Belhare language

Belhare
Region Dhankuta district, Nepal
Ethnicity Athpare of Belhara
Native speakers
 600 (2011 census)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 byw
Glottolog belh1239[2]

Belhare (Nepali: Belhāreor), also known as Athpariya II (not to be confused with Athpariya I), is a Kiranti language spoken by some 2,000 people living on Belhara Hill, at the southern foothills of the Himalayas situated in the Dhankuta District, Kosi Zone in eastern Nepal. All speakers of Belhare are bilingual in Nepali, which results in frequent code mixing and a large amount of Nepali loan-words. Nevertheless, the grammar of Belhare has maintained its distinct Kiranti characteristics.

Like other Kiranti languages, Belhare is characterized by an elaborate morphology in both the nominal and verbal domain. Syntactically, Belhare has partly an accusative, partly an ergative pivot, but accusative syntax is more prominent in terms of frequency.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Apical Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosives p pʰ b (bʱ)
p ph b (bh)		 t tʰ d (dʱ)
t th d (dh)		 k kʰ ɡ (ɡʱ)
k kh g (gh)		 ʔ
ʔ
Fricatives s
s		 h
h
Affricates ts tsʰ (dz) (dzʱ)
c ch (j) (jh)
Nasals m
m		 n
n		 ŋ
ŋ
Laterals l
l
Trills r (rʱ)
r (rh)
Approximants w
w		 j
y

Vowels

front central back
close i ĩ
i ĩ		 u ũ
u ũ
mid e
e		 (ʌ)
(ʌ)		 o
o
open a
a

The phonemes in parentheses only occur in loanwords from Nepali.

References

  1. ↑ Belhare at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Belhariya". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

External links


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