Dolakha Newar language

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Dolakha Newar
Dolakhāe Newar
Dolakhā Newār
𑐡𑑂𑐰𑐵𑐮𑑂𑐏𑐵 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑐮 𑐨𑐵𑐲𑐵, Dwālkhā Nepal Bhasa
Native toNepal
Native speakers
(undated figure of 5,000–10,000[citation needed])
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologeast2773

Dolakha Newar (endonym Dwālkhā Nepal Bhasa[1]), or Eastern Newar, is a divergent dialect of the Newar language (Nepal Bhasa) spoken in Dolakha District, east of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, by 5,645 Newar people as of 1988. Some speakers of Dolakha Newar can be found in Kathmandu for education or work.[2]

Geographical region

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Dolakha Newar is spoken in Dolakha town of Dolakha district, Tauthali, Listi, Jethal of Sindupalchowk district, Duti of Kavrepalchowk district.[1]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Retroflex (Alveolo-)
palatal 		Velar Glottal
Stop/
Affricate 		voiceless p t ʈ tɕ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ ʈʰ tɕʰ kʰ
voiced b d ɖ dʑ ɡ
murmured bʱ dʱ ɖʱ dʑʱ ɡʱ
Fricative s h
Nasal voiced m n ŋ
murmured
Tap voiced (ɾ) [ɽ]
murmured [ɾʱ] [ɽʱ]
Lateral voiced l
murmured
Approximant voiced w j
murmured
Notes
  • Marginal phonemes are in parentheses.
  • Allophonic variants are in Square brackets.
  • Tap consonants mainly occur as word-medial alternates of /t/, /d/, /dʱ/ or /ɖ/ (in Dolakha only).
  • /s/ can be heard as [ɕ] when occurring before front vowels/glide /i, e, j/.
  • Affricates /tɕ, dʑ/ can also shift to retracted sounds [t̠s̠, d̠z̠] when occurring before back vowels.

Vowels

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Front Central Back
short long nasal short long nasal short long nasal
Close i iː ĩ u uː ũ
Close-mid e eː ẽ o oː õ
Mid (ə) (əː) (ə̃) ɔ~ɑ ɔː~ɑː ɔ̃~ɑ̃
Open-mid
Open a aː ã
  • /o, oː/ and /u/ can also be heard as [ɔ, ɔː], and [ʊ].
  • In Dolakha Newar, the back vowel sound can be [ɑ], [ʌ], or [ə].[3][4][5]
  • The following nasal vowels can also be distinguished in vowel length as /ĩː ẽː ɔ̃ː ãː õː ũː/.

Diphthongs

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Front Central Back
oral nasal oral nasal oral nasal
Diphthong Close ui uĩ
Mid ei eĩ ɔi ɔĩ ɔu ɔũ
Open ai aĩ au aũ

Number

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No. Dolakha Newar
1 thi
2 ní
3 sõ
4 pe
5 ŋā
6 khu
7 nas
8 cyā
9 gu
10 ji(m)

Morphology

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Nouns

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Number

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Dolakha Newar distinguishes two numbers on nominals: unmarked singular and plural =pen. The marker =pen changes to =pis when it is followed by case markers.

Case

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To indicate syntactic relationship and positions of NPs in clauses, several case markers are employed. They are:

Pronouns

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Singular Plural
1st person exclusive dʒi isi
inclusive tʃidʒi/tʰidʒi
2nd person honorific tʰamu tʰapen
non-honorific tʃi tʃipen
3rd person proximal u upen
distal (u)aːm aːpen

Interrogatives

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Interrogatives
gu(ri) 'which?'
gun 'who, which?' (human)
gunaːn 'who?' (ERG)
gunta 'whom?' (DAT)
gune 'whose?' (GEN)
guli 'how much, how many?'
gulpa 'when?'
gibi 'where?'
gibilaːn 'from where?' (ABL)
gitʰi 'how, in what manner?'
ginaːru 'how, what type?'
haːti 'what?'
haːtta 'where?'

Verbs

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Person indexation in Dolakhae Newar
1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 2.HON 3SG 3PL
Future -Ø -Ø -na -nan -ta -u, -ŋ -tan
Present/Past -gi -gu -mun/-n -min -gu -dʒu, -a/-i -hin
Anterior -ĩ -pe -n -min -pe -dʒu -tan

References

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  1. ^ a b Shrestha (PhD), Anita (27 August 2020). "द्वाल्खा नेपाल भाषा : आधारभूत तहमा मातृभाषा शिक्षा". Bampijhyala. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ Genetti, Carol (2007). A Grammar of Dolakha Newar. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019303-9.
  3. ^ Genetti, Carol (2003). Dolakhā Newār. The Sino-Tibetan Languages: London & New York: Routledge. pp. 353–370.
  4. ^ Hargreaves, David (2003). Kathmandu Newar (Nepāl Bhāśā). The Sino-Tibetan Languages: London & New York: Routledge. pp. 371–384.
  5. ^ Hale, Austin; Shrestha, Kedar P. (2006). Newār (Nepāl Bhāsā). Languages of the World/Materials, 256: München: LINCOM. pp. 1–22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: publisher location (link)