Implosive and preglottalized stops in Kiranti

Abstract

The Kiranti languages are members of the Tibeto-Burman (or Sino-Tibetan) language family. The ethnolinguistic term `Kiranti' applies to the Tibeto-Burman peoples native to the hill tracts of eastern Nepal, specifically the Limbu and Rai groups. The Limbu are the easternmost group of Kiranti people. The Limbu language is spoken by roughly 254,000 people living in Nepal (HMG 1995). The ethnonym `Rai' is used to denote different groups speaking .closely related lan¬guages, i.e. Athpahariya, Bahing, Bantawa, Chiling, Chamling, Chin-tang, Dumi, Dungmali, Hayu, Jero, Khaling, Kohi, Kulung, Lohorung, Mewahang, Nachiring, Puma, Sam, Sampang, Sunwar, Thulung, Warn-bule, Yakkha and Yamphu. The various Rai languages are spoken by around 439,000 individuals in total (HMG 1995). The Kiranti lan¬guages were first investigated by Brian Houghton Hodgson (1857, 1858). Modern comprehensive grammatical analyses and sketches have been written on Thulung (Allen 1975), Khaling (Toba 1979), Hayu (Michailovsky 1981, 1988a), Limbu (van Driem 1987), Dumi (van Driem 1993), Athpahariya (Ebert 1997a), Chamling (Ebert 1997b), Yamphu (Rutgers 1998), Kulung (Tolsma 1999), Wambule (Opgenort 2002 and forthcoming a) and Jero (Opgenort, forthcoming b).