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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > Nepal > Tamang, Western

Tamang, Western

A language of Nepal

ISO 639-3: tdg

Population	323,000 (2000).
Region	Bagmati zone, west Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dhading; Gandaki zone, parts of Gorkha District; districts west and possibly southwest, central mountainous strip. Migrations to the Terai.
Language map	Western Nepal, reference number 116
Alternate names	Murmi
Dialects	Trisuli (Nuwakot), Rasuwa, Northwestern (Dhading), Southwestern. Preliminary results showed 86% intelligibility with Rasuwa dialect, 81%–88% with Central-Eastern [taj], 78%–88% with Outer-Eastern [taj], 86% with Southwestern [tsf]; 80% of Rasuwa with Trisuli, 13% with Outer-Eastern [taj]. Lexical similarity: 94% between Trisuli dialect and Northwestern Tamang [tmk], 82%–83% with Rasuwa, 80% with Southwestern Tamang [tsf], 77%–79% with Eastern Gorkha Tamang [tge], 82%–83% between Rasuwa and Northwestern [tmk], 78% with Southwestern [tsf], 72% with Eastern Gorkha [tge], 69%–81% between Western varieties and Eastern Tamang varieties.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, Tibeto-Kanauri, Tibetic, Tamangic
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: 1%–10%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–75%. NT: 1990.
Writing system	Devanagari script. Tibetan script.
Comments	‘Murmi’ is an archaic term used only in old British writings, but not used now. Tamang recognized as an official nationality. SOV; postpositions; genitives after nouns, relatives before nouns, question word medial, CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC, CVCCC; tonal. Swidden and peasant agriculturalists. Traditional religion, Buddhist, Hindu.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

EVERITT, Fay, author. 1973. "Sentence patterns in Tamang."  

EVERITT, Fay; TAMANG, Karna Bahadur; TAYLOR, Doreen, authors. 1972. A vocabulary of the Tamang language.

GLOVER, Jessie R.; PITTMAN, Richard S., authors. 1970. "Proto-Tamang-Gurung-Thakali."

GLOVER, Warren W., author. 1970. "Cognate counts via the Swadesh list in some Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal."

HALE, Austin, author. 1970. "A phonological survey of seven Bodic languages of Nepal."

HALE, Austin, editor. 1973. Clause, sentence, and discourse patterns in selected languages of Nepal 1: General approach.  

HALE, Austin, editor. 1973. Clause, sentence, and discourse patterns in selected languages of Nepal 3: Texts.  

HALE, Austin, editor. 1973. Clause, sentence, and discourse patterns in selected languages of Nepal 4: Word lists.  

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 2: Lexical lists and comparative studies.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 3: Texts 1.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 1: Studies on tone and phonological segments.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 4: Texts 2.

HALE, Austin; WATTERS, David E., editors. 1973. Clause, sentence, and discourse patterns in selected languages of Nepal 2: Clause.  

HARI, Anna Maria, author. 1970. A guide to Tamang tone.

HARI, Anna Maria; PIKE, Kenneth L.; TAYLOR, Doreen, authors. 1970. "Tamang tone and higher levels."

HEPBURN, Jennifer, author. 1978. "Linkage at high levels of Tamang discourse."  

PITTMAN, Richard S., author. 1970. "Gurung, Tamang, Thakali, Sherpa, and Chepang prosodies."

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1969. "Tamang weaving."

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1969. Tamang phonemic summary.

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1970. "Tamang segmental synopsis."

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1970. "Tamang texts."

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1973. "Clause patterns in Tamang."  

TAYLOR, Doreen, author. 1978. "Topicalisation in Tamang narrative."