Tamang Language

Tamang Language

Tamangs have their own dialect and script. Tamang dialect shares a lot with the Tibetan language. However, Tamang speak a slightly different language and the vocabulary differs in most of the cases and the language occupies fifth place among the languages of Tibeto-Burman family in Nepal. Tamangs have their own script called "Tamyik" which has beed recognised by the All India Tamang Buddhist Association, Darjeeling, Nepal Tamang Gedun, Katmandu and Sikkim Tamang Buddhist Association from June 1998. Some Tamang scholars like Amrit Yonjon and Pempa Tamang have been doing research on the Tamang language. Foreign scholar Grierson George Hodgson, B.H.H. Anna Meria, Bryan T. Doreen and others have made useful research on the language. Recognition of Tamang language as one of the official languages is a very bold step and this will ultimately strengthen the main Nepali language. Tamang language is the largest Tibeto-Burman language in Nepal.

1. Dialects: According to 1991 census the Tamang language has further been subdivided into the following dialects- Eastern Tamang: 759,257 in Nepal . Population total all countries: 773,257; Western Tamang: 322,593; Southwestern Tamang: 109,051; Northwestern Tamang: 55,000; Eastern Gorkha Tamang: 3,977 .
2. Grammer: Some grammatical features of Tamang languages are- postpositions; genitives after nouns; question word medial; ergative; Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.
3. Writing system: Tamang languages use Tam-Yig which is similar to Tibetan scripts and Devangar. In many situations, however, Tamang is written in Devangar proper.