Gurung language

Gurung (also, Tamu Kyi, Devnagari:तमु क्यी) is a term used to collectively refer to Eastern Gurung (ISO 639-3: ggn) and Western Gurung (ISO 639-3: gvr), nevertheless, mutual intelligibility between the two languages is limited. Total number of all Gurung speakers in Nepal is 227,918 (1991 census). Perhaps, a distinction should be made between Gurung as an ethnic group and the number of people who, actually, speakers of Gurung.

It should be noted that Nepali, Nepal's official language is an Indo-European language, whereas Gurung is a Sino-Tibetan (or according to recent revisions-Tibeto-Burman) language. Gurung are recognized as an official nationality by the Government of Nepal.

Classification

According to ethnologue.com, Gurung languages are classified as follows;

• Sino-Tibetan

*Tibeto-Burman

*Himalayish

*Tibeto-Kanauri

*Tibetic

*Tamangic

*Gurung, Eastern [ggn]

*Lamjung Gurung

*Gorkha Gurung

*Tamu Kyui

*Gurung, Western [gvr]

*Southern Gurung (Syangja Gurung)

*Northwestern Gurung (Kaski Gurung)

Grammar

Some miscellaneous grammatical features of the Gurung languages are;

• SOV;
• postpositions;
• genitives;
• adjectives relatives before noun heads;
• numerals after noun heads;
• rising intonation in bipolar questions;
• 1 prefix on negative verbs;
• maximum number of suffixes 3;
• case of noun phrase shown by preposition;
• no subject or object referencing in verbs;
• split ergative system according to tense;
• causatives;
• benefactives;
• CV, CCV, CCCV;

Phonetically, Gurung languages are tonal.

Writing system

Gurung languages use Devanāgarī script.

References

• Ethnologue report