Magar Kham language

Kham Magar
Kham
मगर ढुट
Native toNepal
EthnicityKham Magar
Speakers91,753 (2021)[failed verification]
L2: 91,753(2021)
Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
kif – Eastern Parbate Kham
kgj – Gamale Kham
kip – Sheshi Kham
kjl – Western Parbate Pang
Glottologkham1286
ELPGamale Kham
Coordinates: 28.563229, 82.848238
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Magar Kham (मगर खाम), also known as Kham, Kham Magar, and Khamkura, is the Sino-Tibetan language variety of the Northern Magar people of Nepal. The language is situated in the upper elevations of Baglung, East Rukum, and Rolpa districts. Based on census data taken in 2021, the total population of Magar Kham is estimated to be about 91,753 speakers.

Language classification

Magar Kham is a Sino-Tibetan language, and it is classified by David Bradley as “Central Himalayan,” and as being related to Magar and Chepang and more distantly related to the Kiranti languages. George van Driem also classifies Magar Kham as “Para-Kiranti,” emphasizing that Magar Kham, Magar, and Chepang are united more by their differences from the Kiranti cluster than by their similarity to one another. Within this cluster, Magar Kham possesses a number of unique grammatical features, and shares only 44% lexical similarity with Magar and 38% with Chepang.

Dialects

Magar Kham speakers generally refer to their dialect using the name of an important village or river in conjunction with the Nepali instrumental suffix [-le] or the genitive suffix [-i]. Thus, it can be said that Magar Kham has as many dialects as there are villages and rivers in their native territory. The table below presents the major dialects of the Magar Kham language as they have been classified by David E. Watters. The ISO 639-3 codes associated with each major dialect are presented in brackets.

Magar Kham varieties

Gamal Kham [kgj] Sheshi Kham [kip] Parbate Kham
Ghusbangi Kham

Tamali Kham

 Jangkoti Kham

Tapnangi Kham

 Western Parbate

Kham [kjl]

 Eastern Parbate

Kham [kif]

Maikoti Kham

Takale Kham

Thabangi Kham

Wale Kham

 Nisel Kham

Bhujel Kham

At the highest level in the table, Kham has been divided into Gamal Kham, Sheshi Kham, and Parbate Kham, which is further divided into Eastern and Western Parbate Kham. As previously stated, these four major dialects are mutually unintelligible and bear unique grammatical innovations indicative of different languages. For this reason, each of these dialects have been given its own ISO 639-3 designation.

Speakers

Based on the census data taken in 2021, the total population of Magar Kham speakers is estimated to be about 91,753 persons. The tables below presents the homeland population estimates by district and by dialect. It is estimated that about 92,000 Magar Kham speakers live in diaspora.[citation needed]

Magar Kham population by district

Province District Estimated Population
Gandaki Baglung 37,000
Lumbini East Rukum 78,000
Lumbini Rolpa 127,000

Magar Kham population by dialect/variety

According to Ethnologue:

Dialect ISO 639-3 Native speakers (year) L2 speakers (year) Total speakers (year)
Gamal Kham kgj 7,000 (2021) 3,000 (2021) 10,000 (2021)
Sheshi Kham kip N/a N/a 91,753 (2021)
Eastern Parbate kif N/a N/a 50,000 (2021)
Western Parbate kjl 38,000 (2003) 25,000 (2021) 69,000 (2003–2021)
All varieties N/a N/a N/a 127,000 (2003–2021)

Estimates are based on the number of persons registering their mother tongue as either “Magar” or “Kham” within the territory of the northern Magars.[citation needed]

Language vitality

Although their homeland is fairly homogeneous, northern Magars are multilingual. The national language of Nepali is spoken confidently by all individuals under 35 years old. In some communities (Sheshi and Eastern Parbate), parents have shifted to speaking Nepali with their children, and the speaker population is gradually decreasing. However, in all of East Rukum and in the Gam river valley of Rolpa, the language is being vigorously transmitted. Ethnologue has assigned the following EGIDS levels to each variety:

The UNESCO Endangered Languages Project has classified Gamal Kham as "Vulnerable."

Phonology

Consonants

The Taka dialect of Western Parbate Kham has 22 consonant phonemes while Gamal Kham possesses around 29 to 30 consonant phonemes.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain sibilant
Nasal voiceless m̥2 n̥2 ŋ̊1
voiced m n ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p t t͡s k ʔ2
voiced b d d͡z ɡ
aspirated pʰ tʰ t͡sʰ kʰ
Fricative voiceless ɬ2 s ç1 h
voiced z
Rhotic ɾ3
Approx. voiceless ɥ̊2 ʍ2
voiced ɥ2 l j w
  1. These phonemes only appear in Ghusbang and Sheram dialect. All others appear in every Kham dialect.
  2. These phonemes do not occur in Parbate Kham.
  3. The rhotic /ɾ/ is realized as a trill [r] at the end of words. Otherwise, it is a flap.

Vowels

Taka dialect of Western Parbate has 25 vowel phonemes.

Front Central Back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
shortlongnasal shortlong shortlongnasal shortlongnasal shortlongnasal
Close i1 iː ĩː y yː ɯ ɯː ɯ̃ː u1 uː ũː
Mid e1 eː ẽː ø øː ə1 əː ə̃ː o1 oː õː
Open mid ɛ
Open ɐ1 ɐː ɐ̃ː
  1. These vowels occur in every dialect of Kham.

Writing

Consonants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Deva. ज़ झ़ न्ह म्ह व़ ह्ल ह्व ह्व़
trans. z zh nh mh ẏ hl hw hẏ
IPA z zV̤ n̥ m̥ ɥ ɬ ʍ ɥ̊
कखगघङ
/kə//kʰə//ɡə//ɡə̤//ŋə/
चछजझञ
/t͡sə//t͡sʰə//d͡zə//d͡zə̤//nə/
टठडढण
/tə//tʰə//də//də̤//nə/
तथदधन
/tə//tʰə//də//də̤//nə/
पफबभम
/pə//pʰə//bə//bə̤//mə/
यरलव
/jə//rə//lə//wə/
शषसह
/çə//sə//sə//hə/
क्षत्रज्ञ
/t͡sʰə//trə//ɡjə/

Vowels

Vowels for Parbate Kham
Devanagari Roman IPA
अaə
आāɐ
इii
इ़üy
ईīiː
उuu
उ़ïɯ
ऊūuː
एee, ɛ
ए़øø
ऐaiəj
ओoo
औauəw
ःh, ḥV̤
ँ◌̃◌̃ː
ं◌̃, ṅ, n, ṇ, ñ◌̃ː, ŋ, n
ॱ, . °, ॰, ऽ'◌ː
ॽ’ʔ

Vowels for Gamal Kham

Orthographyअआइ/ईउ/ऊएऐओऔअंअःअँॱअ
Romanaāi/īu/ūeaioauaṃaḥãa'
IPAəɐiue, ɛəjoəwə̃ə̤ə̃əʔ

Morphology

Pronouns

singulardualplural
1st person naːgingeː
2nd person nɨ̃ːjinjeː
3rd person noːnoːninoːrə

Nouns

Number

Kham nouns are marked for three numbers: singular (unmarked), dual (-ni) and plural (-rə). The plural marker has an allomorph -ra that appears when it is followed by another suffix.

Case

Kham nominals are marked for various morphosyntactical and locational cases.

Core case markers:

  • Nominative -Ø
  • Ergative -e/-je
  • Oblique/Objective -lai
  • Tripartite marking: The split ergativity patterns in Kham is overlapped for most of the argument's person/number and thus when both the agent and object arguments are both in the higher ranks of the argument hierarchy, the transitive subject/agent must be marked with ergative, while the object takes the oblique in order to distinguish it from the S/A arguments. There is no semantic and discourse-orientated variations in Kham alignment marking.

Peripheral case markers:

Possessive

singulardualplural
1st person ŋa-gin-ge-
2nd person nə-jin-dʒe-
3rd person o-/u-ni-ja-

Kin terms are marked by inalienable possessive unless they are used as vocatives or referential proper nouns. Eg. ŋa-bəhrca ('my nephew') vs. phubu ('Aunt').

Gender

In Kham, a small number of lexical items are marked for gender, but not affecting elsewhere in the morphosyntax: -pa masculine, -ma feminine, and -za diminutive. Indo-Aryan gender distinction -a/-i is also borrowed, creating a semi-productive 'similative' class of nouns, i.e. lexical object is conceptualized as representative of an attribute.

korop ('stitch') > koropcya ('[masculine] scar-face') / 'kurupci' ('[feminine] scar-face').

Verbs

Verbs in Kham inflect for various tense, aspect, mood, and mode categories, voices, negation, person/number of the subject, agent, and of the object in active voice. Kham person indexation have different paradigms for intransitive and transitive verbs as well for indicatives, optatives, and imperatives.

laː-kə

day-LOC

ŋa-səres-duh-zja

1SG.SUBJ-recognize-ABIL-IPFV

laː-kə ŋa-səres-duh-zja

day-LOC 1SG.SUBJ-recognize-ABIL-IPFV

'I can recognize him in the daytime.'

Reconstruction

Proto-Kham has been reconstructed by Watters (2002). Proto-Kham reconstructions from Watters (2002: 443–456) are given below.

A. Body parts
B. Pronouns/kinship terms/nouns referring to humans'
C. Foodstuff
D. Animal names or animal products
E. Natural objects or phenomena; the inanimate landscape; vegetable and mineral kingdoms
F. Artifacts and social organization
G. Spatial/directional
H. Numerals and quantifiers
I. Verbs of utterance, body position or function
J. Verbs of motion
K. Verbs of emotion, cognition, perception
L. Stative verbs with human patients
M. Stative verbs with non-human patients
N. Action verbs with human agent

References

  1. 1 2 3 "National Population and Housing Census 2021: Social Characteristics Tables (Caste/Ethnicity, Mother Tongue and Second Language)" (PDF). Government of Nepal: National Planning Commission Secretariat – Central Bureau of Statistics. February 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-03-14. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  2. ↑ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  3. ↑ Hitchcock, John T. (1966). The Magars of Banyan Hill. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  4. ↑ Fischer, James F. (1986). Trans-Himalayan traders: Economy, society, and culture in northwest Nepal. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
  5. ↑ Oppitz, Michael. (1991). Onkels tochter, keine sonst. Uncle’s Daughter, Nobody Else. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
  6. ↑ Bradley, David. (1997). “Tibeto-Burman languages and classification.” In Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 14: Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, edited. by David Bradley, 1-72, Canberra: Australian National University.
  7. ↑ van Driem, George. (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An ethnographic handbook of the greater Himalayan region, vol. 2. Leiden: Brill.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Watters, David E.. (2002). A grammar of Kham. Cambridge: Cambridge University. ISBN 0-521-81245-3
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Kham, Gamal at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  10. 1 2 3 Kham, Sheshi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Kham, Western Parbate at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  12. 1 2 3 Kham, Eastern Parbate at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  13. ↑ Watters, David E.. (1998). The Kham language of west-central Nepal (Takale dialect). Ph.D. dissertation. Eugene, Oregon.
  14. ↑ Leman, Joseph D. (2019). “Sociolinguistic Profile of Maikoti Kham: A sociolinguistic study of the Kham language spoken in the area of Maikot village in East Rukum District of Nepal.” Journal of Language Survey Reports. SIL International.
  15. ↑ Watters, Stephen. (2018). Linguistic identity and dialect diversity: A conundrum with regard to Magar Kham. Language and identity in multilingual, migrating world. SIL International.
  16. ↑ "Gamale Kham". Endangered Languages Project. Archived from the original on 2015-04-18.
  17. ↑ Wilde, Christopher P. (2017-06-01). "A Phonological Comparison of Gamale, Sheram and Ghusbang – Three Kham Varieties". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. 10 (1): 67–90. ISSN 1836-6821.
  18. ↑ Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.
  19. ↑ Boudewijn, Rempt (1994). "The verbal agreement system of four Khām languages". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 17: 1–59.

Further reading