Review of "A grammar of Jero"

Abstract

Jero, also referred to as ‘Jerung’, ‘Jerum’, ‘Zero’, ‘Zerum’, and ‘Jerunge’, is a Kiranti language spoken in Okhla hu ag and Sindhul districts in eastern Nepal. The most recent population census (2001) reports only 271 speakers of Jero. Despite the small speech community, there are two dialects identified by Opgenort, namely that of Mohant re or that of mbot e. Amongst the Kiranti languages, Jero’s closest relative is Wambule, spoken just east of the Jero language area. The assumption of a particularly close relationship between Jero and Wambule was noted in Hansson (1991) and appears to be so close that Opgenort appeals some to ethnolinguistics in order to assert that Jero and Wambule are different languages.