Dumi language

Dumi is a Kiranti language spoken in the area around the Tap and Rava rivers and their confluence in northern Khotang district, Nepal. It is spoken in the villages such as Makpa, Kharbari, Baksila, Sapteshwor, and Kharmi (Ethnologue).

Dumi
RegionKhotang district, Nepal
Native speakers
7,600 (2011 census)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3dus
Glottologdumi1241[2]

Dialects are Kharbari, Lamdija, and Makpa, with Makpa being the most divergent dialect (Ethnologue).

It is one of the rarest and least spoken languages in the world, with only 8 counted speakers of it in a 2007 study[3]


Phonology


Front Central Back
High i/iː ɨ u/u:
Mid e/e: o/o:
Mid-low œ ə
Low a/a:

The colon after a vowel means that it is a long vowel.

Diphthongs e:j əj oj o:ə ai
Labial Dental Lamino-alveolopalatal Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive unaspirated p  b t̪ d̪ t  d k  ɡ ʔ
aspirated pʰ bʰ t̪ʰ d̪ʰ tʰ dʰ kʰ ɡʰ
Affricate dz
Fricative s h
Trill r
Approximant l j
Other Symbols
Voiced Labial-Velar Approximant w

[4]

References

  1. Dumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Dumi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-rarest-languages.php
  4. Driem, George van (2011-07-22). A Grammar of Dumi. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110880915.
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