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Thakali

A language of Nepal

ISO 639-3: ths

Population	6,440 (2001 census). Ethnic population: 12,973 (2001 census).
Region	Dhaulagiri zone, Mustang District, Thak Khola, mid Kali Gandaki Valley, with Annapurna Himal on one side and Dhaulagiri Himal on the other, Tatopani village south to Jomosom north. Many live outside the area. Tukche is cultural center. Tukche dialect is in Tukche village and villages south to Ghasa; also in Jomsom. Syang in Syang, Thini, Chhairo and Chimang.
Language map	Western Nepal, reference number 100
Alternate names	Panchgaunle, Thaksya
Dialects	Tukche (Thaksatsae, Thaksaatsaye), Marpha, Syang (Yhulkasom). Thakali dialects have 91%–97% inherent intelligibility. The Tukche dialect is most easily understood by others. Lexical similarity: 41%–46% with Gurung, 46%–51% with Tamang (1994 J. Webster). Thakali dialects in 4 villages have 75%–86% mutual lexical similarity.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, Tibeto-Kanauri, Tibetic, Tamangic
Language use	The younger generation in Tukche is maintaining Thakali more strongly than in other areas. Elsewhere the younger generation uses less Thakali, but will develop it more fully as they grow older (1994 J. Webster). 1,056 L2 speakers (1991 census). All ages. Tukche is the prestige dialect. Most use some Nepali [nep].
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 62% (1991 census).
Writing system	Devanagari script.
Comments	Marpha dialect is in an endogamous village. Thakali, Marphali, and Syangtan recognized as official nationalities. People of Marpha, Syang, Thini, Chhairo, and Chimang villages are sometimes collectively known as Panchgaunle (5 villages), the name used for both the ethnic group and language. Traders. Buddhist, Jhankrism, Bonpo, Hindu.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

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

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

Hale, Austin and Kenneth L. Pike, editors. 1970. Tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 3: Texts 1.

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

Hale, Austin and Kenneth L. Pike, editors. 1970. Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 4: Texts 2.

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

Hari, Maria and Anita Maibaum. 1970. "Thakali texts."

Hari, Maria. 1969. Thakali phonemic summary.

Hari, Maria. 1970. "Thakali segmental synopsis."

Hari, Maria. 1970. "Thakali tone and higher levels."

Hari, Maria. 1971. A guide to Thakali tone.

Hari, Maria. 1971. A vocabulary of the Thakali language.

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

Pittman, Richard S. and Jessie R. Glover. 1970. "Proto-Tamang-Gurung-Thakali."