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Jirel
जिरीबे केचा,Iriwe Kecha, སྤྱི་རི་བེ ཀེ་ཅ་,ziribe Ketsha'
'Jirel' in Devanagari and Tibetan scripts
Native to	Nepal,India
Region	Nepal,Sikkim
Ethnicity	Jirel
Native speakers	140,000 (2011 & 2021 census)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Southern Tibetic Jirel
Writing system	Tibetan,Devanagari
Official status
Official language in	Nepal  India Sikkim
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ISO-639-3.
Glottolog	jire1238
ELP	Jirel

Jirel is a Southern Tibetic language ofNepal. It is spoken inJiri, in Tshetrapa village, Jungu village, and Cheppu village ofDolakha District andSindhupalchok and different parts of Nepal.

It has long been in discussion that theJirels are thebonpos as other tribes from Tibetan origin people. But after several observations Jirels are seen close to Tibetic Bodish origin rather than Himalayish of Tibeto Burman branch. Very weak literature without evidence is presented by some authors until now claiming that they are the Kirats. They have claimed that they are animists practicing worship of nature, ancestral Spirits and deities close to ancient bonpoism. They have adopted minor cultural and religious practice from Sunuwars and Sherpas when they began to live and share with them. The language they use is the most powerful evidence that they come from a Tibetan ethnic tribe. Their physical appearance, height, make and family name are also supporting evidence for Tibetan origin.

Previously they were animists and until now they practice animism in different ritual performances.They mainly practiceBuddhism.Lamas are their priests. They also have Shamans who are called Phonbo, which is derived from the word, Bon, the Tibetan Tantric philosophy.

Jirel Uchen, which is also called Sambhota Script, is their script or calligraphy. This can be found at religious monuments like Ngasas (Chautara), chortens, and monasteries. Jirel Lamas use this script. The script is shown below:

ཀ ka [ká] ཁ kha [kʰá] ག ga [ɡà/kʰːà] ང nga [ŋà]ཅ ca [tɕá] ཆ cha [tɕʰá] ཇ ja [dʑà/tɕʰːà] ཉ nya [ɲà]ཏ ta [tá] ཐ tha [tʰá] ད da [dà/tʰːà] ན na [nà]པ pa [pá] ཕ pha [pʰá] བ ba [bà/pʰːà] མ ma [mà]ཙ tsa [tsá] ཚ tsha [tsʰá] ཛ dza [dzà/tsʰːà] ཝ wa [wà]ཞ zha [ʑà] ཟ za [zà] འ 'a [ʔà] ཡ ya [jà]ར ra [rà] ལ la [là] ཤ sha [ɕá] ས sa [sá]ཧ ha [há] ཨ a [ʔá]

The similarity of Jirel language that with the language used in Buddhist holy books is another powerful evidence to claim and believe that they are of Tibetan origin. It is believed that more than 80 percent of Jirel diction goes withTibetan language where only 35–40 percent of diction is found to be close to other Tibetan origin tribes.Their language is similar to Dolpos, people in Mugu, Hyalmus, Sherpas, Syubas, Lhomis.

• Strahm, Esther; Maibaum, Anita (1999)."Verb Pairs in Jirel".Notes on Tibeto-Burman.4:1–24. Archived fromthe original on 26 January 2024.

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