| Limbu | |
|---|---|
| ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴYakthuṅ pan | |
 yakthuṅ pan written in Limbu Script | |
| Native to | Sikkim andEastern Nepal |
| Region | Nepal; significant communities inBhutan;Sikkim andDarjeeling district ofIndia |
| Ethnicity | Limbu |
Native speakers | 410,000 (2011–2021 censuses)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Limbu script Roman script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lif |
| Glottolog | limb1266 |
| ELP | Limbu |
 Limbu script. Grey letters are obsolete. | |
Limbu (Limbu:ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴ,yakthuṅ pan) is aSino-Tibetan language spoken by theLimbu people ofNepal and NortheasternIndia (particularlyWest Bengal,Sikkim,Assam andNagaland) as well as expatriate communities inBhutan. The Limbu refer to themselves asYakthung and their language asYakthungpan. Yakthungpan has four main dialects: Phedape, Chhathare, Tambarkhole and Panthare dialects.[3]
Among four dialects, the Phedape dialect is widely spoken and well understood by most Yakthungpan speakers. However, as there are some dominant Panthare scholars who have role to create knowledge and control knowledge in theLimbu communities, Panthare dialect is being popularised as a "standard" Limbu language. As Panthare Yakthungs are much more engaged in central political position and administrative positions, they are trying to introduce Panthare dialect as a Standard Yakthungpan.
Yakthungpan (Limbu language) is one of the major languages spoken and written in Nepal, Darjeeling,Kalimpong, Sikkim, and Bhutan. Linguists have reached the conclusion that Yakthungpan resemblesTibetan andLepcha.
Before the introduction of the Sirijanga script amongLimbu, theRóng script was popular in east Nepal, especially in the early Maurong state. The Sirijanga script had almost disappeared for 800 years and it was brought back into use byLimbu scholarTe-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe of Tellok SinamLimbuwan present dayNepal. The Limbu script is called 'Sirijanga' after the Limbu culture- heroTe-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe, who is credited with its invention.[4]
Limbu is spoken east of theArun River in the followingdistricts of Nepal (Ethnologue).
TheLanguage Commission of Nepal has recommended Limbu language as official language inKoshi Province.[5]Chulachuli Rural Municipality,[6]Mangsebung Rural Municipality[7] andPhalgunanda Rural Municipality[8] have recognized Limbu language as an official working language.
In India, the state ofSikkim has recognized Limbu language as an additional official language for the purpose of preservation of culture and tradition in the state.[9] The official weekly publicationSikkim Herald has a Limbu Edition.[10]
The Limbu languages are divided into four dialects :[3]
Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Limbu.
Yanggrokke, Chaubise, and Charkhole are minor variants of the Panthare dialect. Phedappe and Tamorkhole are similar. Chattare is less well understood by other dialect speakers. The Limbu dialect spoken inSikkim, India is the same as Panthare.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | u | uː | ||
| Close-mid | eˑ | oˑ | ||||
| Mid | ə | |||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | ʌ | ʌː | ||
| Open | a | aː | ||||
/ʌ,ʌː/ can be heard as rounded [ɔ,ɔː] after labial consonants.
Phonemes in parentheses occur in loan words from Nepali.
Limbu is a postpositional language. Noun arguments take case markers as well as postpositions. Double case markings happen frequently. The following word endings mark for cases in Limbu.
Limbu is anergative-absolutive language, with the agentive argument of atransitive verb will take ergative-le/-re/-lle/-ʔille, and the subject of a intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb will be marked by-ʔin.
Limbu verbs, which arepolysynthetic in nature, exhibit double negators and agreements with objects, but lack third person subject agreements and nounincorporation. A typical Limbu verbal morphology can be described in following table:
| +3 | +2 | +1 | core | -1 | -2 | -3 | -4 | -5 | -6 | -7 | -8 | -9 | -10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (kɛ-) 2/(mɛ-) 3/(a-) INCL | A/SBJ | (n- &mɛ-) NEG/Ø AFF | verb stem | RR/1>2 | TNS | A/P (DU, PL, 3PL,Ø SG) ## | A ## | NEG | SBJ ## | P ## | A ## | 1EXCL/1INCL | (-n/-nɛn) NEG |
Limbu language is one of the fewSino-Tibetan languages of the centralHimalayas with their own scripts.[12] TheLimbu script or Sirijanga script was devised during the period of Buddhist expansion inSikkim in the early 18th century whenLimbuwan still constituted part of Sikkimese territory.[13] TheLimbu script was probably designed roughly at the same time as theLepcha script (during the reign of the third King ofSikkim, Phyag-dor Nam-gyal (ca. 1700-1717)). However, it is widely believed that theLimbu script (Sirijanga) had been designed by the Limbu King Sirijanga Hang in the 9th century. The Sirijanga script was later redesigned and re-introduced byTe-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe . As Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe spent most of his time in the development of Yakthungpan, Yatkhung culture, andLimbu script; he is considered as the reincarnation of the 9th century King Sirijanga.
AsTe-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe was astoundingly influential in spreading theLimbu script, culture, and language, Tasang monks came to fear that he might transform the social, cultural, and linguistic structure of Sikkim. Therefore, Tasang monks captured Sirijunga, bound him to a tree, and shot him to death with poisonous arrows.
Both Limbu andLepcha scripts were ostensibly devised with the intent of furthering the spread ofBuddhism. However, Sirijanga was a Limbu Buddhist who had studied under Sikkimese high Lamas. Sirijanga was given the title 'theDorjeLama of Yangrup'.
The script hasbeen influenced byTibetan andDevanagari. Unlike most other Brahmic scripts, it does not have separate independentvowel characters, instead usinga vowel carrier letter with the appropriate dependent vowel attached.
The Limbu language and literature have been less practiced in Nepal since the last eighteenth century. The cultural identity of any community was taken as a threat to the national unification by ruling elites until the recent years. The use of theLimbu alphabet was banned and the possession of Limbu writings outlawed. There were no specific laws about it, but the Security Act was enforced for such cases under the strong directives of Kathmandu.
Limbu has its own unique writing system, which is similar to Tibetan and Sikkimese scripts. TheLimbu script or Sirijunga script is unique and scientifically designed by King Sirijanga in the 9th century; it was later re-designed and popularized byTe-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe and his followers in the 18th century. Since teaching of Limbu/Yakthung language and writing was banned by the Khas-Hindus in Nepal after the "Noon Pani Sandhi" between theLimbuwan andGorkha Kingdom (Prithvi Narayan Shah), far more Limbus areliterate inNepali than in Limbu in Nepal. Although many Limbu books were written in Devanagari and Roman (English), now Limbus/Yakthungs have well-developed computerized writing system and many books are published inLimbu script or Sirijunga script.
History of Kirat-Yakthung writing can be divided into the following ways:
The Limbu language has many papers and publications in circulation.Tanchoppa (Morning Star), a monthly newspaper/magazine which has been published since 1995. There are many other literary publications.The oldest known Limbu writings were collected from the Darjeeling district in the 1850s. They are the ancestors of the modern Limbu script. The writings are now a part of a collection in the India Library in London.
InNepal, the Limbu language is taught on private initiative. The Government of Nepal has published "Ani Paan" text books in Limbu for primary education from grades 1 to 12. Kirant Yakthung Chumlung teaches Limbu language and script on its own initiative.
InSikkim, since the late 1970s, Limbu in the Limbu script has been offered in English-medium schools as a vernacular language subject in areas populated by Limbus. Over 4000 students study Limbu for one hour daily taught by some 300 teachers. Course books are available in Limbu from grades 1 to 12. Additionally, the significance of Limbu in Sikkim is that the name of theIndian state itself is a combination of two Limbu words:su, which means "new", andkhyim, which means "palace" or "house".[14]
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