User:SarahIglesias/Sunwar language

Sunwar language

The Sunwar language is one of the smaller members of the Tibeto-Burman language family.

Background

About 40,000 speakers are residing in eastern Nepal. With another 40,000 speakers residing in eastern Nepal. The language is commonly known as Koic, for many ethnic Sunwar and Sunwar speakers also refer to the language as “Sunuwar, Kõinch , Koinch or Koincha (कोँइच); Kõits Lo (कोँइच लो), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोँइच) or Mukhiya (मुखिया).” (Mandal, Biswajit)

Moreover, most Sunwar speakers have the surname (सुनुवार), Sunuvār in Latin script. Many affiliated Sunwar with Sunar; they share the initial syllable, sun, “gold,” in Nepali. The Sunar, an artisan caste in India[1] , are also known as goldsmiths. However, the ethnonym Sunuvār is believed to be connected with Sunkosi, a river nearby the Sunwar villages. Therefore, Sunwar and Sunar have no relation; the Sunwar are known to be farmers, not goldsmiths.

Although Sunwar has no traditional written language, most literate speakers use the Devanagari alphabet, scripture used for writing Nepali. Sunwar speakers from Sikkim, northeastern India, use the Jenticha alphabet for printed materials such as newspapers and literature. In 2005, another script was invented for Sunwar; it is known as Tikamuli.

Small groups of Sunwar speakers located in Nepal

Likhu Khola river

Core Area of Language use

1. District Rāmechāp and Okhaldhū۠ngā
2. Kũbhu Kãsthālī, Rāmechāp
3. Pahare, Rāmechāp and Vacul, Okhaldhū۠ngā

A cluster of Sunwars villages are located around the region of the core spoken language. In the northern area, the village of Kũbhu Kãsthālī in Rāmechāp where a small group are speakers of Sunwar. Whereas the southern border, villages Pahare in Ramechap and Vacpu in Okhaldhū۠ngā the majority of the Sunwar speakers live in this region. According to Borchers, there are other villages located outside of the core region. The Surel are claimed to be Sunwar speakers however there are no certainties that it is true.

The Sunwar language is commonly spoken in the districts of Rāmechāp and Okhaldhū۠ngā distant from the Nepalese road system. Therefore, many Sunwar households are farmers, own a small lot of land and livestock. Moreover, each village often visits their neighboring village markets to purchase inaccessible goods such as spices, sugar, tea, and salt.

The Sunwar villages are scattered alongside the river banks of Likhu river. Located 1,800 meters above sea level, their fields aren’t all fallow from year round cultivation. (Borchers, 2008) In the winter, they experience no snow but freezing temperatures. In warmer weather, they experience a lot of rainfall, in the summer, monsoon rainfall. Especially between June and August, it is when they experience the most rain, more so monsoon rainfall.

Phonology

Sunwar phonology is significantly influenced by the language of Nepali.

Consonants

The Sunwar language has a mid-sized arrangement of twenty-two consonantal phonemes:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	/p/ [p] /ph/ [ph~ɸ] /b/ [b]	/t/ [t̪] /th/ [t̪h] /d/ [d̪]		/c/ [c] /j/ [Ɉ]	/k/ [k] /kh/ [kh] /g/ [g]
Nasal	/m/ [m]	/n/ [n]			/ ̇n/ [ŋ]
Flap			/r/ [ɾ]
Fricative			/s/ [s]	/ʃ/ [ʃ]		h [h]
Approximant	/w/ [w~wh]			/y/ [j]
Lateral Approximant		/l/ [l̪]
Implosive	/ᵷ/ [w~b]

Vowels

According to Borchers, there are eleven vowel phonemes in Sunwar:

<a> [a~ɑ], /ā / [aː], /e/ [e~ɛ], /i/ [i], /o/ [o], /u/ [u], / ū/ [uː~y], /ã/ [ã~ɑ̃], /ã̄/ [ãː], /ẽ/ [ẽ~ɛ̃], /ĩ/ [ĩ]

	Front	Central	Back
High	/i/ [i], /ĩ/ [ĩ] /ū/ [y]		/u/ [u] /ū/ [uː~y]
Mid	/ẽ/ [ẽ~ɛ̃], /e/ [e~ɛ]		/o/ [o]
Low		/a/ [a~ɑ], /ā / [aː]

Vowels with bar - Represents long vowels

Vowels with tilde -  Represents short nasalized vowels

Vowels with bar and tilda - Represents long and nasalized vowels

Dipthongs

There are a total of eight diphthongs in Sunwar: /ai/ [aɪ], /aĩ/ [aɪ̃], /au/ [au], /eu/ [eu], /oi/ [oi], /oĩ/ [oĩ], /ui/ [ui], /uĩ/ [uĩ]

According to Borchers, a principled way to distinguish diphthongs from a sequence of two monophthongs does not exist in the Sunwar language.

As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of examples of contrasts between diphthongs:

/joi/	[joi]	‘tiger’
/joĩ/	[joĩ]	‘younger sister’s husband’
/muicā/	[muicaː]	‘wear shoes’
/puĩcā/	[puĩcaː]	‘ask for, beg’
/goi/	[goi]	‘you’
/gui/	[gui]	‘hand’
/reu/	[reu]	‘rain’
/roi/	[roi]	‘ill’

Syllable Structure

Syllable Structure of Sunwar: C₁(C₂)V₁(V₂)(C₃)(C₄)

Written Language

Although Sunwar has no traditional written language, most literate speakers use the Devanagari alphabet, scripture used for writing Nepali. Sunwar speakers from Sikkim, northeastern India, use the Jenticha alphabet for printed materials such as newspapers and literature. In 2005, another script was invented for Sunwar; it is known as Tikamuli.

Jenticha Script

जेँःतिच ब्रेःसे (jẽtica brese)

Vowels

अ	आ	इ	उ	ए	ओ
a	ā	i	u	e	o
[ə]	[a]	[i]	[u]	[e]	[o]

Dipthongs

ऐ	औ	एउ	उइ	ओइ
ai	au	eu	ui	oi
[ai]	[au]	[eu]	[ui]	[oi]

Consonants

क	ख	ग	ङ	अ्	च	ज	ट	ठ
ka	kha	ga	nga	’	ca	ja	ṭa	ṭha
[kə]	[kʰə]	[gə]	[ŋə]	[ʔ]	[tʃə]	[ʤə]	[ʈə]	[ʈʰə]

त	थ	द/ड	न/ण	प	फ	ब	म	य
ta	tha	da	na	pa	pha	ba	ma	ya
[tə]	[tʰə]	[də]	[nə]	[pə]	[pʰə]	[bə]	[mə]	[jə]

र	ल	व	श/ष	स	ह	व्ही/ह्व	्	ँ
ra	la	va	sha	sa	ha	hha
[rə]	[lə]	[və]	[ʃə]	[sə]	[hə]	[ɦə]	Jenticha sign, virama- halant sangmilu* mutes inherent vowel	taslathenk indicates  nasalization

The trill mark ् represents, Jenticha sign virama- sangmilu, halant. It is used to silent the vowel after the consonant. The trill mark ँ, is known as taslathenk, it corresponds to the diacritic ँ candravindu in devanagari.