The West Himalayish languages, also known as Almora and Kanauric, are a family of

Sino-Tibetan languages 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 ...

centered in

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several pea ...

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 ...

and across the border into

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 ...

. LaPolla (2003) proposes that the West Himalayish languages may be part of a larger "

Rung Rung may refer to: * Rung (band), a Pakistan band * ''Rung'' (album), an album by Hadiqa Kiyani * Rung languages, a proposed group of Tibeto-Burman languages * Rung, an ethnic group of people inhabiting the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, In ...

" group.

Languages

The languages include: *Kinnauri ** Chitkuli Kinnauri ** Kinnauri **Thebor:

Sunam Sunam Udham Singh Wala is a town and a tehsil, near city of Sangrur in Sangrur district in the Indian state of Punjab. The city of Sunam Udham Singh Wala, which falls in Sunam Udham Singh Wala tehsil, was previously known only as Sunam. The ...

, Jangshung, Shumcho *Lahaulic: Pattani (Manchad), Tinan * Gahri (Bunan) * Kanashi *Rongpo–Almora ** Rongpo **Almora (Ranglo): Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi, Rangas (extinct early 20th century),

Zhangzhung Zhangzhung or Shangshung was an ancient culture and kingdom in western and northwestern Tibet, which pre-dates the culture of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Zhangzhung culture is associated with the Bon religion, which has influenced the philosophie ...

, the sacred language of the

Bon religion ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in ...

, was spoken north of the Himalayas across western

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

before being replaced by Tibetan.

James Matisoff James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a ...

(2001)Matisoff, James. 2001. "The interest of Zhangzhung for comparative Tibeto-Burman." In ''New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages'' (Bon Studies 3). Senri Ethnological Studies no. 19, p.155-180. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology 国立民族学博物館. provides lexical and phonological evidence for the classification of Zhangzhung within West Himalayish.

Classification

Widmer (2014:47)Widmer, Manuel. 2014. "A tentative classification of West Himalayish." In ''A descriptive grammar of Bunan'', 33-56. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bern. classifies the West Himalayish languages as follows. The recently discovered Dhuleli language has been added from Regmi & Prasain (2017).Regmi, Dan Raj; Prasain, Balaram. 2017. ''A sociolinguistic survey of Dhuleli''. Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. ;West Himalayish *Western **Lahaul: '' Manchad, Tinan'' **Kinnaur: '' Kanashi, Lower Kinnauri, Standard Kinnauri, Chitkhuli, Jangrami, Shumcho'' *Eastern **Central: '' Bunan, Sunnami, Rongpo''; possibly ''

'' **Almora: '' Rangas, Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi'' Widmer (2014:53-56) classifies

within the Eastern branch of West Himalayish, and notes that it appears particularly close to languages of the Central subgroup ( Bunan, Sunnami, and Rongpo). Widmer (2017)Widmer, Manuel. 2017.
The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas: endangered minority languages as a window to the past
'. Presented at Panel on Endangered Languages and Historical Linguistics, 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23), San Antonio, Texas. notes that many Tibetan varieties in the western

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

have been influenced by West Himalayish languages.

Vocabulary

Widmer (2017) lists the following lexical items that differ in the Eastern and Western branches of West Himalayish. Widmer (2014:53-56) classifies

within the eastern branch of West Himalayish, and lists the following cognates between Zhangzhung and Proto-West Himalayish.

Footnotes

References

* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill. *LaPolla, Randy. 2001.
The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Uttar Pradesh
'. *Widmer, Manuel. 2017.
The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas: endangered minority languages as a window to the past
'. Presented at Panel on Endangered Languages and Historical Linguistics, 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23), San Antonio, Texas. *Widmer, Manuel. 2018
The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas
''Proceedings of the 51st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (2018)''. Kyoto: Kyoto University. {{Bodic languages *