Kiranti languages


The Kiranti languages are a major family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Nepal and India by the Kirati people.

External relationships

had formerly proposed that the Kiranti languages were part of a Mahakiranti family, although specialists are not completely certain of either the existence of a Kiranti subgroup or its precise membership. LaPolla, though, proposes that Kiranti may be part of a larger "Rung" group.

Languages

There are about two dozen Kiranti languages. The better known are Limbu, Rai, Sunuwar, Bantawa, Chamling, Khaling, Bahing, Vayu, Dungmali, Lohorung and Kulung. Overall, they are:
Ethnologue adds Tilung to Western Kiranti, based on Opgenort.
Kiranti verbs are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of portmanteau morphemes, crowded affix strings, and extensive allomorphy.

Classification

Opgenort (2005)

Opgenort classifies the Kiranti languages as follows, and recognizes a basic east-west division within Kiranti.
;Kiranti
Gerber & Grollmann do not consider Kiranti to be a coherent group, but rather a paraphyletic one. A Central-Eastern Kiranti group is considered to be valid by Gerber & Grollmann, but they consider "Western Kiranti" to be a linguistic area rather than a coherent group.
Independent branches that are unclassified within Trans-Himalayan :
s defining each subgroup :
Independent branches that are unclassified within Trans-Himalayan :
Research on proto-Kiranti includes work on phonology and comparative morphology by van Driem, reconstructions by Michailovsky and Sergei Starostin 1994. Michailovsky and Starostin differ by the number of stop series reconstructed and the interpretation of the correspondences.
Opgenort introduces the reconstruction of preglottalized resonants; his reconstruction is generally based on Starostin's four series system. More recently, Jacques proposed reconstruction of proto-Kiranti verb roots in a framework following Michailovsky's system, and analyzes the other initial correspondences as due to morphological alternations and inter-Kiranti borrowing. In addition, he presents a preliminary discussion of the reconstruction of stem alternation and stress patterns on the basis of Khaling and Dumi.