Magar language

Magar
Magar
मगर ढुट‎ (magar ḍhuṭ)
Native to	Nepal, India
Region	Nepal; significant communities in Bhutan; Sikkim; Assam and Darjeeling district of India
Ethnicity	2.0 million Magar (2021 census of Nepal)
Native speakers	810,000 (2001–2006)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Himalayish Mahakiranti Magaric Magar; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Akkha script (official), Devanagari, Latin script
Official status
Official language in	India Sikkim (additional);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; mgp – Eastern Magar; mrd – Western Magar
Glottolog	maga1261
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Magar Dhut (Nepali: मगर ढुट, Nepali: [ɖʱuʈ]) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken mainly in Nepal, southern Bhutan, and in Darjeeling, Assam and Sikkim, India, by the Magar people. It is divided into two groups (Eastern and Western) and further dialect divisions give distinct tribal identity.^[3] In Nepal 810,000 people speak the language.

While the government of Nepal developed Magar language curricula, as provisioned by the constitution, the teaching materials have never successfully reached Magar schools, where most school instruction is in the Nepali language.^[4] It is not unusual for groups with their own language to feel that the "mother-tongue" is an essential part of identity.

The Dhut Magar language is sometimes lumped with the Magar Kham language spoken further west in Bheri, Dhaulagiri, and Rapti zones. Although the two languages share many common words, they have major structural differences and are not mutually intelligible.^[5]

Geographical distribution

Western Magar

Western Magar (dialects: Palpa and Syangja) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

Lumbini Province: Palpa District
Gandaki Province: Syangja District, and a small part of the Tanahun District (west of the Bagmati River)
Small border area in Gandaki Province: Parbat District
Scattered throughout Karnali Province: especially in Surkhet District, Jajarkot District, and Dailekh District

Eastern Magar

Eastern Magar (dialects: Gorkha, Nawalparasi, and Tanahu) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

Zone 1: central mountains of Nepal east of the Bagmati River
- Gandaki Province: Tanahun District and southern Gorkha District
- Lumbini Province: Palpa District Kapilvastu District and Nawalparasi District
- Small border area in Bagmati Province: Dhading District
Zone 2: eastern Nepal
- Sindhuli District, Bagmati Province
- Okhaldhunga District, Koshi Province
- Udayapur District, Koshi Province
- Scattered communities in central Koshi Province, Dhankuta District, Bhojpur and southern Koshi Province, Ilam District, Jhapa District
- Southern Bhutan

India

Sikkim (Magar language is one of the additional official language)
Darjeeling district and Kalimpong district of West Bengal
Golaghat district , Sonitpur district and Tinsukia district districts of Assam
Some parts of Manipur

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		Labial	Dental	plain	sibilant	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t̪*	t	t͡s		k	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ*	tʰ	t͡sʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d̪*	d	d͡z		ɡ
	murmured	bʱ	d̪ʱ*	dʱ	d͡zʱ		ɡʱ
Fricative	voiceless				s			h
Fricative	voiced							ɦ
Nasal	voiced	m		n			ŋ
Nasal	murmured	mʱ		nʱ			ŋʱ
Lateral	voiced			l
Lateral	murmured			lʱ
Approximant	voiced	w		ɹ		j
Approximant	murmured	wʱ		ɹʱ		jʱ

*-only occur in the Tanahu dialect.

/ʔ/ is only a marginal phoneme.^[6]

Phoneme	Allophones
/p/	[p̚]
/pʰ/	[ɸ]
/t/	[tʲ], [t̚], [ʈ]
/tʰ/	[θ]
/d/	[dʲ], [ɖ], [ɽ]
/k/	[kʲ], [k̚]
/kʰ/	[x]
/ɡ/	[ɡʲ]
/t͡s/	[t͡ʃ]
/t͡sʰ/	[t͡ʃʰ]
/dz/	[dʒ]
/d͡zʱ/	[d͡ʒʱ]
/s/	[ʃ]
/h/	[ɦ]
/n/	[nʲ]
/ŋ/	[ŋʲ]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Mid			ʌ
Open		a

Diphthongs
/ia/
/iu/
/ei/
/eu/
/aɪ/
/au/
/oi/

^[6]

Phoneme	Allophones
/i/	[i] [ɪ] [i̤] [i̤ː] [ĩ]
/e/	[e] [ɛ] [ẽ] [e̤] [e̤ː]
/a/	[ä] [æ] [ä̃] [äˑ] [ä̤] [ä̤ː]
/u/	[u] [ʊ] [u̟] [ṳ] [ṳː] [ũ]
/ʌ/	[ʌ] [ə] [ə̃] [ʌ̤] [ʌ̃]
/o/	[o] [o̟] [õ] [oˑ] [o̤] [o̤ː]

References

^ ^a ^b Eastern Magar at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Western Magar at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). 16 July 2014. p. 109. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
^ "The Eastern Magar of Nepal". Archived from the original on 18 March 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
^ B. K. Rana. "Mother Tongue Education for Social Inclusion and Conflict Resolution". Appeals, News and Views from Endangered Communities. Foundation for Endangered Languages. Archived from the original on 16 February 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
^ Kansakar, Tej R. (July 1993). "The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal - A General Survey" (PDF). Contributions to Nepalese Studies. 20 (2): 165–173. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
^ ^a ^b Grunow-Hårsta, Karen A. (2008). A descriptive grammar of two Magar dialects of Nepal: Tanahu and Syangja Magar. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. pp. 32–67.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)