Magar Dhut ( ne, मगर ढुट, ) is a Sino-Tibetan Language spoken mainly in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

, Southern

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, and in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nep ...

and

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, by the

Magar people The Magar, also spelled as Mangar, and Mongar, are the third largest ethnolinguistic groups of Nepal, indigenous to Western Nepal and representing 7.1% of Nepal's total population according to the 2011 Nepal census. The original home of the Magar ...

. It is divided into two groups (Eastern and Western) and further dialect divisions give distinct tribal identity. In Nepal 788,530 people speak the language. While the government of Nepal developed Magar language curricula, as provisioned by the constitution, the teaching materials have never successfully reached Magar schools, where most school instruction is in the

Nepali language Nepali (; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a '' lingua franca''. Nepali has official status in the Indian s ...

. It is not unusual for groups with their own language to feel that the "mother-tongue" is an essential part of identity. The Dhut Magar language is sometimes lumped with the

Magar Kham language 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, a ...

spoken further west in Bheri, Dhaulagiri, and Rapti zones. Although the two languages share many common words, they have major structural differences and are not

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...

Geographical distribution

Western Magar

Western Magar (dialects: ''Palpa'' and ''Syangja'') is spoken in the following

districts of Nepal Districts in Nepal are second level of administrative divisions after provinces. Districts are subdivided in municipalities and rural municipalities. There are seven provinces and 77 districts in Nepal. After the state's reconstruction of admi ...

(''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

''). *

Lumbini Zone Lumbini ( ne, लुम्बिनी अञ्चल) was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal until the restructure of zones to provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives fr ...

Palpa District Palpa District ( ne, पाल्पा जिल्ला, a part of Lumbini Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Tansen as its headquarters, covers an area of and has ...

* Gandaki Province: Syangja District, and

Tanahu District Tanahun District ( ne, तनहुँ जिल्ला , or ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Damauli as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population (2011 ...

* Small border area in Dhawalagiri Zone: Parbat District * Scattered throughout Bheri Zone: especially in Surkhet District,

Jajarkot District Jajarkot District ( ne, जाजरकोट जिल्ला) a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Khalanga as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population of ...

, and Dailekh District

Eastern Magar

Eastern Magar (dialects: ''Gorkha'', ''Nawalparasi'', and ''Tanahu'') is spoken in the following

(''

''). * ''Zone 1: central mountains of Nepal east of the Bagmati River'' ** Gandaki Province:

and southern Gorkha District **

Kapilvastu District and Nawalparasi District ** Small border area in

Bagmati Zone Bagmati Zone ( ne, बागमती अञ्चल ''Bāgmatī Añcal'') was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal until the restoration of zones to Provinces. Its headquarters are Kathmandu. It was named after the Bagmati River. It was in the ...

Dhading District Dhading District ( ne, धादिङ जिल्ला ), a part of Bagmati Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhading Besi as its district headquarters, covers an area of , had a population of 338,65 ...

* ''Zone 2: eastern Nepal'' ** Sindhuli District,

Janakpur Zone Janakpur ( ne, जनकपुर अञ्चल ) was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal, reaching from the Indian border in the south to the Tibetan border in the north and Sagarmatha Zone in the east and Bagmati and Naryani Zones in the we ...

Okhaldhunga District Okhaldhunga District ( ne, ओखलढुङ्गा जिल्ला) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal. The district, with Okhaldhunga as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 156,702 ...

Sagarmatha Zone Sagarmāthā Zone ( ne, सगरमाथा अञ्चल) or Sagarmatha Anclal ( ne, सगरमाथा अञ्चल) was one of the fourteen zones of Nepal until the restructuring of zones into provinces. The headquarters of Sagarma ...

** Udayapur District ** Scattered communities in central Kosi Zone,

Dhankuta District Dhankuta District ( ne, धनकुटा जिल्ला) () is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district covers an area of and has a population (2011) of 163,412. Dhankuta is the district headquarters of Dha ...

, Bhojpur and southern

Province No. 1 Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan, Sagarmatha, Birat and Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven provinces established by the new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The province covers an ...

, Illam District,

Jhapa District Jhapa ( ne, झापा जिल्ला; ) is a district of Province No. 1 in eastern Nepal named after a Rajbanshi word "Jhapa" meaning "to cover" (verb). The latest official data, the 2021 Nepal Census, puts the total population of the ...

** Some areas in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

** Southern

Phonology

Consonants

*-only occur in the Tanahu dialect. is only a marginal phoneme.

Vowels

References

External links

detailed language map, western Nepal. Eastern Magar is language #33; Western Magar is #113.
*ELAR archive o
Magar language documentation materialsThe Magar language - Linguistics research - Folktales in Magar (Western) - Nepal
{{Authority control Languages of India Languages of Nepal Languages of Sikkim Magaric languages