Tilung language

Tilung is an unwritten and endangered Kiranti language about which very little is known, except the name, the number of speakers, the approximate location where it is spoken and some 130 words and affixes and a few short phrases. According to the 2001 Census of Nepal, there are only 310 speakers of Tilung, most of whom live in localities situated in खोटाङ Khoṭāṅ district in eastern Nepal, around the shamanistically important हलेंसी डाँडा Halẽsī Ḍā̃ḍā between the दूधकोसी Dūdhkosī and सुनकोसी Sunkosī rivers, just to the east of the Wambule-speaking area, to the south of the Bahing-speaking area and to the west of the Chamling-speaking area. Documentation of the Tilung language is considered to be of high priority.

My 2011 article 'A note on Tilung and its position within Kiranti' discusses the existence of phonological and lexical isoglosses in Tilung (Rai) and other Kiranti groups on the basis of the scanty materials available to me before my fieldwork in the Tilung-speaking area in June 2011.

The results of my research in 2011 will be published soon in a manuscript entitled 'Initial Grammatical Sketch of Tilung. Field Report on a Moribund Kiranti Language of Eastern Nepal. With some Historical Observations and a Vocabulary', which is slated to appear in the proceedings of the 16th Himalayan Languages Symposium.

Bibliography

Central Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Population Census. Kathmandu: National Planning Commission.

Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2011b. ‘A note on Tilung and its position within Kiranti’, in Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 10.1: 253–271.