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Kiranti/Rai

किराती

Kiranti, or Kirat, is a broad term usually used to describe the several dozen indigenous, interrelated Tibeto-Burman languages of eastern Nepal, spoken in the general area bordered by the Likhu river on the west side and Darjeeling and Sikkim on the eastern side.
Personal Life and Religious Experience in Kiranti Queens - Bahing
Kiranti in New York - Bantawa

Kiranti, or Kirat, is a broad term usually used to describe the several dozen indigenous, interrelated Tibeto-Burman languages of eastern Nepal, spoken in the general area bordered by the Likhu river on the west side and Darjeeling and Sikkim on the eastern side. Kiranti is not necessarily considered a neat linguistic grouping descended from a common proto-language, nor does it have an agreed-upon place within Tibeto-Burman. Hasson (1991) suggests that the reason for these languages’ relation to one another stems from migrations of Tibeto-Burman groups, which may have affected one another linguistically through contact, to eastern Nepal. As nearly all speakers of Kiranti languages are fluent in Nepali, the influence of Nepali is increasingly prevalent in all Kiranti languages. Rai is sometimes described as a large subgroup within Kiranti, not including Limbu, Sunwar, and Yakkha groups who speak related languages.

Endangerment

The majority of Kiranti languages are both little-documented endangered, each usually with fewer than 10,000 speakers, increasing levels of out-migration, and the influence of Nepali. Bantawa is the language with the largest group of speakers and there were reported to be 371,056 people who consider themselves Bantawa as of 2001 (Doornenbal, 2009). and the language is still being passed down to the younger generation, though there is a good deal of pressure to speak the national language of Nepali. Some speakers of other Kiranti languages to the east of Bantawa speakers have started using Bantawa instead of their own languages, which may account for the large number of speakers of the language. Sunwar, spoken in the districts of Okhalḍūngā and Rāmechāp, is used by around 25,000 people. The Bayung (Bahing) population is nearly 3,000, but in contrast to Bantawa and Sunwar, the language is spoken by only about 900 adults (Rapacha 2008). Other languages in the family such as Hayu (Vayu) are virtually extinct, with merely a few older speakers remaining (Bradley 1997).