The Bantawa Language (also referred to as An Yüng, Bantaba, Bantawa Dum, Bantawa Yong, Bantawa Yüng, Bontawa, Kirawa Yüng), is a Kirati languages spoken in the eastern Himalayan hills of eastern

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 ...

by Kirati Bantawa ethnic groups. They use a syllabic alphabet system known as Kirat Rai script . Among the Khambu or Rai people of

Eastern Nepal The Eastern Development Region (Nepali: पुर्वाञ्चल विकास क्षेत्र, ''Purwānchal Bikās Kshetra'') was one of Nepal's five development regions. It is also known as Kirata region. It was located at the ...

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 Siligu ...

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 Ne ...

and Kalimpong in India. Bantawa is the largest language spoken. According to the 2001 National Census, at least 1.63% of the Nepal's total population speaks Bantawa. About 370,000 speak Bantawa Language mostly in eastern hilly regions of Nepal (2001). Although Bantawa is among the more widely used variety of the Bantawa language, it falls in the below-100,000 category of endangered languages. It is experiencing language shift to

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

, especially in the northern region. Bantawa is spoken in subject-object-verb order, and has no noun classes or genders.

Dialects

Most of the Bantawa clan are now settled in Bhojpur, Dharan, Illam, and Dhankuta. Recent figures show most of them are settled in Dharan. Bantawa 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 ad ...

(''Ethnologue''). * Province No. 1: Bhojpur District, Dhankuta District, Ilam 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 ...

, Khotang District, Morang District,

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 156,70 ...

, Panchthar District,

Sunsari District , nickname = , native_name_lang = , image_skyline = , image_size = , image_alt = , image_caption = Night view of Dharan, Itahari & Tarahara :: Barahakshetra Temple: BPKIHS, Dharan :Dharan Clock Tower , image_map = Sunsari district ...

, Taplejung District and Udayapur District *

, Kalimpong of India Dialects are as follows (''Ethnologue''). * Northern Bantawa (Dilpali) ::''Northern subdialects: Mangpahang, Raipachha, Awaichha, Rungchenbung and Yangma'' * Southern Bantawa (Chewali, Okhreli, Hatuwali, Hangkhim) ::''Southern and Northern Bantawa, similar, could be united as 'Intermediate Bantawa'.'' * Eastern Bantawa (Dhankuta) ::''Eastern dialect is the most divergent. It is most closely related to Dungmali language, though also related to Puma language, Sampang language, and

Chhintange language Chintang (Chintang: छिन्ताङ् ''Chintāṅ / Chhintang'') is an eastern Kirati languages language spoken by 5,000 to 6,000 people in Chhintang and Ahale VDC's of Dhankuta District, Province No. 1, Nepal Nepal (; ne, न� ...

.'' * Western Bantawa (Amchoke, Amchauke) ::''Amchaucke dialects: Sorung, Saharaja, Lulam, and Sukita'' *Wana Bantawa (also called simply Bantawa), spoken by the Bantawa subcaste. The Amchoke dialect is spoken in the Limbu area, especially in Ilam district. Bantawa is also considered as a superior clan in the Kiranti family. Bantawa is also reportedly in use as a '' lingua franca'' among Rai minorities in Himalayan

Kalimpong In India and

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 mountai ...

. Meanwhile, the language is just being introduced in a few schools at the primary level (Year 1- Year 5) using

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

. The extinct Waling language attested from the late 19th century may have been a variety of Bantawa, or a closely related language, if not the Hatuwali dialect the Waling people speak today.

Bantawa language

Phonology

Vowels

* vowel comes in Bantawa due to influence of Nepali language and it is rarely used like in other Tibetan Burmese language. *nowadays some dialect or in region may pronounce // as []/[] or []. Example: mɨk (eye) pronounce as mʌk/muk, pɨ (snake) as pʌ/pu.

Consonants

* Glotta stop is one of the consonants of Bantawa language which is represent by using . * Dental consonant and Apico-alveolar does not make any difference while speaking. * To write Bantawa language either Kirat Rai script or Devanagari lipi is being used in Nepal.

References

External links

A Grammar of Bantawa

{{authority control Kiranti languages Languages of Nepal Vulnerable languages