Lepcha language
Encyclopedia
Lepcha language, or Róng language (Lepcha
:
; Róng ríng), is a Himalayish language
spoken by the Lepcha people
in Sikkim
and parts of West Bengal
, Nepal
and Bhutan
.
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, Kuresong, and Mirik
; the ʔilámmú of Ilam District
, Nepal
; and the Promú of southwestern Bhutan
. Lepcha groups in India are larger than those in Nepal and Bhutan.
Lepcha speakers estimate their own numbers to near 53,000, however actual numbers of native Lepcha speakers in India may be closer to 30,000.
. On the other hand, SIL International
classifies Lepcha within Himalayish languages
as a member of the sister Tibeto-Kanauri languages
while noting an alternative classification within the Naga languages.
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.
Tibeto-Burman language, although it does have phonemic stress or pitch that may be marked in the Lepcha script
. Much of its lexicon is composed of monosyllabic elements.
Notably, words that are commonly considered obscene
or taboo
in other languages are not treated as such by native speakers.
(also known as "róng") is a syllabic
script featuring a variety of special marks and ligatures. Its genealogy is unclear. Early Lepcha manuscripts were written vertically, a sign of Chinese influence. Prior to the development of the Lepcha script, Lepcha literary works were composed in the Tibetan script
.
Lepcha language is romanized according to varying schemes, the prevailing system being that of Mainwaring (1876). Most linguists, including Plaisier (2007), whose system is used in this article, have followed modified versions of Mainwaring's system. Other linguists and historians have used systems based on European languages such as English, French, and German.
Retroflex phonemes /tr/, /thr/, and /dr/ are written in Lepcha script
as kr, hr, and gr, respectively. Most, though not all, instances of retroflex consonants indicate a word is of Tibetan
origin. To distinguish this retroflex sound in Lepcha script
, a dot may be written underneath. Native instances of non-retroflex kr, hr, and gr may be pronounced either as written or as /tr/, /thr/, and /dr/. For example, tagrikup, "boy," may be said either [ta ɡri kɯʔp̚] or [ta ɖi kɯʔp̚].
Lepcha has three glide consonants that may occur after certain initial consonants: /r/, /y/, and /l/. When the phoneme /r/ operates as a glide, it can combine with /y/ as a double-glide: mryóm, "to spread over the ground, creep." Notably, syllables with the glide /l/ are given their own independent forms in the Lepcha script
.
Velar consonants /k/ and /g/ preceding front vowels /i/ or /e/ are palatalized as [kʲ] and [ɡʲ], respectively. Fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ are merged before /i/.
Lepcha speakers tend not to distinguish between /z/ and /j/, pronouncing both as [z]~[ʣ]~[ʒ]. Additionally, initial /ŋ/ is occasionally realized as [ɦ]. Under the influence of Nepali
, some Lepcha speakers have lost the distinction between /ph/ and /f/, and between /v/ and /w/.
Of the above phonemes, only /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /k/, /t/, /p/, /r/, and /l/ may be syllable-final. Native speakers tend to neutralize the difference between final /n/ and /ŋ/. In syllable-final position, stops are realized as an unreleased stop, usually pronounced with a simultaneous /ʔ/: for example, /k/ becomes [ʔk̚].
The phoneme /í/ is shortened and appears in closed syllables; /i/ is longer and appears in open syllables. The phoneme /e/ is realized as [e] in open syllables and in closed syllables before /ng/ or /k/. Closed syllables ending in /p/, /m/, /l/, /n/, /r/, and /t/ show free variation between [e], [ɛ], and even [ɪ]. Distinctions between /o/ and /ó/ are often lost among non-literate speakers, particularly those highly fluent in Nepali language
, which does not contrast the sounds.
, though most bare Lepcha lexicon is made up of one- or two-syllable words. Nouns are arranged into either head-first or head-last noun phrases. Relative clauses and genitive phrases precede nouns, whereas markers for demonstratives, definiteness, number, case, and other particles follow the noun. Lepcha is an ergative language, where the ergative case indicates transitivity and completedness of the event. There is no grammatical agreement between different parts of speech (i.e., verb conjugation). Adjectives follow nouns they modify, function as predicates, or stand independently as nominal heads. Adverbs generally directly precede verbs, and reduplication
is generally productive for adverbs of time (e.g. nám, "year" → nám-nám, "yearly").
" that modify the noun morphologically: the definite article
-re and the dative case
marker -m. All other noun markers, including for example the genitive marker, are actually invariable postpositions. A series noun markers may follow a single noun. Together, these cases and postpositions are:
Plurals are marked differently according to whether they are human (-sang) or non-human (-pang) nouns. Notably, the plural is not used when the noun is followed by a number.
According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha personal pronoun
s are as follows:
Oblique forms appear in italics above. Lepcha personal pronouns can refer only to humans; otherwise demonstratives are used. Personal pronouns may take the definite article -re.
syllabic /sâ/: sâr means "goat," sâryom means "otter," sâlók means "rhinoceros," and sâhu means "monkey." Other noun classes include /sâ/ and /ka/ for plants, and /pe/ or /pâ/ for snakes and bamboo products.
s or, in relative clause
s, as modifiers before a head-noun. Verbs may also be nominalized by a combination of suffixes. For example, zo, "eat," may be suffixed to produced zo-shang-re, "eating."
Many intransitive verb
s incorporate a causative
-/y/- infix
, sometimes followed by a -/t/ suffix, to take a transitive sense: mák, "die" → myák, "kill;" plâ, "come forth" → plyâ, "bring forth;" glú, "fall down" → glyat/glyet, "drop."
Verbs are followed by grammatical suffixes and particles. Verbal particles indicating sureness, polite requests, authoritativeness, dubiousness, and other nonlexical information follow clauses. Below is a chart of such verb- and clause-final suffixes and particles largely following Plaisier (2007):
Verbs are negated by a circumfix
, ma–n(e): khut, "to be able," becomes ma-khut-ne, "to be unable."
Lepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
:
; Róng ríng), is a Himalayish languageHimalayish languages
Himalayish is a geographic clustering of languages of the Tibeto-Burman family in the classification of James Matisoff that is used by Ethnologue. It is not a proposal for an actual genealogical relationship, but rather a convenient label until the necessary comparative work can be done.Major...
spoken by the Lepcha people
Lepcha people
The Lepcha or Róng people , also called Róngkup , Mútuncí Róngkup Rumkup , and Rongpa , are the aboriginal people of Sikkim, who number between 30,000 and 50,000...
in Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
and parts of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
.
Population
Lepcha is spoken by minorities in the Indian states of SikkimSikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, as well as parts of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
. 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
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
. Lepcha speakers comprise four distinct communities: the Renjóngmú of Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
; the Támsángmú of Kalimpong, Kuresong, and Mirik
Mirik
Mirik is a picturesque tourist spot nestled in the serene hills of Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India. The name Mirik comes from the Lepcha words Mir-Yok meaning "place burnt by fire"....
; the ʔilámmú of Ilam District
Ilam District
Ilam district of 282,806. It is about 600 km from Kathmandu. The highest point is Sandakpur with an elevation of 3000m. Ilam attracts many researchers who come to study rare birds and the Red Panda...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
; and the Promú of southwestern Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
. Lepcha groups in India are larger than those in Nepal and Bhutan.
Lepcha speakers estimate their own numbers to near 53,000, however actual numbers of native Lepcha speakers in India may be closer to 30,000.
Classification
Lepcha is difficult to classify, but Van Driem (2001) suggests that it may be closest to the Mahakiranti languages, a subfamily of the Himalayish languagesHimalayish languages
Himalayish is a geographic clustering of languages of the Tibeto-Burman family in the classification of James Matisoff that is used by Ethnologue. It is not a proposal for an actual genealogical relationship, but rather a convenient label until the necessary comparative work can be done.Major...
. On the other hand, SIL International
SIL International
SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
classifies Lepcha within Himalayish languages
Himalayish languages
Himalayish is a geographic clustering of languages of the Tibeto-Burman family in the classification of James Matisoff that is used by Ethnologue. It is not a proposal for an actual genealogical relationship, but rather a convenient label until the necessary comparative work can be done.Major...
as a member of the sister Tibeto-Kanauri languages
Tibeto-Kanauri languages
The Tibeto-Kanauri languages, also called Bodish–Himalayish and Western Tibeto-Burman, are a proposed intermediate level of classification of the Tibeto-Burman languages, centered on the Tibetan and Kanauri languages...
while noting an alternative classification within the Naga languages.
Lepcha is internally diverse, showing lexical influences from different majority language groups across the four main Lepcha communities. According to Plaisier (2007), these Nepali
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
and Sikkimese Tibetan influences do not amount to a dialectical difference.
Features
Lepcha is a non-tonalTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
Tibeto-Burman language, although it does have phonemic stress or pitch that may be marked in the Lepcha script
Lepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
. Much of its lexicon is composed of monosyllabic elements.
Notably, words that are commonly considered obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
or taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
in other languages are not treated as such by native speakers.
Script and romanization
The Lepcha scriptLepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
(also known as "róng") is a syllabic
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
script featuring a variety of special marks and ligatures. Its genealogy is unclear. Early Lepcha manuscripts were written vertically, a sign of Chinese influence. Prior to the development of the Lepcha script, Lepcha literary works were composed in the Tibetan script
Tibetan script
The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday...
.
Lepcha language is romanized according to varying schemes, the prevailing system being that of Mainwaring (1876). Most linguists, including Plaisier (2007), whose system is used in this article, have followed modified versions of Mainwaring's system. Other linguists and historians have used systems based on European languages such as English, French, and German.
Consonants
Lepcha consonants appear in the chart below, following Plaisier (2007):| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m /m/ | n /n/ | ɲ /ny/ | ŋ /ng/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | ʈ /tr/ | c /c/ | k /k/ | ʔ /ʔ/ | |
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
pʰ /ph/ | tʰ /th/ | ʈʰ /thr/ | cʰ /ch/ | kʰ /kh/ | |||
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d/ | ɖ /dr/ | ɡ /g/ | ||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
voiceless | ʦ /ts/ | ||||||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
ʦʰ /tsh/ | |||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless | f /f/ | s /s/, ʃ /sh/ | |||||
| voiced | v /v/ | z~ʣ /z/, ʒ /j/ | ||||||
| Approximant | w /w/ | l /l/ | j /y/ | h /h/ | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r /r/ | |||||||
Retroflex phonemes /tr/, /thr/, and /dr/ are written in Lepcha script
Lepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
as kr, hr, and gr, respectively. Most, though not all, instances of retroflex consonants indicate a word is of Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
origin. To distinguish this retroflex sound in Lepcha script
Lepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
, a dot may be written underneath. Native instances of non-retroflex kr, hr, and gr may be pronounced either as written or as /tr/, /thr/, and /dr/. For example, tagrikup, "boy," may be said either [ta ɡri kɯʔp̚] or [ta ɖi kɯʔp̚].
Lepcha has three glide consonants that may occur after certain initial consonants: /r/, /y/, and /l/. When the phoneme /r/ operates as a glide, it can combine with /y/ as a double-glide: mryóm, "to spread over the ground, creep." Notably, syllables with the glide /l/ are given their own independent forms in the Lepcha script
Lepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
.
Velar consonants /k/ and /g/ preceding front vowels /i/ or /e/ are palatalized as [kʲ] and [ɡʲ], respectively. Fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ are merged before /i/.
Lepcha speakers tend not to distinguish between /z/ and /j/, pronouncing both as [z]~[ʣ]~[ʒ]. Additionally, initial /ŋ/ is occasionally realized as [ɦ]. Under the influence of Nepali
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
, some Lepcha speakers have lost the distinction between /ph/ and /f/, and between /v/ and /w/.
Of the above phonemes, only /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /k/, /t/, /p/, /r/, and /l/ may be syllable-final. Native speakers tend to neutralize the difference between final /n/ and /ŋ/. In syllable-final position, stops are realized as an unreleased stop, usually pronounced with a simultaneous /ʔ/: for example, /k/ becomes [ʔk̚].
Vowels
According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has eight vowels:| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... | Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... | Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i /i/, /í/ | ɯ /u/ | u /ú/ |
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
o /o/ | ||
| Open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
e~ɛ /e/ | ǝ /a/, /â/ | ɔ /ó/ |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a /á/ |
The phoneme /í/ is shortened and appears in closed syllables; /i/ is longer and appears in open syllables. The phoneme /e/ is realized as [e] in open syllables and in closed syllables before /ng/ or /k/. Closed syllables ending in /p/, /m/, /l/, /n/, /r/, and /t/ show free variation between [e], [ɛ], and even [ɪ]. Distinctions between /o/ and /ó/ are often lost among non-literate speakers, particularly those highly fluent in Nepali language
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
, which does not contrast the sounds.
Grammar
Lepcha grammar features nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Word order is typically subject–object–verb (SOV). Lepcha morphology is somewhat agglutinativeAgglutination
In contemporary linguistics, agglutination usually refers to the kind of morphological derivation in which there is a one-to-one correspondence between affixes and syntactical categories. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative languages...
, though most bare Lepcha lexicon is made up of one- or two-syllable words. Nouns are arranged into either head-first or head-last noun phrases. Relative clauses and genitive phrases precede nouns, whereas markers for demonstratives, definiteness, number, case, and other particles follow the noun. Lepcha is an ergative language, where the ergative case indicates transitivity and completedness of the event. There is no grammatical agreement between different parts of speech (i.e., verb conjugation). Adjectives follow nouns they modify, function as predicates, or stand independently as nominal heads. Adverbs generally directly precede verbs, and reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
is generally productive for adverbs of time (e.g. nám, "year" → nám-nám, "yearly").
Nouns
According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has only two true "casesGrammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
" that modify the noun morphologically: the definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
-re and the dative case
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
marker -m. All other noun markers, including for example the genitive marker, are actually invariable postpositions. A series noun markers may follow a single noun. Together, these cases and postpositions are:
| Postposition | Meaning |
|---|---|
| -sang/-pang | plural |
| -re | definite, topic |
| -nu(n) | ergative, ablative |
| -m | dative |
| -sá | genitive |
| -ká | locative |
| -mu | only |
| -nyet | both |
Plurals are marked differently according to whether they are human (-sang) or non-human (-pang) nouns. Notably, the plural is not used when the noun is followed by a number.
According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha personal pronoun
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s are as follows:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | go (kasu) | kányí | káyú |
| Second person | hó (ʔádo) | ʔányí | ʔáyú |
| Third person | hu (hudo) | hunyí | huyú |
Oblique forms appear in italics above. Lepcha personal pronouns can refer only to humans; otherwise demonstratives are used. Personal pronouns may take the definite article -re.
Thematic classes
Many Lepcha nouns can be grouped into one of several classes based on associated characteristics. For example, many animal names begin with the Lepcha scriptLepcha script
The Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
syllabic /sâ/: sâr means "goat," sâryom means "otter," sâlók means "rhinoceros," and sâhu means "monkey." Other noun classes include /sâ/ and /ka/ for plants, and /pe/ or /pâ/ for snakes and bamboo products.
Verbs
Lepcha verbs generally function predicatePredicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
s or, in relative clause
Relative clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...
s, as modifiers before a head-noun. Verbs may also be nominalized by a combination of suffixes. For example, zo, "eat," may be suffixed to produced zo-shang-re, "eating."
Many intransitive verb
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
s incorporate a causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
-/y/- infix
Infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...
, sometimes followed by a -/t/ suffix, to take a transitive sense: mák, "die" → myák, "kill;" plâ, "come forth" → plyâ, "bring forth;" glú, "fall down" → glyat/glyet, "drop."
Verbs are followed by grammatical suffixes and particles. Verbal particles indicating sureness, polite requests, authoritativeness, dubiousness, and other nonlexical information follow clauses. Below is a chart of such verb- and clause-final suffixes and particles largely following Plaisier (2007):
| Suffix or particle | Meaning |
|---|---|
| -wám/-ʔám/-bám | progressive |
| nón | resultant |
| -tho | exhaustive |
| -hát | perfective |
| -shang | infinitive |
| -bú | factual |
| -re | definite |
| ká | adhortative |
| gó | question |
| le | polite request |
| ma | assertive |
| ce | authoritative |
| te | dubiousness |
| pá | certainty |
| lyók | inference |
Verbs are negated by a circumfix
Circumfix
A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis...
, ma–n(e): khut, "to be able," becomes ma-khut-ne, "to be unable."
See also
- Lepcha scriptLepcha scriptThe Lepcha script, or Róng script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics.-History:...
- Sikkimese Tibetan language
- Languages of NepalLanguages of NepalThere are some 120 native languages of Nepal, belonging to the Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian language families.The official language of Nepal is Nepali , formerly called Khaskura then Gorkhali. The 2001 census counted 11 million native speakers in Nepal and it is spoken as...
- Languages of IndiaLanguages of IndiaThe languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
- Languages of BhutanLanguages of BhutanThere are over nineteen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family, except for Nepali which is Indo-European. Dzongkha, the national language, is the only language with a native literary tradition in Bhutan, though Lepcha and Nepali are literary languages in other countries...