The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: CDM
ISO 639-2: sit
| Population | 34,000 or 0.14% of the population (1997). |
| Region | Inner Terai; Narayani Zone, Makwanpur, Chitwan, and South Dhading districts; Gandaki Zone, South Gorkha District. |
| Alternate names | TSEPANG |
| Dialects | EASTERN CHEPANG, WESTERN CHEPANG. |
| Classification | Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, Mahakiranti, Kham-Magar-Chepang-Sunwari, Chepang. |
| Comments | Bujhel can be considered a dialect close to Western Chepang, but has difficult intelligibility with Chepang, different morphology. Dialects differ in verb forms. Similar in morphology to Kiranti languages. 98% lexical similarity with Bujhel. Bilingual level estimates for Nepali are 0 5%, 1 30%, 2 40%, 3 15%, 4 10%, 5 0%. People over 5 know some Nepali. It is often learned in school. Men can talk about most common topics and political affairs. Women know greetings and vocabulary for trade. Young people may sometimes speak Nepali to each other. Chepang used at home and to other Chepang. All ages. Bujhel have more contacts with outsiders, think of themselves as superior to eastern varieties, do not mix with them, and may not accept their written materials. They see Nepali as the language of education and written materials. Do not have a high view of Chepang. Investigation needed: intelligibility with Bujhel. Dictionary. Grammar. OV (Subject position varies); postpositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; relatives before or without noun heads; question word final; maximum number of suffixes 8; word order does not distinguish subjects, objects, or indirect objects; affixes indicate case of noun phrase; verb affixes mark person, number, subject, and object--obligatory; ergative; passives, causatives, comparatives; CV to CCCVCCC with certain restrictions; semitonal. Literacy rate in first language: 1% to 5%. Literacy rate in second language: 40% men, 15% women in Nepali; 13.9% ethnic group (1991 census). Difficulties in reading Chepang: long words, consonant clusters. They do not know how to write it. Written Chepang has lower prestige than Nepali. Motivation high for Nepali. Devanagari. Newspapers, radio programs. Tropical to subtropical. Mountain slope. Swidden agriculturalists. 450 to 1,500 meters, especially 450 to 1,500. Traditional religion, Hindu overlay. |
