor village of 2. kāguni (N I) bәsyer 'oat'
Ramechhap as the core area in Section 3 in based on regional 3. cenkhlā (N I) krims 'maize grit'
variations in phonology. Before that I shall discuss the Kõits 4. bәnrebi (N I) wākyәreb 'wild potato'
data in the following Section for showing the Nepali influence 5. kāg (N I) khәd 'crow'
on Kõits. 6. cәmero (N I) plәkāt̺it̺i 'bat'
7. chucundro (N I) thākyu 'mole'
2. Collection and analysis of the Kõits data 8. әrnā (N I) rãbi 'wild buffalo'
9. singh (N I) gupsu 'lion'
The main purpose of the survey is to elicit the data from 10. tin (N I) sã 'three'
the Kõits communities of the mideastern parts of Nepal, viz. 11. gәdeulā (N I) pod 'rain worm'
Okhaldhunga and Ramechhap as shown in figure 1 earlier in 12. dzoi dzoi 'tiger'
order to find out whether the language is spoken as a mother 13. kucum kucum 'dog'
tongue or not in their respective communities. Furthermore, it 14. piya piya 'head'
is necessary to identify the present status of the language in the 15. gui gui 'hand'
multilingual situation of Nepal. Accordingly, the two 16. kul kul 'face'
neighbouring villages from RamechhapBhujiGupteshwor and 17. khәme khәme 'rice'
one highly Nepali dominated village in OkhaldhungaKatunje 18. khāi khāi 'curry'
have been included in this study. Based on the data collection 19. gigi gigi 'green'
methodology of Blair (1990), a total of about 210 word lists were 20. disā disā 'tomorrow'
elicited from the Dialect Area one (D1 in order to compare the 21. kәkā: kәkā: 'bitter'
data with the Dialect Area two (D2) side by side. 22. dzidzi: ~ dzidz dzidzi:~dzidz 'sweet'
23. ŋācā ŋācā 'to weep'
A total source of data for this study was one hundred 24. gәsu ~ gәs gәsu ~ gәs 'cloud'
households and individuals from the same districts. In the 25. tәmi ~ tәm tәmi ~tәm 'daughter'
process of data elicitation, people from different profession, age, 26. cәimi cәimi 'daughterinlaw'
education level, and sex were included. They are longterm 27. ri ri 'louse'
residents of the areas mentioned above. To some extent, the 28. po po 'pig'
data elicitation from the related literature, kitchen discourse 29. cәpo cәpo 'piglet'
and songs have become very helpful. Words elicited are more 30. bārde bārde 'falcon'
general than specific. They consist of nouns, pronouns, 31. kәgi ~ kәg kәgi ~kәg 'yam'
adjectives, adverbs, and postpositions in grammatical category. 32. kā: kā: 'one'
The group of words are arranged in such a way that it represents 33. siwār siwār 'jackle'
the two dialect areas of Kõits found to be influenced or replaced 34. ni:si ni:si 'two'
by Nepali (N I) in the spoken language of both dialect areas. 35. wā͂ wā͂ 'bear'
36. biri biri 'cockroach'
37. cube cube 'flea'
38. surbu surbu 'bee' Native Nepali

Areas Total%
39. bārlā (N L) bārlā (N L) 'wasp' words % words %
40. doko (N L) doko (N L) 'basket' Core Area 82 18 100
41. sit (N L) sit (N L) 'dew' Dialect Area 1 60 40 100
42. mulā (N L) mulā (N L) 'radish' (KatunjeOkhaldhunga)
43. pedz (N L) pedz (N L) 'onion' Dialect Area 2 (Bhuji 82 18 100
44. sibi (N L) sibi (N L) 'white bean' GupteshworRamechhap)
45. jungā (N L) jungā (N L) 'mustache' Table 1: Summary of Nepali influence and loan words in
46. khәkār (N L) khәkār (N L) 'cough' KirantiKõits
47. hā͂s (N L) hā͂s (N L) 'duck'
The summary of Table 1 indicates that the codemixing
*N I = Nepali influence situation of Kõits and Nepali due to close language contact
**N L = Nepali loan or replaced by Nepali between the speakers of the two speech communities. Obivous
(Source: Rapacha 1996) reason of this tendency is the assimilation of Sunuwar with the
Hindus since the beginning of unification of the kingdom of
Out of the total corpora of 210 words, the data cited above Nepal. Linguists like Hanβon (1991) also accepts the fact as
vertically on the left and right hand side show that both 'Nepalization and Hinduization' (p. 95) on Sunuwar. Apart from
OkhaldhungaKatunje and RamechhapBhujiGupteshor are the influence and language shift, some isophonological variations
influenced by Nepali. The D1 (Peripheral) has 11 words also are derived from the two dialect areas through observation
influenced by Nepali, whereas the D2 (Core) has its own and minute scrutiny of the speakers out of 210 word lists.
indigenous vocabulary, for instance, the word kāg in D1 means
'crow' for which the KirantiKõits speakers use the word in their 3. Regional variations in phonology
usual conversation, whereas the D2 speakers use khәd 'crow' As discussed in the preceeding sections 1 and 2, there
which is claimed to be the indigenous KirantiKõits lexicon. By occur isophonological variations between the two Dialect Areas
calculating the Nepali influenced words out of the whole D1 and D2 (see Figure 1) in comparison with geographical
corpora, I have derived the approximate percentage of the distance. The Dialect Area 1 (Katunje) lies in the northeastern
Nepali words in the Kõits lexicon. Thus, the approximate part of Okhaldhunga on the bank of the MolungSolung rivulets
percentage is– 11 x 2% = 22% in the Dialect Area 1. Next, out of which is farther from the Dialect Area 2 (BhujiGupteshwor)
the same corpora 9 words are loans from Nepali and are used in northwestern part of the Likhu rivulet lying between
the same or slightly nativized in Kõits in both dialect areas. Ramechhap and Okhaldhunga districts. But these dialects are
Here also the calculated percentage is– 9x2%=18%. Further mutually intelligible. Although the variation is not very
illustration of influence and loans in the dialect area 1 is thus– significant, we can easily predict the speakers' regional origins
22% + 18% = 40% in total. Depending on this comparative because of 'sociolinguistic choices may inform the hearer about
the speakers' social and regional origins as well as about the
analysis of native and loan words, we come to the conclusion
nature of the social situation at hand, about shifts in the topic of
that the D1 is more influnced by Nepali than D2. Therefore, to a the conversation and so forth' (Giglioli 1972: 16). In the case of
greater extent, the D2 resembles the core area more than D1. Kõits, the speakers' choice of /b/ and /w/ in bāku or even ɓāku
The result is summarized in the following table: and wāku meaning 'water' informs the hearer about the
speaker's regional rather than social origin.

Further instance is given below: they were divided into several tribes and today, they have a
Dialect Area 1 Dialect Area 2 separate identity of their own under the titles Mukhiya
(exonym), Rai/Jimi (exonym), Dewan (exonym) and Subba
1. bә bwā 'fowl'
(exonym). Of course, there must be something common source
2. wo wā 'cloth'
3. kolci kolgi 'soyabean' in Bayung Su and Kõits Su both meaning 'who'.
4. bāku wāku 'water'
5. cyodzi kyodzi 'barley' Further examples of common cognates are as follows:
6. munāt̺ mulāt̺ 'today' Kõits Bayung
7. goi ge 'you' 1. wāku wāku 'water'
8. keŋgәr keŋәr 'kshetricaste' 2. mi mi 'fire'
9. goipәki goipiki 'youPL'
3. po po 'pig'
10. min minā 'then'
4. picā pico 'to come'
11. pāmt̺em pāmt̺eme 'doPSTPL'
5. lәcā lāco 'to go'
12. mek(e) meker 'there'
13. mәr mār 'what' 6. lāinuŋ lāŋā 'go1sg'
7. lәt̺ lāt̺ā 'went'
(Source: Rapacha 1996) 8. ŋācā ŋāco 'to weep'
There are only some phonological (/c/ and /k/ in 'cyodzi' 9. dzәcā dzāco 'to eat'
and 'kyodzi') and phonetic (/ә/ and /ā/ in bә and bwā) and 10. rimcā rimco 'to wait'
internal changes on the above illustration. The speakers prefer 11. go gu/go 'I'
their own variety of speech in conversations. But they 12. mekoke memke 'his/her'
understand each other without any difficulty. Such phonological 13. su su 'who'
and phonetic similarity is commonly found in KirantiBayung 14. mārde marco 'why'
(Bahing/Rumdali) and Kõits as in the following illustration of 15. khĩ khim 'house'
succeeding section.
16. bwā pwā 'fowl'
17. wãis wancā 'husband'
4. Cognates between Kõits and Bayung 18. mis miŋ 'wife'
Besides Nepali, a number of other languages, for instance, 19. t̺әu t̺āwā 'son'
some Kiranti, Newa((r)i)), Tamang and Magar are spoken in the 20. mes meso 'buffalo'
vicinity of Kõits territory mainly in Ramechhap and 21. suke suke 'whose'
Okhaldhunga districts. Although the speakers of Kõits share 22. wārcә wārcā 'friend'
such multilingual linguistic repertoire, their language is much 23. nāšo nokšo 'ethnic priest'
more influenced by Nepali and the language shares a common 24. ek eke 'here'
cognate with Bayung. Interestingly, a sixtythree year old man 25. brәmlicā bromlocā 'clan name'
stated that the Kõits, and the remaining Kiranti linguistic (Source: Rapacha 1996, cf. Rapacha 2005 and 2008 also
communities including Limbus were brothers in the past in an for recent comparisons)
interview to a question whether the Kõits and other Kiranti
linguistic communities have a common ethnic and social Typological and reconstructive studies of the above data
relationship as their languages share a commonmutual can prove Kõits and Bayung as one protolanguage historically
cognate. Because of their migration to different parts of Nepal, sharing much more similarities. Their migration folknarratives
(cf. Rapacha 2005 and 2008) also share such similarity in no written tradition at all till the early 1990s. Therefore, Kõits
tracing their common ancestors. Prima facie, both languages lost most part of its typical lexicon when it was transmitted only
appear to be two sister languages of the same family. orally from one generation to the other. Can Kõits be revived
like Hebrew? Can their new generation of speakers retain
5. Sunuwar as a mother tongue and its domain whatever lost in the past? Or will it go the way of Kusunda or be
In the demographic history of Nepal, the number of Kõits like more than twelve (Hanβon 1991) languages of the Kiranti
as a mother tongue speakers recorded in the Census Report for family in Nepal? If not either way, Kõits can continue in its own
the first time in 1952/54 was 17,299. About two and a half present condition. Hopefully, the survival and development of
decade later, the number of speakers of Kõits shockingly the language depends on ethnic commitment, language loyalty,
disappeared from the Census Report of 1991 (CBS 1993). social integration from within the community, and research by
Utterly, it indicates the speedy tongue degeneration of Kõits for linguists and language planners.
several reasons2. The comparative summary of Table 1 in the
preceding section is a better example of how the degeneration 6. Recommendations
takes place. But still there are fair numbers of the Kõits Nepal is identified as a matchless land of multicultural
speakers, who use their language frequently in the core and identities, ethnicity and languages. The Nepalese uniqueness
occasionally in the peripheral area even today. For the evidence also rests on its multiple mother tongues, rites and rituals, life
of language use in their community, kitchen discourse and folk patterns, beliefs, cultures and so on. Taking these facts into
tale narration was recorded. The respondents were asked oral consideration, it is essential to preserve and promote the
and written questionnaires also. The main domains of Kõits multilingual and multicultural heritage, which we inherited
usage are family members, relatives, friends, songs, story from our forefathers since time immemorial. Accordingly, the
telling, market places, religious incantations, instructions, and following suggestions are recommended for the preservation
ceremonies and so on. They have a positive response towards and development of the Kõits language
their language use in education, publications, and mass media. I. Implement Status Planning in order to recognize Kõits at
Nepali is adopted as a lingua franca very commonly. Today, it the local level.
is very difficult to find out a monolingual native speaker of Kõits
because of the speakers' exposure to the outer community II. Provide official support, financial backing and opportunity
through Nepali. Especially the peripheral Dialect Area 1, Kõits is of education and jobs in various fields by the government.
more hybridized with Nepali comparatively than that of the III. Provide primary education in the mother tongue.
Dialect Area 2. As a whole, the linguistic metamorphosis is IV. Promote literacy in the language by developing basic
taking place gradually by challenging the survival of Kõits in the reading and teaching materials.
contemporary Nepalese society.
V. Produce grammars, dictionaries and literature in the
5.1. Language retention or extinction? language.
Kõits is one of the richest languages in its folklore and oral VI. Broadcast the news on television and radio.
tradition amongst the rest of the 27 Kiranti languages (cf. VII. Extend the use of the language socially, culturally, and in
Rapacha 2008) of Nepal. Unfortunately, it was forgotten when mass media.
it remained hidden in the darkness for centuries. Linguists VIII. Take necessary steps for purification, codification,
found the fossilized Kõits in its pseudo form when they lit the regularization, simplification, elaboration and the
candle of linguistic inquiry in the late 60s in Nepal. As such no
historical documentation of the language is found because it has
implementation and evaluation (Fishman 197172: 332) of
the language. 20 Language planning for peace building
IX. Take more comprehensive linguistic and sociolinguistic Linguistic inclusion in the mainstream of any ethno
research on the language. linguistic groups of ruralurbanTerai Nepal is one of the key
factors for the restoration and building of peace managing
X. Implement the main thirteen recommendations of the
conflicts in the presentday political turmoil. Yet after more
National Language Policy Recommendation Commission
than one decade’s Maoist Movement, the Nepal Terai has
as soon as possible (Kansakar 1995).
started tearing and paralyzing nation’s lives signaling more

other possible conflicts from the eastern Hills and Mountains to
7. Conclusion the western front. How can we Nepalese and Nepal’s
Today, there remains only a limited number of the Kõits sovereignty survive if this unwanted evil happens
community where the speakers use their language for limited intermittently? The question seems to be very grim.
purposes. Therefore, the above measures can develop and Language, of course, is the most important factor which
standardize the Kõits language in order t0 promote its use in
can resettle our debates of ongoing state craft and
social interaction, education, mass media, and publications. restructuring the nation for peace and prosperity. Take a
Such opportunities for the development of endangered and miniscule example of our language use as a sensitive issue in the
minority language like Kõits can be possible if the democratic
morpheme ‘e’ in Madhese and ‘i’ in Madhesi where the first
government has a consistent policy in language planning in
use is an offensive marker of humiliation of the TeraiNepalese
Nepal. After all, the native speakers' cultural and linguistic
citizens on basis of geography and their color.
awareness plays a dominant role to struggle for the revival,
promotion and development of their language. More other related ethnoindigenous and Madhesi issues
have been invoked by two recent scholarly publications viz.
Nepalka Bhashaharuko Pahichan, Bartaman Sthiti ra
Notes
Bhashabikas Yojana [Identification, Present Situation and
This article is based on Chapter 5 of my MA thesis (1996) Language Development Planning of the Nepalese Languages
submitted to the Central Department of English, Tribhuvan Nov 2006] and ‘Tamang Pahichanka Sandarvaharu: Tamang
University, Kirtipur.
Bhasha, Sahitya ra Sanskritisambandhi Anusandhankulak
1 See the Census Reports for details Lekhpralek’ [The Contexts of Tamang Identity: Research
2 For further information on endangerment, see Rapacha (1997), Papers on the Tamang Language, Literature and Culture Nov
'Sunuwar as an Endangered Language of Nepal' 2006] by Amrit YonjanTamang, who prophetically proposes
solutions of the current linguistic grievances in the country
through historical perspectives how the unspecified groups of
populace remained unknown and excluded for ages.
Source: Gipan, 1999, 12: 191202, slightly revised here.
To a reader’s surpriseinformation, researcher and linguist
Yonjan exposes the cruxissue of 23 unidentified languages
which comprises a total of 143 languages, 17 almostdead, 26
criticallyendangered and 15 endangered languages in the
eroding logosphere within our national boundary. If in case
these unidentified, excluded, almost dead, and critically
endangered and the endangered linguistic groups with their
pangs of unbecoming citizens awake like Terai or Madhes a country is responsible for the decay of multilingualism the
uprising one can hardly imagine the future situation of our best model for a multilinguistic country like Nepal as is India
beautiful, bountiful but destined land. It is very shameful on the and nowafterwards National Planning Commission without
part of the government since there is no update information expertmembers in (socio)linguistics will be obsolete.
mechanisms of its citizens’ whereabouts whether in the Terai or Historically, the most important factor is ‘education’
in and around the hills for which government’s statistics on the through the medium of KhasNepali resulting from “One
languages spoken here has remained manipulative and NationOneLanguage” policy of the Rana Oligarchic and
unreliable. There lie our potholes of indignity and no identity. Panchayati Regimes during the pre1990 era. Yet following the
Ignoring diversity and a serious miniaturization of their identity post90 has no such satisfactory representation or affirmative
as argues Amartya Sen precedes the devised programs for action in the linguistic development of those unspecified and
peace. endangered linguistic groups has been taken into account.
However, Nepal’s rich multiethnicity, cultural and The issues of ethnolanguages nowadays are sensitively
linguistic plurality in the past did not prosper in practice equally related to sociopolitics, biodiversity, ethnobotany, identity,
because of discriminatory political decisions and policies. ethnicity, culture, history, logosphere, ecology, indigenous
Language in this regard is the most neglected one in terms of knowledge, state, law, media, education, gender, conflict and
policy making after the rise of the House of Gorkha in the later human rights as well. This is why the government first must
half of the eighteenth century. Linguistic policy as such till the make policy and planning for linguistic development for
dawn of this new millennium has ironically remained treating all people equally. Also developmental efforts cannot be
monolithic and suppressive. This is neither going to as we achieved unless we consider language as the tool of
witness work for now nor tomorrow. understanding those linguistically excluded citizens.
Any human language is soul for its speech community. Among some 32 points of proposed recommendations, the
Language makes humans a supreme sociopolitical species. A first challenging task is Linguistic Survey of Nepal and the rest
language whether it is in the form of speech, logo or sign from like linguistic identification, documentation, transmission of
its basic communicative perspective plays a dominant role in native tongue, preservation program for rare speakers, primary
each and every human sphere. Language thus since its evolution and higher education in the respective MT, awards for the
has been used as the only means of purposive expressions. native writers and researchers, use of their MT in media,
Therefore, mother tongue (MT) is one of the basic linguistic linguistic profile, MT medium of Public Service Commission
human rights of an individual dwelling in his or her territory in exams, publications and translation of government notices in
any civilized democratic nation including Nepal. the native tongues etc in Yonjan’s opinion as is evident
Nepal in the past had suffered discrimination and presently are essential measures to be considered for
violation of linguistic human rights against 51.39% sustainable peace building in order to resolve any looming evils.
ethnoindigenous and Madhes(i) or Terai speech communities,
for instance the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Newar and
Maithili languages on 1 June 1999, administrative ban on
Sherpa in primary school last year in Bhojpur and security 4 Feb 2007
forces’ ban on one of the Kiranti languages not to talk over the Source: The Kathmandu Post, 11 Feb 2007, XIV, 352: 4
phone in Panchthar 3 years ago. These instances indicate many
other examples of linguistic human rights violation in Nepal yet
to be unearthed. Obviously, policy and planning of languages in
(Malla 1979). Then, if language itself becomes extinct, culture

21 Sunuwar as an endangered language and ethnicity as such are also endangered. The Kõic lo [Kõits
1. Introduction Lwo] geographically located in Wallo 'hither or near' Kirant viz.
Sunuwar (Kõits Lo) is one of the Kiranti languages of on the bank of the Khimti, Likhu, Yolung, Malung, and Solung
'Western Kiranti or KoiWayu' group (Hanβon 1991) of eastern rivulets and spoken in those areas is struggling like a patient
Nepal. The speakers of the language have their own distinct etherized upon its death bed.
ethnicity and culture very closely resembling to KirantiBayung
(Rapacha 1996) in their locality of Okhaldhunga district. 2. Historical dimensions of Sunuwar
Unfortunately, for ages and even after the restoration of multi Generally the language is referred to as ‘‘Sunuwar
party system in 1990, there has been a speedy degeneration of language’’ or ‘‘Kõits Lo’’ in their own tribal ethnoexonym
diverse ethnic groups, cultures and languages. Hopefully, 'Sunuwar' or 'Sunwar'. Unfortunately, the ethnoexonym itself is
languages like Maithili, Newari, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kiranti controversial among several authors (elsewhere in this
Kirawa (Bantawa), KirantiYakthung (Limbu), Magar, Tamang, anthology). Linguistically, the KirantiSunuwar and Kiranti
and Tharu which have sizable number of speakers and writing Bayung (also Bahing) languages have sisterly relationship (cf.
traditions, have been introduced in the news of Radio Nepal Rapacha 1996, Opgenort 2005). It may require some more
(Yadava 1997 ) and among them primary education and literacy evidence on Sunuwar and Bayung from the points of view of
programmes have already been introduced in Newa((r)i), their cultural, ritual, tribal, and anthropological proximity. Folk
Maithili, Limbu, Magar, and Tamang languages. Or another narratives including genealogical stories have already narrated
example can be taken of the constitutional accreditation of the their relationship as brothers (Rapacha 1996).
minority languages in the 1990 constitution of the kingdom of Vansittart (1896) has mentioned the tribal name as
Nepal and so forth. 'Sunuwar' or 'Sunpar' and the traditional tiltle 'Mukhiya' given
Of course, these provisions after the restoration of to them in the past. He has further elaborated that the names
democracy are hopeful and noteworthy as well. On the contrary, 'Sunwar' or 'Sunpar' as such are said to be derived from these
languages like Byangsi, Chongkha, Longaba, Biksi, Pongyong, men residing either to the east or west of the Sunkosi River. The
Limkhim, Bungla, Hedangapa, Waling, Khandung, Rokhung, division is thus Sunwar (west of Sunkosi) and Sunpar (east or
Choskule, Dorungkecha, and Hawi (Hanβon 1991) among the across Sunkosi). This statement ‘said to be derived from…’
Kiranti family are either extinct or nearly extinct or no data are poses more fundamental questions than answers. There must be
found. Today, linguists narrate a pathetic and bizarre story on a distinct tribal identity of these people before residing on the
the almost extinct Kusunda language to their younger east or west bank of Sunkosi. If so their tribal name must be
generation. The numbers of episodes to be narrated are different from 'Sunwar'. Why only Sunwar today and not
increasing day by day. For instance, many Kiranti languages viz. Sunpar? So far as the traditional title 'Mukhiya' (or only
Hayu, Surel, Kõits (Sunuwar), and many others are on the verge 'Mukhia' without 'y' in Sikkim and Darjeeling spelling) is
of extinction. concerned, Hanβon (1991) remarks that the title is occasionally
On the basis of this evidence, therefore, the main purpose used as an ethnic label as well. I propose their language as
of this essay is to introduce and analyze the process of 'Kõits lo' Mukheke lo (the language of Mukhe, Mukhiya) and ethnicity as
decay and endangerment on basis of language shift or Mukhiya rather than Sunwar only while other parallel terms like
shrinkage. There would perhaps be no controversy in accepting 'Rai', 'Jimee', 'Dewan' and 'Subba' (later Hinduized derivations
language as a part of one's way of life, a code through which a rather than original ethnonyms) are also in use for ethnicity.
people's culture is transmitted from one generation to another The reason behind this proposal is immensely useful. We shall
deal with it later.
The earlier mentioned proximity with KirantiBayung is Sunuwar from the past to the present day scenario. However,
further elaborated by Morris (1933) based on the complex the question is for how long? The language as such is in queue
pronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns with both after Kusunda, Hayu, Raute among others and earlier mentioned
agents and patients in the case of transitive verb) language Kiranti languages, which may sink into oblivion soon.
spoken by the rest Kiranti linguistic communities including
Limbus which are genetically affiliated to the same SinoTibeto 3. Present state of the language
Burman language family of the Nepal Himalayas. Today, the The rivulet areas as mentioned in section 1 above form the
'Mukhe lo' [Kõits Lwo] is fairly heavily ‘Nepalized and core area of Sunuwar where Nepali is commonly spoken.
Hinduized’ (Hanβon 1991) and consequently such pronominal Besides Nepali, a number of other languages, e.g., sisterly
features are not present (but cf. Rapacha 2005 for this Kiranti languages, Newa((r)i), Tamang, and Magar are spoken
subject/object marking on the verb). Nevertheless, their tribal in the vicinity of Sunuwar territory mainly in the Okhaldhunga
ethnicity is ‘nestled between the Rais and Limbus’ (Farwell and Ramechhap districts of Nepal. Although the speakers of
1984). Apart from the eastern tribal relationship with them, Sunuwar share such multilingual linguistic repertoire, their
Northey and Morris (1972) have pointed out their ethnic language is much influenced by Nepali only on the basis of new
relationship to the western tribes especially with Magars and and modern vocabulary. Otherwise, the percentage of loan
Gurungs with no utter evidence. Consequently, one after words is 18 and 40 in the core and peripheral areas respectively
another a series of guesswork entered in the field of Nepalese (Rapacha 1996). Nepali, therefore, is one of the languages which
anthropology and sociology as well. To quote Bista (1967) ‘some will replace Sunuwar in the near future. It does not mean that
people (here some implies thes QGOs) believe that they the numbers of members in its ethnic group are declining.
(Sunwar) are off shoots of the Magars’. This is a better example Ironically, enough number of Sunuwars does not speak their
of how hearsays close the door to scientific conclusions. 'Mukhe lo' but those who speak do so fluently and competently.
Manipulations and misinterpretations of the terminology Their children also speak the language quite often in their
‘Sunuwar/Sunwar’ are also quite common among scholars if not family or in the kitchen, market place and for other purposes.
linguists. Sanskrit classicists misinterpret the term as Basically, they are bilingual, and Nepali is commonly used as a
‘swarnakar’ (Parajuli et al, 1983: 1359, 1392) etymologically. lingua franca.
Similarly, Prakritists and historians manipulate it as ‘‘Sunar’’ There is as yet no practical orthography of the language. It
profession related to gold (Subedi et al 1996: 84, 88) ignoring has no written tradition or any significant literature although it
the fact that ‘Sunar’ or ‘goldsmith’ profession is one of the is rich in oral literature and in its folklore. Native speakers like
untouchable caste divisions among the diehard Hindu late Karna Jẽ:tichaSunuwar tried to develop the Sunuwar script
Brahmans or Brahminism. The problem of identity crisis is the (Rapacha 1996) but it is not generally accepted for numerous
Mukhiyas’ (again of the Hindu origin or loan) problem. They reasons. Until now the Devanagari script is used for writing and
should try to find out solutions to this problem. That is why my the script of the New Testament translated in Sunuwar in
proposal of ‘Mukhe lo’ instead of ‘Sunwar’ has advantage unless Devanagari is internationally published. The Dictionary of
their protohistory is discovered through scientific observations Synonymy (1973)3 published by the Royal Nepal Academy,
and analyses not by guesswork or hearsays. which contains about 2,914 words of Sunuwar, and vocabulary
Their misinterpreted social history has a highly negative collection by native speakers like KB Sunwar (1991)4 and MB
impact on their identity and language. Hopefully, since Brain H. MulichaMukhiya (1994)5 are also available in the same script.
Hodgson (1874)1, G.A. Grierson (1909), and D. Bieri and M. Recently in 1996 a sociolinguistic profile of the language has
Schulze's (196971)2 linguistic study, their linguistic history has been completed under the guidance of Prof Dr TR Kansakar,
witnessed a watershed in the whole linguistic history of
Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. the linguistic survey period in India, Grierson (1909) has
No other textual, learning, and literacy material are available in recorded a figure of 5,356 Sunwar speakers in the areas of
the language. Neither activity like language maintenance Darjeeling and Sikkim. In addition, their number is also
programme in schools or in the community has been organized scattered in various parts of Nepal. They are falsely said to be
nor are any other ‘official support and financial backing’ divided into clans known as twelve and ten clans (a false
provided for further development of the language (quoted in Hinduized division). Amazingly, the ten clan Sunuwars cannot
Wardhaugh 1996). speak their language or labeled as tenclan after giving up their
mother tongue and culture. They have forgotten their language
4. Towards a gradual deterioration and culture many years ago before linguists began taking
Linguists are the only people who lament the death of a account of the language. Amongst the twelveclan (a false
language. Unfortunately, nowadays, linguists also are Hinduized division) Sunuwars also the language is not spoken
indifferent towards the 'Mukhe lo'. No one knows, why? I for various social reasons. In this way, their language and
remember exactly three years or so ago, one of the SIL linguists ethnicity as such is deteriorating gradually or may become
asked me in an indifferent voice what I would do after carrying extinct before our linguists or language planners take active
out research on the 'Mukhe lo'. I had no answer for her steps for its preservation through codification and linguistic
question. It was the first time in my life I really stumbled, descriptions.
fumbled and nearly gave up such stupidity of doing something
in my own language. I thought and rethought several times. 5. The enigma behind endangerment
After all, I set out on a field work for sociolinguistic survey in Obviously, one of the reasons behind such language loss in
the spring of 1996. A detailed descriptive study of the language Nepal is ‘linguistic discrimination in the job market’ (Acharya
is still to be carried out by linguists to ensure a prominent 1997), for example, English. This is true in our contemporary
linguistic identity of Sunuwar among the the rest of Kiranti society influenced by modern education, mass media, science
languages. and technology or Nepal’s exposure to the outer world through
Another example of the official indifference is the Central English. In the past no government of Nepal took account of the
Bureau of Statistics (CBS 1991) report in which the number of development of multilingualism or say multilingual education
speakers is not recorded or mentioned. Obviously, this indicates which could contribute to the development of the nation as a
that the number of Sunuwar speakers is one of the rare human whole. There had been a long tradition of ‘a monolithic language
species found in Nepal. Truly speaking, the Sunuwars are hiding policy’ (Kansakar 1995) for centuries in Nepal.
their language and ethnic identity due to their controversial Therefore, most of our indigenous cultures and languages
ethnicity, misinterpretation, indifference, their shy nature and are being assimilated in the mainstream of the Hindu culture
widespread illiteracy among them today. Their identity differs known as ‘Nepalization and Hinduization’ in Hanβon's terms
from one place to another, for example, Sunuwar, Sunwar, (p. 95). Naturally, many indigenous people today may ignore
Mukhe, Mukhiya, Marpache, Rai or Kormocha, Mulicha, their language by saying, ‘‘It's a language with no practical use’’
Rapacha and so on according to their clan names (see Rapacha and ‘‘Don't tease me! What on earth are you going to do with
1996). Out of these, Thapa (1996) mentions a separate existence Tharu? It's of no significance. Neither my son nor daughter
of the Baram language which was said to be closely related to speaks Tharu. They are just like Nepali’’ as cited H.R. Acharya
Sunuwar (unfortunately is not; my note). (1997). Such attitudes raise grave questions which are
Those who live in the Darjeeling areas of India are known unanswerable like that of Srijunga Hang (AD 880915) who
as Mukhiya or Mukhia, Marpache, and Sunuwar as well. During tyrannically was executed for introducing the ‘Kirant Script,
which is also known as the Srijunga Script' (Salter and Gurung financial backing and opportunity for education and jobs in
1996). various fields should be provided by the government so that the
Another example of this problem is the linguistic remaining number of speakers of a target language can use their
prejudice. Although Nepal is a multilingual country, only Nepali language freely, proudly and openly in their respective locality.
has been the language of education, law, administration, and This certainly enhances their linguistic, cultural, and national
mass media for ages within Nepal and in some parts of India. awareness.
Many indigenous languages especially in the remote and hilly When the people are aware of their language, culture, and
areas were ignored so that no linguistic recognition was given in nation, they participate in its development. This is one of the
the past Census Reports. It never served to promote languistic processes of how ethnic and indigenous people get their
consciousness and loyalty among the speakers for the linguistic rights to use their language in communication,
preservation and development of their mother tongue. The education or which help other fields to preserve their language.
present constitution of Nepal as mentioned earlier is based Accordingly, people have to struggle for their languages as
more on the principle of ‘Survival for the fittest’ than on equality Samuel Johnson (1992) struggled for English in the 18th century
and equity. News broadcast on Radio and primary education in England. Today, if England has to show something to the world,
mother tongue in some language out of about 100 languages it is her language, literature and culture but no longer the
according to Grimes (quoted in Kansakar 1995) stated before is Victorian sun that never set in the British Empire. Thus, the
a noteworthy example of multilingualism but these are Mukhiya/Sunuwar also can make Johnson their source of
insufficient in the case of many dying languages and in inspiration for their linguistic rights and language preservation
particular Sunuwar. among their scattered population in the country or outside the
country. Strictly speaking, we should not assume language
6. Linguistic rights and language preservation death as a natural phenomenon. There are many internal or
In this context, Samuel Johnson's idea ‘Tongues, like external factors that determine the growth or decline of a
governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have language.
long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for
our languages’ (quoted in Krishnaswamy 1992) can be relevant 7. Conclusion
in order to preserve the endangered languages including This is the right time to revive and maintain our
Sunuwar and make its speakers aware of the fact that their endangered languages including Sunuwar. It is urgent to base
language as well as culture can enrich the Nepalese culture or our findings on scientific observations regarding their ethnicity,
language as a whole and consolidate national integration for the culture and language rather than on hearsays. Scientific and
holistic development of Nepal. Obviously, this can strengthen linguistic studies would contribute to the preservation and
our national spirit. When our national goal is one, issues functional uses of the language as such. The government should
regarding linguistic rights and language preservation in Nepal also implement the special provisions stated in the preceding
will automatically gain linguistic status at the local if not the Section 6 as soon as possible for their ethnic and linguistic
national level. identity. It is significant to learn something from J. Diamond
Apart from the new constitution's recognition of all the also that 'each language is indissolubly tied up with a unique
mother tongues spoken in the different parts of Nepal as ‘the cultural literature whether written or not…all of which
national languages’ (Article 6), it is necessary to implement represent the end point of thousands of years of human
status planning for endangered languages in order to recognize inventiveness. Lose the language and you lose most of that as
them locally. Special provisions, for instance, official support, well' (quoted in Acharya 1997). Appreciate and preserve them
for our national advantage. Moreover, coexistence with other
language communities ensures a better future. Therefore, a lexicon and is closely related to KirantiMewahang, Lohorung
strong policy needs to ensure their identity and development and to some extent KirantiKulung.
before they go the way of Kusunda in Nepal or Maori in New Their total number according to the National Census
Zealand. Report 2001 is 1,722 while according to the socioeconomic
study conducted by the MakaluBarun Conservation Project, the
Acknowledgements approximate population of the Pathibhara VDC, the
I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Tej R. Kansakar, University Campus administrative area within which the Yamphu villages of
Kirtipur for his valuable comments and suggestions on the initial draft Hedangna, Ala, Uling and Uva fall, was 2,666 residents.
of this paper. My thanks are also due to Hriseekesh Upadhyay Grammarian Rutgers mentioning two other sources reveals that
(Lecturer in English), Ratna Rajya Campus, Tribhuvan University who of 476 households, 314 or 66% are Yamphu and approximately
encouraged me to write this paper.
83% of the 230 households of Hedangna is Yamphu.

Notes Writing grammar of such fast vanishing voice like Kiranti
1
Yamphu is a very challenging task which Roland Rutgers took
See Hodgson (1874) for protosynonymous words up in Herculianspirit since Yamphu itself is a seriously
2 Beiri and Schulze's study (196971) covers Sunuwar Phonemic endangered language of Nepal. He had spent seven years of his
Summary, Sigmental Syphnosis, Texts, Sunwar tone and higher life to analyze the grammatical structures of Yamphu. About a
levels, A Guide to Sunwar tone, and A Vocabulary of the Sunwar
dozen linguist fellows of the Himalayan Language Project,
Language
3 Leiden University, the Netherlands, have welldocumented the
The dictionary covers bilingual synonymous words
4
Himalayan languages of Nepal viz. Kulung, Wambule, Jerong,
See Sunwar (1991) for a basic vocabulary and clan names
5
Kõits (Sunuwar), Thangmi, Sampang, Chiling including
See MulichaMukhiya (1994) for a basic vocabulary and marital Yamphu among others since George van Driem’s exhaustive
process publication on Limbu Grammar (1987) and Dumi Grammar
(1993). Another such commendable work La Langue Hayu
(1988) is by Boyd Michailovsky from Paris, France.

Source: Nepalese Linguistics, 1997, 14: 89102, slightly revised here Yamphu grammar by Rutgers comprises three parts, e.g.
Part 1: Grammar, Part 2: Texts and Part 3: Lexicon. Today,

linguists conceive these three inseparable parts in their
22 KirantiYamphu grammar's face grammatical descriptions of first encountered spoken human
languages having basically a spoken form as a new trend of
Yamphu(e) is one of the Kiranti languages of eastern documenting them because texts and lexicon besides sound
Nepal spoken in Walung, Num, Mangsima, Pepuwa, system are the only sources of grammatical structures i.e.
Hedangana, Seduwa, Uling, Ala, Uva, Karmarang and morphology and syntax of a given human language.
Tungkhaling villages of Sangkhuwasabha district traditionally
known as Pallo ‘Far’ Kirant in the past. Their actual Yamphu phonology comprises six vowel phonemes like
autoethnonym is ‘Yakkhaba’, however, the same term is also most other Kiranti languages and only two diphthongal
used by both the Lohorung and the Yakkha as their ethnonym. phonemes such as /ai/ as in maik ‘black’ and /au/ as in sauk
They call their mothertongue Yakkhaba khap whereas the ‘skin’ unlike the rest Kiranti languages. There are 19 minimal
etymology of the exonym Yamphu or Yamphe suffixed with 'Rai' pairs contrasting in meaning based on length, tongueheights,
is either unknown or obscure not found in indigenous Kiranti position and roundness of lips. Six pairs of plain vowel
phonemes comprising two diphthongs have 22 allophones.
Unlike KirantiKõits, nasalization of vowel is not a Those texts in Part 2, are elicited from varieties of themes

distinctive feature of Yamphu sound system except for rare like recipes, farewell speech, stories of personal experiences,
interjections. Otherwise, nasalized vowels occur only in loans historical tales, mythology, folklore, and conversations. One of
from Nepali. There are 19 consonants besides [g], [gh], [j], [jh], such interesting texts is the mythology of Kakcrikpa, who
[d], [dh] and [bh] in Nepali loans. As usual in some other appears to be the creator of nature and the symbol of Kiranti
Kiranti phonologies, glottal stop in Yamphu is phonemic. What cultures in all three Kirant areas of east Nepal ranging from
is peculiar to Yamphu phonology is that it lacks some common Janakpur to Mechi zones.
phonemes, e.g. /g/, /dz/ and /d/ unlike other Kiranti languages Moreover, those 19 texts are the main source of the lexicon
and additionally many Yamphu words seem polysyllabic. in Part 3 of the Yamphu grammar followed by Nepali word list.
The velar nasal /ŋ/ in KirantiYamphu is very productive Altogether 33 color photo plates provide a glimpse of Yamphu
occurring in initial, mid and final positions as in the rest of life, culture, economy, geography and social evolution. All in all,
Kiranti languages. Prosodic lengthening depends on the Yamphu grammar, though inaccessible to the common readers
prosodic accent of a clause or sentence. Tone is unmarked in of Yamphu(e), is an extremely helpful source for primary school
Yamphu phonology unlike in some dialects of KirantiKõits and textbooks writers and researchers, who can hopefully safeguard
Khaling. Morphophonemics is very interesting on the basis of the language for some scores of decade in multilingual mosaic
liquid alternations, apicoalveolars, nasal and glottal stops of Nepal.
assimilation.
In nominal morphology, <ma~m> and <pa~p>

morphemes commonly mark male and female as in the rest of
Kiranti languages. Dual or nonsingular and plural number are 28 May 2006
represented by <ci~c> and <ha~a> morphs respectively.
Like other Kiranti languages, “…nouns lack grammatical gender
distinction independently of sex, and lack number marking 23 Model of linguistic autonomy
independently of animacy. Adjectives may be used Most of our citizens, leaders and the world community
predicatively, adnominally or independently as nominal heads had dreamed that the ShangriLa country Nepal would return to
and are marked for number independent of the number peace and normalcy when the CPN (Maoist) give up bullets for
marking on nouns for animate referents. Pronouns are ballots. We were wrong. They were mistaken. All dreams
personal, demonstrative or interrogative. Demonstratives culminated in a nightmare with the awakening of the Terai
however include adverbs as well as pronouns and Nepal supported by the marginalized ethnoindigenous masses.
adjectives…Other nonverbal parts of speech include suffixes, To our tragedy and horror the Nepal Federation of
adverbs particles, conjunctions and interjections.” Verb Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) organized wielding paper
morphology includes stem alternations, conjugation, affixes, made khukuris (i.e. Gurkha knife) rally at the heart of the
and motion auxiliaries etc. capital city on Monday, 12 February in a broad daylight.
Word order in Yamphu syntax is normally verb initial as in Undoubtedly, it is their political right as well as political
yit.cas.ing.ma (laugh.eat.EXPS.12NS) ‘We laughed’ and the demand. One can hardly imagine the future of this nation if
place of subject or object can freely be filled up by any other these sons of the soil start wielding themselves with ironmade
parts of speech. The data for most of the grammatical analysis khukuris. Of course, no butts or bullets of the guns either of
of Yamphu come from a wide range of 19 recorded audiotexts. Nepalese Army or of People's Liberation Army can silence them.
Some critics have acrimoniously criticized Madhesi And all those peoples with the rise of JB Rana were
NEFIN's political demands labeling as "evil, sectarianism" or imposed Hinduism with caste dissection and discrimination in
even "warlordism". What they have failed to look is the actual the name of Civil Code (see Höfer 2004). In the cultural fronts
reality of this land and the oppressed voices of these the great invader PN Shah had made palm and footprints of
ethnoindigenous and Madhesi people(s) for centuries by the blood mandatory on their doors during Dashain (i.e. of Hindu)
eliteracism. For knowing Nepal and the Nepalese in a real festivity. Therefore, it is not justifiable to repeat the shameful
sense of the term no Western or Elite glasses can be helpful. history again in the age of folkocracy and better let them have
There are three best modelglasses e.g. ethnic, linguistic their inclusive participation and proportional representation in
and cultural through which we can best understand the Madhesi the CA for policy making and in statecraft with dignity and
and enthoindigenous nationalities' problems and silence them identity of their own at least linguistically as a part of the whole
for permanent peace building. Their main demands and debates nation union.
today are the proportional representation of their community in 'Language' in recent times has become one of the major
the Constituent Assembly (CA) on the basis of their ethnicity, concerns of many sections of the global society. Menacingly,
language and culture. This should lead to ethnic, linguistic and English is swapping many lesserknown languages of the world
cultural autonomy in a restructured federal republic of Nepal. including KhasNepali and many other ethnoNepalese
In this article, I will argue how the model of linguistic languages of our country. At the time of this politicolinguistic
autonomy in the future federal republic of Nepal can be a crisis the best way of safeguarding the KhasNepali language in
golden mean, therefore have very safe landing since the non this country would be linguistic autonomy for the Madhesi and
ethno minds have resented restructuring Nepal along the ethnic ethnoindigenous people(s) since the future of KhasNepali is
line. However, the ethnos and Madhesis desperately crave for it. very strong as a lingua franca throughout the country rather
It seems reasonable too since Nepal was and is ruled by only than as the imposed language of the rulers. English should be
one caste, language and religion till now though we lie it to be the minimum adoption as a global language by stressing the
plural. Unless we come to a point of political equilibrium of importance of local languages.
their demands it is impossible to restore peace for prosperity. If Every language truly in the word of OW Holmes is "a
not all three at least one must be granted for the sake of peace. temple in which the soul of those who speak it is enshrined". It
Naturally, among three of them, linguistic autonomy is now obvious that Madhesis and ethnos are not ready to
sounds laudable and feasible to respect their identity survive scarecrows without their soul. Wisely give them their
sentiments for making them feel their belongingness in the soil glory back, their soul back. There lies our nation's soul. A nation
of this nation. Language in this regard is the best means and without her soul keeps on burning, bleeding and whining like it
medium as three in one package to address their problems. In is happening for more than fifteen years now. For how many
order to justify this need I'll draw some lessons from history. ages will our rulers live on Nero or Gyanendra? Act now. Let
them survive. And so do you in their survival.
Pages of our deadliving history are evident that there was
not only discrimination against ethnos and Madhesis along the Major linguistic groups around the country as is apparent
line of ethnicity, language and culture or sometimes along the are seventy or so excluding some dozens of closely related
height of the nose or skincolour but heinous assassination. One ideolects, sociolects or geolects. They can be managed easily. Let
of such horrors of Nepohistory, for instance is Kiranti Sirijunga the restructuring of the nation be along the linguistic line if it is
Hang Thebe's (Rupihang Raya) assassination only on the basis too risky along the ethnic or cultural line since man cannot live
of different language and ethnicity in the eastern front of the by bread alone. This is the urgent need of our time. The only
country. precondition after peace for development is education possible
through their mother tongues since they have their own innate endangered languages are of the Kiranti family. The Kiranti
worldviews for understanding world phenomenon along with group has 38 languages (27 by Rapacha 2008) including Kõits
developmental efforts. (exonym: Sunuwar/Mukhiya) and the two prominent dialects
Hopefully, when our politiconational policy allows them (Chathare vs. Panthare) of Limbu. Most of these languages
to be autonomous linguistically for selfdetermination within rather have oral traditions than written and writing systems
the federal republic of Nepal then our sociolinguistic truths except for Limbu. Only the Limbu language has been written in
shall unfold like petals for sociolinguistic harmony opening a the Kiranti Shrijunga Script proper. Almost all other remaining
new chapter of inclusive Nepal, where each and every citizen Kiranti languages haven't script of their own (exceptionally
will participate in nation building. KirantiKõits has one for its own known as Je ̃:ticha Blese). As a
result of this problem, some Kiranti languages have adopted the
Devanagari Script for writing their languages and literature. But
the script cannot represent all phonemic differences of all
8 March 2007, Thursday Kiranti languages in many respects.
Source: Europeko Nepalipatra, 3, 145, 814 April 2009 Can we then really commercialize and popularize the local
and minority or lesserknown languages of Nepal in this
context? Of course, we can do so via translation activities.
24 Commercialization of lesserknown Translation is as ancient as human civilization. The translation
activity was undertaken by Alfred the Great, the West Saxon
languages king who translated Latin prose into Old English. Similarly, the
In ultramodern age, English is one of the best saleable biblical text was translated into several versions of English from
languages all around the world. It is widely used in the field of Hebrew, Greek and Latin. One of such popular versions is
education, mass or electronic media, science and technology etc. known as King James' version 1611 in England. William Carey of
In terms of numbers of speakers, English has the second largest Serampore, India for the first time in 1821 translated the
(about 350 million) native speakers, while Chinese has the most biblical text into Nepali. And other forerunners like Ganga
native speakers (close to 1 billion). However, English is more Pradhan and Parasmani Pradhan translated much biblical
widely used in different parts of the world than Chinese. literature into Nepali. The Nepali language was enriched,
Spanish has close to 300 million native speakers. Likewise, popularized and commercialized since their time.
Hindi 200 million and Russian have about 150 million each.
Accordingly, these languages are hugely commercialized or are Many biblical and literary texts translated into Nepali are
saleable. published in Nepal also. Besides Nepali, the New Testament
(NT) has now been translated and published into Kõits
Surprisingly, there are many languages in the world, (Sunuwar/Mukhiya), Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong), Jirel, Chepang,
which don't have even a few hundreds of native speakers. Nepal Tamang, Newa(r)(i)), Magar, Lhomi and Tibetan according to a
is one of such countries, where endangered languages are still recent data of the Bible Society of Nepal (BSN). The BSN in
spoken by a scanty number of speakers. One of its instances is collaboration with International Bible Society and the
KirantiHayu which is genetically affiliated to the western Descriptivist linguists has published the NT in those local
Kiranti family. The numbers of speakers do not exceed more languages of Nepal in the Devanagari Script. However, the
than two hundreds. According to Grimes, about 100 (now translations have certain limitations which will be discussed
Noonan claims about 144) languages are spoken within the later.
political boundary of the country. Among them many minority
and local languages are on the verge of extinction. Most of these
By 1975 parts of the Bible had been translated into over mistranscriptions of the glottal stop (ɂ) phoneme throughout
1500 different languages of the world, with 261 complete 741 pages of the Scriptures. The title Yabe itself isn't lexically
translations. During the span of 24 years since 1975, the and culturally appropriate word for God. I consulted with many
numbers of translations have been increasing massively proficient and fluent native speakers who responded the word
including one of the exotic languages like Kõits 'Yabe' as such doesn't exist in the Kõits lexicon. The appropriate
(Sunuwar/Mukhiya). This activity's main aim is 'to aid the word for God in Kõits is 'YabreGubre or Dewa' in different
conversion of the heathen by enabling the Holy Scriptures to be ritual situations. These are some instances of common lapses of
given to every human in his own mother tongue.' To quote the translation in Kõits. Other translations in Lhomi, Jirel and
Sampson, 'the Summer Institute of Linguistics provides in Chepang also may have such lapses in one form or the other
linguistic training for the missionaries of the Wycliffe Bible because these SinoTibetoBurman languages have their own
Translaters, Inc., founded in 1942, who are working with the phonologies different from Nepali and its script.
very numerous and wholly alien vernacular languages of large Translation, no doubt, enriches, popularizes and even
parts of Central South America and of the Western Pacific area.' commercializes any natural language of the world. The BSN's
They are working with more alien vernacular languages of activity from this perspective is hopefully positive since no
Nepal also than mentioned here. There are other four largest language maintenance programmes as such have been launched
branches for the promotion of translation and distribution of at the local or national level and even for the written record of
the Scriptures namely the British and Foreign Bible Society, such languages. It has been proved that the local, minority and
founded in 1804, the American Bible Society, the National Bible endangered languages of Nepal are also saleable via translation
Society of Scotland, and the Netherlands Bible Society. They are to a small scale if not at the amount of English. However, the
mainly inspired by a slogan "Two Thousand Tongues to Go". translators should work harder before their translations go for
In Nepal, the BSN is the sole agent for the promotion of the final print and amongst the local native readers as
translation and distribution of the Scriptures in several commodity.
minorities, local and endangered languages including Nepali the
national language. The Scriptures are available in nine local
languages as mentioned before. So far as the Nepali translation
in Kõits (Sunuwar/Mukhiya) is concerned, there occur some Source: Nagarik/Citizen, ca. 2000, slightly revised in the Citizen
utter limitations in translating the Scriptures especially in version including its topic
Devanagari. Obviously, Kõits (Sunuwar/Mukhiya) customarily
lacks a writing system in indigenous script. However, the book
entitled Yabea Lowa (The Word of God) is distributed by the 25 Notes on the typology of TB Kiranti
BSN in Devanagari with weird spellingtypography. To be
board, the activity of reading the Scriptures does not necessarily
languages
mean proselytization. 1. Introduction
As an enthusiastic reader, I bought the translation of Kõits This article1 is a rudimentary description and comparison
(Sunuwar/Mukhiya). I was very excited to find out how such of some salient typological features (viz. phonology, morphology
Holy Scriptures do sound in my mother tongue also because and syntax) of some selected TibetoBurman languages in
more than 90% Nepalese don't know anything about the Kõits general and TibetoBurman Kiranti languages of eastern Nepal
(Sunuwar/Mukhiya) and their language. On the part of my in particular. Phylogenetically2, all TibetoBurman languages
readership, I found my mother tongue (Kõits Lo) a bit are usually regarded as part of the SinoTibetan family and are
unnatural due to typographic misrepresentations and
located in the mountainous northern and north eastern border 2. Structural features of TibetoBurman
country of South Asia. According to Zograph (1982) out of the Matisoff (1991: 484) observes that the overwhelming
great mass of TibetoBurman speakers in TibetChina and cultural importance of China and India has shaped the
Burma, only some 6.8 million are to be found in South Asia, development of East and southeast Asian linguistic area, but
where they live on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, in diversity is the hallmark of the region. This hallmark of diversity
Assam, Manipur and Tripura (4.2 million in India, 1.8 in Nepal, can easily be observed not only from cultural point of view but
650,000 in Bhutan and about 150,000 in Bangladesh). also from linguistic point of view. The TibetoBurman
Grierson (1909) has mentioned a total of one hundred and languages, having a great variety, represent so many different
thirteen languages and eightytwo dialects spoken on the stages of development that they vary widely from each other,
modern territory of India and Bangladesh alone. Matisoff’s both lexically and semantically (cf. Zograph 1982: 188). Some of
the general characteristic features exemplified by the group as a
(1991) estimation on the total number of TibetoBurman
whole are described as follows:
languages is more than fourteen hundred including along with

their autonym, exonym, paleonym, neonym and loconyms. 2.1 Phonology
The TibetoBurman Kiranti languages of Nepal (cf. Albeit DeLancey (1990: 803) states that the correct
Hanβon 1991a, Nishi 1992, Bright 1992 and van Driem 1992 and understanding of ProtoTibetoBurman phonology is uncertain,
1997) are grouped under pronominalized (i.e. complex past researches have made a considerable progress in the area
agreement patterns with both agents and patients in the case of of comparative SinoTibetan phonology as given in the
transitive verb) ones, where the grouping of KirantiKõits segmental inventory in the table below.
(exonyms: Sun(u)war, Bhuj(u)war, Pirthwar, Mukhi(y)a)3 under
nonpronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns with both Table 2: The consonants of ProtoTibetoBurman
agents and patients in the case of transitive verb) group (see
Sharma 1997: 377385 for the process of pronominialization) is p t k
either erroneous or misinterpreted with insufficient data of all b d g
regional variations. We shall provide evidence on this issue later m n n
on these Kiranti languages, geographically lessaccessible and s
‘nearly extinct’ (cf. Crystal 2000: 20), are still spoken in the z
eastern hills of Nepal from TamakoshiKhimtiLikhu rivers in l r
the west further across the Nepalborder of northeast, India viz. w y
Sikkim and Darjeeling. The generic phyla ‘Kiranti’ under Tibeto
Burman include not less than thirtytwo (cf. Rai 1985, Hanβon (ibid 804)
1991a, Nishi 1992 and Pokharel 1994) scantily described These segmental(s) are commonly found in LoloBurmese,
languages. Or most of them are awaiting linguistic description Written Tibetan, Burmese, Jingpo~aw and several other
and further documentation in any form of grammar or languages of the family. We shall here examine and compare the
dictionary. I safely prefer to number them more than two dozen reconstructed inventory with respect to the TibetoBurman
(27 in recent study; cf. Rapacha et al. 2008) in terms of some Kiranti languages as in § 2. The number of phonemic vowels in
degree of their vitality in their respective vicinity wherever Kiranti varies freely from language to language (see § 2),
spoken. however ProtoTibetoBurman had no more than five phonemic
vowels, and there remains some question about the Proto
TibetoBurman status of the mid vowels (ibid 804). Zograph express case relations, e.g. <mi> ‘locative or instrumental’ in
(1982) states that the most noteworthy phonological feature of KirantiKõits.
the TibetoBurman languages in general is their use of tones to Zograph (1982: 189) observes that attributive connection
convey phonemic distinction (see § 2.1, J (30) a, b, c). But on is expressed syntactically only, i.e. by juxtaposition of the
the contrary, not all these languages of the family are ‘tone qualifier with the qualified. Adjectives are not normally
prone.’ This is a lost feature today in most of them. distinguished from nouns in KirantiKõits, e.g.
DeLancey (1990: 805) comments on the origin of tone in (1) rimšo āl (2) mәrimšo wāĩsāl
TibetoBurman that phonemic tone can develop in the course of goodADJ child NEGgoodADJ male:child
the loss of distinctions between syllableinitial and/or final ‘a good child’ ‘a naughty boy’
consonants. Moreover, he claims that the loss of a voicing
contrast typically in initial consonants results in a phonemic KirantiRodung:
high/low distinction, with earlier voiced initial syllables (3) khunnyāko yāyā (4) iseko sәrәchā
developing low tone and voiceless initial syllables developing goodADJ Child badADJ boy
high tone, while the depletion of the inventory of possible ‘a good child’ ‘a naughty boy’
syllablefinal consonants results in a distinction between open The pronominalized (i.e. complex agreement patterns with
syllables and those ending in a glottal stop or constriction, with both agents and patients in the case of transitive verbs) group of
the latter eventually giving rise to rising of falling tones, e.g. in languages share several traits in common with the Austro
central Tibetan dialects, Chinese and the TibetoBurman Asiatic family (especially the Munda languages), such as
branches of SinoTibetan. Another particular striking feature in pronominal suffixes, a dual (cf. Corbett 2000: 45 and 2330),
the TibetoBurman languages is the high frequency of the velar inclusiveexclusive forms of the pronouns and vigesimal system
nasal /ŋ/, which is distributed in all three positions, at least in of counting.
KirantiKõits (see (29) a, b, c).
DeLancey (1990: 807) mentions that in a number of
2.2 Morphology modern languages (e.g. Gyarung, Chepang, Nocte), the verbs
also marks in transitive clauses whether the subject is higher or
Predominantly, most of the TibetoBurman languages lower than the object on a 1>2>3> or 1 = 2>3 person hierarchy,
have deviational and compounding morphemes as in Burmese and this ‘direct/inverse’ marking system is probably also to be
(cf. Wheatley 1990: 848) and some other like Kiranti languages reconstructed for the ProtoTibetoBurman verb. Let us observe
spoken in the eastern hills of Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling in the following tables:
Northeast, India have inflectional, agglutinative and
compounding morphemes. And this feature is also true to Table 3: Intransitive agreement affixes in Gyarong (Suomo
ProtoSinoTibetan. Chinese and its several dialects (see Li and dialect)
Thompson 1990: 817) tend to have compound and derivational
morphemes rather than inflectional ones. So Chinese is the best
example of ‘isolating’ language based on the morphological Singular Dual Plural
features of the languages of the world. Grammatical genders in 1st person Vŋ Vč Vi
all TibetoBurman and special forms for plural are missing, 2nd person tәvn tәvnč tәvň
whereas in KirantiKõits, e.g. ‘pikyә~piki~pik~puki~puk~pәk’ 3rd person ø
all variations imply plural marker as /ci/ or [tsi] in Kiranti
Rodung and some other Kiranti languages. Postpositions V= position of the verb stem (ibid 807)

Table 4 : Transitive verb affixes in Gyarong (Suomo dialect) TibetoBurman languages have no form of writing. Hopefully,

KirantiYakthung (Limbu or Tsong; can be suitable for all
Object 1st person 2nd person 3rd person Kiranti languages with considerable reformation) (see van
SG DU PL SG DU PL Driem 1987, Limbu 1998 and LNED 2002) has a considerable
history of writing and has received its scripts known as Srijunga
in recent years. Furthermore, it has developed its own literature
Subject SG Vŋ which provides the written record for syntactic analysis from
1 st DU tәәVn tәәVnč tәәVň Vč historical point of view.
PL Vi DeLancey’s (1990: 806807) investigation shows that a
SG tәV number of case marking typologies occur in the family,
2nd kәuVŋ kәuVč kәuVi tәaVnč including consistently ergative marking (Gurung), aspectual
split ergative or active/stative patterns (Newa(ri) and various
PD tәVň Tibetan dialects, split ergative marking in which third person
3rd uVŋ uVč uVi tәuVn tәuVnč tәuVň Vu transitive subject take ergative case while first and second
uV person do not (Kiranti and Gyarong) are variations on a more
orless nominativeaccusative topic marking scheme (most
V=position of the verb stem (ibid 808) LoloBurmase languages). In the following example (ibid. 807)
in which third person but not first and second transitive
This Gyarong (spoken in Sichuan) system probably has the subjects are case marked (this system of ergative marker is
closest attestation to the ProtoTibetoBurman system. The < often identical to the instrumental and ablative postposition),
ŋ> and <n> suffixes reflect the ProtoTibetoBurman pronouns while the verb shows pronominal concord with any first or
*ŋā (KirantiKõits *ŋo >go) and nā(ŋ), while the dual and plural second person argument, regardless of its grammatical role.
suffixes <č> and <i> are reconstructable for ProtoTibeto Gyarong:
Burman (DeLancey 1990: 808). Both <u> and <a> are (5) ŋa mә nasŋŋ
direct/inverse system. Most of the TibetoBurman languages 1SG s/he scold1SG
including Kiranti are monosyllabic. None of them have relative ‘I scold him/her.’
pronouns.
(6) ŋәnjә mә nasŋoč
2.3 Syntax 1SGDU s/he scold1.DU
‘We two scold him/her.’
In all TibetoBurman languages, with the exception of
Karen (DeLancey 1990: 806) the normal word order is S, O and (7) ŋәñiε mә nasŋoi
V (also cf. Kansakar 1993), albeit this is not always observed 1SGPL s/he scold1PL
everywhere rigorously. Zograph (1982: 189) accounts that ‘Wepl scold him/her.’
subordinate clauses are not properly typical of TibetoBurman (8) mәkә ŋa unasŋoŋ
syntax, but under the influence of IndoAryan neighbours, are S/heERG 1.SG DIRscold1SG
widely used in certain individual members of the family. ‘S/he scolds me.’
Another generally accepted fact on this family amongst linguists (9) mәñiεkә ŋa unasŋoŋ
is that apart from Tibetan, Burmese and Newa(r)(i)), which S/heDUERG 1.SG DIRscold1SG
have developed their written literature, the great majority of ‘They two scold me.’
(10) mәkә ŋәnjә unasŋoč (20) khuwā khānālәi tākhāŋā

S/heERG 1.SGDU DIRscold1.DU S/heERG youDAT 2seePST
‘S/he scolds us two.’ ‘S/he saw you.’
KirantiKõits: (21) kã khānālәi khõnā
(11) g(ŋ)o mεkokәli huinuŋә~ŋ 1SG youDAT see2
1SG s/heDAT scoldNPST1SG ‘I saw you.’
‘I scold him/her.’ (22) khānā kãlәi tākhāŋuŋā
(12) g(ŋ)onimphā mεkokәli huiŋәsku you IDAT 2see1SG
1SGDU s/heDAT scoldNPST1DU ‘You saw me.’
‘We two scold him/her.’ (23) khuwā khulәi khāŋu
(13) g(ŋ)opiki mεkokәli huiniki s/heERG s/heDAT seeDIR
IPL s/heDAT scoldNPST1PL ‘S/he saw him/her.’ (Ebert 1987:474475)
‘Wepl scold him/her.’ The ergative postposition <kә> marking in Gyarong, <
(14) mεkomi g(ŋ)okәli huibә~b mi> in KirantiKõits and <wā> in KirantiRodo(u)ng but not
S/heERG 1.SGDAT scold3SG first person subjects and the fact that both person and number
‘S/he scolds me.’ agreement are always with the person participant, whether it is
(15) mεkonimphāmi ŋokәli huinәsi subject or object. Here both the pronominal and the verb
S/heDUERG 1.SGDAT scoldNPST3SG agreement systems definitely distinguish dual as well as
‘They two scold me.’ singular and plural number.

(16) mεkomi g(ŋ)onimphā kәli huibә~b 3. Structural features of the TB Kiranti languages
S/heERG 1.SGDUDAT scold3SG
‘She scolds uswe two.’ Before accounting the specific data on phonology,
morphology and syntax of some selected Kiranti languages, we
Here I myself as a native speaker have translated the shall note some structural features of these languages
Gyrarong sentences into KirantiKõits (1116) with the help of investigated by Ebert (1994). I have included some more
gloss provided by DeLancey. languages in this essay. Some typological general features of
KirantiRodung: these languages are:
(17) kāŋā~kã khulәi khāŋuŋā (a) verb is characterized by a complex system of person,
1SG S/heDAT see1SG patient and number markers,
‘I saw him/her.’ (b) agreement system is sensitive to the pragmatic
(18) khuwā kãlәi pākhāŋuŋā constellation and agentpatient are usually marked on
S/heERG 1.SGDAT 3Asee1SG verb,
‘S/he saw me.’ (c) gender distinction is marginal,
(d) are morphologically ergative, where KirantiRodung or
(19) khānā khulәi tākhāŋu Camling and KirantiThulung exhibit a split between
you s/heDAT 2seeDIR speech act participants, whereas in Yakthung nouns and
‘You saw him/her.’ pronouns,
(e) the coding of space is a fascinating part,
(f) make extensive use of compound verbs,

(g) are SOV languages with a rather strict order of modifiers B. Consonant phonemes
before heads,
(h) south eastern Kiranti languages are mainly agglutinative Stops and nasals
and words can easily be split up into morphs, whereas the Velar k k h g gh ŋ
north eastern languages have more stem variation in Alveolar affricated ts tsh dz dzh
portmanteau forms, Dental t th d dh n
(i) make little use of converbs and participles in Bilabial p p b
h b h m
subordination the Northern and ‘western languages Imploded ɓ
somewhat more than the Southern languages are Kiranti Continuant and fricatives
Yakthung. Hayu, the westernmost language, has only non Palatal approximant j
finite forms of subordination; KirantiYakthung the
Alveolar tap r
easternmost language, has no converbs, but uses
Lateral l
participles more frequently than KirantiAthpare and
Labiovelar approximant w
KirantiRodung. Most subordinate clauses have fully
inflected verbs followed by a case marker (often without Alveolar fricative s
an intervening nominalizer) or some other subordinator, Glottal h
(j) their phylogenetic grouping and subgroupings proposed
till today (cf. Grierson 1909, Shafer 1953, Benedict 1972, (Michailovsky 1975a: 186)
Zograph 1982, Matisoff 1978, Hanβon 1991, Bright 1992, KirantiKõits:
van Driem 1992, 1997) are all rather tentative due to a
Table 6: A. Vowel phonemes
poor documentation of most members of the group and

(k) Free prefix ordering at least in easternmost languages like
Chintang (Bickel et al. 2007). Front Central Back
High i/~ u/~
3.1 Phonology High mid o/~
Low mid ε/~ ә/~
In this section, we shall account the phonological system Low ā/~
of some selected Kiranti languages and compare and contrast

the system intralinguistically and translinguistically among
the languages of the family and with their ProtoTibetoBurman (~ tilde stands for nasal vs. oral contrast)
reconstructed segmental phonemic inventory (see Table 1 § 1.1).
The first three represented languages are ordered
alphabetically, whereas the rest geographically. B. Consonant phonemes

KirantiBayung: Stops and nasals

Table 5: A. Vowel phonemes Velar k k h g gh ŋ
Alveolar affricated ts dz
Front Central/Rounded Back Apicoalveolar/
High i y u retroflex T Th
High mid e ø o Dental t th d dh n
Low mid ε œ ә Bilabial p ph b m
Low a Imploded ɓ*
Continuant and fricatives Table 8: A. Vowel phonemes
Palatal approximant j(y)
Apicoalveolar/retroflex r Yakthung Athpare
Lateral l Front Back Front Back
Labiovelar approximant w (υ) Close i/i: u/u: I u
Alveolar fricative s š e. ә o e o
Glottal h ɂ ε/ε: o/o: a
Open a/a:
(Bieri and Schulze 1971: 214, cf. Schulze 1995 also) Bantawa Camling
*see Michailovsky (1988: 31) Front Back Front Back
Close I i[w] u I u
KirantiHayu: e (ә) o e (ʌ) o
Table 7: A. Vowel phonemes Open a a
Thulung Khaling
Front Central Back Front Back Front Back
High i u Close i/i: u/u: u/u I ü u
I U e/e: o/o: o/o: e ö o
Low ε a ә Open a/a: ä a â[o]

B. Consonant phonemes B. Consonant phonemes

Stops Nasals Fricatives Yakthung (Limbu):
Glottal h/(ɂ) Bl Dl Rx Pl Vr Gl Stops

Velar k kh g ŋ 
voiced p ph t th c[ts] k kh ɂ
Laminal/palatal affricate c c j h ś +voiced b
Apicoalveolar affricate ts tsh dz s Fricatives s h
Dental t th d n Nasals m n ŋ
Bilabial p ph b m Continuants w l r y
Continuants
Palatal approximant j Athpare:
Labiovelar approximant w Stops
Alveolar tap r voiced p ph T Th c ch k kh
Alveolar lateral l +voiced b b h D Dh j jh g
Fricatives s h
Nasals m n ŋ
(Michailovsky and Mazaudon 1973: 140142) Continuants w l R(Rh) y
Bantawa: only rather than restricted to loan words), which will be
Stops explained later.
voiced p ph t th c ch k kh In KirantiYakthung, voiced stops are allophones of
+voiced b b
h d dh j g unvoiced consonants after nasal, glottal stop and in intervocalic
Fricatives s h position; the only voiced phoneme in final position is /b/ (e.g.
Nasals m n ŋ lā:b* la:ba (LNED 2002: 413 and 613)) ‘moon’ versus lā:p
Continuants w l r y ‘wing’). In the northern languages KirantiThulung and Kiranti
Camling: Khaling, voiced and voiceless initials are approximately equal in
Stops frequency. Aspiration is phonemic in all six languages.
voiced p ph t th c ch k kh Although these generalizations seem to be very simplistic
+voiced b b h d dh j jh g at first sight, her phonemic inventory is in a loss at least in the
fricatives s h case of KirantiRodung (Camling< Camlung< Chalimhang),
nasals m mh n nh ŋ ŋh KirantiKirawa (Ba(o)ntawa) and KirantiYakthung as van
continuants w l lh r rh y Driem (1997: 474) points out that TibetoBurman
Thulung: comparativists are at a loss to distinguish with confidence
Stops between loan words, the result of sound laws, and the effect of
voiced p ph t th T Th c ch k kh analogy. One obvious reason is mainly because there are no
+voiced b b
h d dh D Dh j jh g gh exhaustive research on the phonetics and phonology of these
Fricatives s h languages. Similar case persists in KirantiBayung, Kiranti
Nasals m n ŋ Kõits including KirantiHayu in terms of dialectal or even
Continuants w l r y idiolectal variations.
Khaling: Till this date no linguist is confident on the possible total
Stops number of phonemes operating in any Kiranti languages given
voiced p ph t th c ch k kh to him/her whatever literature available. In this case, “the
+voiced b b
h d dh j jh g gh elephantandtheblind man” principle is at work. Another
Fricatives s h reason of this inconsistency or loss is that there are no written
Nasals m n ŋ records of these spoken languages from time immemorial. Only
Continuants w l r KirantiYakthung is an exception having its written records. As
a result, Ebert (1994) is also inconsistent while making the
phonemic inventory of Rodung. Ebert (1994: 14) has listed
(Ebert 1994: 1416) twentynine consonant phonemes (see Table 8 B) and six
First of all, we shall critically and comparatively observe at vowels (see Table 8 A), where she has listed /ʌ/ as optional
the phonemic inventory of Ebert (1994), then proceed to vowel phoneme.
compare the phonological system of all nine languages. The six
This inventory is selfcontradicted in her later grammar of
languages represented in Ebert’s study shows that these
Camling (1997b: 810) in which she has mentioned thirty
languages lack fricatives except for /s/ and /h/. Voiced stops are
consonants out of which four phonemes, e.g. (j) [dz], (jh) [dzh],
rare phonemes in the southeast languages. Initial phonemes /h,
g, and (gh) as optional. The number of optional vowel has been
gh, j, jh/ are restricted mainly to loan words from Nepali. This
claim is only partially true (these phonemes lack minimal pairs increased up to three, e.g. /ә, ʌ, o/ (p 10) based on the Nerpa
dialect. Her inventory has been challenged only with twenty
seven consonant and eight vowel phonemes by B.S. Yalungcha’s noticed in Rapacha (1996, 1999 and 2002) also. However, it is
CamlingNepali Dictionary (2003) based on the Ratanchha predominant in KirantiRaDu and Bayung, both close sister
dialect. Both of these dialectal areas are not very far languages of KirantiKõits. One of the most difficult problems
geographically. Recently, the Balamta dialect of Udayapur Bieri and Schulze have faced is in the orthography of Kiranti
district with its palatalized [tj] has given much trouble of Kõits /k/ in place of glottal /ɂ/ which has made the language
orthography representation and originality issues. This issue queer (cf. Yabeaa Lowa 1992) at least in the Devanagari
has almost been politicized among speakers. representation. The basic number of vowel phonemes in
Ebert (1994: 14) is nearly accurate on listing the phonemes KirantiKõits is six (/i, ε, u, o, ā, ә/ with nasal contrast in all)
of Bantawa but has missed out one glottal stop (ɂ) phoneme rather than ten. Michailovsky’s (1988) identification of the
which has been listed in Dik Bantawa’s (1998) grammar and imploded consonant phoneme /ɓ/ is purely an historical trace
again Dik Bantawa’s (1999) dictionary. Bantawa (1998: 2 ff) has rather than synchronic presentday use in KirantiKõits, e.g.
listed six vowel phonemes (1998: 14), whereas Ebert has listed (25) ɓā >bwā ‘fowl’ (not chick)
seven vowel phonemes with (ә) as optional (p 16). But Michailovsky is the only senior western (Paris, France
surprisingly, both of these grammarians seem to have left out or based) linguist who has identified the imploded /ɓ/ in Kiranti
have not noticed the breathyvoiced /lh/ consonant phoneme in
Bayung and KirantiKõits (1998: 3132, cf. Opgenort 2005,
the phonology of Bantawa, e.g. Dik Bantawa (1998: 34) has
2004, 2004 also), however his evidence lacks contrastive pairs
listed two words representing the phoneme /lh/ as in,
in his data or it may purely be due to sound change historically.
(24) a. lomā b. lhomā Only after five years of Michailovsky’s identification of /ɓ/ in
sayINF ‘to say’ runINF ‘to run’ these two neighbouring and closely related sister languages,
The example lexemes in (24 a. and b.) are contrastive in Toba (1993 also 1995) has identified /ɓ, , ľ) in another
meaning obviously due to the presence of /l/ in opposition to neighbouring Kiranti language, RaDu or Wambule (not
/lh/. Rai (1985) also has not mentioned this contrastive pair in included in this article). For both /ɓ and /, Toba has provided
his analysis of Rabi variety of Kirawa (Ba(o)tawa). This
evidence on minimal pairs, whereas /ľ/ given in addendum,
phonemic feature is mainly available in Middle Kirant’s Kiranti
lacks minimal pairs seeking further research, e.g.
Rodung.
Similarly, the LNED (2002) has overshadowed all other (26) a. ɓi΄tso ‘woman’ b. ΄bitsam ‘to obey’
previous available literature on the Yakthung language and (27) a. abu ‘ear’ b. dwatsam ‘to dig’
linguistics. Ebert’s phonemic inventory of KirantiYakthung is
(28) a. ľam ‘path, road’ b. …?
not such exception. The LNED (p.19) has listed twentyfive
consonant phonemes out of which nine are allophones and only Michailovsky’s imploded /ɓ/ in present day KirantiKõits,
sixteen consonants have phonemic status, whereas Ebert (p. 14) has possibly been fossilized in daily use. This can be
has listed eighteen consonants (see Table 7 B) as phonemes. The reconstructed language internally (cf. Aitchison 1978: 144) only
number of vowel phonemes is also inconsistent between (Ebert in *bā <bw(ɓ)ā ‘fowl’ and *bārdε< bw(ɓ)ārdε ‘hawk’ lexemes by
1994) and LNED (p. 19ff). replacing ɓ→b and its compensatory insertion of /w/ before
So far as Bieri and Schulze’s (1971b) KirantiKõits vowel. A similar case of sound change might have taken place in
phonemic inventory (see Table 5 A and B) is concerned, they *po< pwo ‘pig’ ƥ → p.
have missed out identifying two historically lost implosive stops
/ɓ/ and /ƥ/. Both of these remnants in some speakers are not
In addition to these general and specific comparative and KirantiKõits:
critical observations, a few other comparative phonotypological (31) a. gāɂcā b. gācā
observations are: walkINF torn INF
(a) majority of all represented nine languages here have the ‘to walk’ ‘to be torn’
reconstructed consonant phonemes of ProtoTibeto
Burman (See Table 1, § 1.1), 3.2 Morphology
(b) the velar nasal phoneme /ŋ/ is productive and occurs in This section explores some salient morphological typology
all three positions of these Kiranti languages, e.g. in of these Kiranti languages. Some observations in general are:
(29) a. ŋoro b. mәŋācā c. roŋ (a) all the languages represented here have the infinitival
‘dumb’ NEGweepINF ‘not to weep’ ‘cliff’ suffix with the base form of the verb, e.g.
(c) KirantiKõits, KirantiAthpare and KirantiThukung have
retroflex /T, Th/ voiced in common but KirantiKõits KirantiHayu:
lacks /D, Dh/ +voiced of KirantiApthpare and Kiranti (32) hāto
Thulung and the rest of the languages have neither of
them, giveINF ‘to give’ (Michailovsky 1973:146)
(d) all these languages have aspiration as phonemic at least in
/k, kh/ and /p, ph/ pairs, KirantiKõits:
(e) except for KirantiBayung and KirantiThulung, there are (33) gεcā giveINF ‘to give’ (My own data)
gaps in phonological symmetry,
(f) in all languages /s, h/ are common fricatives, whereas in KirantiBayung:
KirantiKõits /š/, in Wayu /χ/ and /ɂ/ in KirantiYakthung (34) geco giveINF ‘to give’ (My own data)
is additional fricative,
(g) laminalpalatal affricates /c, ch, j/ of the westernmost KirantiYakthung:
KirantiHayu are alien to the rest of the languages,
(h) in the represented languages KirantiKõits and Kiranit (35) thāŋmā come up INF ‘to come up’ (Rai 2002)
Khaling only are tonal, e.g. in KirantiKõits as follows:
KirantiKirawa (Bantawa):
(30) a. ńε ‘uncertainty’ (wanting to make sure again)
b. nὲ ‘mirativity’ (hearsay knowledge) (36) thāŋmā come up INF ‘to come up’ (ibid 2002)
c. nε ‘nose’ (figurative: prestige, reputation)
d. nέ ‘name’ (literal sense) KirantiRodung:
(i) the range of vowel phonemes is between six to thirteen, (37) sәmā come up INF ‘to come up’ (ibid 2002)

(j) the unrounded vowel phoneme /ï/ of Kirawa is very rare KirantiKhaling:
in other Kiranti languages except for Dumi and Chulung,
(38) khone come upINF ‘to come up’ (ibid 2002)
(k) glottal stop (ɂ) in KirantiYakthung the easternmost
languages, and KirantiKõits and in its neighbouring KirantiThulung:
language KirantiBayung (should have but not mentioned
in Michailovsky) and KirantiHayu, e.g. (39) gemu come upINF ‘to come up’ (ibid 2002)

KirantiAthpare: example in KirantiKõits and Ebert (1994) for other

(40) māpmā sayINF ‘to say’ (Ebert 1994: 55) Kiranti languages),
(b) almost all these languages have negative marker before (e) these languages are pronominal (see Sharma 1997),
the verb and some of them are close cognate to the related (f) exhibit a pattern of split ergativity (see §1.3). So ergativity
protoTibetoBurman form of negation like mâqay ‘not is rather superficial trait of Kiranti morphology, where all
go’, mâchu ‘not be fat’ in Lahu (Matisoff 1991: 495), and third person or demonstratives are marked but not all first
some Kiranti examples include, person, e.g.

KirantiHayu: KirantiRodung:
(41) mathop NEGknock down ‘not knock down’ (Park 1994: 116) (48) a. cāpcā kholidā wāŋā
tiger forestLOC go up
KirantiKõits: ‘The tiger went into the forest.’
(42) mәkhlolcā NEGknock downINF ‘not to knock down’ b. cāpcāwā bose lhāpu
tigerERG pig catchDIR
KirantiBayung: ‘The tiger caught a pig.’ (Ebert 1987: 476)
(43) mādzāco NEGeatINF ‘not to eat’ (Data elicited from
Tara Hangucha, p/c June 2002) KirantiKõits:
(c) all these languages have dual number (as in Fijian, Arabic, (49) a. dzoi wākigā wot~ә/dzoi wākyεmi wot~ә
Lihir, Sanskrit) etc. (cf. Corbett 2000)) and some of them tiger forestALL enterPST/tiger forestLOC enterPST
have a special form of dual marking as a separate lexeme, ‘The tiger entered into the forest.’
e.g.
b. dzoimi pokәli gyāittāwә~w
KirantiHayu: tigerERG pigDAT catchPST3:SG
(44) nakpu ‘dual/two’ (but not numeral) (Park 1994: 112) ‘The tiger caught a pig.’ (My own data translated from
Ebert’s (1987: 476) example)
KirantiKõits: (g) all these languages are rich in deictics. Some
(45) nimphā ‘dual/two’ (but not numeral) (My own data) representative examples are:
(50) a. Proximate demonstrative pronouns
KirantiBayung: KirantiKirawa KirantiRodung KirantiKhaling
(46) nimpho~ŋ ‘dual/two’ (but not numeral) (Data elicited odu udhi tya:tu ‘up’
from Tara Hangucha, p/c June 2002) oyu uhi tya:yu ‘down’
oya uhya: tya:yo ‘level’
KirantiWambule: oda: uda: tya:bi ‘neutral’
(47) nimphā ‘dual/two’ (but not numeral) (My own data) b. Remote demonstrative pronouns
(d) most of the languages except KirantiYakthung or some KirantiBantawa KirantiCamling KirantiKhaling
other have converbal patterns (see Rapacha (1999) for modu tidhi mya:tu ‘up’
moyu tihi mya:yu ‘down’
moya tihya: mya:yo ‘level’ b. kyāckā rә ̃ cāckeexl kyāci rә ̃ cāceincl

moda: tida mya:bi ‘neutral’ DUexl. rice eat exl. DUincl. rice eatincl.
c. Referential demonstrative pronouns ‘We two eat rice.’ ‘We two eat rice.’
KirantiBantawa c. kәikā rә ̃ cāmke
exl kaini rә ̃ cāmneincl
khodu ‘up’ weexl. rice eatexl. Weincl rice eatincl.
khoyu ‘down’ ‘Wepl eat rice.’ ‘Wepl eat rice.’
k oya
h ‘level’ (Data elicited through email, translatorconsultant Bag
khoda: ‘neutral’ (Rai: 2002) Ayagyami Yalungcha 2003)
(h) Kiranti languages are noted for mirativity (cf. Abbi (l) all TibetoBurman Kiranti languages, as in other verb final
2001:151152) in their morphology, e.g. languages (cf. Subbarao et al 1999) have postpositions
(51) a. mār dε̃nε ńε? (Greenberg’s Universal 3), e.g.
what say3:SG PART
KirantiKõits:
‘What did you say?’ (confirming information)
(54) khĩmi
b. mεko~mεɂ khĩ mәlāib nὲ
houseLOC ‘in the house’ (My own data)
3.SG house NEGgo3.SG MIR
(m)in those languages genitive precedes (cf. ibid 1999) the
‘S/he does not go home.’ (hearsay knowledge) (My own governing nouns (Greenberg’s universal 2), e.g.
data, cf. (30) a and b also)
(i) since all Kiranti languages do not have grammatical KirantiKõits:
gender, the number agrees to the verb, e.g. (55) tәm(i)kε~ā khyõpәt

KirantiKõits: daughterGEN book ‘daughter’s book’ (My own data)

(52) a. g(ŋ)o khәmε dzāinuŋ 2.2 Syntax
1.SG rice eatNPST1.SG In this section, we shall observe the basic word order in
‘I eat rice.’ Kiranti languages. As pointed out in § 1.3, these languages have
b. g(ŋ)onimphā khәmε dzāinәsku SOV which Matisoff (1991: 386 and also cf. Masica 1976: 2730)
remarks as ‘undoubtedly the original SinoTibetan word order’.
1.SGDU rice eatPNPST1.DU This word order of Kiranti satisfies Greenberg’s non
‘We two eat rice.’ absolute/implicational universal 5 and 21 (Song 2001: 67,
c. g(ŋ)opiki khәmε dzāiniki Comrie 1981: 19) having postposition and NP order string as,
1.SGPL rice eatNPST1.PL ‘DEM+GEN + Num + ADJ/ATTR+poss+N’
‘We (pl.) eat rice.’ (My own data) poss (pron)
(Ebert 1994: 100)
KirantiRodung: The complex sentences in Kiranti are basically of two
(53) a. kāŋā~kã rә̃ cuine~cui types on the basis of the degree of reduction. Ebert further
1.SG rice eat1:SG ‘I eat rice.’ observes that in the nonfinite verb which does not carry finite
tense or person markers; subjects are always deleted. These

sorts of clauses are maximally reduced, whereas the minimally Notes
reduced clauses are finite. The origins of subordinator in Kiranti 1 This essay is mainly based on my MPhil/PhD term paper
are commonly quotatives and inflectional morphemes, as in, submitted at the Centre of Linguistics and English, School of
Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
KirantiRodung: University, Delhi110 067 in April 2003 and its abstract (see LSN
(56) tyukoci hākāpo khineko mārichāci abstract 2003) was prepared and sent with several revisions to
present in the 24th Annual Conference of the Linguistic Society of
thatDU twoCL beniceNPTNML womanDU Nepal to be held on 2627 November, 2003. Most of its parts had
‘those two beautiful women’ (Ebert 1994: 100) been slashed for space reason in the journal of Linguistic Society
of Nepal.
KirantiKõits: 2 The term ‘phylogenetic’ has preferably been used by Nettle (1991:
(57) mε? niɂsi rimšo mismuru/mεɂ rimšo mismuru niɂsi~nimphā 115) after Nicholas’ (1990) term ‘genetic’ in order to avoid
confusion with genetics in the sense of DNA. Therefore, I have also
3.SG two.DU niceNML woman/3.SG niceNML woman two here used phylogenetic in place of genetic.
‘those two beautiful women’ (My own data) 3 I preferably use the autoethnonym ‘Kõits’ because the neonym,
In both languages, the inflections <ko> and <šo> show exonym or hydronym ‘Sun(u)war’ (Mukhi(y)a) has been
the variational semantic functions (cf. Matisoff 1978) in misinterpreted to have its derogatory meanings in the Hindu
pragmaticallyoriented use, such as in, social castestrata ‘i.e. Sunar or goldsmith’ (see Vansittart (1896),
Morris (1927), Hagen (1961), Bista (1967), Chemjong (1967),
KirantiKõits: Nepali Brihat Shabdakosh (1983 and 2001), Subedi (1994),
Adhikary (1991) and Sharma (2001)) which has a negative impact
(58) khәmε dzәšo nolε… on their ethnolinguistic identity.
rice eatPCPL after ‘After eating rice…’

(in the sense of ‘having eaten’) (My own data)

4. Conclusion Source: Nepalese Linguistics, 23: 289321, slightly revised here
In this article we have examined on some typological
aspects of Kiranti grammars comparatively. Also irrespective of
time and space constraints, we have compared the similarities 26 Overcoming linguistic discrimination
and dissimilarities between the Kiranti grammars and across
Nepal since its inception as a nation in different historico
ProtoTibetanBurman phonology and morphosyntax. These
political phases is noted for its multiethnicism, multi
nine TibetoBurman Kiranti languages represented in this essay
culturalism and multilingualalism. However, Nepal’s rich
out of more than two dozen Kiranti languages are not sufficient
racial, cultural and linguistic plurality in the past did not
enough to draw conclusions in general. To do so would either be
flourish in practice equally due to discriminatory political
hasty or even erroneous one. But having examined all possible
decisions and policies. 'Language' in this regard is one of the
available data provided from the previous literature one can
most neglected identities in terms of policy making after the rise
point out on the basis of comparison and typology of these
of Gorkha imperialism in the later half of eighteenth century.
languages towards the close as well as distant or alien
Linguistic policy as such till the dawn of this new millennium
phylogenetic relationships rather than a mere areal feature or
borrowing.
has ironically remained monolithic and suppressive in the form in the past for centuries, New Nepal (NN) should learn lessons
of one 'language' one 'identity'. that assimilative policy obviously means ethnic, linguistic
Any human language is soul for its speech community. conflicts or even revolts which Nepal and Nepalese people now
This implies that it is the language that makes human as a cannot sustain anymore.
supreme animate species. A language whether it is in the form Today one of the most important parameters inevitably to
of speech, logo or sign from its basic communicative perspective be included in the election of Constituent Assembly (CA) to be
plays a dominant role in each and every human sphere. held in the near future demanded by Indigenous Peoples’
Language since the evolution of mankind has been used as the Organizations (IPOs) and Madhesis is the inclusion of linguistic
only means of purposive expressions. Therefore, mother tongue communities or groups in order to address and articulate their
is one of the basic linguistic human rights of an individual linguistic human rights as sovereign Nepalese citizens of NN in
dwelling in his or her territory in any civilized democratic their forthcoming sovereign constitution. The future CA
nation including Nepal. hopefully has to draft such a constitution demanding a scientific
Nepal before the royal proclamation of 24 April 06 has model of language legislation addressing an inclusive language
witnessed many instances of linguistic discrimination and policy making for both IP and Madhesi languages in order to
violation of linguistic human rights against 51.39% regulate the possible upcoming linguistic conflicts of the
ethnoindigenous and Madhesi speech communities, for instance marginalized groups for sustainable peace and nationbuilding.
the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Newar and Maithili Time has now proved that NN cannot remain homo
languages on 1 June seven years ago, administrative ban on Nepalicus excluding pluriNepalicus. Critics of multilingualism
Sherpa in primary school last year in Bhojpur and security glorifying Nepali only and vilifying nonNepali marginalized IP
forces’ ban on one of the Kiranti languages not to talk over the and Madhesi languages should think twice or even thrice or
phone in Pan(ch)thar two years ago. These instances prove that more. The present or forthcoming Government Policy makers
there were and are many other examples of linguistic human should not now turn deaf ear to the voice of millions and revere
rights violation in Nepal yet to be unearthed. the following UN including regional documents covering
This indicates that the Old Nepal (ON) in the past had no linguistic human rights, proposals for such and resolutions on
tolerability of minority linguistic rights, had no language language rights for overcoming linguistic discrimination in New
legislation, no respect for covenants like Universal Declaration Nepal:
of Linguistic Human Rights, and had adopted monolingual UNs' Charter1945, Universal Declaration of Human
doctrine and adherence to the principle of “one state, one Rights1948, International Covenant on Economic, Social and
nation, one language” which manifested in assimilation Cultural Rights1966, International Covenant on Civil and
oriented at the cost of multilingual maintenanceoriented Political Rights1966, UNs' Declaration Regarding Nonself
policy. So the issue of language e.g., compulsory Sanskrit and governing Territories1945, The UNs Convention on the Rights
the neglect of ethnoindigenous and Madhesi languages was also of the Child1998, UNs Declaration on the Rights of Persons
one of the dimensions of Maoist conflict. Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
This issue thus has not only to do with the soul of a society Monorities1992, American Convention on Human Rights “Pact
for communicative needs but it is sensitively related to socio of San Jose, Costa Rica”1969, American Declaration of the
politics, biodiversity, ethnobotany, identity, ethnicity, culture, Rights and Duties of Man1948, European Charter for Regional
history, logosphere, ecology, indigenous knowledge, state, law, or Minority Languages1992, Convention Concerning
media, education, gender, conflict and human rights as well. Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, ILO
Now after ON’s problematic experimental monolithic modality Convention 1691989, UNs Universal Declaration on Rights of
Indigenous PeoplesDraft1991, Resolutions from the First reference, TKP basically has referred to diverse cultural heritage

Continental Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance for the economic benefit in adverse political situation of Nepal
1990, Document on the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference whereas THT is much more serious on alarmingly endangered
on the Human Dimension of the CSCE1990, Proposal for a wildspecies like onehorned rhinos and tigris panthera
European Convention for the Protection of Minorities, Council expressing deepconcerns on their protection.
of Europe, European Commission for Democracy through Law Also, another wakecall on the same day from Phawa
1991, Submissions of the Waitangi Tribunal, Objections to the Khola, Taplejung reported in THT by Sita Niraula is the
Recognition of Tereo Maori as an Official Language of New poaching of seven red pandas which are very rare species rated
Zealand1986, Declaration of the Tallinn Symposium on as endangered ones by UNESCO's tangible/intangible heritage
Linguistic Human Rights1991, TESOLResolution on Language section. Things have become even worse due to autocratic
Rights1987, Linguistic Society of America Resolution1986, unrest of both political stakeholders resulting in ethnospecies
FIPLV Draft articles for A Universal Charter of Basic Human and their linguistic extermination through rampant killings and
Language Rights1993, Towards Equality and Selfreliance, displacements of rare innocent lives throughout the
Resolution of the XI World Congress of the World Federation countryside. Thus many rare 'ethnos' now have become like rare
the Deaf1991, World Federation of the Deaf Commission on 'rhinos'. Linguistic, racial and sociopolitical discriminations are
Sign Language Recommendation: Call for recognition of sign part of this process.
languages1991, and Bonn Declaration, “The Kurdish PeopleNo
Future without Human Rights”1991. In this pretext, what strikes us most is we never ever have
had opportunity of reading information regarding the moribund
If and only when policy makers of NN ratifying and of linguospecies in the mainstream media. Nepal is not only a
respecting the above international instruments and accordingly unique home for diverse cultures and biodiversity such as 118
draft language legislation which explicitly promotes IP and ecosystem types, 75 vegetation, 35 forest types, 2,000 Lichen
Terai or Madhesi minority languages within a maintenance species, 1,822 fungi, 687 Algai species, 853 Bryophytes, 380
oriented framework, New Nepal as a civilized democratic nation Pteridophytes, 28 Gymnosperms, 5,856 Angiosperms, 168
and UN member can overcome linguistic discrimination Platyhelminthes, 144 spiders, 5,052 insects, 640 butterflies,
safeguarding linguistic human rights including their 2,253 moths, 185 fishes, 43 amphibians, 100 reptiles, 844 birds,
autoethnonyms, toponyms, loconyms, eponyms and the and 181 mammals but is also a home for 92 spoken mother
individual expression of group identity. tongues and 101 ethnos according to the National Census
Report (2001) whereas SIL Ethnologue (2005) mentions 127
spoken languages including dialects all over the country out of

which 9598 percent are either moribund or endangered on the
21 June 2006
basis of their functional domains.

One should remember that not merely those rich
27 Moribund linguospecies of Nepal biodiversity, diverse cultures and natural beauty of Nepal
contribute in sustainable development but diverse endangered
Coincidently, both editorial pages of much esteemed linguospecies and their diverse exotic tongues truly do have
English dailies, T(he) K(athmandu) P(ost) and T(he) deeper impacts on such developmental efforts at present as well
H(imalayan) T(imes) on March 7, expressed a common message as in the long run since a language is not simply a tool but a
disseminating their concerns on "cultural heritage" and "natural formative entity in itself. So losing a tongue is like bombing the
heritage" respectively related to the tourism industry of this Louvre.
wartorn country for more than a decade now. By way of
A Navajo elder's lesson to his grandson: "If you don't One day, of course, very soon we will hardly have chance
breathe/ There's no air. If you don't walk/ There's no earth. If to be proud of our diverse cultural heritage which is preserved
you don't speak/ There's no world" is very relevant in our and expressed through their language alone. It is not only
context here too as Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine put it, languages of those ethnospecies but also their performing arts,
"each language has its own window on the world." social practices, rituals, oral traditions, expressions and
Reiks Smeets, chief of UNESCO's intangible heritage traditional craftsmanship, knowledge as intangible cultural
section in Paris reveals that "There are 7,000 languages in the heritage are counting down their last days of adieu from this
world. If we work to save them, then may be about 2,000 will unique land of diversity along with biospecies, wildspecies,
survive for another 300 years. If we don't do anything, only 400 and ethniclinguo species. We cannot imagine speech
languages will survive." Nepal's situation will have become too communities without 'logosphere' in real sense of the term as
grim to that extent of time framework. If we do not do anything human beings without 'atmosphere'. Therefore, something has
to save dozens and scores of the below mentioned ethniclinguo to be done urgently.
intangible heritage only one 'Nepali' among other 127 languages Certainly, it would not be a nightmare for the better
including dialects may survive after 300 hundred years in Nepal prospects of our country while mainstreaming those moribund
to ally with the rest 400 languages of the future world. and endangered linguospecies and their linguistic or cultural
The Nepalese ethnotongues now are like counting down heritage in the national political agenda which would
of 372 onehorned rhinos, 356 tigris panthera and some dozens undoubtedly restore the interminable 'culture of peace' in
of red pandas. Thus their count down, for instance starts 28 nationbuilding.
Kusundas out of who 5 (?) speak Kusunda tongue as a language
isolate of Nepal, Kiranti tongues like KirantiMewahang 904, Note
Tilung 310, Koyu 300, Jerung 271, Dungmali 221, Lingkhim 97, 1 Recent debates (see Rapacha 2008) have shown that Saam is not a
KirantiSaam1 23, Rangkas 600, NarPhu 533, and Raute 475. It linguistic group rather is an abusive term for KirantiNewahang.
is very gloomy. Its prominent dialect group is Bunglawa.
There is much such ethnolinguistic diversity which are
going to disappear from the face of Nepal very soon given the
present situation of prolonged Armed Conflict(s) in all corners 30 March 2006
of the countryside whether through extensive copter bombings
or gunning them down indiscriminately. Losing them according Source: The Kathmandu Post, 2 April 2006, slightly revised here
to a 2003 UNESCO paper means the irrecoverable loss of
unique cultural, historical and ecological knowledge of mankind
as "Each language is a unique expression of the human 28 Gurkha's sleepwalk Nagarchi's madness
experience of the world…Every time a language dies; we have Coincidently, poet DB Gurung’s Gurkha[li]sleepwalk and
less evidence for understanding patterns in the structure and Shrawan Mukarung’s B[ise] N[agarchi]madness (recited
function of human language, human history, and maintenance recently at National Poetry Festival, VS 2062) are poignant
of the world's diverse ecosystems. Above all, speakers of these sociopolitical themes of our contemporary society through the
languages may experience the loss of their language as a loss of medium of poetry. N[agarchi] in this society has lost his
their original ethnic and cultural identity" as the elder Navajo daughter and spouse after the ultimate rape and murder
speaker. including ownership over his own country about two and a half
centuries later since the rise of Shah dynasty. Whereas Gurkhas
(cf. Rapacha, 26 June ’05 TKP) about two centuries later have Poet Gurung’s on time anthology Sw (’04) in English after
lost their languages, cultures, thoughts, missions as well as W[hisper] (’92) is another seminal work of art through which he
nation since they were plotted against to join their imperial presents a surgical exposure of the hollowness of our
despots. Neither of these two “subaltern” personae treated as contemporary society hence,
human beings in the Nepalese society nor is mentioned in the “…I wept so bitterly last night, but because
pages of the history books of Nepal.
Everything deceived me here as though
In Bishnu Sapkota’s (30 June ’05 TKP) opinion, poet It’s only me to be chosen for damnation
Mukarung “has created a very powerful metaphor to explain the
The god, the dream, the thoughts,
sidelining of the socalled Dalit (untouchable) and indigenous
communities [ICs] in this country. The madness as a metaphor The tongue, the love, the memories
is an explosion, a burstingout of the frustration that the The echoes, the wisdom, the knowledge, the time,
subaltern communities have been suppressed for centuries”. And even life itself betrayed me.
Actually, the term ‘Nagarchi’, as Sapkota referring legends Dreams burst forth like stoned mirrors.
explains “represents the socalled untouchable community on Unexplainable fear.
whom the feudal Hindu system has thrust the vocation of
Uncertain life…
stitching clothes and playing drums and pipes. This loyal N had
offered the historical king (PN Shah for the “unification” Where freedom is lynched, before it is born…
movement) a great support, at least symbolically, when the We irrigated our lands with sanguine fluid
State had a dire need of such support”. To add further, it was/is And sow our dreams to harvest bones…” (’04: 8288)
not only BN who is untouchable but most of the ICs except This is how the sons of a Gurkha and his whole
some exceptions are codified as “untouchables” through the generation(s) as “subaltern” are in sleepwalk and BNs are in
Muluki Ain1 (Civil Code). Now because of sociopolitical “the fits of madness”. His imagery “…to harvest bones” here
turmoil, this N has lost sanity including everything. rises to the height of TS Eliot’s imagery of “corpse” (‘The Waste
On the contrary, Mukarung’s Nconfession of madness as Land’) planted in the garden during the first half of the last
a gist hinting towards “this hostile world torn by power century.
mongering, violence and injustice” (Gurung, 1 Feb ’05 TKP) was The anthology Sw (’04) contains fortyseven shortlong
already voiced by poet Gurung in a psychometaphysical state of poems out of which eight poems such as ‘Crepuscule’, ‘Son of
sleepwalk in a way closely related to “madness” two years ago in Gorkhali’, ‘Disillusionment’, ‘Tobaccotrance’, ‘Anatomy of a
2003 [date of composition of the piece ‘Sleepwalk’] in his Bachelor’, ‘Goleta Night’, ‘Walnut Fate’, and ‘Gaine Dai’ are
anthology S[leep]w[alk] (2004). The only difference between republished from his earlier anthology W (’92) among which
the two personae is that Mukarung’s persona N witnesses the ‘Sleepwalk’ is the last mirrorpiece where readers can perceive
stark realities of his society with his third eye in the state of deeper reflections of their own society and people around them.
“madness” whereas Gurung’s persona witnesses in the state of The poet in his poetic journey from ’92 to ’04 (available
sleepwalk. Both of these poets representing two different anthologies plus papers) in my observation has undergone a
members of the ICs thus in a closely related essence have voiced great deal of metamorphosis as a visionary; internationally
on their loss of spaces and identities as humans against acclaimed poet struggling for freedom and salvation not only of
hostilities, atrocities and injustice in their own motherland. As a his kin and kith but of humanity as a whole. Additionally, he has
result, both these BNs and ICs have undergone this worst state grown more matured intellectually as a social critic in his
of affairs. papers.
Critic Dr Tara Nath Sharma succinctly observes was going to be published on his father's auspicious 75th
“…essentially a poet (Gurung) of man on earth beset now with Diamond Birth Day (DBD) 2009. Furthermore, he had
extraterrestrial considerations on the one hand, and requested me to deliver my "invaluable greetings" to his father
fundamentalist chasms in human mind created by religionists on his DBD. And also had requested me to jot down some lines
and racially inclined on the other…fights battles in poetry with a of my thoughts and reflections whatever I knew about him and
doubleedged sword of humanism and sings the glory of how I knew about him.
intellectual triumph…” (Sw extracts from TRN n.d.?). Truly for I had rejected this idea of writing on him to one of my
a reader, Gurung “is a mélange of aesthetic consciousness often friends Uttam Katicha on Google chat on Sunday because of my
charged with metaphysical reverberations, finally to settle down own obligations of routine research hours at the university
compromising unmistakably with pragmatic values and office in Leipzig, Germany. I thought I escaped one page of
optimism…diverse aspects of life marked by love, passion, agonizing history in our KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr people's
alienation, nostalgia, fear, politics, death and awakening” (from
history of eastern Nepal. But when I received the email from
introduction of the Sw back cover).
his son Major Rajendra Sunuwar the other day, I obviously
Above all, poet Gurung’s “awakening” in hibernation to could not reject his request proposal for expressing some
witness “lies and hypocrisy” of our medievalDraconian society memorable reflections and greetings to him on this occasion.
has imparted human sensitivity for justice in sleepwalks as poet
First of all, on his DBD I wish Lt. Man Kyabacha's
Mukarung’s Nagarchi in insanity more broadly than ‘Pāgal’
(exonyms: Sunwar, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar, Mukhiya) long life
(‘The Lunatic’ ’56; available in English also) by Laxmi Prasad
above hundred since we have not yet won the whole battle of life
Devkota.
as comrades together. Though, by age he is my papa, he is one

of my best comrades I worked with him while I was lobbying for
Note
producing the primary level textbooks in our KirantiKõits
1 For a detailed information on the caste hierarchy system in Nepale ls/fFtL–sf]FOr Mother Tongue (MT) in the year 2006 (see Box 2
see András Höfer's work The Caste Hierarchy and the State in for application details). By this time at the end of 2005, I had
Nepal A Study of the Muluki Ain of 1854 (2004) published by
completed my PhD at the School of Language, Literature and
Himal Books.
Culture Studies, Centre for English & Linguistics, Jawaharlal
Nehru University, Delhi110 067, India.
In every endsemester while being in Kathmandu I used to
4 July 2005 insist Mokusu, the General Secretary (GS) of our Kõitsbu
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 10 July 2005, slightly revised and note Central Committee (KCC) to start for the procedure of
added here. producing the aforesaid textbooks. However, the GS never had
taken any serious action of my request proposal and my words
were in vain every time. Later, I came to know from some
29 Lt. Sunuwar as KirantiKõits textbook officials particularly Dik KirantiAthpare (exonym: Rai) at the
Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), Sanothimi, Bhaktapur
Maj. Rajendra Sunuwar1, one of Lt. Man Sunuwar's sons (see Boxes 2 and 3 below) that once upon a time Mahesh
emailed me an urgent message on Monday February 2, 2009, Kormocha had also visited for the same purpose and he never
at 2:58 PM via his Google email Account/ID: appeared himself there again.
rpsunuwar@gmail.com. His message was that a new book called
'A Multidimensional Personality of Lt. Man Sunuwar' (2009)
This was a very pathetic tale for me and for my Kiranti =================Box 2: Lt. Kyabacha (Sunwar) as chairperson in bold=============
Kõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr community and I had to open up the =============================================================================================================================
expedition ahead again. This expedition could only be initiated @@ j}zfv @)^# -% dO @))^_
in comradeship with officials officially. Mokusu as GS of our >L sfo{sf/L lgb]{zsHo"
KCC was one of the key officials to start with. However, he could >L g]kfn ;/sf/
not be tracked or traced anywhere since he was paving his final lzIff tyf v]ns'b dGqfno
path to IDCE, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA kf7\oqmd ljsf; s]Gb|
for his second Masters Studies after his Masters in RD (Rural ;fgf]l7dL, eQmk'/ .
Development) from Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. The only
official comrade I had to restart this voyage was certainly Lt. ljifoM ls/fFtL–sf]FOr -;'g'jf/÷d'lvof_ dft[efiffdf k|f=lj= txsf] kf7\oqmd–
Man Kyabacha to sign up my draft letter to the CDC (see Box 2) kf7\ok':ts lgdf{0f af/] .
and be present on that called out day by the office at Sanothimi. dxf]bo,
He was the person I desperately needed his helping hand and he pko'{Qm ;DaGwdf g]kfn clw/fHosf] k|foM k"jL{ efudf 5l/P/ /x]sf
had lent it to me. cflbjf;L hghfltdWo] ls/fFtL–sf]FOr -;'g'jf/÷d'lvof_ klg Ps ePsf] / pgLx?sf]
Therefore, on this memorable DBD of Lt. Kyabacha I want d"n lsk6Lof ynf] cf]Nnf] ls/fFt If]q cGtu{t cf]vn9'Íf, /fd]5fk / bf]nvf cflb
to write my recollections on him how and what I know about lhNnfx? ePsf] hfgsf/L u/fpFb} ;+ljwfg @)$& sf] wf/f !*, pk–wf/f -@_ sf]
him with 5 evidence boxes (26) cited here. The reason of k|fjwfg cg';f/ ls/fFtL–sf]FOr -;'g'jf//÷d'lvof_ dft[efiffdf klg k|fylds txsf]
presenting this concrete evidence here while writing on him has dft[efiff lzIff cltcfjZos ePsf]n] of] efiff ;DaGwL vfsf tYox?–@, kLPr8L
double advantages, first is to make clear the blame on me that zf]wkqx?–@, PdP zf]wkqx?–$, pknAw ;flxTo -cg'jflbt ;flxTo–@ Kn;,
"Lal Rapacha alone did this textbook writing exercise secretly" zAbsf]zx?–*, sljtf–@! -;+u|lxt / k'm6s/;lxt_, k"0ff{ª\sL gf6s–!, ;'g'jf/
(so one page of agonizing history in KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr lnlk÷h]Fltrf lnlk cg';GwgfTds n]vx?–!$, lgaGwx?–^, kq–klqsfx?–&,
people's history), and second to venerate the senior official Lt. Kff7\ok':tsx?–^, Jofs/0fx?–$_ / xfn;Dd k|fKt ePsf cGo ;fdu|Lx? h:t}M
Kyabacha as the key person in this adventure. efiffj}1flgs cWoogx?–!)!, ;+:s[lt ;DaGwL cWoogx?–&, P]ltxfl;s /
;dfh–dfgjzf:qLo cWoogx?–^!, ;Defljt n]vs–n]lvsfx?sf] gfd–!$ /
When I drafted the official letter as given in Box 2 below ;Defljt cWofkg Onfsfx?–@! cflb o;} lgj]bgsf] ;fy ;+nUg u/L ;Dk"0f{
after several times' personal visits on personal expenses with ls/fFtL–sf]FOr -;'g'jf/÷d'lvof_x?sf] Psn 5ftf ;+:yf ls/fFt ;'g'jf/ ;]jf
full supporting details on literature available, Lt. Kyabacha was ;dfhsf] tkm{af6 of] lgj]bg k]z u/]sf 5f}+ .
very curious about it and signed up the letter immediately. The
draft letter as readers can go through in Box 2 includes the of] lgj]bg pk/ ;s/fTds sfjf{xL x'g] g} 5 eGg] cfzf /fVb} xflb{s wGojfb
information on literature on our MT KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr 6qm\ofpg rfxG5f}+ .
of eastern Nepal in detail so that the CDC office had no chance
of refusal this time. So far as I remember, I was interviewed by
cfj]bsåo,
the officials at CDC whether we had debates like that of other -cWoIf_ dfgaxfb'/ ;'g'jf/
communities, e.g., some groups of Sherpa, Kham vs. Magar, -dxf;lrj_ df]xg sf]/\df]rf–;'g'jf/ -df]s';'_
Kulung vs. Rai and so forth. I assured them "not at all". Then, I
ls/fFt ;'g'jf/ ;]jf ;dfhsf] tkm{af6
hurried up for consulting the literature needed and drafted the
letter in my own NEC laptop supported by Kõitsbu Hong Kong
cfjZos ;+nUg sfuhftx?– !% kfgf of] cfj]bg;lxt gTyL u/L ;+nUg ul/Psf]
actively led by Kuku Suryaram Durbicha.
=============================================================================================================================
On the day of our letter submission to CDC, Sanothimi, secrecy". Actually, it was done collectively or officially and
Bhaktpur Lt. Kyabacha was the senior most official present with publicly with all officials if not advisors as such. His main
official stamps along with Man Sunuwar (Lecturer of Population intention was that his Tikamuli Blese should be supported by
Studies, MR Campus, TU, Tahachal) and some handful of Lal Rapacha and he could have OK'd our textbook writing
members including Tek Sunuwar, now the vicechair of NEFIN proposal. And on my research part as an academic exercise,
(Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities). Mokusu as GS Karna Jẽ:ticha's efforts since the 1940s could not be forgotten
could not attend on that historic day for submission because of or undermined as we/I cannot forget Lt. Kyabacha's efforts in
his aforesaid cause. the making of our literature and history today.
I alone from 220, Anamnagar had been there with all
heavy loads of literature as mentioned in the draft letter in Box ===============Box 3: A dismal emessage conveyed to Hong Kong==================
2. The office needed all such proofs that we and our MT exist in
=============================================================================================================================
Nepal. Lt. Kyabacha seeing all this efforts not met and seen ever
before was smiling and signed up the letter as chairperson 12 January 07, Friday
immediately. So May 5, 2006 (see Box 2) is one of the most 220, Anamnagar
important dates in the history of KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr MT Dear Kuku,
textbook production that one should always remember. I myself Seu taakine.
remember him ever for he made my academic efforts a success Many thanks for your last email of the bygone year 2006. Well, I had
as my fellow comrade in need. Of course, a friend in need is a guessed that you might have been to the mainland China on New
friend in deed. Year's vacation. I was quite aware of the Taiwan earthquake also. Now
everything must be okay.
After 8 months of our application at CDC, Sanothimi on 27
December 2006 and on 31 December in the same year Kantipur Today, I'll narrate you very briefly a happy but dismal story in the
daily and Annapurna Post respectively publicized the news linguisticidentity history of our KirantiKõits (Sunuwar/Mukhia)
people. Our happiness comes from the two local newspapers' news
(Box 4 A and B) on our MT and our happiness new no bounds.
published from the capital city here (see Box 4). After one whole year
However, our happiness proved to be very transitory since of application at the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC),
Kuku2 Tikaram Mulicha filed a complaint letter at CDC and in Sanothimi, the first news broke out on 27 December 06 in the popular
other Ministries for contravening and opposing the textbook daily mentioning our language and its curriculum and textbooks in the
writing activity until his Tikamuli Script in place of Jẽ:ticha pipeline. I and some of our people were very happy because we also
Script for writing our MT was passed unanimously by the KCC have some space in this country. The same news was published in
(cf. Box 3: A dismal emessage to Hong Kong). another daily on 31 December 06 the last day of our identification as a
linguistic group.
Uttam Katicha, one of the textbook writers witnessed
hearing that "it was okay for thousands of years without However, to our tragedy immediately after two days of the first news
Tikaram Mulicha had filed a complaint letter at the CDC office and in
textbooks and now again for another thousand year without text
other Ministries for contravening and opposing the textbook writing
book makes no difference for our KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr activity until his Tikamuli Script in place of Jẽ:ticha Script for writing
people" is what Kuku Tikaram Mulicha fumed and wanted to our Mother Tongue is passed unanimously by the Kõitsbu Central
stop this textbook writing activity unless his Tikamuli Blese Committee (KCC). I agree whatever scripts they use but the KCC
'Tikamuli Script' was recognized by the KCC unanimously. My opposes it. I was badly criticized for doing things with CDC alone
claim of "no debate at all" at the CDC office proved to be wrong. which is not true. I had worked in collaboration with the Central
And thus Kuku Tikaram Mulicha proved it wrong by blaming Committee members straight away after submitting my PhD Thesis
me that "Lal Rapacha alone did this textbook writing exercise in
last year. Only a few KirantiKõits people were obliged to my/our =============================Box 4: First two news on KirantiKõits Lo=====================
personal efforts and most others were indifferent to it.
=============================================================================================================================
Now I am not present in the textbook writing team. The Tikamuli Lipi
vs Jẽ:ticha Script groups are fighting a cold war. In order to continue A. /fhj+zL / ;'g'jf/ efiffsf] kf7\oqmd aGg]
writing the textbooks; Tikaram Mulicha has to withdraw his case filed ;fgf]l7dL -eQmk'/_, !! k'; -sf;_– kf7\oqmd ljsf; s]Gb|n] /fhj+zL / ;'g'jf/
earlier. But so far as I know he has not withdrawn it back till today. At
the moment I fear that our people are going to miss this opportunity in efiffsf] kf7\oqmd agfpg] ePsf] 5 . of];lxt dft[efiffsf] kf7\oqmd ;+Vof !$ k'u]sf]
our own internal conflicts and other language groups are going to 5.
overtake us. I am helpless in both side's tug of war though I love our ‘dft[efifLn] lbPsf] lgj]bg / jStf ;+Vofsf cfwf/df s]Gb|n] kf7\oqmd agfpg
Mother Tongue as our identity at least in the native soil here. It's a
pity! nfu]sf] xf] . …lgj]bg k/]sf / jStf ;+Vofsf] cfwf/df of] k6s ;'g'jf/ / /fhj+zL
I hope and wish– things might go okay.
efiffsf] kf7\oqmd agfpg] tof/Ldf 5f}+’, kf7\oqmd clws[t hok|;fb nD;fnn]
sflGtk'/l;t eg]– t/ /fhj+zL efiffLx? ;Dks{df cfPsf 5}gg\ .
Thanks.
Inkali nampaib inke yats,
;fef/M sflGtk'/, aif{ !$, cª\s #)^ k]h %, !@ k'; )^# -@& l8;]Da/ )^_
Dr LalShyãkarelu Rapacha B. yk b'O{ efiffdf kf7\oqmd
Founder/Director eQmk'/M kf7\oqmd ljsf; s]Gb|n] /fhj+zL / ;'g'jf/ efiffsf] kf7\oqmd agfpg] ePsf]
Research Institute for Kirãtology 5 . s]Gb|n] dft[efiffx?sf] dfunfO{ b[li6ut u/L oL b'O{ efiffsf] kf7\oqmd agfpg
Kathmadu, N E P A L nfu]sf] s]Gb|sf clws[t hok|;fb nD;fnn] atfpg' eof] . ;f] s]Gb|n] o; cl3
=============================================================================================================================
d}lynL, cjwL, ef]hk'/L, yf?, lnDa", tfdfª, g]jf/, /fO{ afGtjf, du/, u'?ª, z]kf{ /
/fO{ rflDnª u/L !@ dft[efiffsf] kf7\oqmd agfO;s]sf] hgfPsf] 5 . clgjfo{ g]kfnL
=============================================================================================================================
/ cª\u|]hL ljifojfx]s cGo ;a} ljifosf] kf7\oqmd dft[efiffaf6} agfOg] hfgsf/L
Most of us then including Lt. Kyabacha and his spouse CA klg pxfFn] lbg' eof] . –/f;;
MP (now) Mulitami were in trouble how we could succeed in ;fef/M cGgk"0f{ kf]i6, aif{ %, cª\s @$@ k]h @, !^ k'; )^# -#! l8;]Da/ )^_
this mission. Coincidentally, Kuku Timaram Mulicha was one =============================================================================================================================
the nearest relatives of them. The couple had a very tough time
to do padarnamdar for Kuku Tikaram Mulicha and further =============================================================================================================================
take up this mission towards accomplishment. Certainly, Kuku
Additionally, we/I were lucky enough to have our
Tikaram Mulicha proved to be tougher than Sida Badze3 in our
diplomatic comrades like Lt. Kyabacha and Mulitami (CA MP)
KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr cultural myths. I never had in our adventure team. Both of them were able to make the
experienced before such indifference and indulgence in my life. tougher Kuku Mulicha softer ever before and Uttam Katicha in
Fortunately, whatever had already happened that it happened between was another tactful as well as dashing moderator of his
for better after all! Tikaram was good for us all and we all were demands and go ahead for the hardly conceived and won
good for him. All were good for our people's sake and for our textbook named Yĩ Low ('Our Language') in 2007 from CDC,
identity's sake. Sanothimi, Bhaktpur only in one condition that Lal Rapacha
should pull out his nomination as a textbook writer from the
team. I had to sacrifice myself for our identity's sake and drew
out my nomination from Khados Kyabacha (KCC Secretary)
back very happily and willingly for a cause of our people.
Then, Uttam, Tikaram, Prem and Khados without a single programs and may ask your role there for letting our people know
female writer representative were the veterans to lead this among other Kiranti members and all over Nepal and abroad.
mission ahead under the leadership of Lt. Kyabacha. This time I've attached one PDF research file for you on our Kiranti
Contributors behind the curtain till today are Atit Mukhiya, Tek Kõits language from Wallo Kirant. This letter includes a new small
Sunuwar, Sameer Mukhiya and Lokpriya Mulicha. All these piece of news from Kantipur daily as shown below (see Box 5). Our
leaders under Lt. Kybacha's leadership were and still are able to mother tongue is in bold type face.
make our community's identity and glory in the form of Kiranti Thanks.
Kõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr textbook. I immediately shared this moment Inkali nampaib inke yats,
of glory and agony via emessage with our people in Hong Kong Dr LalShyãkarelu Rapacha
as given in Box 5 along with the news again in hand.
Founder/Director
The second news of the Kantipur daily (see Box 6 below) Research Institute for Kirãtology
then brought our denied and lost identity and glory back
amongst us in the main stream journalism or media. Again Lt. Kathmadu, N E P A L
Kyabacha was our/mine guardian hero who in such increasing =============================================================================================================================
age also proved himself to be younger than me. I recall him even =============================================================================================================================
at this moment as a Good Samaritan even from this far off land
from my country home of green, green grass.
============================Box 6: Second news on KirantiKõits Lo=========================

=============================================================================================================================
=======Box 5: KirantiKõits identity and glory conveyed to Hong Kong ====
yk b'O{;lxt rf}w efiffdf k7gkf7g x'g]
=============================================================================================================================
29 January 07, Monday
sf7df8f}+, % df3 -sf;_– kf7\oqmd ljsf; s]Gb|n] cfpFbf] z}lIfs ;qaf6
220, Anamnagar rf}w efiffdf k7gkf7g ug]{ ePsf] 5 . xfn;Dd !@ j6f efiffdf k7gkf7g x'Fb} cfPsf]
Dear Kuku nu nelle family members, 5.
Seu taakine. ‘ca /fhj+zL / ;'g'jf/ efiffsf] kf7\k':ts agfpg nfu]sf 5f}+’, s]Gb|sf lgldQ
I am writing in response to your last email of January 25 Thursday lgb]{zs lrqk|;fb b]jsf]6fn] eg]– ‘;"rLs[t ul/Psf efiffdWo] lnlvt b:tfj]h,
morning. ;flxTosf cfwf/ agfP/ k|fyldstf lb+b}5f}+ .’ lzIffkqsf/ ;d"xåf/f z'qmaf/
Dear kuku, not only you are in cage but all human beings including me cfof]lht dft[efiff lzIff ljifo cGtlq{mofdf hgfOPsf] xf] .
are in a sort of prison house or cage of their thoughts, lives, and o;}u/L k7gkf7g x'Fb}cfPsf !@ j6f efiffdf tL sIff;Ddsf ul0ft, lj1fg,
environments and broadly time and spaces. That is what human fate is
all about. Anyway, the world should go around. We humans like
;fdflhs ljifo dft[efiffdf k7gkf7g x'g] ePsf] 5 . dft[efiff k9fpgsf lglDt
bubbles appear and disappear soon. Temporariness of human life in a ;DalGwt ;d'bfosf ljBfnodf sfo{/t lzIfsn] å}eflifs ?kdf k9fpg' kg]{
way is its beauty and time and spaces its decorum. I may think that ;/sf/sf] gLlt /x]sf] b]jsf]6fn] atfP .
your life is better and wide and vice versa. Actually, all such thoughts
are illusions and we survive in it.
d'n'sdf ! ;o $# efiff /x]sf] rrf{ ub}{ efiffzf:qL cd[t of]Ghg–tfdfªn]
dft[efiff k7gkf7g P]lR5s geO{ dfWod efiff aGg' kg]{ atfP . ‘clxn] klg
And even in such temporary moments of our life as you said is full of
jealousy, pride, selfishness including all seven deadly sins. With your
;+ljwfgn] dft[efiffnfO{ km8\sf] dfg{ ;s]sf] 5}g’, efiffzf:qL tfdfªn] eg]– ‘;+ljwfg
blessings on me and with your encouragement on my steps, I've been jfws aGg' x'Fb}g . ;a} efiff ;dfg 5g\ . k9\g rfxg]n] k9\5g\ .’ cGtl/d ;+ljwfgdf
utilizing my life's temporal moments for the sake of our community's d'n'ssf ;a} efiff /fi6«efiff pNn]v /x] klg k7gkf7gaf/] :ki6 gePsf] pgn] hgfP .
identity and glory. I'll very soon let you know my ongoing research
‘cleefjs / lzIfsnfO{ dft[efiffsf] dxTj a'emfpg g;Sg' k|d'v sdhf]/L Notes

xf]’, kf7\oqmd clws[t hok|;fb nD;fnn] eg]– ‘clwsf+z efiffdf n]Vo ;fdu|Lsf] 1 Maj. Sunuwar on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 wrote, Dr sab,
sdL 5 .’ vf; eflifs 5gf}6, eO/fv]sf lzIfssf] pkof]u x'g g;s]sf], dft[efiffdf Bubako barema lekhi dinu bhayekoma dherai dhanebat. samayko
kf7\o;fdu|L pTkfbg / ljt/0f Jojxfl/s gx'g' ;d:of /x]sf] pgn] atfP . abhab ra kitab Kampose bhai sakeko le hal prakashan garna
sakiyena. tara dosro sanskaranma prakasan gardaichhau. dosro
dft[efiffdf lzIff kfpg] clwsf/nfO{ ;+j}wflgs ?kdf Joj:yf ul/g' kg]{ sanskaran lagatai niskalne kramma chhau. dosro sanskaranko ra
hgd'vL lzIff ;/f]sf/ dGrsf 6Lsf e§/fO{n] atfP . ‘ax'eflifstf, ax'ntfsf] hamro lagi ati bahumulya tapaiko lekh sanrachhit rakhine chha.
cj:yf / h}ljs ljljwtf;d]t cfhsf] 68\sf/f] d'2f xf]’, dft[efiff z}lIfs ljlwnfO{ Dhanyebat. (English version– 'Many thanks for writing on my
Wofg lbg' kg]{ pNn]v ub}{ pgn] eg] . dad. We couldn't publish it because of time constraints and also
the the book's layout had already been completed. However, we'll
;fef/M sflGtk'/, aif{ !$, cª\s ##), k]h $, ^ df3 )^# -@) hgj/L @))&_, zlgjf/ publish it in our second edition as we're in the process of making
============================================================================================================================= its second edition available soon. Your valuable write up for us will
be kept safely. Thanks'. My translation).
=============================================================================================================================
2 KirantiKõits term for maternal uncle.
His camaraderie in both years 2006 and 2007 was a 3 See KirantiKõits Sida Badze folklore in Rapacha (2005).
chancy one since he had spent most of his life in serving the
4 KirantiKõits term for saying 'thanks' or 'best wishes for progress'.
British Queen and winning the Empire for the Queen and her
peoples. I cannot at the moment imagine myself how he fought
thousands of wars for the Union Jack by leading his troops and
leading himself in every frontier. I even do not know how much
respect and memory today the Queen and her peoples have 2 February 2009, Monday, sent via email on 5 February 2009. I've
slightly revised this essay here in its earlier version.
towards Lt. Kyabacha's medals, bravery or for his contributions,
but one thing I am cocksure about his postBritishGurkha
service life in Nepal is like that of Hercules stealing the fire from
heaven for mankind, and Lt. Kyabacha stole back his MT (Yĩ
30 Poet Bhattachan's creative anarchism
Low) as his own identity in the form of our KirantiKõits ls/fFtL– Poet Krishna Bhattachan’s recent poetic creation ‘Memoir
sf]FOr textbook from amidst the KhasBahundom in Nepal. He on washouts’ like ‘Bise Nagarchi’s confession’ by Shrawan
has already reincarnated himself twice in 2007 and 2008 in the Mukarung, is another tour de force through the perspective of
form of Yĩ Low to our people's visible existence in Wallo Kirant, "creative anarchism" reflecting a surrealistic view of
eastern Nepal. His reincarnation is expected ever again. sociopoliticohistorical scenario of presentday Nepal since the
invasion of ethnoindigenous minorities’ territory including their
Finally, on his auspicious 75th DBD, I wish him his longer ethnic identity, languages, cultures, religions, history and
life and the reason of my wish is to win now in his camaraderie knowledge. While doing an ethnocritical reading of poet
another dreamt mission for Radio and TV programmes in our Bhattachan’s particular creativepiece as a reader and audience
MT KirantiKõits ls/fFtL–sf]FOr Lo. This is how and what I know I shall first introduce the literary movement ‘creative
about Lt. Man Kyabacha (Sunuwar) on the eve of his 75th anarchism’.
birthday. Live long our Lieutenant Hero amongst us and with us Creative anarchism, by implication, is one of the
in our hearts ever. We all are gupsu 'lion' and no one is siwar contemporary Nepali literary movements according to critic Dr
'jackal' in this revival Age of our Indigenous Peoples in Nepal Govindaraj Bhattarai, who concisely has discussed in the Himal
and all around the fourth world. Tseredum4. Khabarpatrika (16 Asoj15 Kattik 2062), a Nepali periodical
(also see Paalaam and Semi Phaaktaalung) published by Himal looks upon Nepali literature and society especially through

Association. This movement for the first time was propounded poetry today.
by a group of ethnopoetscritics Upendra Subba, Hangyug ‘Memoir on washouts’ first published in Drishya Nepal
Agyant and Rajan Mukarung in 2000/05 and mainly practised (which I had found in a Xeroxed page on the notice board of the
by Shrawan Mukarung, Dharmendravikram Nembang and Yayokkha library when I had been to deliver a gift of my
Krishna Bhattachan to name a few among others. Doctoral Thesis there on Jan 5, 2006) another Nepali periodical
Some of its basic tenets are: pluralthought, cultural and dated Pus 5, 2062 is full of such historical, political, racial,
racial consciousness, poetic limitlessness plus creative decision. cultural, social, linguistic and religious illustrations as metaphor
And it mainly rejects the slogan of ‘onenation, onereligion and illustrating recent devastations of the country in every spheres
onelanguage’ in the mainstream Nepalese literary trends of the of our Nepalese lives including ethnoindigenous minorities’
past and at present as well. Nepal’s multiethnic, multireligious identity, mother tongues, cultures, religions and human rights.
and multilinguistic dynamics is an unhidden fact so that the Those losers and defeated minorities represented by
best literary creativity should include racial consciousness, “Bhote, Lahure and Matuwalis…” in the eyes of the high
consciousness of multicultural beauty, and perennial search of caste/race victors, are always “naïve, low and cruel…” This high
ethnomemory and historical consciousness. vs. low race or caste dichotomy or ageold orthodoxparadigm
The literary movement propounded in defiance of the now in Nepalese society should shift for justice as the poet
established norms of creativity and criticism is led by youths voices prophetically,
brought up in bilingual and dualcultural settings and “…right to selfdecision won!
consciousness whose mother tongues, literature, scripts,
federalism won!
cultures are on the verge of extinction. Critic Dr Bhattarai in his
evaluation finds poet Mukarung’s ‘Bise Nagarchi’s confession’ racial, linguistic and regional autonomy won!
as one of the best expressions and representations of such state proportional representation won!
where ethnoindigenous minorities and Dalits who were and are secularism won!
marginalized for a long period of time leading to extinction in equal linguistic rights won…!” (2062: 43)
the age of pluralism and inclusive democracy. Of course like
His hope as a poet emanates from the deeper recesses of
inclusive democracy, inclusive creativity and criticism make
his cultural memory of those enthnoindigenous minority
sense restoring those excluded, decentered and marginalized at
peoples’ sociocultural agents and pantheons viz., “Phedangma,
the centre hopefully.
Yawa, SawaYuma, SumnimaParuhang, Pe, Pachyu, Ghyabre
Like poet Mukarung, poet Bhattachan also has optimistic Petaluta, BathauGuruba, BomboSangdung, AjuAjima, Thom
or reformist dreams what polscientists would reword or re Lam, ChyohomThungba, Lha Lhangba, Nhrubu, Lha Hyaba
paraphrase as ‘restructuring the state’ for the ultimate peace Rhangjyung” and so on. Poet Bhattachan in ‘Memoir on wash
and development of the country. It is interesting that poets and outs’ individually and the literary movement ‘Creative
polscientists have a common goal through different mediums Anarchism’ collectively by invoking those enthopantheons,
of the same language. memory and history as a part of their creativity seek
In addition, what is more interesting and surprising to me proportionate equilibrium of peace and prosperity within
as a reader and audience is his first poetic creation ‘Memoir on political, social, cultural, literary and linguistic fascism.
washouts’ since I knew him only as a scholar of sociology and
minority enthoindigenous nationalities. While reading his
beautiful piece of poem ‘Memoir on washouts’ reminded me of Wednesday, 15 Feb 2006
the movement and its impact upon the way Nepalese society Source: The Kathmandu Post, 23 April 2006
31 Of understanding Kiranti grammars verbal paradigms on person and number affixes, basic tense and
negative paradigms only of Athpare and Bantawa have been
The Structure of Kiranti Languages: Comparative Grammar outlined .The second appendix, Appendix B (pp. 154280) has
and Texts included the texts from these languages and the sources of the
Karen H. Ebert. Zurich: ASAS, Universität Zurich, 1994. Pp. 283+ texts are available in all languages except for Limbu. This
ISBN 395 201052 grammar is the culmination of her fieldwork study in the
eastern hills of Nepal mainly on Camling and Athpare languages
Karen H. Ebert’s grammar on TibetoBurman (TB) and the rest of the data extracted are mainly from Allen (1975)
Kiranti languages (acronym SKL: CGT)1, to my knowledge is the for Thulung, Toba (1984) Khaling, Rai (1985) Bantawa and van
first typological (although the term ‘comparative grammar’ has Driem (1987) for Limbu. The narrative representation of fifteen
not strictly been used in Crystal’s (1980: 66 and 362363) sense myths and folktales explicate the Kiranti peoples’ cultural, social
grammar of such type on geographically lessaccessible and and political worldviews.
‘nearly extinct’ (Crystal 2000: 20) Kiranti languages (see Box: 7
The first chapter, ‘Introductory Remarks’ (pp. 818),
for their regional distribution and Appendix A also) spoken in
begins with a brief general observation and phonemic inventory
Eastern hills of Nepal from the Likhu river in the west plus
of the six represented Kiranti languages. Some of her general
across the Nepal border to northeast India viz., Sikkim and
conclusions are:
Darjeeling. Phylogenetically2, the generic phyla ‘Kiranti’ under
TB subfamily, includes not less than thirtytwo (cf. Rai 1985, a. many of these languages are not even known by name
Hanβon 1991a, Nishi 1992 and Pokharel 1994) scantily to the linguistic world,
described languages. Or most of them are yet awaiting linguistic b. their phylogenetic grouping and subgroupings
description and further documentation in any form of grammar proposed till today (cf. Grierson 1909, Benedict 1972,
or dictionary. To some extent, some of these languages have Shafer 1953, Matisoff 1978, Hanβon 1991 and van
been investigated only recently after Allen’s A Sketch of Driem1992) are all rather tentative due to the poor
Thulung Grammar (1975) in the Kiranti linguistic literature. documentation of most members of the group,
c. most of them are threatened by extinction,
Till the year 1994, all other grammatical descriptions and d. are SOV languages with a rather strict order of
investigations were based on separate individual Kiranti languages, modifiers before heads,
e.g. Toba (1984), Rai (1985), van Driem (1987) and (1993b), e. South Eastern (SE) languages are mainly
Michailovsky (1988) and Ebert (1997a and 1997b). Besides these agglutinative and words can easily be split up into
detailed works, there is a great deal of papers on several morphs, whereas the northern languages have more
grammatical aspects of the Kiranti grammars published since the stem variation and portmanteau forms,
late 1960s and onwards. Therefore, I prefer to suggest Ebert’s f. verb is characterized by a complex system of person
grammar as the first typological account on the Kiranti languages and number markers,
because she has included six Kiranti languages viz., Khaling, g. agreement system is sensitive to the pragmatic
Thulung, Camling [Tsamling], Athpare, Bantawa and Limbu constellation and agentpatient are usually marked on
(Phedappe dialect) for the purpose of describing the grammatical the verb,
structures of these languages3. A reader trained in linguistics will be h. are morphologically ergative, where Camling and
amazed by very much similar and dissimilar grammatical features of Thulung exhibit a split between speech act
these mutually unintelligible languages termed as ‘Kiranti.’ participants, whereas in Limbu pronouns and nouns,
The SKL: CGT has been organized in six chapters and two i. gender distinction is marginal,
appendixes. In the first appendix, Appendix A (pp. 140150) j. the coding of space is a fascinating part,
k. make little use of converbs and participles in mh, n, nh, ŋ, ŋh, w, l, lh, r, rh, y / and six vowels /a, e, i, o, u /

subordination the northern and western languages having (ʌ) as optional. This inventory is self contradicted in her
somewhat more than the southern languages and latter grammar of Camling (1997b: 810) in which she has
Limbu. Hayu, the westernmost language, has no mentioned thirty consonant phonemes out of which four
converbs, but uses participles more frequently than phonemes, e.g. /j/ [dz], /jh/ [dzh], (p. 9) and /gh/ as optional.
Athpare and Camling [Tsamling]. Most subordinate The number of optional vowels is increased up to three, e.g. /ә,
clauses have fully inflected verbs followed by a case ʌ and b/ (p. 10). This inventory has been challenged with
marker (often without and intervening nominalizer) twentyseven consonant and eight vowels by B.S. Yalungcha’s
or some other subordinator; and TsamlingNepali Dictionary.
l. make extensive use of compound verbs (pp. 810).
Ebert (p. 14) is nearly accurate on listing the phonemes of
Apart from these general observations, Ebert has made Bantawa (p.16) but she has missed out one glottal stop (ɂ)
some generalizations on the phonemic inventory part also. phoneme, which has been listed in Dik Bantawa’s (1998)
These languages lack fricatives except for /s/ and /h/. Voiced grammar. Bantawa (ibid 2ff) has listed only six vowels, whereas
stops are rare phonemes in the SE languages. Initial /g, gh, j, jh/ Ebert has listed seven vowels with /ә/ as optional (p. 16).
are restricted mainly to loan words. Her observation is only Similarly the LNED (2002) has overshadowed all other
partially true, which will be explained later. In Limbu voiced previous available literature on the Limbu language and
stops are allophones of unvoiced consonants after nasal, glottal linguistics. Ebert’s grammar is no such exception. The LNED (p.
stop and in intervocalic position; the only voiced phoneme in 19) has listed twentyfive consonants out of which nine are
final position is /b/ (la:b * la:ba (LimbuNepali English allophones and only sixteen consonants have phonemic status,
Dictionary (hereafter LNED 2002: 413 and 613)) ‘moon’ vs. la:p whereas Ebert (p. 140) has listed eighteen consonants as
‘wing’). In the northern languages Thulung and Khaling voiced phonemes. The number of vowels is also inconsistent between
and voiceless initials are approximately equal in frequency. Ebert (p. 16) and the LNED (p. 19). This could have been
Aspiration is phonemic in all the languages included in this examined closely and explained or justified if she had provided
study. Although these generalizations seem to be simplistic at the distribution of phonemes accounted with considerable data.
first sight, her phonemic inventory is in a loss at least in the To add one more phonological feature of the Kiranti languages
case of Camling, Bantawa and Limbu as van Driem (1997: 474) is that all of them are not toneprone.
points out, “TibetoBurman comparativists are at a loss to
distinguish with confidence between loan words, the result of At the end of this chapter, the author has provided some
sound laws, and the effect of analogy”. One obvious reason is additional notes on the phonemic transcription of Limbu,
mainly because there are no exhaustive research on the Bantawa,Thulung, Khaling and Nepali. She has critically
phonetics and phonology of these languages and dialects. pointed out that although Novel K Rai’s (1985) dissertation
differentiates between apicoalveolar (D/T) and dental stops
Till this date no linguist is confident on the possible total (d/t), there seem to be no nominal pair (p. 17) of D/T in
number of phonemes in any Kiranti languages given to one; Bantawa. Ebert’s another clarification is on the orthography of
whatever literature available. “Theelephantandtheblind RomanGurkhali ‘ch’ unaspirated and ‘chh’ aspirated to the
man” principle is at work. Another reason of this inconsistency transcribed as /c/ and /ch/ respectively in accordance with
or loss is that it is difficult to find out sufficient or any written linguistic convention. But ironically her own transcription of
records of these languages. As a result, Ebert is also inconsistent [tsamliŋ] has been misunderstood as [kæmliŋ] by her book
while making the phoneme inventory of Camling [Tsamling]. In reviewers (Bhattarai and Vihwol 1999: 135137). These
this grammar (p. 14), she has listed twentynine consonant
phonemes, /p, ph, b, bh, t, th, d, dh, c, ch, j, jh, k, kh, g, s, h, m,
transcription notes have justified her consistent transcription in Chapter 4, ‘Deixis and location’ (pp. 9099) describes the
the grammar in relation to its phonetic literature available. fascinating part of space coding in Kiranti. They distinguish
In chapter 2, ‘The verb’ (pp. 1974) focuses on stems and high, low and level locative in vertical case. Adverbs are always
their variation, transitiveintransitive and causative stems, preceded by deictic plus verticality. At least three types of
non/finite forms, person and number affixes, basic tense, mood, vertical verbs are common in Kiranti. But Ebert’s data on
converbs, participles, compound verbs and so on. Like Nettle’s Camling (Chamling) and Bantawa for ‘up above’ contradict to
(1999: 5) concept of a human linguistic pool, Kiranti languages each other with that of Novel K Rai (2002). This contradiction
are amazingly linked to each other in their linguistic pool. Here has created confusion for a comparativist/ typologist reader and
is an example of infinitive marker from the morphology of these researcher as well. Her data ‘pyupāmo’ cowGEN (p. 99) and
languages: Limbu [Yakthumba] ‘ma’, Athapare ‘ma’, Bantawa ‘gāiwā’ cowERG (p. 100) has lost its consistency in vocabulary
‘ma’, Rodung [Camling] ‘ma’, Thulung ‘mu’, Khaling ‘na’ (p. use and semantic aspects.
55), Wambule [RaDhu] ‘cam’, Jerung ‘kha’ (Rai 2002), and Chapter 5, ‘Simple sentences’ (pp. 100111) and chapter 6,
Kõits [Sunuwar] ‘ca’ and Bayung [Bahing] ‘co’ (my data). But ‘Complex sentences’ (p. 112137) are interrelated to each other
on the contrary, Rai’s (2002) data on Khaling ‘ne’ contradicts exploring all possible syntactic structures in Kiranti. The basic
with that of Ebert. Although Ebert’s data is based on secondary word order is s(ubject), o(bject) and v(erb). This order of
source, it seems to a certain extent that the western linguists Kiranti satisfies Greenberg’s nonabsolute universal 5 and 21
also tend to nativise the Kiranti phonology, as they prefer to call (Song 2001: 67 and Comrie 1981: 19) having postposition and
them aliens or exotic or heathen at their own ease. Another the ‘np’ order string as
point where she has missed to tap the Camling nativizing ‘{DEM+GEN/poss (pron)} +NUM +ADJ/ATTR +poss (prefix) +N’ (p. 100)
morphemes are: ‘()mumā’ and ‘()bā(lā)mā’ misinterpreted as
The Kiranti copula and comparative structures, as case
auxiliary. There is another dialectal variation ‘bālā’ of these
markers in Athpare, Camling and Thulung’lai’ (Nep. p. 81) in
indivisible nativizing morphemes.
chapter 3, have freely borrowed comparative markers in their
Similarly, chapter 3 explores pronouns, number, gender, structure, e.g. ‘bhʌndā’ (pp. 1067 Nep.) in Athpare and
numerals, classifiers, case/direction markers and nominalizing Bantawa. So does Camling in its reportive particle ‘rʌichʌ’ (pp.
morphemes. All these languages represented here have first
191240 text and wherever text cited). The ergative
person dual exclusive –inclusive, and first person plural
constructions exhibit a pattern of split ergativity based on a
exclusive –inclusive distinction. All of them have three
person hierarchy. As a result, ergativity is rather superficial trait
(singular, dual, plural) numbers. Possessive prefix ‘a’ for first
of Kiranti morphology, where all third person or demonstratives
person singular is common for all these languages except for
are marked but not all first persons.
Bantawa ‘iŋ’. Classifiers and numbers are ‘seldom used’ (p. 79)
in those languages. Contrary to Ebert's claim, some Wentern The complex sentences in Kiranti are basically of two
Kiranti languages like Wambule [RaDhu], Bayung and Kõits types on the basis of degree of reduction. In the nonfinite verb,
[Sunuwar] use 'nimphā' as numeral classifier and most of these which does not carry finite tense or person markers; subjects
languages have numbers for counting in order to meet their are always deleted (p. 112). These sorts of clauses are maximally
communication needs. The only reason these languages might reduced, whereas the minimally reduced clauses are finite. This
have used IndoAryan Nepali numbers while communicating trait occurs only in Athpare (ibid.). Ebert’s generalization of
due to the country's assimilative sociopoliticohistorical and western and northern languages generally and frequently
monolithic language policy adopted for 230 years of history. having nonfinite clauses, e.g. Hayu (which is not represented in
the grammar) is mentioned only by way of reference without
data for evidence. Her hasty claim that Kiranti has no
coordination of sentence (p. 12) is partially justifiable. The Athpare also. Ebert’s glossing MAN (p. 70) has not been
origin of subordinators in Kiranti, are commonly case markers mentioned in abbreviations. There is one typing error
and inflectional morphemes. In most Kiranti languages, the apetivizer* (p. 7). Some of her sentences, e.g. mikotāhiŋe ‘you
variational functions thus differ semantically (Matisoff 1978) of have seen it’ (p. 46) is not free from grammatical lapses to
these verb inflections, e.g.‘sa’ in Kiranti changes its meaning as which Abbi (1994: 77) phrases as ‘ungrammatical bag’.
a chameleon in pragmaticallyoriented use. Despite such negligible errors of a linguist as nonnative
As a whole, the SKL: CGT is magnum opus. The students speaker, it suffices to say that Ebert’s effort is Herculean.
of TB linguistics in general and researches on TB Kiranti Moreover, it would have been more Herculianlike if she had
languages in particular can immensely take advantage of it. added only one or two languages from Wallo Kirant ‘Hither
Naturally, this is purely a linguistic description by a professional Kirant’ (Grierson 1909: 274 and 316) like that of Michailovky’s
linguist and has less applicability in pedagogy. Thus, it is almost ‘Phonological typology of Nepal languages’ (1998) so that a
not accessible for the general readers. But one can easily extract considerable number of Kiranti languages would see the
material or structures out of this grammar for the purpose of daylight of the western as well as eastern world of linguistics
writing a pedagogical grammar. and linguists. The representation of only six out of not less than
The linguistic map (p. 9) of the TB Kiranti languages has two dozens TB Kiranti languages (cf. Rapacha 2008) is meager
provided a fair idea of geographical location of these languages if not mean. The larger representation of the languages would
where spoken. However, the book has no single photographs of mean the more accurate comparison and generalizations.
informants and has no index in it. If the author has included However, Ebert’s grammar has its own place in the literature of
index, it would have facilitated reading. So far as the glossing is Kiranti Linguistics.
concerned, she used the interlinear translation (IT) programme Box 7: Regional distribution of Kiranti languages in eastern Nepal4
developed by SIL (1998 version) except for Athpare. This has Wallo Kirant Majh Kirant Pallo Kirant
been done nicely. While reading and observing the narrative (Western Kiranti) (Central Kiranti) (Eastern Kiranti)
texts, one can actually trace the influence of the behaviourist 1. Khaling 1. Sangpang 1. Lohorung (North)
method which had entered linguistics via Bloomfield’s writings 2. Dumi 2. Kulung 2. Lohorung (South)
itself manifested slogan as, “accept everything a native speaker 3. Koi (Koyu) 3. Nachering 3. Yamphu(e)Newahang
4. Bayung (Bahing) 4. Mewahang 4. Limbu
says in his language and nothing he says about it” (quoted in 5. Thulung 5. Saam/Pongyong 5. Chathare
Sampson 1980: 64). This influence has possessed confusion and 6. Kõits (Sunuwar/Mukhiya) 6. Cukwa/Pohing 6. Athpare
ambiguity in Ebert’s grammar, e.g., phonemic inventory (pp. 13 7. Lingkhim 7. Dungmali/ 7. Chhilling/Chhulung/Chhitang
18), ‘bra vs. kwam’ (p. 85), ‘ghumbālām’ (p. 72) in Camling 8. Hayu 8. Waling 8. Mugali
9. RaDhu (Wambule) 9. Khandung 9. Phangduwali
blocks the phonemic inventory. 10. Jerung 10. Bantawa 10. LumbaYakkha
Here the contradictions with Dik Bantawa’s (1998: 34) 11. Tilung (Tilling) 11. Puma 11. Yakkha
2SG imsā vs. imse ‘sleep’ (nos. IViii) means the data have to be 12. Coskule (no data) 12. Chamling 12. Belhare
13. Dorungkeca (not data)
rectified and accept what the native speakers say about their (cited also in Gurung 2004: 61 from Gerd Hanβon 1991)
language. Another problem in her grammar is the free

intervention of the Nepali loans which these languages have
Notes
their own native vocabulary, e.g. ‘syal’ (Nep. p. 81) and ‘ghәr’ (p.
1 The first draft of this review was submitted to Prof Dr Anvita Abbi,
124). The LNED (2002: 57 and 672) has listed the native
vocabulary ‘Kidhi:ppa or Kidhiruppa’ for ‘jackle’. It has posed a Centre of Linguistics and English, School of Language, Literature
serious problem of linguistic identity in Camling as well as in and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi110 067
for MPhil/PhD coursework (Course LE630E Structures of Lesser
Known Languages) evaluation in March 2003. It was somewhat freedom, democracy and justice” [RK ibid]. Fortunately, I found
revised in June 2004. it [W] in which there was a cut out of his article [LLPD] also as
2 The term ‘phylogenetic’ has preferably been used by Nettle (1999: stated earlier.
115) after Nicholas’ (1990) term ‘genetic’ in order to avoid My signature and date written over the [W] and the cut
confusion with genetics in the sense of mtDNA. Therefore, I have outs [LLPD] and [RK] clearly show his consistency of claims
also here replaced Ebert’s ‘genetic’ with phylogenetic. and beliefs in freedom, democracy and justice as a poet. I had
3 Some examples of Kiranti languages from Wallo Kirant (Western then purchased his [W] on April 29, ’93 (after nine months of its
Kiranti) include: Jerung, Kõits (Sunuwar), Bayung (Bahing) and publication in August ’92) during the time when I was paving
Wambule (RaDhu) by way of crossreference in our discussion. my path as one of the fresh Trichandra College graduates
4 Some autoglossonyms have been added in brackets. towards the University College, Kirtipur. That time I already
had sipped its aesthetic beauty whereas its message was lying
apart somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory simply
because Prof T. Ojha’s evening dictation on Elizabethans or on
March 2003 Victorians would be too heavy to go on with a poor
Source: Contrubutions to Nepalese Studies (July 2005), 32, 2: 329
understanding of them.
336, some inevitable typographic errors in the Journal version Now as a Doctoral student/reader, I pay attention to the
have been corrected and slightly updated here poet’s whisper, in a literal sense mainly on his 'poetry' and
'identity' as a central message since most of his verses collected
in [W] perhaps must have been composed and published
32 Whisper on poetry and identity elsewhere during the prePeople’s Movement owing to its
I have borrowed the first lexeme ‘whisper’ from semantic contents. This anthology had seen its daylight merely
poet/novelist Gurung’s seminal anthology Whisper [W ’92] and in ’92. Then, after two years’ gap in ’94, poet Gurung has voiced
the second ‘poetry’ from his critical writeup ‘Long live poetry the inseparability of ‘poetry’ and ‘democracy’ thus, “For poetry
and democracy’ [LLPD ’94, TRN] for the title of my response as itself is the breathing soul of democracy and vice versa.
a reader. I have deliberately replaced the notion ‘democracy’ Emerson was, absolutely right to believe that there was no
with ‘identity’ since Manjushree Thapa [MT] is singing 'An elegy conflict between poetry and democracy. Let us hope and fondly
for Democracy' these days. I did so also because I have to relate wish that things may turn out different and better in this open
the poet’s historical dimension to this anthology in English democratic atmosphere by the turn of the new century. Long
here. live poetry and democracy!” His ending of the sentence with the
sign of interjection exactly after one decade gave birth to MT
His [W] allured me again after more than a decade’s
with her elegy on democracy. We still have to wait and see if
interval to sip its aesthetic beauty as well as message. This time,
‘poetry’ and ‘democracy’ live long in our Nepalese context.
however, it was not [W] as stimulus but his immensely
informative piece ‘Recall Kathmandu’ [RK, 29 May ’05, TKP] The [W] in its first part (twentyfour poems) opens up
writeup on MT’s latest hit elegy on Nepal. Rather instead, I with ‘Happening herein’ and in second (twentysix poems) ends
recalled poet Gurung whose verses I had gone through several up with ‘Son of Gurkhali’ which is also a beginning of identity in
years back. I hurriedly rushed to my minicollection of classic to the persona about his personal experience and now as a
find out his [W] in order to compare his consistency of claims collective one. The question of identity here can be raised at
such as “The risk Manjushree has taken in penning down this three levels, i.e. local, national and international when the poet
book is the risk she has borne for each of us who care for whispers his readers,
“…I wake, an injured stalwart son of Gurkhali… that…” (1992: 61). What those unmentionable/unnamable

They seized my grandpa’s pen… “ethnic nationalities” (RK ibid) in the history pages also gotta
And thrown him into the bloodland believe that they should rise with whisper and another [W] like
an albatross for their own identity at the national and
My granny a young widow
international arena.
‘Bahadur’ a twisted title he got
In the cost of his upcoming generations’ nowhereness
The phantom of my grandpa beckoning
From his foreign grave, induced my papa 21 June 2005
…my sheepturned papa Source: The Kathmandu Post, 26 June 2005
After a twentyfiveyear rigorous exile in alien lands
…my papa lost
His original eye… 33 Ethnocentrism in BP Koirala's Sumnima
…already an alien in his own land When I pronounce BP Koirala’s (191482 AD) name, one
A tenant in his own home…” (’92: 6162) of the novelists in Nepali literature, my mind immediately
recalls my teacher Prof Dr Shreedhar Lohani, who lectured me
This heartrending aesthetic content intensifies the ever
on Modern English Poetry at the University College, TU
problematic identity of belonging to nowhere and being no one
Kirtipur during the turn of the last century. The reason why my
as an injured stalwart son of a Gurkhali. In the socalled
teacher recurs in my memory while writing on Koirala’s blatant
ambiguous Gurkhali superordinate term, there are hyponyms
ethnocentrism in his fiction Sumnima: Kirant Desko Euta
like Gurung, Mangar, Limbu (Yakthung, Tsong), Rai (exonym),
KirantiKõits (exonym: Sun(u)war), Sherpa, Tamang and Katha (S[umnima]: A Story of the Kirant Country, Varanasi
Thakali (autoethnonym: Thakpa). These hyponyms at the local version ’64) is very complex like the novelist’s psyche itself.
level have their own distinct tribal, linguistic, religious and This complexity has its genesis in my teacher’s query,
cultural identity, which has hardly been recognized by the “timile ke bhanna khojeko?” (trans. ‘What do you mean?’) on
Suppressive State Machinery at the national level as aliens in my short writeup ‘Sumnima: An ethnic myopia’ (Across, Aug
their own country and tenants in their own homes. Recent Oct ’97: 223) in response to Dr Sangita Rayamajhi’s essay on
Movements on Gurkha(li) issues have pointed out their identity women’s issues published in the first issue of the same bilingual
as the victims of a shameful diplomacy of “human trafficking” literary magazine (MayJuly ’97: 102) and further her article
for discrimination at the international level as mercenaries, who might have been provoked by a public burning of the Koirala
fought and won everything for their imperial master at the fiction in Biratnagar sometime during the year ’945. Now after
expense of their own priceless lives. eight years of stonysilence, I thought again I need to explain
Poet Gurung hence through his ‘creator’ poetry whispers my ‘ethnic myopia’ hypothesis to his problematic or academic
“socially unsanctioned reality” (Widdowson 1992: 71) citing Dr inquiry only because the problems of Kiranti ethnic group’s
ML King, Jr. in the ‘Son of Gurkhali’ “Don’t let anybody make representation in the novel have at the moment been addressed
you feel that you don’t count. You may not have economic in academic circles internationally by Michael Hutt (’03: 2338)
security. You may be poor. You may not have had the and Martin Gaenszle (’03: 3943; comments on Hutt) and also
opportunity to rise to great academic heights. You may be it is because Dr Taranath Sharma (2005) has translated novelist
uncouth…You may not have the opportunities that many other Koirala’s fiction into English published by Bagar Foundation
people have, but I want you to know that you are somebody and some years after Kali P Rijal’s rendering into Hindi published by
that you are as good as any white person…You gotta believe Pilgrims Book.
We shall now observe some lines from Dr Sharma’s According to his suggestion, “…full of lapses in their
translation here: “We’re the descendants of the Aryans. We’re implications” in Koirala’s Kiranti S, the text presumed to be a
wellcultured. You’re wild Kirants, a community devoid of any creative piece of writing as a genre of fiction is a mere
good culture” (7), “NonAryans follow the religion of beasts, but propaganda on ethnocentrism, where dichotomies like ‘Aryan
whereas we (Aryans) believe in the religion propounded by vs. nonAryans, religious vs. pagan, cultured vs. barbarians, soul
gods” (8), “You’ve become a nonAryan in your behavior, vs. body, “conqueror vs. looser” (’05: 12), “Bhillas (actually a
character and the physical habits” (48) and “Her Kirant(i) ‘tribal’ community in Gujrat; Gaenszle ’03:42) and Kirants vs.
character is vivacious. She doesn’t recognize anything except Bahuns, religion of gods vs. religion of beasts, culturedAryan
her body” (114). Can any reader or critic while going through Bahuns vs. wild Kirants’ would instinctually trigger social
these extracts call “Koirala’s depiction of the Kiranti, which tsunami (fortunately didn’t) amongst the Kiranti community
derive from creative imagination” (Gaenszle ’03: 41) or members unlike Hindu extremists, who recently attacked
ethnographic details? Wendy Doniger by eggthrowing (The Times HES 21 Nov ’03),
To answer this ethnosensitive question, translator Dr professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago
Sharma’s preface to his own translation “…unedited novel like S for giving a lecture on her new translation of the Kama Sutra.
poses problems…full of lapses in their implications” is Furthermore, one of the email threats reads, “…What would
sufficient. His rational judgment on this text is one of the best these clever ‘learned’ western people be doing for a living if they
examples of his intellectual honesty and beauty but all of a did not have our shastras and traditions to nitpick and distort?
sudden his beauty soon transforms into Medusa’s ugly head in They would most probably be still locked in the missionary
his two critical writings, such as ‘Sumnima jastai’ (Alike position, sexually repressed, cantankerous, frigid and scratching
Sumnima, ’04 in a daily newspaper), where Laxmididi from for a living.” Do readers have freedom to ask such questions in
Tamang like Sumnima from Kiranti culture has been compared analogy of this email excerpt in our society too?
in an incongruous manner and in another ‘Nepali literature: A We have other examples of A. Khomeini fatwa too,
brief comment on poetry and fiction’ (’03: 544), novelist however fortunately, that has not happened in this country. One
Koirala’s “puppet” Sumnima is said to be “the Nepalese cannot be sure if a Kiranti novelist had such Sumnimalike
representation of humanism” instead of humiliation for the depiction either of Seeta or Saraswati as one of the most
whole Kiranti communities. popular painters of our time MF Husain had met his fate while
These communities are linguistically, culturally and painting nakedSarawati or some western brands had their fates
anthropologically identified as Hayu, Kõits (Sunuwar/Mukhia), while printing Hindu pantheons like Ganesh/Natraj/Krishna’s
Jerung, Bayung, Wambule, Tilung, Rodung (Chamling), Athpre, image in their undergarment production. This was and is what I
Kirawa (Bāntawā), Belhare, Chintang, Chiling, Sotang, meant by ethnocentrism or ethnic myopia in Koirala’s Kiranti
Nachiring, Dumi, Khaling, Kulung, Thulung, Mewahang, Sumnima propounded by a ‘learned’ Bahun leader against
Lohorung, Koi, Pumā, Bunglawa (Sam), Dungmali, Pangtuwali, Kiranti(s) for intentionally offending his own fellow citizens
Yakkha, Yamphu and Limbu (Yakthungba) and so on are whether in the preVedic era or now at the time of medieval Don
aboriginal dwellers traditionally divided from the west to the quixotic romance.
east into ‘Near Kirant’ from the Sunkosi to the Likhu river,
‘Middle Kirant’ between the Likhu and the Arun and ‘Far Kirant’

from the Arun to the border, eastern Nepal. All Kiranti
Wednesday, 13 July 2005
people(s) would prefer to reread a reedited version of the
novel as suggested by Dr Sharma. Source: The Kathmandu Post, 17 July 2005, slightly revised here

34 KirantiBayung language vitality Structurally, BRASS is divided into nine chapters:

introduction, the Ba'yung Rai people, methodology, apparent
After Gerd Hanβon’s comprehensive survey on the Kiranti cognate comparisons, dialect comprehension testing, dialect
linguotribes entitled The Rai of Eastern Nepal: Ethnic and attitudes, language vitality, bilingualism testing, and
Linguistic GroupingFindings of the Linguistic Survey of Nepal conclusions and implications for language development. There
(1991) edited and provided with an introduction by Werner are nine appendices which include: phonetic symbols,
Winter published by the LSN and CNAS, Tribhuvan University, community profiles, standard wordlist items in English,
Dr Mareen Lee’s indepth sociolinguistic survey on Bayung Rai participant biodata questionnaire, dialect comprehension
(exonym) without exaggeration is a model survey (cf. Prof NM testing, dialect attitudes, language use and vitality
Tuladhar in forward) in order to find out the condition of multi questionnaire, bilingualism testing, a rough translation of BK
mothertongues all over Nepal. Such survey can truly be crucial Rai’s narration on “The origins of the Pai, Rumdali and Nechali
for language planners and policy makers in the upcoming free people” and towards a holistic framework for language
Nepalese people’s constitution of newpluralistic Nepal. development.
Unlike phoneticians, morphologists and syntacticians, The most interesting part in appendices is the collection of
sociolinguists are much more amazingly interdisciplinary in folklore helpful for folklorists and anthropologists in order to
approach while dealing human language with society, culture, relocate those people in their due anthropological stock. Further
anthropology, literature and quite often with politics. Lee as a notable fact regarding Lee’s surveystudy is that the Bayungs
sociolinguist in her commendable work Ba'yung Rai: A have very high rate of language loyalty irrespective of
Sociolinguistic Survey (BRASS) has done such justice to monolithic and suppressive language policy of the past
KirantiBayung (exonym: Rai) at this juncture when the governments. Language loyalty obviously proves its vitality
Nepalese society is in perennial search of identity and albeit no measures have been taken for curriculum and
redefining its critical identity. textbooks development yet. So they are deprived even of tertiary
The Ba'yung is one of the ancient Kiranti tribes, who have education in their own mothertongue which implies their
resided mainly in mideastern Nepal, viz. modern deprivation of linguistic human rights.
Okhaldhunga, Solukhumbu and Khotang districts traditionally In this regard, she thus quotes Toba, “…although
known as Wallo ‘Near’ Kirant before the Vedic period. Her education in this country has made much progress, those with a
survey is extraordinarily interdisciplinary in the sense that she ‘first’ language other than Nepali suffered a serious
has explored all available anthropological facts about their disadvantage. While it is true that Nepali is understood all over
lineage and clanonyms including mythological folk narratives the country, it is also true that such understanding is often
which tell the stories of their migration(s) during prehistoric superficial. A person being able to say a standard greeting or
times and also those stories reveal their inter and intratribal or carrying on a conversation of small talk may be hiding
cultural practices and origins. successfully his or her ability to talk about serious problems and
Another new and bold step taken in BRASS is intertribal issues. Equally, a student whose first language is other than
and linguistic comparison amongst Bayung, Kõits (Sunuwar), Nepali may hide his or her ignorance for fear of exposed.
Thulung and Wambule. According to her findings Kiranti However, this will not work for long. If simple subject matter is
Ba'yung and KirantiKõits are closeknit sister languages in not understood, there will be no progress in learning and sooner
which KirantiKõits has undergone massive linguistic change, or later such a student will give up and drop out. And not only
e.g. cv and syllable drops historically. will such students feel inadequate and incompetent, but they
are also easy prey to be exploited by others.”
This situation depicts a bleak future of those minority 35 Aspects of pedagogy in KirantiSunuwar
peoples and their languages like Ba'yung including myriad of
other unheard and unexplored ethnominorities. Their mother textbooks
tongue’s functional domains today are merely confined to Abstract
family, society and locality such as with parents, siblings,
spouse, village friends, leaders, while buying commodities at the One of the main goals of this article1 is to explore some
market place, performing worships, expressing deepest feelings possible pedagogical applications of the two primary level
whereas their use in education, govt. offices and media are null. textbooks written in the KirantiKõits2 (exonyms Sunuwar,
Bhujuwar, Pirthwar, Mukhia) mother tongue and graphology.
When ignored at the policy level by state machinery, those These books are authored being highly influenced by the
vulnerable languages have no more other options left behind UNESCO meeting of specialists held in 1951. The meeting's
than seized to be spoken in their vicinity instead of positive experts in their paper 'The Use of vernacular languages in
language attitudes. After all, when they disappear, we will have Education' have pinpointed several advantages of using
no traces of their unique linguistic features, ethnobotanical vernacular languages in education. According to the meeting's
knowledge and ethnocultures which are inherent within the definition "a vernacular language is the mother tongue of a
structures of those languages struggling on their deathbeds. group speaking a different language". The meeting further
Take an example of their ethnoclanonym taxonomy: declared not to consider the language of a minority in one
Rinamsa(o)cha, Thamrocha, Dilingpacha, Hajupacha, country as a vernacular if it is an official language in another
Diburcha, Tolocha, Moblocha, Ripa(o)cha, Nambersacha, country.
Rallacha, Luticha, Yumpucha, Kharayulcha, Mupucha, To the contrary of the UNESCO declaration, Kiranti
Kharadiburcha and so on. All these ethnoclanonyms are Sunuwar being a minority language spoken by only about 977
significant linguistically and culturally. Other nonKiranti tribes speakers in Sikkim is also one of the official languages of the
never have such taxonomic system as a marker of their identity. State. The status and linguistic situation of KirantiKõits or
Above all, it is indispensable to safeguard the Bayung Sunuwar here rather seems to be paradoxical. Another goal of
language vitality as linguistic reality of new multilinguistic this paper therefore is to motivate the learners of all age group
Nepal by formulating or adopting equal, plural and inclusive to use their Mother Tongue productively and creatively in their
language policy and planning. BRASS has also stressed on the respective speech community for communication in order to
need of dictionary making, grammar, textbooks production, overcome the newly existing paradox ultimately.
teacher training and implementation (cf. Dr Novel K Rai in
preface) of formal and nonformal education in KirantiBayung. 1. Introduction
It is a worthbuying/reading book for those interested in The two primary level textbooks in KirantiSunuwar viz.
folklore, sociolinguistics, anthropology, ethnology, language (1) KirantiKõitsa The:si Khyõpat 'Elementary Reader of
politics and literature as well. KirantiSunuwar' and (2) KirantiKõitsa The:si Tarando
'Elementary Grammar of KirantiSunuwar' (manuscripts
September 2001) have been prepared mainly based on the
National Council of Educational Research and Training
10 May 2006
(hereafter NCRT), New Delhi's brochure on the Preparation
and Evaluation of Textbooks in Mother Tongue (1970). This
brochure is a direct reflection of the UNESCO meeting of
specialists mentioned earlier. In the preparation of these
textbooks, it has been envisaged the fact that KirantiSunuwar The only reason why we have employed trilingual
is one of the minority and moribund languages among 1652 approach in writing the textbooks is to facilitate the readers in a
mother tongues and dialects spoken all over India. multilingual situation around them. The motivation behind the
Comparatively, the number of KirantiSunuwar speakers is very use of the KirantiSunuwar graphology (i.e. script) named
scanty. A very newly emerging concept of revival and Jẽ:ticha Brese after the script inventor 's name Karna Je ̃:ticha
preservation of these minority and moribund languages Sunuwar (1926ca. 1990 AD) with reformation, modification
hopefully is a worldwide phenomenon today. and systematization (Rapacha 2001d and revised March 2002)
Therefore, as a conscious Indian KirantiSunuwar citizen, is to establish the writing tradition of KirantiSunuwar and
it is our duty and privileges to preserve and promote our implement it for literacy education in informal and formal
ancestral heritage including the Mother Tongue at least for our education all over Sikkim wherever it is possible to be
ethnic and tribal identity. 'Language' of a particular tribe implemented on the availability of the learners of Kiranti
undoubtedly can be such a token or vehicle of identity culturally Sunuwar.
transmitted from one generation to the other. The act of implementation, first of all will overcome the
But ironically, KirantiSunuwar as a Mother Tongue right paradox of KirantiSunuwar as an official and minority
at the moment has met its tragic fate like that of William language at a time. The linguistic scenario of KirantiSunuwar
Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Julius as a Mother Tongue spoken in Sikkim or other parts of India
Caesar and others. To give another vivid analogy is that of and Nepal is actually adverse. As such the language has to be
Christopher Marlowe's tragic hero Dr Faustus. Dr Faustus sells learnt by majority of the KirantiSunuwars in a minority speech
his soul to Mephistopheles for a cause representing the community only as a second (L2) language because of social
Renaissance spirit of learning. But the KirantiSunuwar mobilization and assimilative language policy or of language
speakers surrendered so easily for nothing. Their soul has, still disloyalty.
been confiscated by Mephistopheles or Yamaraj for nothing. To be hopeful, our trilingual approach employed in these
Perhaps the price is nothing more than "paapee petko sawaal" textbooks has the advantage of selfaccessibility for the non
(the question of bread and butter). Today we have after several native readerslearners of the learners of KirantiSunuwar
decades of confiscation optimistically, courageously and very learning it as the L2. Moreover, interested researchers from
wisely stolen your soul back from Yamaraj's possession and other areas of learning can analyze the corpus available in the
returned it to you in the form of 'Elementary Reader of Kiranti two texts independently. The range of vocabulary used in both
Sunuwar' and 'Elementary Grammar of KirantiSunuwar' as textbooks is 500 approximately. This vocabulary sufficiently
Prometheus stole fire from heaven for the sake of mankind. We covers the domain of KirantiSunuwar discourse for the purpose
are ready to undergo any sort of possible punishment by of a makesense communication.
Yamaraj for this soulstealing act for the sake of the Kiranti
Sunuwars as Prometheus underwent torture by a vulture for his 2. Instructional objectives
humanitarian act of a hero. Now your soul is in your hand. It is
These textbooks have the following instructional
your own option to throw it away in a dustbin or resell it to
objectives in mind:
Yamaraj again or use it as one of the finest tonics to invigorate
life forever. We have tried our best to make them readable. Our (a) To acquire the ability of comprehending whatever the
expedition on the part of the reader is to read it actively and learners listen to.
voraciously. "Active reading" as Francis Bacon says, "maketh a (b) To acquire the ability of comprehending whatever the
perfect man". learners read.
(c) To acquire the ability of expressing oneself orally.
(d) To develop writing skills in the KirantiSunuwar these textbooks can be kept as archives or produced a as
alphabets to express oneself through writing. evidence of anthroposociocultural identity of the minority and
(e) To develop interest in the Mother Tongue and its mysterious tribe known as KirantiSunuwar or Mukhia (esp.
literature. Sikkim spelling).
(f) To develop healthy and desirable linguistic attitudes.
5. Significance
3. Specific objectives These textbooks have historical significance for the
At the end of the formal academic course or of informal KirantiSunuwar/Mukhia tribe wherever the number of
selfaccess of these textbooks, the learners are expected to speakers scattered all over India. During the period of
acquire some fundamental knowledge of the language. Linguistic Survey of India (Grierson (ed.) 1909: 198) has
mentioned 259 speakers in Assam, 36 Jalpaiguri, 4,425
3.1 Elements of language Expected behavioral changes Darjeeling, 52 Lakhimpur, and 43 in Lushai Hills. There is no
(a) Phonology including The learners will be able to mention of Dehradun. Subba (1989: 42) has cited 4,822
pronunciation 1. recognize Sunuwars alone in Darjeeling according to the 1931 Census
(b) Graphology including 2. recall Report. In Sikkim 545 speakers (ibid 1909: 198) were recorded
spellings 3. detect errors out of which 200 speakers were selected for the purpose of the
(c) Vocabulary including 4. illustrate survey. This number presently has insignificantly increased up
lexeme and semantics 5. compare to 977 hardly.
(d) Structure including 6. discriminate The minority speakers today in Assam, Jalpaiguri,
phrase and sentence 7. relate Lakhimpur, Lushai Hills and Dehradun may or may not speak
structure 8. analyze their Mother Tongue but fortunately their language, though
(e) Grammar including 9. synthesize lately has been documented ranging the vocabulary about 500
parts of speech, word 10. classify in the form of a picture book and grammar. We dedicate these
formation and agreement 11. generalize books for all of them lamenting on the ultimate death of
linguistic heritage. May God voice our dedication and
3.2 Ideational content Expected behavioral changes lamentation to the degenerated new generation if they are
(a) Cultural values All those described in 3.1 surviving still in those areas! This documentation, besides being
above on the right hand side a bare educational material, dedication has laid foundation for
(b) Life experiences creative writers in the language. In addition, it has opened up
(c) Mythology/Stories other possible new horizon for authors in Darjeeling, Taplejung,
(d) Element of character Illam, Pan(ch)thar, Jhapa and Kathmandu.
(e) General knowledge
(f) Facts and fiction 6. Selection of Content
In both textbooks, linguistic content has been emphasized
4. Purpose more than ideational content since KirantiSunuwar was a
The first and foremost purpose of these textbooks is to use forbidden and is a forgotten tongue. Obviously, the emphasis on
them as educational materials for educating children at the linguistic content is to prove that KirantiSunuwar as a rare
primary level especially for the beginners or adult learners for language is still a living one. It contains sufficient vocabulary to
literacy education in the Mother Tongue. Besides educational, communicate as any other natural human languages among
1652 Indian mother tongues and dialects. The linguistic content English: words single form

has been enriched by the following processed of wordformation sun+flower = sunflower
to provide necessary materials in the textbooks, for instance black+board = blackboard
vocabulary building, creativity and productivity etc. finger+priny = fingerprint
(a) Coinage/neologism class+room = classroom
sun+burn = sunburn
means the invention of new terms in any language, e. g., text+book = textbook
English: aspirin, nylon zipper, kleenex, feflon and xerox (Yule KirantiKõits: na:+phu: = na:phu: 'sunflower'
1985: 6370) (d) Blending
KirantiKõits: uŋku, tigeŋ, tεlsi, yεlsi, ulsi and tεtεrε means the reduction of some elements in a word, e.g.,
(manuscript November 2001) English: Words Single new term
(b) Borrowing/loanwords smoke+fog = smog
means words taken in one language from another, e.g., breakfast+lunch = brunch
motor+hotel = motel
English: words source television+broadcast = telecast
alcohol Arabic channel+tunnel = chunnel
boss Dutch Hindi+English = Hinglish
croissant French modulator+demodulator = modem
lilac Persian information +entertainment = infotainment
piano Italian teleprinter+exchange = telex
pretzel German
robot Czech KirantiKõits:
tycoon Japanese na:+rεumi+guptεsi = na:rεmsi (also plãka:tuli) 'umbrella'
yogurt Turkish gya:ptεkε+ko:tεsi = gya:kosi 'market'
zebra Bantu phũmi+ba:tεkε+bi: = phumbi 'yak'
Japanese: English khĩmi+berba = khĩmbεrb 'pigeon'
suupaamaaketto 'supermarket' (e) Clipping
rajio 'radio' means the reduction of some elements in a word, e.g.,
KirantiKõits: English: fax< facsimile
Vocabulary with considerable nativization as in Japanese gas< gasoline
can be borrowed from register, technical and other related field ad< advertisement
of studies, e.g., bra< brassiere
cεphli Nepali 'cappal' condo< condominium
sõth English 'shirt' phone< telephone
sa:thipikεt English 'certificate' plane< aeroplane
lab< laboratory
(c) Compounding gym< gymnasium
means joining two separate words to produce a single form,
e.g.,
KirantiKõits: I. Grouping

No such words have been used in both textbooks since (a) Grouping in the system
KirantiSunuwar is awaiting standardization and advancement. (b) Grouping in the structure
However, there is a little bit similar morphophonemic process II. Sequence
called apocope. In this process the loss of a final sound or (a) Sequence in the system
syllable takes place, e.g., (b) Sequence in the structure on the basis of above
Kannada: nann+pustaka >nanpustaka 'my book' principles of learning.

(Verma and Krishnaswamy 1989: 71) 8. Presentation of content
KirantiKõits: ga:tεkε+muru >ga:tεkmur >ga:bmur 'walker' The presentation of content in the 'Elementary Reader of
phε:tεkε+muru >phεtεkmur >pherb 'tailor' KirantiSunuwar' has been made more attractive than in the
kurrtεkε+muru >kurrtεkmur >kurbmur >kurgε 'porter' 'Elementary Grammar of KirantiSunuwar' in conformity with
dε̃:tεkε+muru >dε̃:tεkmur >dε̃bmur >dε̃b 'sayer' the:
ra:pәca: >ra:pәc 'catalyst' (dropping in single not (I) reading interest of the learners
compounding) (II) mental maturity of the learners
thũ:guca: >thũ:guc 'wisdom' (dropping in single not
compounding) Both descriptive and prescriptive approaches are
employed in the elementary grammar. While presentations of
(f) Acronyms illustrations have sufficient amount of space, qualities and
means the formation of words from the initial letter of a placement of the content has also been considered in harmony
set of other words, e.g., with the instructional objectives. The points considered are:
English: PIN, ATM, UNESCO, CD, VCR, NASA, zip, radar, (a) adequate
laser, WAR (b) relevant to content
KirantiKõits: This process of wordformation also can be (c) necessary to content
used to enrich the KirantiSunuwar vocabulary. However, it has (d) fulfilling different functions
not been employed in these elementary textbooks. (i) to attract the learner
(ii) to motivate the learner
7. Gradation of content (iii) to stimulate the interest of the learner
The contents viz. linguistic and ideational are graded in (iv) to concretize the gaps content
consonance with the principles of learning as follows. (v) to fill the gaps in the information
(vi) to give accurate information
(a) known to unknown
(b) simple to complex (e) contributing to aesthetic sense
(c) concrete to abstract (f) suitable to the targeted grade in terms of
(d) observation to reasoning (i) size
(e) reality to ideal (ii) details, and
(iii) colour
Vocabulary, grammar, patterns, sentence patterns and
patterns of style are graded on the basis of (g) clear view
(h) accurate/appropriate
(i) uniformity of style is acquired in a particular languageusing environment (ibid

(j) avoided too many technicalities 1985: 176) by the age of five normally. But in learning an L2 a
(k) appropriate place learner undergoes some barriers like affective filter' a kind of
(l) proximity to content barrier to acquisition that results from negative feelings/
experiences, e.g. stress, uncomfortableness, selfconscious/no
9. Areas of themes in the textbooks motivation' (ibid 1985), negative transfer/L1 interference (e.g.
The following areas of themes have been covered in the misplacing word order) and fossilization 'foreign accent'. One
elementary reader and grammar. can to a greater extent, reduce these barriers by applying some
(i) colourful pictures principled pedagogical approaches for highlighting some
(ii) birds and animals instructional techniques or methods. Let us see the nature of
(iii) recreational rhymes exercises in these textbooks. They are:
(iv) stories about people and animal (a) recapitulative
(v) nature and natural environment (b) incremental
(vi) home, school, and neighbourhood (c) inferential
(vii) activities (d) diagnostic
(viii) games and sports This nature of exercises is based on the criteria of
(ix) dress comprehensive, proportionate coverage, relevant content, and
(x) food and edible appropriate mental level and helpful in diagnosis. These criteria
will facilitate to achieve the expected behavioral changes
10. Pedagogy/approach/method (section 3) as well as the four LSRW (listening, speaking,
These textbooks written employing trilingual approach reading and writing) skills in KirantiSunuwar. Now let us
has primarily been targeted for two groups of KirantiSunuwar contemplate some principled pedagogical approaches how we
learners viz. the first group acquiring the KirantiSunuwar as a can achieve the expected behavioral changes in our learners.
first language (L1) and the other group learning is as and L2.
There is fundamental difference between L1 and L2 in the theory 10. 1 GT method
of language leaning and teaching. L1 is acquired or caught, GT or Grammar Translation is the most traditional
whereas L2 is learnt or taught. In another word, first language is approach to teach a second or foreign language. The learners in
basically a matter of acquisition, whereas second language is this approach have to memorize words, definitions and a set of
learning. The term 'acquisition' refers to the gradual grammatical rules. They gave to parrot them repeatedly. The
development of ability in a language by using it naturally in written language is emphasized rather than the spoken one. GT
communicative situations; however 'learning' applies to a method applies translation method to the teaching of Latin or
conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary even English. This method, to some extent helps the human
and grammar (Yule 1985: 175197) of any natural human CPU (here connotes brain) to feed data of any natural human
language. language for a shortlived memory of words and grammatical
A normal human infant has some 'innate' predisposition rules. Therefore, a learner and teacher learning teaching a
of acquire language regardless of great differences in range of language can adopt the method as one of the tools for mastering
social and cultural factors. A language is culturally transmitted the ABC of KitrantiSunuwar as a KirantiSunuwar.
i.e. the language a child learners is not genetically inherited, but
10.2 Audiolingual method quest of eclectic approach instead of the trivial notion of
This approach emphasizes on the spoken language. The "jaageer or sarkaari kaam" (service or government job). S/he as
method involves a systematic representation of the structures of an educator of the KirantiSunuwar textbooks and should
the L2. It moves from the simple to the more complex, often in always be ready to learn and change himself/herself first so that
the form of drills, which a learner has to repeat until s/he s/he definitely can change the learners' world.
achieves mastery. Much of this practice involves repeating oral
drill in a language laboratory. Learning a second or foreign 11. Conclusion
language is basically taken as a mechanical process of habit A learner and teacher in himself/herself is pedagogy. In
formation in audiolingual method. It is still common in his/her active participation s/he can explore and invent
language teaching centres or institutions allover the world. pedagogical tools and their aspects of application suitable to
Although this method has not been a part of our textbooks, their own teachinglearning situation. The educator should act
some audiolingual cassettes can be produced in order to as a facilitator or manager. No readymade pedagogical tools in
familiarize our learners with sounds learning KirantiSunuwar hand can universally be applicable in the classroom or
as a second language. Audiovisual learning materials can also elsewhere in an informal situation. The learners and teachers of
be relevant for the beginners. KirantiSunuwar should also keep this fact in mind. To sum up,
these two KirantiSunuwar Textbooks as educational materials
10.3 Communicative approach achieved and restored by Herculian effort accidentally, we hope
will be helpful for the beginners to communicate knowhow
The approach is more recent revision of the L2 teaching. It
information in KirantiSunuwar as a KirantiSunuwar.
is partially a reaction against the artificiality of parroting or

pattern practice. It simply emphasizes on the functions of
Acknowledgements
language. Learning materials are likely to be organized around
concept such as "asking for things" in different social context I am grateful to the Headmistress Meenarani Ngawacha
with a view to making the learner ready for communication. Mukhia who helped me by providing the syllabus on the local
languages of Sikkim and also my thanks go to the community
Correct phonological or grammatical structures do not play
members of Sikkim Kirant Sunuwar (Mukhiya) Kõitsbu Association,
many roles. The application of this approach for the beginners Gangtok, Sikkim.
of KirantiSunuwar at this juncture is almost irrelevant without
a proficient translator having indepth knowledge of Notes
Translation Studies.
1 This paper was presented at the oneday workshop on the Kiranti
Many other newly developed principles of second or Sunuwar Elementary Textbooks at Nepali Sahitya Parisad
foreign language learning and teaching cannot be discussed in Bhawan, Gangtok on 28 April 2002 organized by the Sikkim
the paper of this size, however some insights of the Kirant Sunuwar (Mukhiya) Kõitsbu Association. We have slightly
methodology considered above can be relevant for learning and revised and changed its topic also from its original version
teaching KirantiSunuwar. The role given to a learner and ‘Aspects of pedagogy in the primary textbooks of KirantiSunuwar’
teacher in the 'Elementary Reader of KirantiSunuwar' and the here.
grammar is participatory. Without active participation on the 2 The speakers of KirantiSunuwar call themselves KirantiKõits
part of the learner and teacher no learningteaching situation -ls/fFtL–sf]FOr_ in their own mother tongue. Hence the glottonym or
can take place in an actual academic sense. A teacher is an glossonym KirantiKõits -ls/fFtL–sf]FOr_ has preferably been used
active participant rather than a mere passive narrator with elsewhere.
missing pages book in his/her hand. Teaching is neverending
36 On multitongues of Nepal Lepcha, Tamang, Sherpa, and Magar (Gurung?) have their own
scripts for their writing systems. Very few of them have literary
Nobody except the ruling elites can deny the fact that traditions and scarcely used in media.
Nepal is a multilinguistic Himalayan country rich both in
Among the Delin list of languages, Kiranti subgroup of 20
biodiversity and yet unexploited natural resources including
multifarious ethnoindigenous populations and their diverse but languages (Hayu ?) from TibetoBurman Group contribute a
minority languages and cultures. These minority languages for varied linguistic diversity of Nepal ranging from KirantiKõits
(Sunuwar/Mukhia) to the west in Sagarmatha/Janakpur zones
centuries have remained either neglected or suppressed as
and KirantiLimbu (Yakthung, Tsong) to the far eastern Nepal.
“unheard melodies” by the State polity or even by the Supreme
Languages like Kõits, Koi (Koyu), Puma, Tilung, and Mewahang
Court.
in this subgroup are seriously endangered ones including
Its obvious consequence is: these ethnoindigenous lesser Kumal, Majhi, Bote, Baram, Dura, Pahari, Raute, Raji and
known Mother Tongues (MTs) are now moribund/endangered Kusunda from IndoAryan, TibetoBurman Group and
and thus doomed to “disappear, leaving no traces, except unidentified one.
perhaps for names of people and places” according to the
Various reasons for endangerment of these indigenous
UNESCO bilingual monograph by Sueyoshi Toba, Ingrid Toba
languages such as “destruction of traditional habitat through
and Novel K Rai translated into Nepali by Lekhnath Sharma
deforestation”, natural calamities like “landslides’ and “steady
Pathak.
growth of population” leading to migration and dispersion
This monograph, Diversity and Endangerment of among speakers of other languages “thus being obliged to
Languages of Nepal (Delin) has gained its wider public insights communicate in Nepali” have been traced. In addition, the most
from the ‘UNESCO Language Survey Report Nepal’ (2002) by important factor is ‘education’ through the medium of Nepali
the same triolinguists, who have been working on resulting from “OneNationOneLanguage” policy of the Rana
ethnoindigenous minority languages of Nepal for decades. Oligarchic and Panchayat Regimes during the pre1990 era.
Mainly, the Delin emphasizes on the linguistic diversity of
The triolinguists suggest better solutions thus
Nepal on the one hand, and on the reasons for and the status of
“…education is a prime domain for action. While education in
endangerment for some languages on the other.
Nepali is a prerogative, it is also equally important to enhance
The Delin monograph has discovered 60 languages in positive language attitudes to the MT speakers of other
total; 11 from IndoAryan Group (IndoEuropean Language languages. Bilingual education at the primary level that bridges
Family), 46 from TibetoBurman Group (SinoTibetan into the national language seems to be the best measure.
Language Family), 1 Santhali, Munda Group (AustroAsiatic Needed are not only primary school textbooks, but also mother
Language Family), 1 Dhãgad (Dhangar), Northern Dravidian tongue teachers and village leaders who are convinced of the
Group (Dravidian Language Family) and 1 Kusunda, Group (not value of their mother tongue”. Other measures related to the
known), thus unclassified. Whereas according to the 2001 sphere of education are: “literacy classes of a nonformal nature
census, there are 92 languages spoken in Nepal and the SIL for adults in mother tongue” and “linguistic planning and policy
Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th edition, edited by on the national level. Furthermore, it would be better to
Raymond G Gordon, Jr. has listed 127 languages including implement the recommendations formulated by NLPRC (1994),
dialects at least with some basic information on them. Ministry of Education, Culture and Social Welfare on the
Out of Delin’s 60 languages, some ethnoindigenous political level.
languages like KirantiLimbu (Yakthung/Tsong), Kiranti Now suppose a Nepali MT speaker and supporter of
Sampang, KirantiKõits (Sunuwar/Mukhia; only in Sikkim), Sanskrit may ask, “After all, why is linguistic ‘diversity’
necessary (cf. “Hindurāstra ra Hindusamrāt…” by Dhirgharaj of the TB languages spoken in the eastern hills of Nepal,
Prasai, Gorkhapatra, 6 Baishakh 2061) in the only Hindu traditionally known as Wallo (N) ‘Near/Hither’ Kirant (where
kingdom?” It is obviously for ‘unity’ in a sociopolitical cliché the author of this article originally comes from, particularly
since the rise of the House of Gorkha. Truly, linguists point out Okhaldhunga district) and further in Sikkim, India, where the
genuine causes for safeguarding these diverse “living organism” Government of Sikkim had recognized it (KK) as one of the
(MTs), e.g., MT shapes thoughts (to some extent), MT preserves official languages in the year 1996.
culture, MT gives identity and fosters culture, MT contributes to All six major types (apart from vocative and sometimes
human knowledge, good jobs require multilingualism and nominative) of case marking suffixes (See Table 1 and cf. with
lastly but most importantly linguisticdiversity and biodiversity Table 2) discovered in the language have lexical functions as
are interrelated. well and obviously have polysemantic rolefunctions, in
In this regard, all languages spoken within the national addition to grammatical ones. This lexical function of those
boundary of Nepal, no matter whether minority or majority are grammatical markers/suffixes has neither been noticed nor
equal irrespective of the ambiguousdefinition of the 1990 described in the past literature (cf. Konow (in Grierson 1909:
Constitution and discriminatory treatment of the state 200), DeLancey 1984, LaPolla 1995, Borchers 1998) however,
machinery as for Sherpa (ANIJ Homepage: www.anij.org.np; has modestly been discussed in Rapacha (1999: 5658).
accessed 9 July 05) in Bhojpur or elsewhere in the country. Interestingly, those case suffixes’ lexical polysemantic
The timely publication of Delin urges immediate action functions are independent ones as opposed to Starosta’s (1988:
both for revival and survival of these minority vanishing MTs 205) suggestion “…no longer have independent lexical status…”
without any delay before the falcons stop hearing the falconers whereas LaPolla’s (1995: 190, 196) observation of these case
only because the millions who cannot find their voices should suffixes in TB as ‘isomorphism’, a single form used to mark
not be deprived of their human/linguistic rights amongst different semantic roles is true to KirantiKõits as well.
others. Like some other Kiranti languages (Ebert 1994: 107),
KirantiKõits is also ergative morphologically, whereas syntactic
process is usually organized according to a nominative
accusative principle (cf. examples (4) cd, (11) e, (19) c,
15 July 2005 Friday and 2nd version, 13 March 2006 Monday Bussmann 1996: 152, Rapacha 2003). Thus the case types in
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 19 March 2006 Sunday KirantiKõits, are mixed form of the nominative vs. ergative
type. I will hence in the course of description, explore the
‘beauty in the system’ (Blake 1994: xiv) of case markers (See
37 Case suffixes in KirantiKõits Table1) accounting them as copiously as possible comparatively
1. Introduction in the light of the available past literature. The following six
major types of case markers/suffixes have been observed in the
The main objective of this essay is to provide the language and the most interesting aspect of those bound
description of KirantiKõits (KK hereafter, also known as morphemes are their free lexicosemantic category in either
‘Sun(u)war’ exoglotonym or hydronym (cf. Vansittart 1896, phrases or sentences.
1906, Mulicha and Susucha (1987 [VS 2044: 33, 45], Ghatak
1993, Bradley 1997:18, Driem 2001: 724, Yadava 2003: 144) but 1.1. Agentergative case <mi~m>
not ethnonym) case markers and compare or contrast them
with the previous descriptions available so far regarding its I have here adopted the compounded term agentergative
historical source as well. The language under description is one in order to maintain Toba’s (1984: 16) position
‘agentive/ergative’ in Khaling [KirantiKh] as opposed to c. loәbø dzāmt̺ә
Gvozdanović’s (2004: 341346; See examples (2) ad) argument younger.brother loosePST:3SG
for ergative against agentive in Bantawa [KirantiBantawa]. The ‘The younger brother (got) lost.’
case marker <mi~m> /mi~m/ (cf. Rung *mi, Idu me and
Nocte ma/me (LaPolla 1995: 203) plays different isomorphy d. ŋāwәmi loәb sāmt̺u
semantic roles such as ‘by’ (agentergative ±human), ‘with’ e.bERG y.b loosePST:3SG
(instrumental ±animate), ‘at/in’ (locative), 3SG/PL and ‘The elder brother (e.b) lost his younger brother
±human/male. For the same morpheme <mi~m>, there exists (y.b).’
another equivalent morpheme <ŋā> /ŋā/ playing its roles as Similarly in (3) ab below, the same bound morpheme <
‘of’ (locopossessive), SEQ and honorific. Consider the following mi~m> /mi~m/ plays the role of locative and its equivalent
instances in phrases and sentences. bound morpheme <ŋā> /ŋā/ in (3) cd (cf. also (18) ac) plays
(1) a. guyεmi sosmāl kyorccā the roles of locopossessive/genitive (3) c and event connective
sickleINST grass cutINF as sequential (3.d) marker (cf. Tables 1 and 2 and Konow’s
‘to cut the grass with a sickle’ (1909: 200) data ngā mistranslated (?) as ablative).
b. gomi blεt̺ikmi brεɂt̺āŋ (3) a. … roŋmi
1SGERG penINST writePST1SG cliffLOC
‘I wrote with a pen.’ ‘at the cliff…’ [Text source: 2.26 Rapacha 2005]
In (1) b, the suffix <mi~m> /mi~m/ as in gomi has b. go khĩmi bāɂnuŋ
played the role of agentive (cf. Gvozdanović (2004: 341346; see 1SG houseLOC liveNPST1SG
examples (2) ad, gomi and meremi Konow (1909: 200), ‘I live in the house.’
LaPolla (1995: 195; Sabra dialect data taken from Bieri et al. c. ε˜ko khĩŋā mur(u) t̺εk lәmā
1973); whereas the same bound morpheme <mi> /mi~m/ in this houseLOC/GEN manPL where
(1) ab guyemi and bletikmi respectively have played the goPST:INTER:PL
semantic role of instrumental. In this regard, Konow’s (1909: ‘Where did the owner of this house go?’
200) data me to mean agentive mi is slightly different from
my intuition of the language. This me /mε/ as a free morpheme d. go khәmε dzәšāŋā dumkhĩ lәt̺i
in KirantiKõits apparently means existential auxiliary/copula 1SG rice eatCONVSEQ office goPST
(e.g., mεko mur su mε´? ‘Who is that man?’ cf. me /mε/ and ‘I went to the office having eaten rice.’
as a bound morpheme in mεko mur khĩ lәmε´? ‘Did the man go The sequential marker <ŋā> /ŋā/ followed by the
home?’). It is also a number marker (3:SG) rather than denoting converbal pattern <shA> /šā / in 3 (d) can function as
agent. conjunction when it is used as a reduced alternative pattern of
(2) a. … murpikim the same converb. For instance, it is appropriate to say, gom
manPL AGT/ERG khame dzA t̺Ang ngA dumkhiN lat̺i /gom khә.mε dza.t̺ā.ŋ ŋā
‘…by the men…’ [Text source: 3.22 Rapacha 2005] dum.khĩ lә.t̺i/ ‘I ate rice and went to the office’. Another
important semantic role this bound morpheme <mi> /mi~m/
b. mεko wãĩsālmi ãkәli t̺upt̺u
(cf. mi KirantiBa; Driem (1991: 343)) plays is that of a
s/he boyAGT/ERG meDAT beatPST:3SG
sociopragmatic meaning ‘honorific third person plural’ given in
‘The boy beat me.’
example (4) a, and ‘third person singular’ in example (4) b.
(4) a. mεkopikim khәmε dzāinimi (6) a. mi pit̺o

s/hePLAGT rice (coked) eatNPST3PL fire bring3SG:IMP
‘They eat rice.’ ‘Bring the fire.’
b. āphpomi cirs hilnimi b. mim(i) cob
fatherAGT millet grindNPST3SG:HON fireAGT burnNPST:3SG
‘The father grinds the millet.’ ‘The fire burns (for its experiencer).’
On the contrary, the same morpheme remains unmarked c. go mi brәth gāɂt̺i
(cf. § 1 morphologically ergative) usually for nonpast first 1SG fire bringINF:PUR walkPST:1SG
person singular (cf. Rapacha 2003, 1999) as in (4) c and marked ‘I went to bring the fire.’
for all persons in the transitive past events of a syntactico
semantic utterance. 1.2. Ablative case <lā>
c. goø khәmε dzāinuŋ The morpheme <lā>, which has two more other varieties
1SG rice (cooked) eatNPST1SG (e.g. <lε> (also means ‘four’ as a lexeme) and <rε>; is cognate
‘I eat rice.’ of lām KirantiLim (Yakthungba); Ebert (1994: 81)) means
d. gomi brεspәt̺ kā brεɂt̺āŋ ‘from’ and plays the role of ablative as path or source of the
1SGERG letter one writePST1SG referent in nominal phrases or sentences, e.g. (7) af.
‘I wrote a letter.’ (7) a. …lāpcolā…
The last role <mi~m> plays is that of semantic/biological doorABL
gender marker (‘±human, male’) as in (5) a human/male and ‘from the door’ [Text source: 1.16 Rapacha 2005]
(5) b +human/male. b. mεklā…
(5) a. bw(ɓ)āāmmi… thereABL
‘from there’
roosterGENmotherAGT
‘by a hen’ c. goi t̺εlā piyε
2SG whereABL come2SG
b. tәm(i).mi…
‘Where did you come from?’
daughterAGT
‘by the daughter’ d. sәriŋlā rεu ib
Additionally, <mi~m> besides having polysemantic skyABL rain comeNPST:3SG
‘It rains from the sky.’
roles, is also a free lexeme mí /mí/ or mi quite often occurs
without a high tone, which means ‘fire’ as in (6) ac where mi e. go khĩlā pit̺i
has occurred in the subject or can occur in object position in (6) 1SG houseABL comePST:1SG
c as well. This is the most interesting fact of the KirantiKõits ‘I came from the house’
grammar yet to be pinpointed by linguists. The only difference The bound case morpheme ngā /ŋa/ mistranslated (?)
between the two (mi ‘fire’ and <mi~m>) is that native speakers as ‘ablative’ in Konow (1909: 200) and LaPolla (1995: 196;
do not tend to drop out the final vowel /i/ (and appropriately Sabra dialect) is actually <lā> instead of ngā /ŋā/ as
cannot be dropped out) in the former, whereas they/we usually demonstrated in examples (7) af.
do drop it out in the latter while communicating.
Like mí /mí/ or mi in (6) ac, lA /lā/ carries its lexico a free lexeme, which interprets as ‘porridge (especially made up
semantic load, which means ‘only’ in the example phrases and of the milletflour)’. Consider the examples in (10) ab.
sentences (8) ad. (10)a. ãkәl icikhoi kәl gεyini
(8) a. õšo lā myDAT little porridge giveNPST:1SG:PL
this.much only ‘Please give me a little porridge.’
‘this much only’ b. mεkokәl kәl gεuo
b. go lā s/heDAT porridge giveNPST:IMP:3SG
1SG only ‘Give the porridge to him/her.’
‘me only’ (cf. golā ‘from me’)
c. murpik lā (cf. murlā ‘from/by the man’) 1.4. Comitative case <nu>
manPL only The bound morpheme <nu> /nu/ ‘with’ (cf. nuŋ in
‘men only’ KirantiTh; Allen (1976: 319) quoted in Ebert (1999: 117)) marks
d. gom bwā lā thulšo bāɂt̺i comitative case. It also has neither been mentioned by Borchers
1SGAGT fowl only tame PCPL beN/PST:1SG (1998: 5; See Table 2) nor examples have been provided in
‘I have tamed fowl only.’ Konow (1909: 200) however, nu has been mentioned once in
the final paragraph in his description. This <nu> as a bound
1.3. Dative case <kәli~kәl> morpheme, which expresses possession of something with
somebody/something, e.g. (11) ad and furthermore it conveys
Dative case in KirantiKõits is marked by the morpheme ‘temporality’ (as its (<nu>) meaning) suffixed with verbs as in
<kali~kal> /kәli~kәl/ (cf. Konow’s (1909: 200) data kale and (11) ef.
also DeLancey’s (1984: 73) datum kale which slightly differs
from contemporary speech; I never heard such form produced (11)a. gonu
by any native speakers and myself as I rely on my intuition) 1SGCOM (PSN)
means ‘for, to’ (purposive, benefactive, undergoer/experiencer ‘with me’
or patientive) as illustrated in (9) ad. b. mekopiknu /mεko.pik.nu/
(9) a. mεkokәl(i) s/hePLCOM (PSN)
him/herDAT ‘with them’
‘to him/her’ c. …ε˜ko.nu…
b. ãkәl(i)/ thisCOM (PSN)
‘to/for me’ ‘with this’ [Text source: 2.3 Rapacha 2005]
c. gomi mεkokәl(i) poskārd soit̺t̺āŋ d. gonu kyεt mәbā
1SGERG herDAT pk sendPST1SG 1SGCOM (PSN) money NEGis:AUX
‘I sent her a postcard.’ ‘I don’t have money (with me).’
d. mε.ko lāpcokәl(i)… e. gom khәmε dzәšonu
that doorDAT kumsopāt̺āŋ
‘…to that door’ [Text source: 1.15 Rapacha 2005] 1SGERG rice eatPCPLTEMP songdoPST1SG
‘I sang (a song) while eating.’
Like in (6) ac and (8) ad, kal /kәl/ without its
morphemic break () or without suffixing to any other lexeme, is
f. mεko ālmi gyākosi lәšonu khyõpәt̺ kā khuipāpt̺u (13)a. goi t̺εkgε gāɂŋε

3SG childAGT market goPCPLTEMP book one/a
2SG whereALL walkNPST3SG
thiefdoPST:3SG
‘Where are you going (to)?’
‘The child stole a book while going to the market.’ b. go pithgε gāɂt̺i
The same nu /nu/ as a free morpheme, like in earlier 1SG thitherALL walkPST
examples, plays the semantic role of conjunction ‘and’ to ‘I am going (to/towards) thither.’
connect nouns or noun phrases in sentences as illustrated in c. pisāŋgε
(12) ab. Furthermore, there is another conjunction constituent directionALL
ngA /ŋā/ particle equivalent of <nu> for linking two different ‘…to/towards the direction’ [Text source: 3.26
phrases as in (12) cd. Rapacha 2005]
(12) a. āphpo nu tәu dzimumt̺āsε d. go gyā.kosigε gāɂt̺i
father and son fightRECPSTDU 1SG marketALL walkPST
‘The father and the son fought each other.’ ‘I walked to/towards the market.’
b. goi kumso nu šyilpәcā lā dzonәyε Moreover, (<ge~goi> /gε~goi/ ‘you, thou, thee’) instead of
you song and dancedoINF only knowNPST3SG case marker is also as a free morpheme and conveys the
‘What you know is that singing and dancing only.’ meaning of second person singular (14) a, and it further conveys
c. dumkhĩ lāuo ŋā āmkε gεpāuo another layer of meaning e.g. ‘work, job’ as well. Compare (14) b.
office go3SG:IMP and ownGEN work.do3SG:IMP (14)a. gε~goi su nәyε
‘Go to the office and do your work.’ 2SG who beAUX:2SG
d. mεk lāuo ŋā mεko ālkәli gәktiŋpā h´ĩpәt̺o ‘Who are you?’ (nәyε ‘2SG impolite’ nәni ‘2/3SG:PL
there go3SG:IMP that childPAT MAN frighten polite’)
CAUS3SG:IMP b. goi tεk gε pāinәyε
‘Go there and frighten that child terribly.’ 2SG where work do NPST3SG
In our examples (12) cd, ŋā can precede min as its ‘Where do you work?’
constituent to mean ‘and then, sequential’ in the same string of
sentences, e.g. go dumkhĩ lәt̺iŋāmin ām gε pāt̺āŋ (1SG 1.6. Genitive case <A~ ke~ ngA>
office goPSTCONVSEQ own work doPST1SG) ‘I went to the There are three different markers (<A~ ke~ ngA> /ā~
office and then did my work’. kε~ ŋā/ meaning ‘of’, where DeLancey’s (1984: 63) ke to mean
ERG/INST is semantically missing the point) for employing
1.5. Allative case <ge> genitive case. All these markers have a slightly different use
The bound morpheme <ge> /gε/ (no data for this pragmatically for the same meaning of possessiveness. First of
marker has been recorded in Konow (1909: 200) and Borchers all, <A> or <A> /ā// ‘can normally be used with +human as
(1998: 5; See Table 2) plays the role of allative case in the in (15) ac.
language to mean ‘to or towards’ suggesting destination and (15)a. mεko mur(u)ā/
goal, for example in (13) ad. that manGEN
‘of the/that man’
b. āmā c. ε̃ko khĩŋā mur(u) t̺εk lәmā

GENmother/femininityGEN this houseLOC:GEN man where goNPST:3SG:HON
‘of the mother’ ‘Where did the men (murpik = mur intended) of
this house go?’
c. ãkε ām khĩmi mәbāɂmә
myGEN mother houseLOC NEGbeNPST Finally, <A> /ā/ (3SG ‘his/her’ in (19) a and c) vs. <AN>
‘My mother is/was not in the home.’ /ã/ (1SG ‘my’ possessive pronoun in (19) b as free morphemes
Sometimes in usages like (16) a Am /ām/ ‘own’ is a are missing in Borchers’ (1998: 5) recent description and in
separate free morpheme to which ke ‘genitive’ (16) b can be Konow’s (1909: 200) twentieth century data as well.
suffixed to. (19)a. (mεko)ā mәmā
(16)a. ām mәmā lo gεnāiyo mәpr(ɽ/l)ε̃dεn 3SGPOSS mother
own mother tongue never NEGforgetNPST:3PL ‘his/her mother’
‘Never forget your own mother tongue.’ b. ã dε̃šo bisso
b. goimi āmkε blεt̺ik t̺εk odi my sayPCPL obeyIMP
2SGERG ownGEN pen where keepPST:3SG ‘Obey my advice.’
‘Where did you keep your own pen?’
c. gom (mεko)ā nε mәt̺uitt̺u
In the provided illustrations (17) ac, the genitive case 1SGERG 3SGPOSS name NEGknowPST:1SG
marker <ke> /kε/ (usually ±human) in place of <A> /ā/ ‘I did not know her/his name.’
also delivers the meaning of possessiveness.
We will now here summarize our discussion on the
(17)a. mεkokε
KirantiKõits case markers in Table 9 and Borchers’ (1998: 5)
3SGGEN
summary has also, been provided in Table 10 for a comparative
‘of his or her’
look in § 2 later.
b. …sidā kikyәkε
Sida grandfatherGEN Table 9: Case markers in KirantiKõits
‘Sida grandfather’s…’ [Text source: 2.27 Rapacha
2005] Types of suffixes gloss Types of cases
c. kyārškε milu
goatGEN tail 1. mi>m, ngA /mi>m,ŋā/ Instrumental
‘the goat’s tail/the tail of the goat’ ‘by, with, at, honorific, Locative, locogenitive (animate),
3SG/PL, ±human/male, Agentive/ergative
Another alternative genitive case marker normally
connective/subordinator/SEQ
implying location is <ŋā> /ŋā/ in place of <A> /ā/ as in (18) 2. lA~ le~ re /lā~ε~rε/ ‘from’ Ablative
ac, cf. also (3) d above. 3. kali>kal /kәli>kәl/ ‘for, to’ Dative/accusative(purposive)
(18)a. ε˜ko khĩŋā 4. nu /nu/ ‘with, and, TEMP’ Comitative nu ‘with’
this houseLOC/GEN 5. ge /gε/ ‘to/towards, you’ Allative(elative/illative as in Finnish)
‘of this house’ 6. A~ ke~ ngA /ā~ kε~ ŋā/ ‘of’ Genitive, locative (animate)
b. …kolšo nεpālŋā
big:ADJ NLOC/GEN (cf. also Rapacha (1999: 58), Rapacha, NgawachaMukhia and
‘…of the huge/big Nepal…’ [Text source: 4.23 RujichaMukhia (2003: 99109))
Rapacha]
In KirantiKõits, the nominativeaccusative (stated earlier where only a few elderly speakers speak the language proper
‘split/morphologicalergative; cf. examples (4) cd, (11) e, (19) and is vanishing soon in the near future. As far as Konow’s
c,) case particle is also marked with mi, for instance, gomi… (1909: 200) data are concerned, it has been informed that the
(1SGAGT) ‘by me’ or Tsursimi… (tsursiAGT) ‘…by Tsursi’ translated text was received from the Nepal Durbar. Thus, we
with all past transitive verbs; whereas NPST as in goø khәmε do not know the area of speakers, where they migrated from to
dzāinuŋ (1SG rice eatNPST1SG) ‘I eat rice’ remains the Nepal valley in the past and so is the case in Hodgson’s
unmarked. The vocative markers are: /εi/ and /εu/ as (1874 [orig. 1847) wordlist too.
illustrated in (20) ab, Borchers’ (1998: 5) ya is only <ā> in my dialect area.
(20) a. oi õth nεn dε εi The ami suffix (instrumental and locative probably as in go
INTJ here listenIMP TOP VOC āmi (rather goāmmin) ‘I myself’ I added) needs reanalysis.
‘Hey! Listen (to me) here.’ Her object case/ “accusative”kali and dative mla [probably as
b. mәmā t̺εk gāɂni εu in mεkomlā ‘by him/her only’ I added] in Table 2, serial
mother where goPST:3SG:HON VOC number 3, where all there variations mean the same
‘Mom! Where are you going?’ grammatical meaning not different. Number 5’s wina
[probably must be hәyu uyu~uiŋā4: belowLOC:POSS/GEN ‘of
Table 10: Case marking suffixes in Sunwar (Kõits) from below down’] presumed to be inessive or adessive (like in
Borchers (1998: 5) FinnoUrgic) is locogenitive (animate) in my dialect area.
The allative (destination, goal; elative/illative as in
Case form(s) of suffix Finnish) marker <ge> /gε/ ‘to/towards’ has neither been
suggested in Konow (1909: 200) nor in Table 2, which would
1. Genitive ke, ya1 require further data to establish its existence as one of the case
2. Object case/ “accusative” kali suffixes in KirantiKõits. Most of the analyses by Konow (1909)
3. Subject case/ “instrumental” mi, m, ami2 are not free from either typographic or editing errors. Table 1
4. Locative mi, am, ami, m, ŋā has discovered two more varieties of ablative suffix le~ re
5. Inessive wina /lε~rε/ ‘from’ besides la only in Table 2. Suffixes such as nu
6. Ablative le and ŋā in Table 1, have temporal as in (11) f and sequential as
7. Vocative yau, au, u, ei in (3) d converb roles respectively.
8. Dative mla3
3. Conclusion
Among six main types of case markers in KirantiKõits,
2. A comparative look like in other Kiranti languages, there is a threeway
Now in this section, I will briefly discuss and compare or ergative/agentiveinstrumentallocative isomorphy of mi (cf.
contrast the present depiction with the past descriptions LaPolla’s (1995: 190, 196), Ebert’s (1994: 81) twoway
available. We will first then look at the sources of data where isomorphy. Additionally, mi functions as polysemantic lexeme
they come from. Borchers’ (1998) data were mainly collected at as in (4) ab, (5) ab and (6) ac. The locative suffix ŋā also has
the beginning of her research period from Kũbu Kasthel, a near isomorphic relationship with genitive and sometimes
Ramechhap (formerly Kirantichhap) district, East No. 2, Nepal functions as mi and sometimes as kε or ā (cf. (3) cd, (16) b,
and mine comes from my own dialect area of Katunje2, (17) ac and (18) ac. Apart from genitive <ke> /kε/ ‘±human’,
Okhaldhunga (formerly Tsuplu) district, East No.3, Nepal, all other case suffixes have fully independent lexical status and
even polysemantic roles, which suggests ‘grammaticalization of Folklore Studies in the west institutionalized decades or

nouns, particularly of nouns having some kind of locative sense’ centuries back as one of the independent academic disciplines.
(DeLancey 1984: 62) regarding its (suffix) historical source. Even in South Asia, Folklore Studies in countries like India,
However, the grammaticalization of the KirantiKõits case Bangladesh, SriLanka and Pakistan has gained wider attention
particles such as (6) ac mi (n) ‘fire’ (8) ad lA (adj, adv, conj) of researcherscholars and governments in order to preserve
‘only’, (10) ab kәl (n) ‘porridge’, (12) ab nu (conj) ‘and’, (12) c and promote folkliterature, art, culture, history, songs, music,
d ngA (conj) ‘and’5, (14) a ge~goi (prn) ‘you, thou, thee’ (14) b ethnography and folk architecture for the sake of their original
gε (n) ‘work, job’ (19) a and c A (prn) ‘his/her’ go beyond identity and nationality.
DeLancey’s general etymological observation on TibetoBurman In Nepal for ages, till the recent past, most intellectuals,
case particles. politicians and governments seldom paid attention in folk or
local glory of this nation which remained as unheard, unwritten
Acknowledgements and unrecorded history rapidly vanishing without any promises
I am grateful to an anonymous referee for helpful comments on to prosper this Himalayan ShangriLa country. Globalization
earlier drafts of this paper and I would like to express my deepest has even steadily been dislocating our indigenousfolk glory
gratitude to Dr Randy J. LaPolla, for his prompt response and related faster than ever.
information regarding this paper.
Folklore as such in Nepal had gained minimal attention
Notes during the mid 1970s when poet and Professor Tulasi Diwas
1 along with his researchcolleagues like Dr Dilli R Dahal had
ya must actually might be ā only.
2 carried out indepth research documentation on the Dhimal
goāmi (rather goāmmin) ‘I myself’ [I added].
3 Cf. mεkomlā ‘by him/her only’. This information is my own as a
folklore of eastern Terai Nepal. Around three decades of
native speaker of KirantiKõits. Another way of expressing mlā is slumber, Nepalese Folklore Society (NFS) was founded in 1995
āmmin as in go āmmin ‘I myself’ and mεko āmmin ‘s/he under the Chairmanship of Prof Tulasi Diwas, Cochair Prof Dr
himself/herself’. Abhi Subedi and General Secretary Prof Dr CM Bandhu. NFS
4 Cf. other deictic expressions; hәri iri>ir (high:LOC: vertical), hәyu since then has established a mode of Folklore Research,
uyu>ui (low:LOC: vertical), hәrε εrε/mεrε (level:LOC: horizontal) disseminated the Nepalese concepts of Folklore Studies and
and hәyu muyu (low:LOC: vertical). further established wider contacts with folklore societies and
5 ŋā also means ‘five’ in some dialects instead of ŋә. scholars in different parts of the world.
Meanwhile, the society organized its First International
Folklore Congress2001 in Kathmandu highlighting its main
38 Folklore studies in Nepal theme as "Folklore for Identity and Understanding" for the first
time in its history on May 57. This Congress had brought
Nepalese folklore, life, literature, art, culture, history, folklorists together from India, Bangladesh, USA, Finland,
songs, music, ethnography and several other aspects have now
Germany, the Netherlands and Nepal with interesting academic
fascinated our native researcherscholars magnetically when the
papers and discussions in their subthemes including a special
state politics has been slouching towards egalitarian Nepal from
session on 'IndoNepal Folklore Studies'. Also, it organized its
nasty feudalism. Young alike senior researchers' deepinterest
in our own folklore and folk life presently for establishing Second International Folklore Congress2003 in the capital city
Folklore Studies as an autonomous academic discipline is more on May 30June 1 along with "Explorations of the Dynamics of
laudable than practicing everything western in our school and Creative Sensibility in Folklore and Modern Poetry" as a broad
college education including universities. argument.
Till this date NFS has completed overall fieldwork Oral History', 'Study of Indigenous Economic Institution and
research documentations on the Gandarva, Gopali, Kiranti Livelihood', 'Traditional Folk Knowledge and Technology',
Athpre (autonym Sananggo) and Danuwar folklore from several 'Visual Folklore: Digital Audiovideo Recording', 'Folklore
parts of the country as its milestone. This documentation's Studies in Literature and Culture', 'Folklore Theories and
crucial feature is digitization of oral, customary and material Methodologies', 'Collection and Transcribing Oral Texts',
folk culture and heritage from the original homeland of those 'Ethnicity, Gender and Folklore', 'Folk Performing Arts and
people besides report publications under a local cooperation Dramatic Performances', 'Folklore, Context and Performance',
project "Folklore and Folklife Project: A Study of Living 'EthnoBotany and Folk Medicine', 'Ethnography of Material
Cultural Heritage of Nepal" supported by Finland. The idea of Folk Culture', 'Collection and Interpretation of Folk Rites and
Nepalese folklife, songs, knowledge, architecture, culture, Rituals', 'Translation/Transcription of Oral Texts', 'Applied
language, geography, economy, anthropoethnography, Folklore and Cultural Studies in Nepal', 'Folklife and Ethno
ethnicity, ethnomedicine, resource management, politics, and history', and 'Visual Folklore: Ethnophotography'.
literature is disseminated in its several activities like talk Experts in folklore, literature, linguistics, geography,
programs, symposium, and recitations with Congress. economics, architecture, medicine, socioanthropology,
This December 1516, '06 witnessed such zealous native ethnicity, music, video technology, history, culture and more
researchers from all over the country exploring our folklife excluding political scientists delivered lectures and techniques
from Hindu mythology, Nepali proverbs to Kiranti folktales, on the above varied topics of Folklore Studies in Nepal. Poet,
KirantiAthpare culture, ethnography and many more. About folklorist and the NFS President Prof Diwas mainly stresses on
seventy native scholars from rural to urban Nepal in NFS's First the holistic combination of all those elements to study Nepalese
National Folklore Congress held at Nepal Academy discussed Folklore makes sense to institutionalize Folklore Studies as an
and asserted their varied interests in Nepalese Folklore Studies academic discipline in the country and even strengthen
covering wideranging themes like 'Nepalese Folklore and Folk folkocrarcy for promoting egalitarian society.
life Study', 'Folklore, Gender and Power', 'Folklore and Folk Many congress and workshop participants have expressed
Performing Arts', 'Theoretical and Methodological Issues of their keen interest to institutionalize Folklore Studies and carry
Folklore', 'Folklore, Identity and Ethnicity', 'Folklore, Literature out research in this area for understanding our unheard folk
and Languages', and 'Folklore, Cultural Studies and Folk lives in hundreds of unreachable corners and caves of our
Practices'. homeland. The west is the best since it academically and
Another most important activity conducted by NFS in politically cares its folks indiscriminately. And now it must be
order to flourish and cherish Nepalese Folklore Studies in the Nepal to look after her folks politically and academically
country and in South Asia as well as other Asian or Western through Folklore Studies all around the country. Now it is high
nations for geocultural strategy deserves mention is time to formulate plans, policies and allocate budget for
workshops. The society in its oneweek workshop (1723 understanding our excluded and unreachable peoples' folklife,
December) trained a total of 19 young native researchers needs and behavior to generate sustainable development. This
coming from variety of disciplines. effort can certainly help institutionalize Folklore Studies and
The most inclusive topics of the workshop included: folkocracy in Nepal.
'Language and Folklore Studies', 'Folklife, Ethnicity and
Identity', 'Folklore and Human Geography', 'Folklife and
Folklore Fieldwork', 'Folklife Culture and Development',
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 28 December 2006, also in Newsletter
'Folksongs and Ethnomusicology', 'Folkarts and Crafts', 'Finish of Nepali Folklore Society, 1, 4 June 2007: 9, now available in
Method: Study of Taletypes and Motive', 'Oral Tradition and pdf format online = www.Nepali Folklore Society
39 Teaching KirantiKõits with (Census Report 2001) in Nepal, whereas in India according to
LSI (Grierson 1909), it was 4, 435 in Darjeeling, 555 Sikkim,
lexicosyntactic approach 259 Assam (but Allen (1901: 143) has mentioned 54 in 1891 and
We have organized this essay1 as 1. Background, 1.1 1602 in 1901)), 52 Lakhimpur, 43, Lushai Hills and 36 in
KirantiKõits as a Mother: Role and importance, 1.2 Why Jalpaiguri (cf. also Subba 1989: 42). It is surprising to note that
language education in Mother Tongue?, 1.3 Historical outline, the number of native speakers has been declining gradually
1.4 Literature or previous studies, 2. KirantiKõits Lo: leading to 'the erosion of the world's linguistic diversity' (Maffi
Sessebdese: Text organization, 2.1 Selection of content, 2.2 2002: 386) instead of increment and maintenance. According to
Presentation of content, 2.3 Purpose and objectives, 3. Krauss' (1992) and Crystal's (2000) definition, the language is
Instructions for language Instructors/Trainers, 3.1 Why one of the potentially endangered languages of the Himalayan
lexicosyntactic approach?, 3.2 On phonotonology, 3.3 On belt.
lexemes/words, 3.4 On syntax/formation of sentences and 3.5 There are three main factors responsible for this tendency
Problems of orthography and writing. This essay thus marks of language loss. First, minority linguistic groups are victimized
the beginning of writing, reading and teaching the lesser known of discrimination, oppression, domination, exclusion and
language like KirantiKõits in the multilinguohistorical marginalization (Lawoti 2002) by indifferent policy of the
background of Nepal mainly using the lexicosyntactic 'lexemes mainstream polity. Secondly, there lack policy and investment
and syntax' approach since most of the population has lost its on bilingual education for the survival of the local/regional
Mother Tongue as such. languages like KirantiKõits on the part of the Government of
1. Background Nepal. As a result, the language is 'threatened by social and
economic pressures, displacement, demographic submersion,
Phylogenetically, KirantiKõits is one of the TibetoBurman language suppression in forced assimilation, assimilatory
(Grierson (ed) 1909, Shafer 1953, Benedict 1972a, Voegelin and education and media' (Krauss 1992: 4) in actual sense of the
Voegelin 1977, Hale 1982, Zograph 1982, Ruhlen 1987, Bright term. Thirdly, but most importantly in the case of KirantiKõits
(ed) 1992, Grimes (ed) 2000, Toba et al 2002) subfamily speech community, caste politics (cf. Morris 1927, Hagen 1961,
languages under SinoTibetan family spoken by a meager ethnic Bista 1967, Chemjong 1967, Parajuli (ed) 1985, Ananda (ed.)
‘minority’ (underprivileged, dominated and subservient (Abbi 1987, Subedi et al 1994, Adhikary 1999, Sharma 2001) has
2000: 13)) of eastern Nepal plus northeastern India, viz, played a foul and negative role in their decreasing demographic
Sikkim and Darjeeling.The language is also known as 'Kiranti figure and speakers' mentality as well regarding their exonym.
Sunuwar' in its exonym (‘Sunuwar’ IndoAryanized term or Albeit KirantiKõits speakers fall outside the hierarchical 'caste'
exonym), whereas the term 'Kõits' is autonym of the tribe, or any 'jati' system (Abbi forthcoming), they are forced to be
which is used as glossonym 'nomenclature of the mother humiliated having been defined and categorized as
tongue' also. Moreover, the generic phyla 'Kiranti' under the 'untouchable/goldsmith' in the Hindu framework of social
Himalayan group of TibetoBurman subfamily, include not less stratification in terms of caste. Thus the people are doomed to
than thirty (cf. Rai 1985, Hanßon 1991, Nishi 1992, Pokharel conversion and their native tongue is 'doomed to extinction'
1994, Dahal 2000, and now 27 Kiranti languages have been (Krauss 1992: 4) menacingly.
reported to have hardly some lines of written literature; cf.
Rapacha 2008) scarcely described and documented languages. 1.1 KirantiKõits as a Mother Tongue: Role and
KirantiKõits is one of the 'lesserknown indigenous' importance
(Kansakar and Turin 2003: vii) languages whose demographic KirantiKõits or Sunuwar undoubtedly is one of the
figure of speakers is only 26, 611 out of their 95, 254 population vanishing ethnic tribes or nationalities of Nepal. Their history is
shrouded in mystery. No archaeological excavations have 1.3 Historical outline

provided proofs on their migration story from North rather than Although the ancient history of the KirantiKõits language
South. At this critical juncture, Mamaa Lo: [‘Mother Tongue’] is is still unknown, Rapacha (2003: 3) has outlined its history in
the only best evidence in tracing tribal identity, history and it five broad periods on the basis of its available literature or
provides clues on archaeological excavations. Relatively, previous studies as follows:
‘language’ is one such evidence for claiming their
anthropological stock as Mongoloid or Tibetonoid (see Debnath i. Prehistoric/Dark Age (before18471850 A.D.)
and Chaudhuri 2006 for genetic study). ii. Comparative/Discovery Age (18501900)
iii. Grammar, Text and Classification Age (19001960)
1.2 Why language education in Mother Tongue? iv. Proselytization Age (19602000)
v. Vanishing and the Present (2000 onwards)
The language is at the threshold of extinction because of
sociopolitical and economic reasons in the past. Presently only In the following section, we will note some linguists and
after the post1990s, along with the change in sociopolitical scholars who carried out research on the language and culture
situations of the country, KirantiKõits has drawn attention of of the tribe from the past till date.
the tribe and the government as well. It seems as if it is too late.
The 2001 census report shows that only 27% population (0.42% 1.4 Previous studies
out of total population in which 76% is of IndoAryan Nepali The following linguists/researchers including
speakers) speaks the language proper. This means that Kiranti organizations have carried out research on the KirantiKõits
Kõits as a Mother Tongue is going to sink into oblivion soon. As language, culture and its taxonomy in different periods in
I raised a very serious question of identity in the background history of about three centuries. Some of them are: Hodgson
above, here it is necessary at least to have some knowledge of (1847), Beams (1867), Risley (1891), Grierson ((ed.) 19031927),
the language if not many vocabulary for the time being will Glover (1970c), Lehman ((ed.) 1970), Schulze and Bieri (1971a,
serve our purpose of retaining identity and continue its 1971b, 1971c), Hale et al (1973a), Fournier (1974, 1976), Bieri
linguistic legacy. So, we have adopted lexicosyntactic approach (1975, 1978, 1988), Sikkim Government Gazette (1994), Sikkim
'lexeme and syntax teaching' in order to achieve immediate Government Gazette (1996), Schulze (1978, 1987, 1995a, 1995b,
goals in launching informal introductory KirantiKõits 986, 1995a, 1995b, November 1995, May 1995, December
languageeducation course. 1996), Genetti (1998b, 1992) Rai (1990), Hanßon (1991),
Therefore, it is relevant, demanding and challenging to DeLancey (1992) Rapacha (1995, 1996, 1997a, 1997b, 1999,
conduct informal language education course in our Mother 2001d, 2002a, 2002b, 2003, 2005, 2008), Upadhyay (1998),
Tongue for identifying themselves and ourselves as Kiranti Borchers (1998, 1999, 2008), Egli (1999), Ebert (1999a, 1999b),
Kõits or Sunuwar (Mukhi(y)a (both ‘Sunuwar’ and ‘Mukhia’ are Pokharel (1994, 1999) and Sunuwar (2003, 1997) etc.
IndoAryan vocabulary). It is needless to say that our Mother In order to follow up the above scholars/researchers/
Tongue equals our anthropological identity as Mongoloid. As a writers’ tradition, it is therefore necessary to continue
result, language education in Mother Tongue increases their producing teaching materials, creative writings, translations
language loyalty for preserving and promoting the multi from other languages and political documents in order to
linguistic situation of Nepal. It is also necessary because it has preserve and promote its (KirantiKõits language) use in multi
its own history if not of the tribe itself. So, one has to continue linguistic situation of the country for maintaining linguistic
its history of the past only for preserving their or our identity if ecology and harmony.
not for sociopolitical means.

2. KirantiKõits Lo: Sessebdese and its textual 2.2 Presentation of content

organization The above contents are graded and presented in such a
Taking our current need into consideration, we have way that our normal readers/learners can easily learn individual
prepared this text material KirantiKõits Lo: Sessebdese lexemes or vocabulary through illustrations. Although all
[‘KirantiSunuwar Bhashashiksha’] for introducing some basic vocabularies have been introduced in the Mother Tongue,
vocabulary and basic sentence structures to our keen translated (at least in IndoAryan Nepali) vocabulary and
readers/learners who even do not have ABCs of their own sentences have been provided in Appendix in order to facilitate
Mother Tongue or have forgotten their own clanonyms. all other lay readers/learners of native or nonnative speakers.
The material has been divided into 11 Chapters (with some
translatable vocabulary), which are of ideal length for 2.3 Purpose and objectives
beginners. In most of the chapters, our main aim is to identify As discussed earlier, this text material (to be used in non
the readers/learners with words/vocabulary of common use in formal language education) is prepared for the readers/learners
daily life. Except for Chapters One and Eight, illustrations have who anthropologically are KirantiKõits [anthropological stock:
provided from daily life experiences to cosmology. In Chapter Mongoloid] but have given up their Mother Tongue for several
One, some words for social etiquette with a very short reasons such as geographical isolation, humiliation, exclusion
conversation, has been included however it is not sufficient in or a sort of social outcast (adopted from the IndoAryans but no
itself. We have introduced only three words, e.g. ‘namsewal’, such strata exist in Mongoloid, TibetoBurman culture), bread
‘tseredum’ and ‘tserelil’ have in this introductory material. and butter and so forth. Another main purpose is to stimulate
Chapter 2 introduces 22 nomenclature of the Human our readers/learners for making this language as a tool of
Body. We have included very limited external vocabulary here a communication in everyday life (from the language of privacy)
long with some simple sentences. and broadly its use in creative writings and writing other
political and historical documents. So our main objectives here
Chapter 3 is devoted for food/drink and edibles. About 22 are:
vocabularies on food pattern, typical in our community is
introduced. It is again followed by some basic sentences as in  introduce day to day lexemes/words/vocabulary
previous chapters. Thus, other remaining chapters; Chapter 4  familiarize objects with illustrations
Utensils, Chapter 5 Surroundings, Chapter 6 Animals and Birds,  stimulate the readers/learners for more responses
Chapter 7 Kinship, Chapter 8 Days and Months, Chapter 9  use words in simple sentences
Crops, Chapter 10 Numbers [basic numbers 110] and Chapter
11 Coins and Paper Notes are also followed by basic sentences 3. Instructions for language Instructors/Trainers
having at least one subject and predicate. Some extra concepts It is said that a bad teacher always tells or narrates, and a
and illustrations like ‘lagaa’, ‘pdenkas’ and ‘põibo’ [Tibetan good teacher teaches and the best teacher always motivates. We
‘Bonpo’ and Tamang ‘Bonbo’] also have been introduced. envisage our language Instructors/Trainers/Teachers to be of
the third category or excellent/ideal one who always motivates
2.1 Selection of content his/her learner rather than working for mere economic gains.
For this introductory course we have selected very S/he is must be a voracious reader in order to motivate his/her
common content ranging from social etiquette or ‘greetings, learners and enthusiastic readers.
naming our body parts, food/drink, utensils, ecology, animals The text material is prepared only for gaining limited
and birds, kinship, naming days and months, crops, numbers to objectives for a certain period of time in informal contexts. As
identifying monetary measurements. presented above in Sections 2.1 and 2.3, we have aimed in
introducing some core vocabulary and sentence structures 3.1 Why lexicosyntactic approach?

within a short period of time. Therefore, our ideal trainers There are multiple approaches or methods of language
motivate themselves in increasing their vocabulary in the teaching, for instance GT method, audiolingual method,
content provided here, e.g. in Chapter 2, it is necessary that the communicative approach, suggestopaedia and so on. Now let us
trainers should himself/herself discover some names for ask ourselves, “Why lexicosyntactic approach amongst other
external body parts; whereas many in internal parts. For this approaches?” The answer to this question may not be so easy.
purpose some reference books have been suggested as follows in One obvious answer is that of sociopolitical and economic
alphabetical order: pressures as we discussed above. Another grave fault is to
a. KirantiKõitsa The:si Khyõpat [Elementary Reader surrender without resistance. Our new generation is skeptic and
of KirantiSunuwar] (2004) wants freedom of this ‘maneater language’. The irony is that
b. KirantiKõits Blesetheka [KirantiSunuwar Alphabet] the speakers themselves do not seem loyal to their own Mother
(2003) Tongue. Due to these reasons the domain of language has
c. KirantiKõitsa The:si Tarando [Elementary become very limited to such an extent that it is only an
Grammar of KirantiSunuwar] (2003) accidental language of privacy let alone its use in creative and
c. Kõits Aan Lo: Min Gye Sensicha [Sunuwar Bhasha sociopolitical discourse (also cf. Rapacha 2009). So we have to
Pustak] (2000) scratch something out of nothing.
e. Kirant Sunuwar Bhasha Shabdakosh (1994) This material is purposefully targeted to the peripheral
f. Kirantbamshi Sunuwar (Mukhia) Kõits (1999) speakers living in geographical and cultural isolation from the
g. Kõits Lo:[Sunuwar Kura/Bhasha] Sajilo Gyanmala core area, e.g. Molung, Solung, Yolung, Likhu and Khimti Khola
(1990) [‘rivulet’] areas. In order to tackle these problems some basic
h. Kõits Lo:wa Lowasi [Sunuwar Bhasha Bolichali (in words/vocabulary or lexemes have been selected for introducing
NepaliSunuwar)] (1997) them amongst our isolated KirantiKõits members. The words
i. Mulkem (a stage drama ‘Sanskriti’) by DB Kiranti or lexemes selected here are of greater value as Saint Kabir
[translated into KirantiKõits by Lokpriya Sunuwar notes,
(1999)
j. Sã Waɂs Durdapũ [NepaliSunuwarAnggreji: Triboli “Find the word, know the word,
Shabdakosh] (2003) You are nothing but the word.
k. Saral NepaliSunuwarAnggreji shabdakosh (2001) Word is sky, word is hell,
l. Sunuwar Dictionary Format Specification (1988) Word is in the cell, in the cosmos,
m. Yabea Lo: [New Testament in Sunuwar] (1992) Word is man, word is woman, word is trinity.
Word is the visible and invisible Omkar,
This reading list certainly will facilitate our trainers but it
is necessary to be very critical and needs rectification while Word is the beginning of the creation
consulting these books. It is because there can be shortcomings You examine the word,
in editing and other orthographic and typographic or Word is the creator, O! brother.”
graphological problems in writing or there can possibly appear If KirantiKõits is “words, words, words” as in
problems of dialectal variations and even idiolects. The Shakespeare’s Hamlet, then we may naturally raise our voice
emergence of dialectology cannot be ignored easily. All our ideal “Where’s the grammar? Can we mean something without
trainers thus wisely compare these problems or tackle some grammar in a language?” Of course, words are part of grammar.
shortcomings for standardizing the language in the future. The grammar is hidden in words itself. Words mean our
identity. Words are part of archaeology. They occur is certain 3.4 On syntax/formation of sentences
context and collocation. So for a beginner of KirantiKõits at The material aims to introduce some basic sentence
first sight, it is suitable to be identified with basic/common
patterns (or linguists call it ‘Syntax’) providing usages, e.g.,
vocabularies first and use them in basic sentence patterns then.
a. go ruili nǝŋ
3.2 On phonotonology 1SG ruili AUX
Although the first skill of language learning starts from ‘I am Ruili’.
listening, we have purposefully left out the mechanism of b. yumpiā tsã kεr ba:ɂtǝ
speech sounds. Linguists and phoneticians call this mechanism yumpiGEN hair black AUX:EXT
as phonetics (‘science/study of speech sounds’ Chalker and ‘Yumpi has black hair.’
Weiner 1994: 295) and phonology. The blended term
c. go kǝl dza:inuŋ
‘phonotonology’ above stands for ‘phonology’ (means the sound
1SG millet.porridge eatNPST1SG
system of an individual language like KirantiKõits and of
around 6 thousand languages spoken all over the world have ‘I eat milletporridge.’
their system of sounds or phonemes) and ‘tone’ (means Like these examples provided here, most of the sentences
prominent syllable). And tone not so prominently is are basic ones with at least one subject and predicate. The
phonological feature of KirantiKõits after KirantiKhaling. In examples ac show that the KirantiKõits is basically SOV in its
this material we have not included the phonology of it but have combination of words like S(ubject), O(bject) and V(erb) for
used some phonological features like tone in its Devanagari forming sentences as opposed to the IndoGermanic English’s
orthography and script, e.g. SVO. Thus, our trainers during this course are expected to be
´ = rise tone (´) able to combine words into basic sentences.
ˉ = level tone ( ˉ )
` = fall tone (`) 3.5 Problems of orthography and writing
However, we have not used anywhere here in this In order to develop a language fully, it should have its own
material. As in Chinese and Khaling (one of the Kiranti systematic orthography. Our trainers and speakers should be
languages spoken in east Nepal or across the border in aware of this fact. Nevertheless, most languages of the world are
northeast India) tone plays a dominant role in the KirantiKõits spoken rather than written. Therefore, most of the languages of
phonology and some dialects do not have this feature at all. the world do not have their own script. Any scripts of written
languages existing today are not godgiven or discovered but
3.3 On lexemes/words invented by men. The history of writing in prehistoric time
The nature of the majority of words/lexemes/vocabularies began from cavedrawings at the beginning of human
presented in this material is concrete rather than abstract. civilization. Another fact is that many languages may use the
Furthermore, most of these words have faded away from the same system of writing/script like Roman with some local
memory of tribes those who even do not know their clan names features in Europe and Devanagari in South Asia including the
today. Therefore, our instructors/trainers should hunt for IndoAryan Nepali and even KirantiKõits or any other
further vocabularies by consulting the above listed suggested languages.
readings and more because the domain of our language is very
much limited to privacy rather than to its fullfledged domain of Presently, the Sikkim Kõitsbu has overcome such
use. For this reason our trainers are expected to have discovery problems of orthography and of graphology/script (cf. Rapacha
or even inventory to fulfill the readers/learners/speakers’ need. 2001d, 2002 and 2003 and other unpublished papers) by using
the revised version of the Kõits Brese also known as Jẽ:ticha
Brese ‘script’ for the purpose of its written documents. The the Kiranti nationalities or aboriginals of Nepal and world
Nepal Kõitsbu also can adopt the script for its around.
writing/documenting purposes so that there would be no Koktisala's name in those phylogenetically related
problems for writing the language in the IndoAryan linguocultural group differes as Khakchere, Khakchilupa,
Devanagari script but in ones own choice. Khakchilik, Khachilippu, Khachuluppa, Khachilippa, Khachile,
Khochilipa, Khochilipa, Khakchalap, Khakchulukpa, Khakchulukpa,
Acknowledgements Khopsilikpa, Khokchilip, Khakchrikpa, Khakchhuruppa,
My due thanks go to my coauthor Mokusu Kormocha (Mohan Yechhakuppa, Khakchulukpa, Khokyulukpa, Khokchilip, Kokchilip,
Sunuwar), who provided me this opportunity to share my knowledge Hechhakuwa, Hecchakuppa, Hechhakupa, Hechhakuppa,
in this field. And another coauthor Uttam Katicha (Sunuwar) also
Hetchhakuppa, Rachakule, Rochakupa, Solethocha and so forth.
enlightened me with several lexemes and concepts of cultural values of
his geodialect and even ideolect in the course of preparing this text Similarly, his two sisters' names also differ locally and
material. More importantly, I am indebted to the Sunuwar [Kiranti linguistically with similar or dissimilar themes, e.g., Tawama,
Kõits] Community Hong Kong for providing me 'PhD Research Tangwama, Tõwama, Tebam, Tooma, Toma, Khiyama,
Support Technology' without which I would not be able to prepare this Khliyama, Khliumo, Kheyangna, Kheyongna, Khiliyama,
paper at ease on time. I/We owe a great deal to the rest of the Kõitsbu Khĩbam, Khewama, Khema, Kheu, Grom, Dzaumo, Lassu, Lhos,
members who had provided suggestions for this material. I owe more
personal thanks to all members of the Kõitbu Sikkim for moral and Meena (means 'human' in KirantiRodung), Ninamyang,
emotional support during the first half of 2000s when we had Nanammang, Nalungma, Sumnima and Rinakha. There are,
produced such materials and paper in Gangtok, Sikkim before in from the sound and lexeme changing perspective, directions of
Nepal. change amongst these namenclature are distinct interestingly
exposing linguocultural and historical connections amongst
Note them.
1 This essay was written for the KirantiKõits Language Instructors’ When we closely observe and analyze the direction of
Orientation Seminar for informal KirantiKõits language sound changes of the nomenclature of characters here, one
education course organized by Kõitsbu (Kirant Sunuwar Welfare discovers that the unaspirate /k/ changes to aspirate /kh/ and
Society), Central Committee, Kathmandu held at the Society’s finally /kh/ changes into velarfricative /h/ sound in male
President’s residenceoffice on 1112 April 2004. Its original topic
characters with considerable vowel shifts and predominantly
was 'Teachinglearning KirantiKõits as a Mother Tongue: A
Lexicosyntactic Approach' and I have slightly revised and updated vowel shifts or nomenclature shifts in female characters’
it here. nomenclature.
The tale of Koktisala in KirantiBayung links and connects
the Kiranti people from Wallo to Pallo Kirant based on their
40 Kiranti unity in ethnofolklore religious texts called Mudhum, cultural agents, characters and
Koktisala is a prominent nomenclature in Kiranti folkore sociocultural practices1.
or narratives from eastern Nepal delineating a strong link or Their religious text called Mundum~Mukdum~Mundhum
connections amongst the multilinguistic Kiranti communities is mostly in oral forms and one of the sources of such Mundum
linguistically divided into two dozens or so languages (see lies in their folk narratives, e.g. Koktisala as well as in Salaku
Fiugure A: Genetically related Kiranti languages) spoken in incantations. The Mundum as an oral text is recited or practiced
their respective vicinities. This article thus describes, compares by their tribal priest called Na:so, Nokso, Nakso, Nochung,
and analyses the cultural hero or the first father Koktisala's Nakchong, Nagchong, Nokcho and so on in those multi Kiranti
different nomenclaure including linguocultural connections of linguistic and cultural group of Wallo, Majh and Pallo Kirant
areas of eastern Nepal. They are the main sociocultural agents, 41 Vanishing languages and knowledge of
who frequently play roles in their folktales
Along with Nokso 'priest', Põibo [‘tribal shaman’ related to
Nepal
Bonbo of Bonism] equivalent to Phedangma is also another 1 Biodiversity in relation to linguodiversity
sociocultural agent to play an important role in the Kiranti Nepal as a tiny country sandwiched between two software
people’s oral traditions and practices of daily life. and hardware giantnations fortunately is an amazing home for
Nhaso and Põibo in Kiranti oral traditions are directly very rich biodiversity viz. 118 ecosystem types, 75 vegetation, 35
linked to their cultural practice known as Shyãdar Shyil or forest types, 2,000 Lichen species, 1,822 fungi, 687 Algai
Sakela Sili, Sakewa, Sakle, Sakhewa Sili. The practice of this species, 853 Bryophytes, 380 Pteridophytes, 28 Gymnosperms,
Sili ‘dance’ emanates from the Koktisala tales of several 5,856 Angiosperms, 168 Platyhelminthes, 144 spiders, 5,052
localities. insects, 640 butterflies, 2,253 moths, 185 fishes, 43 amphibians,
From the linguisticpaleontological point of view, the 100 reptiles, 844 birds, and 181 mammals1, diverse cultures and
Kiranti people’s connections is strong in their subclanonym also is a home for 92 spoken mother tongues (MT) and 101
morphemes which link them in panKiranti linguistic features, ethnic groups according to the National Census Report (2001);
e.g. cha and hang~ng or other variations of cha include cho, whereas SIL Ethnologue (2005) edited by Raymond Gordon Jr.
chha, che, chu, chi, chung, ku, su, pu. These forms are has mentioned 127 spoken languages including one Nepali Sign
very close to each other in phonological, morphological, verbal Language and dialects all over the country out of which 9598%
lexemic, grammatical and syntactic similarities. Such forms, are either moribund or endangered on the basis of their
structures and characters frequently appear in their oral functional domains. Many languages including the
traditions elsewhere in Mundum as well as in folktales. ethnominority Mother Tongues (MTs) like KirantiKõits,
Bayung, Hayu, Koi, Puma, Tilung, Wambule, Yamphu,
PanKiranti folk literary connections can easily be traced Newahang or Saam and KirantiMewahang (see Box A) of
in and amongst characters like Koktisala, Dzaumo and Khliumo TibetoBurman subfamily and so on are vanishing soon within
in folk literary oral traditions and moreover nonliterary folk decades along with their innate indigenous traditional
narrative traditions as well and they link them in all the three knowledge.
Kiranti areas of eastern Nepal through historical characters like
Khinchihang, Harkabung, Wakudung, Langlewa, Lilimhang, Many unrecorded ethnolinguistic diversity since there
Suhacheppang etc. They are also common folk literary ancestors lacks linguistic survey of Nepal as such till today are going to
quite often mentioned in the Kiranti people’s intangible folk disappear from the face of Nepal steadily because of a decade
literary heritage. long armed conflict(s) and centurieslong linguistic
discrimination in the national boundary of the country. Losing
Note them according to a 2003 UNESCO paper 'Language Vitality
1
and Endangerment' means the irrecoverable loss of unique
See Ebert (1999, 2000), Rai (2008), Ebert and Gaenszle (2008), cultural, historical and ecological knowledge of mankind since
Rai and Rapacha (2008) and Rapacha (2008) for a detailed and
"Each language is a unique expression of the human experience
comparative plot variations, names and episodes.
of the world…Every time a language dies; we have less evidence
for understanding patterns in the structure and function of
human language, human prehistory, and maintenance of the
February 2008 world's diverse ecosystems. Above all, speakers of these
languages may experience the loss of their language as a loss of
Source: www.sahityaGhar.com, UK, 15 July 2009
their original ethnic and cultural identity"2 as says an elderly KirantiKõits (also known as Sun(u)war, Bhujuwar, Pirthwar
Navajo speaker to his grandson— and Mukhia in its exoglottonym), one of the endangered (cf.
"If you don't breathe/ There's no air. Rapacha 1997a, Toba et al 2005: 24, Yadava et al 2004: 21)
Kiranti languages of eastern Nepal among others.
If you don't walk/ There's no earth.
If you don't speak/ There's no world." (ibid.) Moreover, a monolithic and inequitable language policy
since the national unification by Prithivi Narayan Shah
Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine (2000) put, "each prolonging until today for about 2½ centuries of modern
language has its own window on the world." Language thus is Nepalese linguistic and sociocultural history. Lawoti (2001)
not the only indicator of traditional knowledge but bearer, soul notes—
and expression of that knowledge. Such imperative intangible
“Article 6 (1) of the Constitution [of Nepal, 1990] declares Khas
linguistic heritage of mankind along with biodiversity in many Nepali as the official and ‘language of the nation’ whereas more
parts of the world including Nepal now is on the verge of than 100 other native languages are termed ‘national languages’.
extinction menacingly. We will in § 4 illustrate cases of such By categorizing Nepali differently, it bestows special importance
evidence how language bears traditional knowledge and how to it. The Supreme Court nullified [or banned on 1 June 1999
language expresses that knowledge. (VS 2056 Jeth 18) and every year, June 1 is observed as Black
Day against language attrition by the Country and Court
2. Linguohistorical milieu towards the minority indigenous languages, I added; cf. Tamang
2000, Kaĩla 2005, Gurung 2005: 144] the declaration of local
This section provides a short glimpse of linguistic languages as additional languages by three local jurisdictions.
discrimination in Nepal leading to language endangerment for a The Article 18 (2) of the Constitution does not sanction native
long period of linguistic history how ethnominority languages instructions in schools beyond primary level. The State does not
and the rest in favour of monolithic policy during the pre1990 support native language instructions even at the primary level.
era of Rana oligarchic and Panchayat autocratic regimes. It does not even recognize education conducted at madrassas
The most important factor of endangerment (cf. Toba, and Buddhist monasteries. On the other hand, the government
spends millions of rupees for the Sanskrit pathasalas [schools]
Toba and Rai 2005, Rapacha 2006) is the political factor “One and the Sanskrit University whose beneficiaries are male
NationOneCultureOneLanguage” (i.e. KhasNepali only, see Brahmins. In addition, by imposing compulsory Sanskrit all
Dahal 2000) policy (also cf. Gurung 2003: 84, Gurung 2003, over the country, the State is systematically imposing Hindu
Toba, Toba and Rai 2005: 20 and 23, Kaĩla 2005) of the then values and ways on nonHindu communities. The Khas
Regimes. In order to make this point clear, here I quote an [Kshetriya] language has been treated as the ‘Nepali’ language
example of language policy planning of the Nepal National while other native languages are not called Nepali. Likewise only
Education Planning Commission3, the Devanagari script has been treated as the Nepali script
while other scripts of the country are not.” (extrainformation
“And it should be emphasized that if Nepali is to become the in brackets are my own)
true national language, then we must insist that its use be
enforced in the primary school… Local dialects and tongues, Lawoti’s observation dates recently back to the post1990s
other than standard Nepali, should be vanished [banished] from era known as the socalled Restoration of Democracy by
the school and playground as early as possible in the life of the Peoples’ Popular MovementI in the country, whereas on the
child.” other side of Indianstory by Annamalai (2001: 131) is totally
As a result of this indifferent, discriminatory and different from that of Nepal. He states— “It is multilingualism
suppressive languagepolicy of the government, the linguistic that symbolizes India. This is important from the point of view
diversity and multiplicity of Nepal has been endangered e.g., of language planning. The Constitution [of India] does not
consider one language is required for transforming the new
country into a nation. Indian nationhood or national identity is where most of the speakers have shifted to Nepali due to
not tied to one language, as it is not tied to one religion.” The sociopoliticoeconomic imposition or pressures5 (cf. also
problem in Nepal is— Nepalese nationhood or national identity Borchers 2002, Kaĩla 2005, Gurung 2003), the national Indo
as such is tied to only one language i.e. KhasNepali4 [cf. also Aryan lingua franca that has had wider currency at least since
Lawoti 2001, Kaĩla 2005, Gurung 2003], as it is tied to only one the socalled political unification of Nepal. This is how linguistic
religion i.e. Hinduism even after the 2006declaration of diversity of Nepal had in the past been homogenized or
secularism. If we look back to the history of language policies in assimilated in one singular identity.
Nepal during the pre1990s, it clearly shows that there was (and
is) a ruthless violation of human linguistic rights (see Malla 3. Issues of language in society
2000). There is neither constitutional nor ethnic
equality/equity to its fellow citizens until recently, e.g. Gurung When we gaze into the world of socialengineering of
(2004: 92) cites two such callous instances from language, it is the soul of any human society. Truly every
Krishnachandra Aryal and Vidhyanath JoshiSedhai's Gorkha language in the word of OW Holmes is "a temple in which the
Bhasha (1917), Gorkha Agency Office, Nepal thus— soul of those who speak it is enshrined" with which many
contemporary interdisciplinary issues are related to. In this
“Gorkha bhasha [language] is not widespread yet. The language
context, Toba and Toba (2003) observe succinctly hence “…the
of barbarians such as Newar, Magar, Gurung, Limbu, Sunuwar
[KirantiKõits], Danuwar, and Tharu etc are still in use. Until sociolinguistic situation in Nepal which is characterized by
and unless Gorkha Bhasha pushes other barbarian languages unprecedented migration to urban centers. Small language
out, it can neither develop nor become the chief language” (Rai groups are especially affected but speakers of larger groups also
and Rai's (2003: 513) translation from Nepali into English). are forced to communicate in Nepali once they live in the cities.
Again this example reveals very adverse and atrocious While there has been enormous progress in providing schools
linguistic policy towards ethnoindigenous minority languages throughout Nepal even in the most remote villages, this also
adopted by the country in the past. From the same Report of the affects languages since education is given in Nepali. The more
Nepal National Education Planning Commission (also cited in students are in the habit of reading writing and therefore
Malla 1989: 461) he cites its recommendation, thinking in Nepali, their proficiency in their MT declines. This is
“Nepali should be the medium of instruction from the 3rd grade aggravated by the fact that there are few if any, books in the
on and, as much as possible, in the first two grades. No other vernacular languages. Literature in indigenous languages is
language should be taught, even optionally, in the primary predominantly oral; therefore the collection of stories, myths,
school, because few children will have need for them, they would songs, history, description of customs etc is an urgent task.”
hinder the teaching of Nepali.” Additionally, no policy as such to preserve and protect these
Needless to say that the country’s past linguistic policies minority INs languages has been formulated by the Government
(even the contemporary ones do not differ from that of the past) of Nepal until recently as observed by Lawoti (2001) cited
seem discriminatory towards all ethnoindigenous (or earlier (also cf. Kaĩla 2005, Gurung 2003).
Indigenous Nationalities; INs in short) minority languages Phillipson, Rannut and SkutnabbKangas (1995: 22) have
other than KhasNepali, which obviously has knocked out all put forward the following questions regarding linguistic human
those indigenous minority ethnic or tribal languages on their rights, which are very relevant in Nepalese sociolinguistic
“death bed” (Malla 1989: 463) many decades ago and now contexts to be reiterated here:
letting them in coma at present.
“Have you, dear reader, always been able to do the following in
To make this situation clearer, for instance virtually all your MT:
speakers of KirantiKõits are bilingual in their MT and Nepali,
 address your teachers in school? since 1996) live in consonance with nature innately expressed
 deal with the tax office? through their language. One of such intricately related and
 answer a query from a police constable on the street? interesting examples is the deictic verb 'to come' for which the
 explain a medical problem to a nurse or a doctor? language has four types such as icā 'to come' (+vertical, from
 write to a national newspaper? above), picā 'to come' (+horizontal, from level), kucā 'to come'
 watch the local and national news on television? (+vertical from down) and dzāɂcā 'to come' (neutral). This "up
 ask a political question at a political meeting?” down dimension" (see Ebert 1999) which is, moreover specified
The only answer for all these seven questions concerning in the verbs for motion towards the place of reference suggests
linguistic human rights (also cf. Yonjan 2005) for any minority the speakers' knowledge of geography. It essentially proves this
INs is, “No, they don’t. They quite often do things more in the vanishing ethnotribal community dwelling on the rugged hills
Stateimposed KhasNepali rather than in their own MT”. This innately coding geotopography and nature in harmony within
is another most pertinent example of language attrition and their language different from that of plain geotopography. Some
endangerment in Nepal lacking proper inclusive language policy examples from other Kiranti languages (ibid 1999: 114;
and language planning, which thus is an obvious violation of bracketed lexeme is mine) out of more than two dozens of them
human linguistic rights of all INs or even Madhesi language include:
speakers. Broadly in Tyagi’s (2003: 23) phrase, “linguistic Thulung Camling Bantawa Limbu
fascism” has been imposed on most TibetoBurman minority get saŋ thaŋ thaŋ 'come up from below (down)'
INs languages of Nepal (including Madhesi languages), where khet said thakt thak 'bring from below (down)'
more than 60 languages (most of them largely belong to the yok i yi yu 'come down from above'
TibetoBurman subfamily) contribute the multilinguistic söt it yitt yu? 'bring down from above'
heritage (cf. Rapacha 2000: 1819, 2006 and 2006). bik ban ban phεɂr 'come over from across'
phit baid batt phett 'bring over from across'
Therefore, the question of a mother tongue in Nepal and
all over the world nowadays has intricately been related to many These verbs in most cases are suffixed with locative
contemporary interdisciplinary issues (cf. Yadava and Turin morphemes and have direct connections in mythology
2005) like endangerment, linguistic human rights, associated with the Kiranti culture(s) of their daily existence
development, biodiversity, ethnolinguistic identity, culture, interestingly, for instance, "UP is associated with the barrenness
history, indigenous knowledge, State, the law, media, education, of the high mountains, with poverty, but also with clean springs.
gender, logosphere, atmosphere and above all conflicts. DOWN is associated with fertility and wealth, but also with un
cleanliness. All life began DOWN. UP is the place of the male
4. Language preserving traditional knowledge gods, whereas the female gods came from the lowland" (ibid.
1999: 116). This can also be a metaphor of human evolution
Relating the contemporary issues (§ 3) and recalling a
based on biological dichotomy. When all conceptual altitudinal
bleak linguist history of Nepal (§ 2) here I would like to bring
morphemes and verbs along with the language vanish or stop
forth some case examples of geography and bioknowledge how
cultural transmission amongst new generations, the speakers'
a language absorbs and preserves them (plethora of traditional
knowledge of geotopography will have gone with them.
knowledge), e.g. in KirantiKõits (Sunuwar/Mukhiya) from
eastern Nepal. The KirantiKõits like their vanishing language Another area of indigenous knowledge amongst the
(spoken by only 0.12% of the total population), is a minority KirantiKõits community is ethnobotany which is
vanishing community (and also some found in Sikkim where extraordinarily notable. They use one of the wild flowers known
their MT has been recognized as one of the State Languages as bospәt in their aboriginal language or oroxylum indicum
which is supposed to be bloomed invisibly6 in nature is in their Various other reasons for endangerment of these

folk knowledge and beliefs the only purest or holy flower for ethnoindigenous languages such as “destruction of traditional
offering their ancestors like in other Kiranti linguistic habitat through deforestation”, natural calamities like
community members. The same bospәt has three distinct “landslides’ and “steady growth of population” leading to
varieties of names, e.g. әmәr, bimәr and tsutsur with regard to migration and dispersion among speakers of other languages
the direction it blooms. Similarly, tsule 'nettle' is another such “thus being obliged to communicate in Nepali”7 have been
natural plant associated with them and their daily lives. They traced. Many of them now are like counting down of 372 one
use it for multipurpose, firstly as curry and secondly its variety horned rhinos, 356 tigris panthera and some dozens of red
pәle 'nettle species' for producing fiber to make clothes. It is also pandas. Thus those ethnoindigenous MTs speakers' count
a useful traditional medicine freely provided by nature. down, e.g. starts 28 Kusundas out of who 5 speak Kusunda
Their expertise in folk art production is plẽkās 'memory tongue as a languageisolate of Nepal, Kiranti tongues like
knot' from a plant called thārkhәri 'creeper species' plant is KirantiBa'yung 1000, KirantiMewahang 904, KirantiTilung
related to their indigenous/traditional knowledge of handicraft. 310, KirantiKoyu 300, KirantiJerung 271, KirantiDungmali
Their preference of folk architecture in the hills is to live in 221, KirantiLingkhim 97 (dialect of Kirawa), KirantiSaam 23,
mudgrass thatched huts for skillful forestry management Rangkas 600, Nar Phu 533, and Raute 475 (See Box A) is so
around their surroundings is very remarkable to live in gloomy. This situation indicates towards ethnolinguogenocide
harmony with nature since nature and ancestor worship is threatening their survival as well as identity or diversity issues.
performed either with the help of a Põibo 'male shaman' or 'The extinction of each language results in the irrecoverable loss
Gyāmi 'female shaman' preserved in their ethnoMT. When of unique cultural, historical and ecological knowledge' (see
those languages vanish, obviously their (speakers' new note 2).
generation) traditional knowledge innate in those languages
also vanishes. 6. Actions to be undertaken
Local communities, government(s) must remember one
5. Language, gender and impacts thing that not merely those rich biodiversity, diverse cultures
One most noted positive aspect of the ethnoindigenous and natural beauty of Nepal and the whole world including Asia
linguistic communities of Nepal is that their languages do not contribute in sustainable development but diverse endangered
opt for gender sensitivity and thus do not discriminate gender linguospecies and their diverse exotic tongues actually do have
unlike in IndoAryan languages like KhasNepali as such deeper impacts on such developmental efforts at present as well
whereas lexemes for biological gender male vs. female are as in the long run since a language is not simply a tool but a
available. Malefemale equality and inclusiveness is preserved formative entity in itself. So loosing a tongue is like bombing the
in their respective MTs. Females play greater roles than males Louvre8. Accordingly, “…education is a prime domain for
in preserving languages, cultures and knowledge including action. While education in Nepali is a prerogative, it is also
transmission of the same in future generations; however equally important to enhance positive language attitudes to the
discriminatory state policy and rampant globalization have MT speakers of other languages. Bilingual education at the
mired their preservation, promotion and further development. primary level that bridges into the national language seems to
Most minority ethnoindigenous communities are affected by be the best measure. Needed are not only primary school
this process of inequitable exclusion and assimilation as textbooks, but also MT teachers and village leaders who are
observed in a bleak linguist history of Nepal in (§ 2) previously. convinced of the value of their mother tongue”. Other measures
related to the sphere of education are: “literacy classes of a non
formal nature for adults in mother tongue” and “linguistic It is better to ratify and respect international instruments
planning and policy at the national level.”9 as mentioned in footnote 6 and accordingly draft language
This is one of the most important actions to be undertaken legislation which explicitly promotes INs and Madhesi minority
because linguists point out genuine causes for safeguarding languages within a maintenanceoriented framework to
these diverse “living organism” (MTs), e.g., MT shapes thoughts overcome linguistic discrimination safeguarding linguistic
(to some extent), MT preserves culture, MT gives identity and human rights including their autoethnonyms, toponyms,
fosters culture, MT contributes to human knowledge, good jobs loconyms, eponyms and the individual expression of group
require multilingualism and lastly but most importantly identity through MT for safeguarding and promoting eco
linguisticdiversity and biodiversity are interrelated as we friendly traditional knowledge (§ 4). In this regard, briefly, the
debated in § 4. The government of Nepal neither in the past nor following voices of the indigenous minority communities should
currently has done any significant investment and research for be paid attention to—
preserving and promoting those multiMTs except for some 1. Adopt and ratify the Draft Declaration on Rights of
community members' personal efforts. Rather has punished for Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and ILO Convention 169
using loconyms in those MTs and banned speakers not to without delay (ratified by the Government of Nepal on
communicate in their MTs on the phone.10 14 September 2007 but not effective yet)
2. Offer apology and compensate for the past
7. Government and CBD's responsibility discrimination, internal colonization and cultural
imperialism
The government(s) of Nepal should necessarily promote
3. Recognize group rights of IPs based on equality and
toleration on minority linguistic rights and should formulate
justice
language legislation and form House of Languages for
4. Promote and preserve IPs/Nationalities culture,
respecting covenants like Universal Declaration of Linguistic
language and tradition
Human Rights.11 Their past monolingual doctrine and
5. Treat all native languages and religions equally
adherence to the principle of “one state, one nation, one 6. End to Constitutional and Legal discrimination of
language” which manifested in assimilationoriented at the cost IPs/nationalities
of multilingual maintenanceoriented policy should now change 7. Implement the International Human Rights
into plural inclusive policy. Instruments ratified by Nepal such as Minority Rights
CBD has to induce the Governments to draft such a Declarations, Universal Human Rights Declaration
constitution demanding a scientific model of language and so on in spirit and word
legislation addressing an inclusive language policy making for 8. Recognize customary/traditional practices and right
both INs and Madhesi languages in order to regulate the to traditional homeland of IPs
possible upcoming linguistic conflicts of the marginalized 9. Ensure equal distribution and access to State and
groups for sustainable promotion and preservation of societal resources
traditional knowledge, peace and nationbuilding. 10. Establish the Academy of IPs/Nationalities to
A democratic shift from homoNepalicus to pluri preserve and promote their languages, cultures and
Nepalicus should be the characteristicdemocratic principle. biodiversity
Critics of multilingualism glorifying KhasNepali only and 11. Initiate proportionate affirmative action policies for
vilifying nonKhasNepalese marginalized INs and Madhesi IPs or Nationalities and education in native languages
languages should appreciate plural identity and knowledge 12. Ensure protection of Minority Rights constitutionally
available within the political boundary of the nation.
13. Transmit Radio programmes in all minority native context of Nepal is policy whether of the past or of present
languages rather than peoples' attitude towards their precious MTs and
14. Remove restrictions on registration of organizations’, traditional knowledge that brainwashed their memory cruelly
magazines’, newspapers’ and others’ name in the IPs’ and irrecoverably. A label of "conservation linguistics" might be
own Mother Tongue and political parties based on suggested according to Maffi (2002: 387), by analogy
ethnicity, caste or gender "conservation biology", and following a distinction between
15. Take scientific census and study of different IPs, their "preserving" ex situ, i.e., in books and other material records
languages, traditions and cultures and "conserving" in situ, i.e., within the speech community.
16. Include positive description of IPs in school and
college textbooks
Box 8: The number of Nepal’s minority languages %
17. Recognize diversity of society in letter and spirit, and
not only in lipservice ……………………………………………………………………………………………
18. Respect Indigenous peoples’ culture and practices 1. Tharu (1331546=5.86%) 2. Tamang (1179145=5.19%) 3. Newar
19. Take account of vulnerable and minority group (825458=3.63%) 4. Magar (770116=3.39%) 5. Bantawa [Kiranti
members while fighting for individual, civil, resource Kirawa] (371056=1.63%) 6. Gurung [Tamu] (338925=1.49%) 7. Limbu
and political rights, [KirantiYakthung, Tsong] (333633=1.47%) 8. Rajbamshi
20. Sensitize human rights activists and media members (129829=0.57%) 9. Sherpa (129829=0.57%) 10. Chamling [Kiranti
Rodung] (44093=0.19%) 11. Santhali (40260=0.18%) 12. Chepang
on IPs’ issues
(36807=0.16%) 13. Danuwar (31849=0.14%) 14. Jhangad [Dhãgad]
21. Remove intolerance of dominant group members (28615=0.13%) 15. Sunuwar [KirantiKõits] (26611=0.12%) 16. Majhi
towards other languages, religions and cultures (21841=0.10%) 17. Thami [Thangmi] (18991=0.08%) 18. Kulung
22. Initiate awareness programmes regarding rights of [KirantiKulung] (18686=0.08%) 19. Dhimal (17308=0.08%) 20.
Indigenous peoples Yakkha [KirantiYakkha] (14648=0.06%) 21. Thulung [Kiranti
23. Pressurize the Nepalese State to stop assimilative Thulung] (14034=0.06%) 22. Sangpang [KirantiSampang]
policies (10810=0.05%) 23. Bhujel/Khawas (10733=0.05%) 24. Darai
24. Stop aid and programmes that do not benefit IPs and (10210=0.04%) 25. Khaling [KirantiKhaling] (9288=0.04%) 26.
other marginal communities or harm them and their Kumal (6533=0.03) 27. Thakali (6441=0.03%) 28.
habitats and cultures Chhantyal/Chhantel (5912=0.03%) 29. Tibetan (5277=0.02%) 30.
Dumi [KirantiRadu] (5271=0.02%) 31. Jirel (4919=0.02%) 32.
25. Increase a culture of education on linguobiodiversity
Wambule [KirantiRaDhu] (4471=0.02%) 33. Puma [KirantiPuma]
and its importance to mankind locally, nationally and (4310=0.02%) 34. Hyolmo (3986=0.02%) 35. Nachhiring [Kiranti
globally Nachhiring] (3553=0.02%) 36. Dura (3397=0.01%) 37. Meche
26. Respect and implement sui generis systems for the (3301=0.01%) 38. Pahari (2995=0.01%) 39. Lepcha (Rong,
protection of traditional knowledge, innovations and 2826=0.01%) 40. Bote (2823=0.01%) 41. Bahing [KirantiBa'yung]
practices12 at the local level (2765=0.01%) 42. Koi [KirantiKoyu] (2641=0.01%) 43. Raji
(2413=0.01%) 44. Hayu [KirantiHayu] (1743=0.01%) 45. Byansi
Lastly, I would like to conclude this essay with the tone of
(1734=0.01%) 46. Yamphu(e) [KirantiYakkhaba] (1722=0.01%) 47.
loss and grief by Ambrose Chalarimeri here, "My people lost Ghale (1649=0.01%) 48. Khadiya (1575=0.01%) 49.Chhiling [Kiranti
everything; dances lost, music lost, medicine lost, songs and the Chhiling, Chulung] (1314=0.01%) 50. Lohorung [KirantiLohorung]
language lost. Everything is going bit by bit, even the (1207=0.01%) 51. Mewahang [KirantiMewahang] (904=0.00%) 52.
stories…".13 Yet we can safeguard some vanishing languages and Kaike (794=0.00%) 53. Raute (518=0.00%) 54. Kisan (489=0.00%)
the innate knowledge in them with immediate effective actions 55. Churauti (408=0.00%) 56. Baram/Bhramu (342=0.00%) 57.
suggested elsewhere in this essay. What really matters in the Tilung [KirantiTilung] (320=0.00%) 58. Jero(u)ng [KirantiJerung]
(271=0.00%) 59. Dungmali [KirantiDungmali] (221=0.00%) 60. 5 Sharma (2003: 85) clarifies concerning the issue of ethnicity and

Lingkhim [KirantiLingkhim] (97=0.00%) 61. Kusunda (87=0.00%) language thus, “…it is not language alone that can keep the lamp of
62. Koche (54=0.00%) 63. Saam [KirantiSaam] (23=0.00%) 64. ethnicity burning; economic and political considerations also often
Kagate (10=0.00%) 65. Chhintang [KirantiChitang] (8=0.00%) 66. work hand in hand to enforce changes in the linguistic profile of an
Lhomi (4=0.00%) ethnic community.”
6 See Rapacha (2005) for its fuller version of folklore which is
……………………………………………………………………………………………
(Source: Yadava, Bhadra and Parajuli 2004: 1618; information in big narrated by poetartist and lawyer pen named Atit Mukhia whose
brackets are my own) birthname is Ishworkiran KyuĩtichaSunuwar. He originally
comes from Ragan, Okhaldhunga, Wallo Kirant, eastern Nepal.
7 See Toba, Toba and Rai (2005) for a very grim linguistic situation
Acknowledgements
of Nepal.
I am indebted to the organizations like Indigenous Knowledge 8 Philip Marsden's (2004) review article on Spoken Here: Travels
and People (IKAP), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) Foundation among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley in The Sunday
and International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Times, 18 January.
Tropical Forests for providing me an opportunity to present this paper 9 See Rapacha (2006).
in the 3rd Asia Regional Conference on Indigenous Knowledge and
10 See Rapacha (2007) for such atrocious policy activities adopted by
Biodiversity coorganized hosted by Dongba Cultural Academy 2730
June 2007, Lijiang, China. My thanks go to Balkrishna Mabuhang, the then Governments in the country
who assisted me by providing two important books mainly on 11 Some other international instruments to be respected by the
biodiversity viz. Handbook of the Convention on Biological Diversity Government of Nepal in order to overcome linguistic
(2003 2nd edition) and The 2010 Biodiversity Target: A Framework discriminations are: UN's Charter1945, Universal Declaration of
for Implementation (2004) and also I acknowledge Uttam Katicha Human Rights1948, International Covenant on Economic, Social
(Sunuwar), Sameer Kyabacha (Mukhiya) and Atit Kyuĩticha's and Cultural Rights1966, International Covenant on Civil and
(Mukhiya) act of sharing and exchanging linguistic, cultural and Political Rights1966, UN's Declaration Regarding Nonself
traditional knowledge of the KirantiKõits (Sunuwar/Mukhyia) governing Territories1945, The UN's Convention on the Rights of
community in several regions of eastern Nepal. the Child1998, UN's Declaration on the Rights of Persons
Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Notes Monorities1992, American Convention on Human Rights “Pact of
1 San Jose, Costa Rica”1969, American Declaration of the Rights
See Yogesh BahingRai (2005) for its detailed information and
and Duties of Man1948, European Charter for Regional or
source. Minority Languages1992, Convention Concerning Indigenous and
2 Cited in the Special report Endangered Languages 'Babel runs
Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, ILO Convention 169
backward', The Economist, 1 January 2005, pages 6264. 1989, UN’s Universal Declaration on Rights of Indigenous
3 Education in Nepal: Report of the Nepal National Education PeoplesDraft1991, Resolutions from the First Continental
Planning Commission. Kathmandu: College of Education, 1956: Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance1990, Document on
97 (cited in Gurung (2004: 92), Rai and Rai (2003: 514)) the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human
4 Malla (1989: 456) citing Bandhu regarding the etymology of the Dimension of the CSCE1990, Proposal for a European Convention
term ‘Nepali’ writes, “…was used and made popular by the for the Protection of Minorities, Council of Europe, European
missionaries and British scholars… The feeling of Nepali linguistic Commission for Democracy through Law1991, Submissions of the
nationalism that grew in India was able to replace the terms like Waitangi Tribunal, Objections to the Recognition of Tereo Maori
Khasa Kura, Parbatiya or Gorkhali by Nepali in India. It also as an Official Language of New Zealand1986, Declaration of the
influenced the authorities in Nepal and the first word of Gorkha Tallinn Symposium on Linguistic Human Rights1991, TESOL
Bhasha Prakashini Samiti [Gorkha Language Publication Resolution on Language Rights1987, Linguistic Society of
Committee] was changed to Nepali.” Cf. also Gurung (1997: 175). America Resolution1986, FIPLV Draft articles for A Universal
Charter of Basic Human Language Rights1993, Towards Equality MLE is one of such models of inclusion for a multiethnic,
and Selfreliance, Resolution of the XI World Congress of the multilinguistic and multicultural country like Nepal where
World Federation the Deaf1991, World Federation of the Deaf millions of downtrodden have no access to education in their
Commission on Sign Language Recommendation: Call for own language. Therefore, many nonNepali speaking children
recognition of sign languages1991, and Bonn Declaration, “The
have lost interests in school education and drop out from
Kurdish PeopleNo Future without Human Rights”1991.
12 schools earlier. They are deprived of education and such
See The 2010 Biodiversity Target: A Framework for
deprivation results in poverty. There is no other opportunity for
Implementation—Decisions from the Seventh Meeting of the
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological the unfortunate lot except for the ageold cliché of bravery.
Diversity (2004: 225229) for its full text. Thus, any socioeconomic and educational
13 Quoted in Dipak Shrestha (2006: 47) from 'My Country Oomari' transformations of Nepal in this new millennium will not be
edited by Anne Brewster, Angeline O'Neill and Rosemary van den possible if our educational policies and practices have one giant
Berg (2000) Those Who Remain Will Always Remember. North leap of MLE in villages.
Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
A threeday Nepal Multilingual Education Symposium
held this month at Hotel Himalaya, Kupondole is actually one
step ahead for that giant leap in MLE. The symposium jointly
10 May 2007, Thursday organized by UNESCO, SIL, Tribhuvan University and the
Source: Shiksha (2007) 106120, slightly revised and updated here. Government of Nepal was convened by Prof. Nirmal Man
Tuladhar, Executive Director, CNAS, and the inaugural session
chaired by theHonorable Dr. Jagdish Pokharel, ViceChair,
42 Inclusion through multilingual National Planning Commission in presence of Chief Guest, the
Honorable Pradeep Nepal, Minister of Education and Sports
education and Special Guest along with the Honorable Jitpal Kirant, Vice
The term 'inclusion' is one of the hotcakes in participatory Chairman, NFDIN.
and inclusive modalities of democracy; which is essential for A total of 17 paper/display presentations by native and
sustainable development and peace amongst the world nonnative scholars and MLE specialists in the symposium were
communities. indeed a watershed in Nepal's history of mono/bilingual
Education, in this regard, plays a dominant role in order education system. Both practical and theoretical papers along
to transform dungeon human societies into harmonious and with discussions are fruitful directives towards MLE in Nepal
peaceful world where everyone can coexist humanely. Then, for peoples' participation and inclusion in education and
obviously the medium of earning education for peace and development as well.
prosperity must be through multilingual education (MLE) The symposium has recommended some urgent steps for
rather than monolingual one. World Bank Report (2005) states, conducting preliminary research in Nepal, working with
"Fifty percent of the world's outofschool children live in unwritten languages, developing materials, integrating local
communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, human resources, evaluating programs and building community
used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to support in the country. Recommendations were followed with
achieving Education for All: a legacy of nonproductive planning and implementation: the challenge for Nepal
practices that lead to low levels of learning and high levels of facilitated by Dr. L Awasthi and Dr. C Grove.
dropout and repetition". MLE, of course helps participation of Our practice of instruction of education is Nepali, the
such excluded children. official language. Many private schools provide English
medium education. The Constitution of Nepal suggests that the Appendix A
mother tongue can be used in the early stages of education, but
Figure 4: Genetically related Kiranti languages
in fact there has been little implementation of this provision at
the grassroots level. As a result of external funding, the Text
Book Production Centre has prepared some basic elementary
readers in 14 different ethnic languages, but it is hard to
ascertain to what extent these primers are in use. Some NGOs
have begun experimental classes using the mother tongue, e.g.
Tharu and Limbu in nonformal education contexts. There is a
growing awareness of the importance of mother tonguebased
education, but current political unrest makes it difficult to
implement changes in local contexts.
Many children from nonNepali language groups who live
in single language communities, in multilingual communities
and live in mixed communities inclusive of all children in their
locality are mainly excluded from or dropout of education.
Since UNESCO first initiated its programme of Education
for All in 1990, many governments, including Nepal have
increased their efforts to meet the educational needs of children
and adults in their countries. Although much has been done,
certain groups as in Nepal remain underserved girls and
women, in general, people who are poor, people with special
needs, people with HIV/AIDS, and people who speak non
dominant or minority languages.
Whether they are from indigenous or migrant
communities, learners who do not understand the official
language are at a great disadvantage when they begin school.
Unless we include those disadvantaged and marginalized
groups in the mainstream education through MLE our goal
towards the new millennium remains unachievable.
Undoubtedly, MLE symposium is one step to that giant leap of
inclusion for a peaceful Nepal.

7 October 2007, Sunday
Source: The Kathmandu Post, 26 October 2007

Appendix B Appendix C
Sikkim Government Gazette No. 60 Sikkim Government Gazette No. 141

One of the
official
An appropriate or correct
languages of
pronunciation and orthography of
Sikkim
the term ‘Koincha’ is Kõits.
(This information is my own)

V an i s h i ng E t h n i ci t y, Cu l t u re s an d L an g u ag e s of N e p al | 277 278 | V an i sh i n g E t h ni c i t y, Cu l tu re s an d L an g u age s o f N e p al
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Cambridge Low Price Editions, 1997). Cambridge: Dura, 224, 268
Cambridge University Press. English, 2, 6, 7, 10, 42, 51, 57, 64, 73, 77, 81, 82, 84, 86, 88, 89,
99, 125, 133, 134, 136, 137, 142, 143, 144, 146, 170, 173, 178,
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179, 180, 190, 196, 200, 201, 204, 208, 215, 216, 217, 220,
G.L. Campbell. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
252, 256, 272, 281, 283
Ghale, 268
Greek, 7, 144
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gurung, 15, 17, 28, 30, 33, 37, 38, 44, 48, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 59,
61, 62, 63, 65, 71, 72, 73, 81, 82, 92, 115, 135, 152, 177, 179,
200, 201, 202, 203, 224, 257, 258, 259, 260, 268, 269
Gyarong, 150, 151, 152, 154
Hebrew, 124, 144
Hyolmo, 268
Japanese, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 52, 57, 144, 146, 268
Jirel, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 52, 57
Kagate, 269
Kaike, 168
Kannada, 217
KirantiBayung, 3, 4, 13, 17, 18, 21, 26, 27, 28, 32, 35, 36, 61, 62,
64, 113, 121, 129, 130, 131, 155, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 207,
209, 254
KirantiDumi, 21
KirantiDungmali, 264, 269
KirantiHayu, 143, 157, 160, 163, 164, 165, 168 Lhomi, 144, 146, 269, 144, 146, 269
KirantiJerung, 264, 268 Magar, 16, 17, 27, 31, 55, 56, 57, 63, 81, 82, 89, 92, 115, 121, 129,
KirantiKhaling, 19, 160, 164, 166, 251, 268 132, 144, 181, 224, 259, 268
KirantiKirawa, 18, 52, 108, 129, 160, 164, 166, 168 Majhi, 224, 268
KirantiKõits, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 17, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Munda, 8, 150, 223
37, 44, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, NarPhu, 175
65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 95, 96, Nepali, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 14, 24, 27, 30, 33, 33, 34, 42, 49, 52, 53, 54,
97, 100, 101, 102, 106, 107, 108, 110, 116, 119, 120, 139, 144, 147, 55, 57, 58, 60, 65, 70, 81, 82, 84, 92, 97, 99, 101, 112, 113, 114,
149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 156, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 115, 117, 119, 120, 121, 123, 128, 131, 132, 134, 135, 139, 140,
168, 169, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 159, 161, 170, 173, 175, 190, 192, 195,
203, 207, 210, 215, 216, 217, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 196, 197, 199, 204, 205, 208, 215, 222, 223, 224, 241, 242,
231, 236, 237, 238, 239, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 245, 248, 249, 252, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 264,
251, 252, 253, 256, 258, 259, 261, 262, 268, 269 269, 272, 273
KirantiKoyu, 264, 268 Newa(r)(i)), 27, 48, 49, 75, 127, 129, 171, 259, 268
KirantiKulung, 20, 61, 62, 138, 268 Nocte, 150, 227
KirantiLingkhim, 264, 269 Pahari, 224, 268
KirantiLohorung, 20, 268 Rajbamshi, 268
KirantiMewahang, 138, 175, 256, 264, 268 Raji, 14, 224, 268
KirantiNachiring, 205 Raute, 14, 42, 132, 175, 224, 264, 268
KirantiNewahang, 176 Sanskrit, 34, 51, 58, 73, 76, 112, 113, 131, 165, 171
KirantiPuma, 268 Santhali, 224, 268
KirantiRodung, 18, 45, 52, 61, 62, 63, 67, 93, 149, 150 Sherpa, 33, 81, 82, 92, 127, 171, 181, 203, 224, 225, 268
KirantiSaam, 175, 264, 269 Tamang, 53, 81, 82, 92, 99, 121, 126, 129, 131, 144, 203, 205,
KirantiSananggo, 14, 241 224, 247, 258, 268
KirantiThulung, 4, 20, 154, 160, 163, 164, 168 Thakali, 203, 268
KirantiTilung, 264, 268 Thangmi, 52, 53, 54, 55, 61, 62, 63, 138, 268
KirantiWambule, 265 Tharu, 47, 47, 92, 129, 134, 259, 268, 273
KirantiYakkha, 268 Tibetan, 4, 29, 36, 64, 74, 75, 144, 146, 148, 149, 151, 152, 168,
KirantiYakthung, 70, 129, 152, 155, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 268 169, 223, 243, 247, 268

KirantiYamphu(e), 137, 138, 139
Kisan, 268
Koche, 269
Kumal, 224, 268
Kusunda, 14, 42, 124, 129, 132, 137, 175, 223, 224, 264, 269
Latin, 144,220
Lepcha, 70, 71, 81, 82, 224, 268
Subject index classification, 13, 21, 37, 59, 74, 76, 77, 78, 88, 90, 166, 246
................................................................................................................................ clipping, 216
colloquium, 27
acronyms, 217 comparative, 17, 21, 24, 27, 29, 31, 37, 74, 76, 77, 78, 90, 116,
AjuAjima, 192 119, 123, 148, 163, 193, 198, 236, 237, 246, 255
America, 39, 97, 105, 145, 173, 270 compounding, 149, 215, 217
anarchism, 190 conference, 9, 81, 89, 91, 112, 170, 173, 269, 270, 271
anthology, 88, 130, 177, 178, 201, 202 confession, 177, 190, 191
approach, 207, 212, 219, 220, 221, 222, 243, 245, 250 creative anarchism, 190, 192
Aryanization, 27 Darjeeling, 5, 8, 9, 45, 51, 60, 81, 82, 116, 130, 131, 134, 147, 149,
autonomy, 41, 42, 71, 140, 141, 142, 192 193, 214, 243, 244
Bakulochana, 42, 100 deities, 72, 95, 97
Bangladesh, 147, 240 democracy, 14, 40, 43, 89, 90, 129, 173, 191, 201, 202, 258, 270,
Bahun, 48, 49, 58, 60, 206 271
Bahunization, 27 dialect, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 32, 57, 66, 87, 89, 90, 98, 114, 116, 117,
Baltistan, 65 119, 120, 121, 123, 139, 144, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 160, 161,
Bankariya, 90 174, 175, 176, 193, 195, 208, 211, 215, 223, 227, 230, 237, 238,
BathauGuruba, 65, 90 239, 251, 253, 256, 257, 264
Bhuji, 25, 117, 119, 120 discovery, 74, 76, 77, 246, 251
Bhujuwar, 2, 3, 60, 95, 100, 101, 180, 210, 258 discrimination, 38, 39, 53, 73, 127, 134, 141, 142, 170, 171, 172,
blending, 216 173, 174, 203, 244, 256, 257, 266, 270
biodiversity, 42, 128, 171, 174, 223, 256, 257, 261, 264, 266, 267, diversity, 38, 41, 42, 85, 112, 127, 148, 175, 176, 223, 224, 225,
269 244, 256, 257, 260, 264, 267, 269, 271
BomboSangdung, 192 dynasty, 3, 12, 16, 17, 23, 59, 63, 176
Bondori, 94 ethnocentrism, 204, 206
borrowing, 169 ethnofederalism, 37
Bunglawa, 176, 205 ethnoidentity, 1, 2, 4
case, 91, 32, 35, 39, 48, 49, 77, 84, 91, 96, 112, 114, 120, 126, 131, ethnohistory, 64, 71
135, 147, 150, 152, 155, 160, 162, 185, 195, 197, 198, 199, 225, ethnoindigenous, 2, 10, 14, 15, 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, 53, 59, 64, 65,
226, 227, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 71, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 95, 97, 100, 101, 102, 112, 113, 126, 127,
244, 261 140, 141, 142, 169, 190, 191, 192, 223, 259, 263, 264
Charia, 92, ethnolinguistic, 2, 4, 17, 31, 50, 93, 175, 256
Chetri (Chhetri, Kshetri), 48, 49, 60 ethnotribal, 9, 262
Chhomrong, 92 federalism, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 192
Chudka, 92 Finland, 240, 241
Chuplu, 26, 28, 95, 97, 114 Germany, 27, 47, 180, 240
ChyohomThungba, 192 Ghãtu, 36, 56, 99
Civil Code, 39, 142, 177 Guĩduwa, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109
clanonym, 3, 12, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 30, 45, 61, 62, 64, 68, 209, 255
Gurkha (Gurkhali), 30, 36, 50, 52, 56, 57, 60, 71, 72, 73, 89, 98, Kiranti, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
99, 100, 140, 176, 178, 189, 196, 202, 203 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37,
fascism, 192, 261 38, 39, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57,
fatwa, 206 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77,
federalism, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 192 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97,
folkocracy, 43, 142, 242 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 106, 107, 108, 110, 113, 114, 115, 119,
folklore, 12, 16, 27, 56, 59, 64, 70, 78, 102, 111, 115, 123, 132, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 137, 138,
140, 190, 208, 209, 239, 240, 241, 242, 270 139, 140, 141, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153,
GhyabrePetaluta, 192 154, 155, 156, 157, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168,
glottal, 139, 146, 149, 156, 157, 160, 161, 162, 163, 195, 196 169, 171, 175, 176, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188,
Guĩduwa, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109 189, 190, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 203,
Gupteshwor, 117, 120 204, 205, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216,
Gurung (Tamu), 81, 82 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228,
Gyami, 4, 36, 106, 108, 109 229, 230, 231, 232, 236, 237, 238, 239, 241, 243, 244, 245,
Hemachiri, 5

246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258,
Hinduization, 27, 59, 72, 120, 134 259, 261, 262, 263, 264, 268, 269, 274
homoNepalicus, 172, 265 KirantiBakulochana, 90
identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15, 28, 36, 38, 40, 44, 47, 49, Kirantichhap, 26, 28, 95, 114, 237
50, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 64, 69, 71, 73, 76, 79, 81, 90, 92, 93, 97, Koi, 23, 29, 113, 114, 129, 199, 205, 224, 256, 268
98, 102, 107, 108, 112, 113, 114, 122, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, Kõits, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
133, 136, 137, 141, 142, 170, 171, 173, 175, 184, 185, 186, 187, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53,
189, 190, 192, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 207, 209, 211, 214, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 75, 76, 77,
225, 240, 241, 245, 251, 257, 259, 260, 261, 264, 265, 266 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101,
India, 5, 6, 59, 60, 65, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 102, 106, 107, 108, 110, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121,
112, 113, 116, 128, 133, 134, 135, 144, 147, 148, 149, 180, 193, 122, 123, 124, 125, 129, 130, 131, 138, 139, 144, 145, 146, 147,
211, 212, 214, 215, 226, 240, 243, 244, 251, 258, 259, 269 149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 156, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166,
IndoAryan, 3, 34, 44, 55, 63, 68, 112, 114, 151, 197, 223, 224, 167, 168, 169, 170, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188,
245, 248, 252, 253, 260, 263 189, 190, 197, 200, 201, 203, 205, 207, 210, 215, 216, 217,
inclusion, 44, 126, 172, 271, 272, 273 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 231, 236, 237, 238, 239,
Jirma, 96 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 256,
Jhyaure, 92 258, 259, 261, 262, 268, 269
Johnny Gurkha, 72 Kõitsbu, 5, 10, 78, 80, 83, 180, 181, 184, 222, 252, 253
Katunje, 40, 117, 119, 120, 137 Ladakh, 65
Kauda, 92 Leipzig, 2, 5, 27, 47, 180
Khasization, 17, 27, 60 lexicon, 33, 34, 50, 114, 119, 124, 138, 140, 146
Kirant, 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 25, 26, 31, 32, 35, 45, 49, 51, 53, Lha Lhangba, 192
57, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 71, 93, 98, 100, 101, 102, Lha Hyaba Rhangjyung, 192
108, 109, 115, 130, 134, 137, 140, 200, 201, 204, 205, 207, Lingkhim, 22, 23, 175, 200, 264, 269
222, 226, 249, 253, 254 logosphere, 126, 128, 176, 261
lore, 95 102
Madhes (Terai), 216, 127, 141, 142, 171, 172, 173, 261, 265, 266 Nepalization, 27, 120, 134
Majh, 45, 53, 61, 62, 64, 66, 67, 200, 254 Nepalized, 52, 53, 60, 114, 131
Mandalization, 74, 78, 88, 112 Netherlands, 138, 145, 240
Mangar (Magar), 15, 17, 27, 28, 31, 32, 38, 55, 56, 57, 63, 81, 89, New Testament, 53, 65, 77, 115, 132, 144, 249
92, 115, 121, 129, 131, 132, 144, 181, 203, 224, 259, 268 Ngakuma, 3
Manipur, 59, 65, 147 Nhrubu, 192
Maori, 137, 173, 270 Nimlo, 4, 96, 97, 104, 105
Maoist Movement, 126 Okhaldhunga, 4, 10, 11, 26, 28, 30, 40, 95, 97, 114, 115, 116, 117,
Mandalization, 74, 78, 88, 112 119, 120, 121, 129, 131, 207, 226, 237, 270
Meitheism, 65 orthography, 2, 20, 21, 52, 115, 132, 161, 162, 196, 243, 251, 252
method, 31, 117, 199, 208, 219, 220, 221, 241, 242, 250 Pachyu, 192
minority, 14, 38, 42, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 87, 114, 125, 129, 143, Pakistan, 240
144, 146, 171, 172, 173, 173, 192, 209, 210, 211, 212, 214, 223, Pallo 'far, thither', 25, 53, 61, 62, 64, 66, 137, 200, 254
225, 243, 244, 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 265, 266, 267, 268, pantheon, 4, 72, 192, 206
270, 273 Paruhang (Paruhopo), 107
Mongoloid, 3, 4, 28, 29, 31, 32, 50, 52, 59, 62, 63, 65, 67, 72, Pe, 192
107, 245, 248 peace, 41, 43, 44, 96, 97, 113, 126, 127, 128, 140, 141, 144, 172,
morphology, 138, 139, 146, 149, 154, 164, 166, 167, 197, 198 176, 191, 192, 265, 271
morphosemantics, 27 pedagogy, 199, 210, 219, 222
Mukhia (Mukhiya), 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 16, 28, 34, 51, 53, 54, 60, 63, Phedangma, 192, 255
66, 67, 68, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 95, 100, 101, phonology, 117, 120, 138, 139, 146, 148, 154, 155, 160, 161, 169,
116, 122, 130, 131, 132, 133, 136, 137, 144, 145, 180, 184, 187, 195, 197, 213, 251
200, 205, 210, 214, 222, 223, 224, 236, 245, 249, 258, 261, photograph, 11, 44, 47, 48, 92, 199
269, 270 Pirthwar, 2, 3, 60, 95, 99, 101, 147, 179, 209, 257
myth, 9, 14, 15, 25, 28, 29, 34, 58, 73, 91, 93, 98, 185, 194, 207, planning, 83, 86, 87, 113, 123, 125, 126, 127, 128, 135, 209, 223,
213, 241, 260, 262 257, 258, 259, 261, 265, 269, 272
Nagarchi, 176, 177, 179, 190, 191 pluriNepalicus, 172, 265
Na:so (Nhaso), 4, 13, 18, 25, 29, 36, 64, 96, 101, 102, 103, 105, Põib(o), 36, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109
106, 108, 109, 254, 255 Polmocha, 14
Navajo, 175, 257 proselytization, 32, 74, 76, 78, 81, 102, 145, 246
neologism, 215 Rai (exonym), 12, 16, 26, 81, 82, 93, 99, 100, 101, 203, 207
Nepal, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24, 27, 28, 30, Rakong, 22
32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53, Ramechhap, 26, 28, 95, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 132, 237
55, 56, 57, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, Raute, 14, 42, 132, 175, 224, 264, 268
88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 112, Risiya, 25
113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, Rokong, 22
129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 140, 141, 143, 144, 145, Ruwahang, 107
146, 147, 149, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 177, 179, 180, 181, Sakela (Shyãdar), 13, 25, 29, 36, 56, 64, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 99,
183, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 200, 201, 205, 207, 100, 107, 255
209, 212, 223, 224, 225, 226, 235, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, Sakenwa (Shyãdar), 13, 25, 36, 108
242, 243, 244, 245, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, Sakewa (Shyãdar), 36, 64, 255
260, 261, 263, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273 Salaku, 26, 96, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 254
Sanskritization, 17, 27 Index of names
SawaYuma, 192 ................................................................................................................................
secularism, 42, 192, 259
Sed, 96, 97 A
Shyãdar (Sakela), 4, 13, 25, 29, 36, 56, 64, 99, 101, 102, 108, 255
Sikkim, 4, 8, 9, 10, 31, 32, 51, 53, 55, 57, 60, 65, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 79, Abbi, Anvita, 200
80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 112, 116, 130, 134, 147, 149, 193, Abrams, MH, 76
210, 212, 214, 222, 223, 226, 243, 244, 246, 252, 253, 261, 275, 276 Acharya, HR, 134, 136
Sili (Shyil), 13, 25, 29, 36, 56, 64, 91, 92, 93, 97, 98, 99, 108, Acharya, MR, 55, 90
124, 255 Adhikary, Ram L, 57, 59, 79, 244, 277
sleepwalk, 176, 177, 178, 179 Agyant, Hangyug, 191
socioanthropology, 90 Aitchison, J, 162
SriLanka, 240
Adhikary, H, 170, 277
Sumnima, 93, 98, 192, 204, 205, 206, 254
Sunkoshi (Sunkosi), 50, 53, 54, 55, 63, 99 Akhikari, S, 57, 89
Sunwar (Sunuwar), 2, 3, 15, 23, 27, 29, 33, 43, 45, 46, 54, 56, Allen, BC, 244
60, 65, 66, 114, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 137, 180, 182, 237 Allen, Nicholas J, 193, 194
Sunpar, 2, 3, 27, 33, 34, 54, 130 Annamalai, E, 258
Surel, 3, 23, 32, 33, 42, 48, 49, 52, 90, 129 Ananda, Jaya P, 6, 55, 79, 244
Suri, 49 Angelo, Maya, 43
Surom, 4, 95, 96, 97 Anon, 6
SuSeNi, 97 Aryal, DP, 55, 90, 112, 259
symposium, 85, 112, 173, 241, 270, 272, 273 Armstrong, S, viii, 278
Tamang, 53, 81, 82, 92, 99, 121, 126, 129, 132, 144, 203, 205, Awasthi, L, 272
224, 247, 258, 268
Tamang Selo, 99 B
Tamu (Gurung),
Tilung, 23, 175, 199, 205, 223, 255, 264, 268 Bacon, Francis, 211
Thakali, 203, 268 Bahing, Yogesh,
ThomLam, 192 Bandhu, CM,
translation, 10, 11, 29, 34, 58, 83, 86, 128, 144, 145, 146, 190, Banjade, Goma, 279
199, 205, 206, 208, 220, 221, 242, 246, 259
Bantawa, Dik, 161
Turung, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109
unclassified, 17, 24, 223 Baral, Lok Raj, 38
USA, 181, 240 Beams, J, 246
vanishing, 74, 76, 81, 85, 138, 225, 238, 240, 244, 246, 256, 261, Benedict, Paul K, 52, 63
262, 267 Bhadra, Sharada, 269
vitality, 147, 207, 208, 209, 256 Bhattarai, K, 90, 297
Wallo, 2, 10, 25, 26, 32, 50, 53, 61, 62, 64, 66, 67, 89, 97, 115, Bhattachan, Krishna, 190, 191
130, 188, 189, 200, 201, 207, 226, 254, 270 Bhattarai, Badribishal, 54
Yakkhaba, 21, 22, 24, 137, 268 Bhattarai, Govindaraj, 190, 191
Yawa, 192 Bickel, Balthasar, 75, 155
Yayokkha, 93, 94, 98, 99, 100, 192

Bieri, D, 51, 65
Bista, DB, 6, 15 E
Blair, F, 117
Blake, BJ, 226 Ebert, Karen H, 66, 154
Bohara, Alok, 39 Egli, Werner, 51, 63
Boone, Carin, 289
Borchers, D, 226, 232 F

Bradley, David, 66, 225 Farwell, Byron, 28, 30
Brewster, Anne, 271 Fishman, Joshua A, 125
Brewer, E. Cobham, 107, 108 Forbes, Ann A, 74
Bright, William, 147, 155 Fournier, A, 28, 106
Bussmann, Hadumod, 226 Freud, Sigmund, 7

C G

Chalker, Sylvia, 251 Gaenszle, Martin, 51, 59
Chalarimeri, Ambrose, 267 Genetti, G, 246
Chatterji, Suniti K, 4, 51 Ghatak, Sanchita, 54, 225
Chaudhuri, Tapas K, 4, 12 Giglioli, P P, 120
Chemjong, Iman S, 6,16,17 Glover, WW, 37, 66
Chelliah. Shovana L, 59, 69 GongrochaMukhia, Makar, 290
Chomsky, Noam, 7 Gordon, Raymond G, 223, 256
Comrie, Bernard, 168, 198 Grierson, G A, 51, 65
Comte, Fernand, 107 Grimes, Barbara F, 135, 143
Corbett, Greville G, 150, 165 Grove, C, 272
Gurung, B C, 269, 285
Crystal, David, 147, 193
Gurung, DB, 257, 285, 293, 297
Gurung, Harka, 257, 258, 259, 260, 269, 285, 296
D Gvozdanović, Jadranka, 227

Dahal, Dilli R, 54, 240 H
Dahal, Ram K, 243, 257
Debnath, Monojit, 3, 12 Hagen,Toni, 6, 10, 51, 55
DeLancey, Scott, 148, 149 Hale, A, 51, 243, 246
Devkota, Laxmi Prasad, 179 Hangucha, Tara, 165
Dhamala, Ranju R, 284 Hangucha, Buddhi, 10, 35
Dhungel, B, 12, 16 Hanßon, G, 17, 24, 243, 246
Dhungel, Ramesh, 70 Harimbu, Dilliser, 99
Diwas, Tulasi, 240, 242 Hemingway, Ernest, 87
Doniger, Wendy, 206 Holmes, OW, 42, 142, 260
Dutta, MS, 284 Hodgson, Brian H, 22, 32, 37, 51, 77, 131, 137
DwarangchaRai, Abhinath, 282 Husain, MF, 206
Hutt, Michael, 204
J Li, Charles N, 289
Lieven, Elena, 279
Jẽ:ticha (Sunuwar), Karna, 115, 132, 144, 184, 212, 287 Lohani, Puskar, 296
Jẽ:tichaMukhia, BB, 68 Lohani, Shreedhar P, 204
Jespucha, Kumar, 9, 10, 66 Luintel, Binod, 112
Jirel, Suman Krishna, 31, 52, 57
Joshi, Satya Mohan, 296 M
Joshi, Sushma, 63
Mabohang, Prem, 12, 16
K Mabuhang, Balkrishna, 269
Maffi, Luisa, 244, 268
Kabir, 250 Malla, Kamal P, 65, 130, 259, 269
Kaĩla, Bairagi, 287 Malla, Sunder K, 259, 289
Kandangwa, Kajiman, 59 Marlowe, Christopher, 211
Kansakar, TR, 110, 125, 132, 134 Masica, Colin P, 168
Katicha (Sunuwar), Uttam, 59, 66, 253 Matisoff, James A, 147, 165, 194
Kevichusa, Mimi, 298 McMillan, Alistair, 37, 44
KC, Surendra, 72 McLean, Iain, 37, 44
Khambu, G, 12, 16, 56, 59, 61, 64 Michailovsky, Boyd, 24, 52, 138, 156, 157, 162
Khanal, Lokpriya, xiii Morris, CJ, 15, 17, 20, 28, 31
Khomeini, A, 206 Mukarung, Rajan, 191
King, ML, 203 Mukarung, Shrawan, 176, 177, 179, 190, 191
Kirant, Jitpal, 272 Mukhiya, Atit, 187
Kiranti, DB, 288, 299 Mukhia, KD, 290
Koirala, BP, 204 Mukhia, RB, 236, 290
Konow, Sten, 51, 66 MukhiyaSunuwar, TB, 290
Kormocha, Mokusu, 66 Mulicha (Sunuwar), Lokpriya, 68, 97, 107
Krauss, M, 244 MulichaMukhiya, MB, 132, 137, 290
Krishnaswamy, N, 135, 217 Mulicha, Tikaram, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 290
Kũwar, Janga, 99 Mulicha, TR, 290
Kumar, Rajesh, 298
Kyabacha, Sameer, 66, 180 N
Kyuĩticha, Atit, 269, 270
Nembang, Dharmendravikram, 191
L NgawachaMukhia, Meenarani, 222
NgawachaMukhia, Purnakala, 87
LaPolla, Randy J, 226, 227, 230 Nishi, Yoshi, 147, 193, 243
LaspachaSunuwar, M, 33, 37, 66 Nepal, Pradeep, 272
Lee, Maureen, vi, 10, 56, 64 Nettle, Daniel, 88, 170, 175, 197, 201
Leewine, Nancy E, 66 Northey, WB, 31, 89
Lehman, FK, 78, 246
O Rai, Radha, 99
Rai, Shanti, 99
Ojha, T, 201 Rai, Vishnu S, 255, 257, 259, 269
Okamoto, Yuko, 91, 98 Rannut, Mart, 260
O'Neill, Angeline, 271 Rapacha, LalShyãkarelu, 3, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
Opgenort, Jean R, 13, 17, 51, 61, 64, 130, 162 30, 33, 34, 35, 51, 52, 55, 57, 59, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 106, 108,
123, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 144, 147, 162, 165, 177, 181, 183,
P 184, 200, 212, 226, 229, 243, 246, 250, 252, 257, 258, 261
Riaboff, Isabelle, 58
Pandey, Birendra, 44 Risley, Herbert H, 30, 37, 246
Parajuli, KP, 55, 90, 131, 244, 269 Rapadhi, 99, 100
Park, Insun, 265 Rayamajhi, Sangita, 204
Parker, Anne Z, xi, xii, 292 Rijal, Kali P, 204
Pattanayak, DP, 87 Romaine, Suzanne, 175, 257
Paudyal, Netra P, 279 RujichaMukhia, RB, 6, 236
Phillipson, Robert, 260 RudzichaMukhia, Surya, 87,
Pike, KL, 279, 280, 284
Pokharel, BK, 6, 15, 58, 79 S

Pokharel, Jagdish, 272
Salter, J, 15, 28, 30, 52, 59, 61, 63, 135, 285, 296
Pokharel, Madhav P, 147, 193, 243, 246
Sapkota, Bishnu, 177
Pradhan, Buddhiman, 59
Sampson, Geoffery, 199, 296
Pradhan, Saroza, 31, 35, 36 Sarkar, Rajendra, 58, 296
Prapannacharya, S, 55, 58, 90, Saxena, Anju, 58, 286, 300, 301
Prasai, Dhirgharaj, 225 Schulze, M, 51, 65, 131, 137, 157, 161, 162, 246, 279, 286, 296
Prometheus, 211 SkutnabbKangas, Tove, 260, 292
Shafer, Robert, 10, 24, 29, 78, 155, 194, 243, 279
R Shah, PN, 38
Shakespeare, William, 211, 250
Rai, Bagdevi, 10, 91, 93, 98, 289, 292 Sharma, Basant K, 297
Rai, Bhupal, 99 Sharma, DD, 147, 166, 297
Rai, CD, 246 Sharma, SR, 270, 297
Rai, Devi, 255, 292 Sharma, Taranath, 170, 179, 204, 205, 244, 297
Rai, Govinda, 99 Shaw, George Bernard, 11
Rai, H, 99 Shneiderman, Sara, 51, 53, 61, 62, 112, 297
Rai, Jiten, 99 Shrestha, Dipak, 271, 247
Rai, Manoj, 279 Shrestha, Nanda R, 55, 90, 297
Rai, Neela, 99 Sen, Amartya, 127
Rai, Novel K, 147, 161, 164, 167, 193, 194, 196, 197, 198, 204, Singh, KS, 58, 284, 296
243, 259, 269, 270 Sinha, Samar, 112
Rai, Ichchha P, 279 Slaytor, P, viii, 278
Rai, Parvati, 99 Song, Jae J, 168, 198, 232, 298
Srinivas, MN, 27 U
Starosta, Stanley, 226, 298
Stoll, Sabine, 279 Ukyab, T, 57, 89
Subba, Tanka B, 214, 244, 298 Upadhyay, Hriseekesh, 137
Subba, Upendra, 191 Upadhyay, M, 246, 301
Subbarao, KV, 168, 298
Subedi, Abhi, 240 V
Subedi, RR, 6, 28, 30, 55, 79, 90, 131, 170, 244, 298
Susucha, Tankaraj, 225 van den Berg, Rosemary, 271
Sunuwar, CP, 16, 298 van Driem, George, 138, 147, 152, 155, 160, 193, 194, 195, 301
Sunuwar, K, 16, 298 Vansittart, E, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 65, 66, 68, 79, 89, 130, 170, 225,
Sunwar, KB, 16, 298 301
Sunuwar, Kedar, 48 Vartaman, 64, 302
Sunuwar, Laxmi, 16, 298 Verma, S.K, 271, 302
Sunuwar, Purna, 16 Viwol, D, 278
Sunuwar, Raj K, 16, 299 Voegelin, Charles F, 243, 302
Sunuwar, RB, 16, 299 Voegelin, F.M.R, 243, 302
Sunuwar, RK, 16, 299
Sunuwar, S. Karna, 16, 299 W
Sunuwar, TR, 16, 299
Wardhaugh, R, 115, 133
T Wheatley, Julian K, 149
Weiner, Edmund, 251
Tamot, Kashinath, 52, 61 Widdowson, HG, 203
Thapa, Ashok K, 133 Winter, Werner, 207
Thapa, Deepak, 11, 300
Thapa, Manjushree, 201 Y
Thomros, Bhupadhoj, 64
ThũguchaMukhia, Bal, 287 Yadava, Yogendra P, 54, 129, 225, 258, 261, 269
Thurgood, G, 66 YakkhaRai, Durgahang, 59, 63, 67
Toba, Ingrid, 51, 223, 243, 257, 258, 260, 270 Yalungcha, Bagdevi, 10, 45, 67, 91, 93, 168
Toba, Sueyoshi, 36, 51, 65, 67, 162, 193, 194, 208, 223, 226, 243, Yalungcha, BS, 64, 161, 196, 303
257, 258, 260, 270 YatachaMukhia, K, 18, 66
Tõkucha, TB, 5, 18, 34, 66 Yonjan, Amrit, 126, 128, 261
Thompson, Sandra A, 149
Yule, G, 215, 219
Tuladhar, NM, 207, 272

Turin, Mark, 51, 53, 54, 61, 62, 63, 82, 110, 112, 143, 261
Z
Turner, RL, 59, 63

Tyagi, Yogesh, 261
Zograph, G.A, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 155, 243

Most of The Essays in This Anthology Have Observed Change

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Most of the essays in this anthology have observed change, i.e.

Bayung/Bahing narratives13 has mentioned that the Sunuwars 10 The informant is my supposed grandfather Kumar Jespucha (52),

Lohorung, Sotang, Sampang, Thulung and Yantamba Kiranti Toponymic evidence

Boyegechha Boyonchha Bumachha Bumakhamcha Kiranti­Kulung

relationships amongst the Kiranti linguistic communities and North­Western subgroup

cultural, linguistic and toponymic facts produced, presented 5 Demystifying the myths of Sunuwar

Contrary to this linguistic fact, Eden Vansittart13 has put

Plate 4: Image ID: 1125295 Sunwar family (sub­Himalayan origin),

In Suri, I asked the older women about clothes people did wear 3 Kiranti­Kõits term muru­piki for 'man­PL' denoting 'men'.

marital ceremony (usually less often these days) only because of Similarly, the autoglotonym or autoethnonym Kõits [sf]FOr]

seems only slightly different from the Magar dialect…1967: 64) …Sunuwar Bahun purohit calaune Kshetriya bargakai ek

Tibeto­Burman proto­form *tsa ‘child, grandchild’ (Benedict Several Kiranti folklore(s) also have pointed out (cf. Lee et

Sirijungahang Thebe also historically known as Rupihang bureaucracy, nepotism, corruption, degradation, religion, and

rupees as bribe for getting his citizenship paper which he flatly 12 Past, present and future of Kiranti­Kõits

eastern Nepal. While conducting any Kõits ritual, Pidār­ Salaku is most probably an ancient Kiranti­Kõits ritual in

38. surbu surbu 'bee' Native Nepali

(Malla 1979). Then, if language itself becomes extinct, culture

Unlike Kiranti­Kõits, nasalization of vowel is not a Those texts in Part 2, are elicited from varieties of themes

Table 4 : Transitive verb affixes in Gyarong (Suomo dialect) Tibeto­Burman languages have no form of writing. Hopefully,

(10) mә­kә ŋә­njә u­nasŋo­č (20) khu­wā khānā­lәi tā­khāŋ­ā

(f) make extensive use of compound verbs, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Kiranti­Athpare: example in Kiranti­Kõits and Ebert (1994) for other

mo­ya ti­hya: mya:­yo ‘level’ b. kyāc­kā rә ̃ cā­ckeexl kyāc­i rә ̃ cā­ceincl

tense or person markers; subjects are always deleted. These

Indigenous Peoples­Draft­1991, Resolutions from the First reference, TKP basically has referred to diverse cultural heritage

‘cleefjs / lzIfsnfO{ dft[efiffsf] dxTj a'emfpg g;Sg' k|d'v sdhf]/L Notes

(also see Paalaam and Semi Phaaktaalung) published by Himal looks upon Nepali literature and society especially through

k. make little use of converbs and participles in mh, n, nh, ŋ, ŋh, w, l, lh, r, rh, y / and six vowels /a, e, i, o, u /

“…I wake, an injured stalwart son of Gurkhali… that…” (1992: 61). What those unmentionable/unnamable

34 Kiranti­Bayung language vitality Structurally, BRASS is divided into nine chapters:

1652 Indian mother tongues and dialects. The linguistic content English: words single form

Kiranti­Kõits: I. Grouping

(i) uniformity of style is acquired in a particular language­using environment (ibid

(4) a. mεko­piki­m khәmε dzāi­ni­mi (6) a. mi pit̺­o

f. mεko āl­mi gyākosi lә­šo­nu khyõpәt̺ kā khui­pāp­t̺u (13)a. goi t̺εk­gε gāɂ­ŋε

b. ā­m­ā c. ε̃ko khĩ­ŋā mur(u) t̺εk lә­mā

even poly­semantic roles, which suggests ‘grammaticalization of Folklore Studies in the west institutionalized decades or

shrouded in mystery. No archaeological excavations have 1.3 Historical outline

2. Kiranti­Kõits Lo: Sessebdese and its textual 2.2 Presentation of content

introducing some core vocabulary and sentence structures 3.1 Why lexicosyntactic approach?

which is supposed to be bloomed invisibly6 in nature is in their Various other reasons for endangerment of these

(271=0.00%) 59. Dungmali [Kiranti­Dungmali] (221=0.00%) 60. 5 Sharma (2003: 85) clarifies concerning the issue of ethnicity and

Gordon Jr., Raymond G. (ed.). 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of Gvozdanović, Jadranka. 2004. ‘Morphosyntactic transparency

Lee, Maureen with assistance of Bagdevi Rai, Buddhi K Rai and ­­­­­. 1991. ‘Areal and universal dimensions of

The Gurkhas: Their Manners, Customs and Country. New ­­­­­. 1991 [orig.1906]. Gurkhas: A Handbook. New Delhi and

Yakkha­Rai, Durgahang. 2002 [VS 2059]. Kirant Yakkhako Index of languages

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Boyegechha Boyonchha Bumachha Bumakhamcha KirantiKulung

relationships amongst the Kiranti linguistic communities and NorthWestern subgroup

Plate 4: Image ID: 1125295 Sunwar family (subHimalayan origin),

In Suri, I asked the older women about clothes people did wear 3 KirantiKõits term murupiki for 'manPL' denoting 'men'.

TibetoBurman protoform *tsa ‘child, grandchild’ (Benedict Several Kiranti folklore(s) also have pointed out (cf. Lee et

rupees as bribe for getting his citizenship paper which he flatly 12 Past, present and future of KirantiKõits

eastern Nepal. While conducting any Kõits ritual, Pidār Salaku is most probably an ancient KirantiKõits ritual in

Unlike KirantiKõits, nasalization of vowel is not a Those texts in Part 2, are elicited from varieties of themes

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(f) make extensive use of compound verbs,

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moya tihya: mya:yo ‘level’ b. kyāckā rә ̃ cāckeexl kyāci rә ̃ cāceincl

Indigenous PeoplesDraft1991, Resolutions from the First reference, TKP basically has referred to diverse cultural heritage

34 KirantiBayung language vitality Structurally, BRASS is divided into nine chapters:

KirantiKõits: I. Grouping

(i) uniformity of style is acquired in a particular languageusing environment (ibid

(4) a. mεkopikim khәmε dzāinimi (6) a. mi pit̺o

f. mεko ālmi gyākosi lәšonu khyõpәt̺ kā khuipāpt̺u (13)a. goi t̺εkgε gāɂŋε

b. āmā c. ε̃ko khĩŋā mur(u) t̺εk lәmā

even polysemantic roles, which suggests ‘grammaticalization of Folklore Studies in the west institutionalized decades or

2. KirantiKõits Lo: Sessebdese and its textual 2.2 Presentation of content

(271=0.00%) 59. Dungmali [KirantiDungmali] (221=0.00%) 60. 5 Sharma (2003: 85) clarifies concerning the issue of ethnicity and

Lee, Maureen with assistance of Bagdevi Rai, Buddhi K Rai and . 1991. ‘Areal and universal dimensions of

The Gurkhas: Their Manners, Customs and Country. New . 1991 [orig.1906]. Gurkhas: A Handbook. New Delhi and

YakkhaRai, Durgahang. 2002 [VS 2059]. Kirant Yakkhako Index of languages