Сикким, Непал және Бутанның Лепча тілі

Tibeto Burman language of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan

Lepcha language, or Róng language (Lepcha: ; Róng ríng), is a Himalayish language spoken by the Lepcha people in Sikkim, India and parts of West Bengal, Nepal, and Bhutan. Despite spirited attempts to preserve the language, Lepcha has already effectively been lost everywhere in favour of Nepali. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists Lepcha as an endangered language with the following characterization. The Lepcha language is spoken in Sikkim and Darjeeling district in West Bengal of India. The 1991 Indian census counted 39,342 speakers of Lepcha. Lepcha is considered to be one of the indigenous languages of the area in which it is spoken. Unlike most other languages of the Himalayas, the Lepcha people have their own indigenous script (the world's largest collection of old Lepcha manuscripts is kept in Leiden, with over 180 Lepcha books). Lepcha is the language of instruction in some schools in Sikkim. In comparison to other Tibeto Burman languages, it has been given considerable attention in the literature. Nevertheless, many important aspects of the Lepcha language and culture still remain undescribed. There are very few remaining households where the younger generation actively speaks the language, and these households are few and far between. The entire Lepcha area is bilingual. Revitalization efforts are minimal and have had no major impact in conserving the language where it was indigenously spoken. Dwindling population and culture loss have rendered the use of Lepcha superficial and its importance has remained confined to cultural and ceremonial activities where it is required as a part of a tradition that has endured.

Lepcha is spoken by minorities in the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal, as well as parts of Nepal and Bhutan. Where it is spoken, it is considered to be an aboriginal language, pre dating the arrival of the Tibetan languages (Sikkimese, Dzongkha, and others) and more recent Nepali language. Lepcha speakers comprise four distinct communities: the Renjóngmú of Sikkim; the Támsángmú of Kalimpong, Kurseong, and Mirik; the ʔilámmú of Ilam District, Nepal; and the Promú of southwestern Bhutan. Lepcha speaking groups in India are larger than those in Nepal and Bhutan. however the number of native Lepcha speakers in India may be closer to 30,000. Lepcha is internally diverse, showing lexical influences from different majority language groups across the four main Lepcha communities. According to Plaisier (2007), these Nepali and Sikkimese Tibetan influences do not amount to a dialectical difference.

Lepcha is a non tonal Sino Tibetan language, although it does have phonemic stress or pitch that may be marked in the Lepcha script. Notably, words that are commonly considered obscene or taboo in other languages are not treated as such by native speakers. Prior to the development of the Lepcha script, Lepcha literary works were composed in the Tibetan script.