Rongpo (also known as Rangpo and Rang Po Bhasa) is a West Himalayish language spoken in

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

George Abraham Grierson Sir George Abraham Grierson (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in British India. He worked in the Indian Civil Service but an interest in philology and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languag ...

originally called the language the Garhwal dialect of one of the

Tibetic languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the ...

, but is now considered its own independent language.

Geographical distribution

Rongpo is spoken in the following locations of

, India (''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' 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 comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

''). *

Niti Valley Niti Valley is a remote valley located in the northernmost region of Uttarakhand, India at a height of 3, 600 m (11, 811 ft). It is close to the Chinese border and Niti is the last village in the valley before the border with south Tibet. The Niti ...

Joshimath Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, is a town and a municipal board in Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Located at a height of 6,150 feet (1,875 m), it is a gateway to several Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions, tre ...

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Chamoli District Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by China's Xizang Autonomous Region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh district, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar district, Bageshwar to the eas ...

, Garhwal Division,

(in Niti, Gamshali, Bampa, and Malari villages) *Mana valley,

, Garhwal Division,

: Mana, Indradhara, Gajkoti, Pathiya-Dhantoli, Hanuman Chatti, Benakuli, and Aut.

Dialects

The two different dialects of Rongpo are called the Marcha ''(Marchha)'' and the Tolcha ''(Tolchha)'' dialect, Both dialects only have a difference in the phonetic level and are written in the same way.

Marcha

Marcha dialect is spoken in Mana and Niti valleys.

Tolcha

There are a few Tolchha dialect speakers in Niti valley. Tolcha is usually considered its own independent and separate language from Rongpo. Tolcha has been considered extinct by the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' was an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after ...

'' since the 1950s.

References

Languages of Uttarakhand Endangered languages of India West Himalayish languages {{st-lang-stub