Syuba
PrintPrimary tabs
A language of Nepal
1,500 (2012 SIL). Very few monolinguals.
Janakpur zone: Ramechhap district, a Likhu Khola ridge.
6b (Threatened). Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Sherpa.
Differs from Helambu Sherpa [scp] by less use of the honorific system in verbs, which makes intelligibility more of a problem for the Syuba. It could be considered a dialect of Helambu Sherpa.
SOV; postpositions; genitives, adjectives, relatives before noun heads; numerals after noun heads; noun head initial; no noun classes or genders; content q-word early in the clause; 1 prefix, up to 4 suffixes; subject, object, indirect object, case of noun phrase indicated by postpositions; clause constituents indicated by both case-marking and word order; split ergativity; rich tense and aspect system; no passives or voice; impersonal voice; causatives; comparatives; CV, CVC, CVV, CCV, CCVV, CVVC; 26 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes; tonal (4 tones).
Home, friends; mixed use: Religion, work. Some young people, all adults. Positive attitudes. Some also use Nepali [npi], at home.
Literacy rate in L2: Few. Literates in Nepali [npi] have very little trouble reading Syuba in Devanagari script. Dictionary. Texts. Bible portions: 1977.
Devanagari script [Deva].
Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, traditional religion.