Darmiya language

Darma
Darma
Darmiya
Native to	India
Region	Uttarakhand
Native speakers	1,750 (2006)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? West Himalayish Almora Darma; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	drd
Glottolog	darm1243
ELP	Darma

Darmiya or Darma is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in the Darma Valley, Dharchula Tehsil, Pithoragarh District of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is one of the fifteen tribes, as stated in The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Uttar Pradesh Order, 1967 (C.O. 78) in clause (1) of Article 342 of the Constitution of India. Majorly it is called Bhotia; Bhotia is the broad term used in Himalayan region: several communities and languages are considered under this term. This tribal language is the member of west Tibeto-Burman language family in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. It is related to Rangas, Rongpo, Chaudangsi, and Byangsi.^[1] Alternate names for this language include Darma, Darma Lwo, Darma-Lwo, Darmani, Saukas, and Shaukas.^[1]

Information about the language was first published in Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India, and it has been studied by Krishnamurti, Cristina Wills, K. Srikumar, Kavita Rastogi, Ashish Kumar Pandey and Vishnu Singh.

Darmiya language has 34 phonemes in which 8 vowels and 28 consonants have occurred, there are five long vowels and three short vowels.

Geographical distribution

Darmiya is spoken in the Dhauli valley, from Tawaghat near Dharchula south to Sipoo in the north along Dhauli river. This area is located in Dharchula and Munsiyari tehsils, Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand, India.^[1] Darmiya is spoken in Dar, Bongling, Selachal, Nanglin, Baling, Dugtu, Saung, Baun, Philam, Datu, Gwo, Marchha, Dhakar, Sobla, and Sipoo villages.^[1]

Phonology

The Darmiya language contains the following consonant phonemes:^[2]

Consonants
			Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar
Nasal			m	n̪			ɲ	ɳ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	unaspirated	p	t̪	t͡s	t͡ʃ		ʈ	k
	voiceless	aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ		t͡ʃʰ		ʈʰ	kʰ
	voiced	unaspirated	b	d̪			ɟ	ɖ	g
	voiced	aspirated						ɖʰ	gʰ
Fricative					s		ʝ		x
Approximant					l		j
Rhotic					r			ɽ

The language contains the following vowels:^[2]

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-Mid	e	ɘ	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɘ	ɔ
Open			ɑ

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Darma at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ ^a ^b Ramaswami, N (2014). Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel; Wright, Richard (eds.). "Darmiya sound inventory (RA)". phoible.org. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 2017-02-10.

Geographical distribution

Phonology

References

Further reading