Raji–Raute is a branch of the

Sino-Tibetan language family Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

that includes the three closely related languages, namely Raji, Raute, and Rawat. They are spoken by small hunter-gatherer communities in the

Terai , image =Terai nepal.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption =Aerial view of Terai plains near Biratnagar, Nepal , map = , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , biogeographic_realm = Indomalayan realm , global200 = Terai-Duar savanna a ...

region of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

and in neighboring

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

, India. Like some other Tibeto-Burman languages, Raji-Raute languages have

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies ...

sonorants.

Classification

Raute and Rawat are closely related; Raji is more distantly related.Fortier, Jana
Creating an Orthography for the Raute and Rawat
Fortier classifies the Raji-Raute languages as follows. Note that language varieties that classify within the Rawat subgroup are known by various names; Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula is taxonomically a Rawat language, and is not to be confused with Raute proper. ;Raji–Raute *Raute–Rawat ** Raute (nomadic groups) ** Rawat ***Rajwar (spoken in Khirdwari) ***Rawat ****Rawat (also known as ''Ban Raji'') ****Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula * Raji **Naukule **Bandale, Purbia

Schorer (2016)

Schorer (2016:293)Schorer, Nicolas. 2016. ''The Dura Language: Grammar and Phylogeny''. Leiden: Brill. classifies Raji–Raute as part of his newly proposed

Greater Magaric The Greater Magaric languages are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages proposed by Nicolas Schorer (2016). Schorer (2016: 286-287) considers Greater Magaric to be closely related to the Kiranti languages as part of a greater '' Himalayish'' branch, ...

group. ;

*Dura **'' Dura'' **'' Tandrange'' * Magaric: '' Kham'', '' Magar'' *Chepangic-Raji ** Chepangic: '' Chepang'', ''

Bhujel Bhujel or Gharti is a caste group in Nepal. The inhabitants living near the Bhuji Khola river called Bhujel. Bhujel are divided into four subcaste – Bhujyal, Gharti, Nisel and Khawas. Most of the Bhujel of Nepal speaks Nepali language but some ...

'' **Raji-Raute

Fortier (2012)

A database of 700 words for items from households of Raute and Ban Rawat speakers (Fortier 2012) indicates a largely Sino-Tibetan language ancestry. Deep Root items include 58 words of Sino-Tibetan origin and 7 of

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

origin. Proto-family items include 281 morphemes of Proto-

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...

origin. Meso-root, or subfamily items include 34 words of Proto-

Kuki-Chin The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...

origin, 23 of Proto- Tani origin, 6 of Proto- Tangkulic origin, and 1 of Northern Chin origin. The database omits most loans of Indo-Aryan origin although 43 items were of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

origin. Work remains on identifying etymologies of the remaining 247 items in the Raute–Rawat database.

Distribution

Raji-Raute varieties are spoken in the following areas of Nepal and India. *Dadeldhura/Darchula Raute:

Darchula District Darchula District ( ne, दार्चुला जिल्ला , a part of Sudurpashchim Province, is one of the nine districts of province and one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Khalanga ( Mahakali Municipality) ...

and

Dadeldhura District Dadeldhura, a part of Sudurpashchim Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Dadeldhura as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 126,162 in 2001 and 142,094 in 2011. The region ...

, Nepal *Ban Raji/ Rawat:

Pithoragarh District Pithoragarh district is the easternmost district in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located in the Himalayas and has an area of and a population of 483,439 (as of 2011). The city of Pithoragarh, located in Saur Valley, is its headquarters. T ...

, India *Khirdwari Rajwar:

Champawat District Champawat district is a district of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The town of Champawat is the administrative headquarters. The district of Champawat constituted in the year 1997. The district is divided into five tehsils: Barakot, Lohag ...

, India * Raute: nomadic, 10 districts of western Nepal *Bandale Raji:

Surkhet District Surkhet District ( ne, सुर्खेत जिल्ला, ) is a district in Karnali Province of mid-western Nepal. Surkhet is the one of the ten districts of Karnali located about west of the national capital Kathmandu. The district's ar ...

and Kailali District, Nepal *Naukule Raji: Kailali District, Nepal *Purbia Raji: Bardia District, Nepal

Vocabulary

The comparative vocabulary lists of Raji and Raute below are from Rastogi & Fortier (2005). Rastogi & Fortier (2005) also provide Purbia Raji and Janggali Raute forms.

Swadesh list

The following is a 100-word

Swadesh list The Swadesh list ("Swadesh" is pronounced ) is a classic compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatednes ...

from Rastogi & Fortier (2005).

Body parts

Rastogi & Fortier (2005) list the following body part terms.

Footnotes

References

* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill. *Fortier, Jana (2012) "Annotated Dictionary of Raute and Rawat Languages

*Rastogi, Kavita and Jana Fortier. 2005. Daa, Nii, Sum/Khung: Comparative Vocabulary of the West-Central Himalayan Languages Rawati (Raji) and Khamci (Raute). Indian Linguistics 66. 105-115.