Sunwar language

Sunuwar, Sunuwar, or Kõinch (कोँइच; ; other spellings are Koinch and Koincha), is a Kiranti language spoken in Nepal and India by the Sunuwar people. It was first comprehensively attested by the Himalayan Languages Project. It is also known as Kõits Lo (कोँइच लो ; ), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोँइच ; ), Mukhiya (मुखिया ; ). The Sunwar language is one of the smaller members of the Tibeto-Burman language family. About 40,000 speakers are residing in eastern Nepal. The language is commonly known as Koic, for many ethnic Sunwar and Sunwar speakers also refer to the language as “Sunuwar, Kõinch , Koinch or Koincha (कोँइच); Kõits Lo (कोँइच लो), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोँइच) or Mukhiya (मुखिया).” Moreover, most Sunwar speakers have the surname (सुनुवार), Sunuvār in Latin script. Many affiliated Sunwar with Sunar; they share the initial syllable, sun, “gold,” in Nepali, similar to the Sunar community of India, who are goldsmiths. However, the ethnonym Sunuvār is believed to be connected with Sunkosi, a river nearby the Sunwar villages. The Sunwar language is commonly spoken in a cluster of Sunwar villages, located around the region of the core spoken language. These villages are scattered alongside the river banks of Likhu Khola, in two bordering central-eastern districts of Nepal, distant from the main Nepalese road system: in the Okhaldhū۠ngā District (part of Koshi Province), around the village of Vacul; and in the Rāmechāp District (part of Bagmati Province), around the villages of Pahare and of Kũbhu Kãsthālī for a smaller group of Sunwar speakers. The majority of the Sunwar speakers live on the southern border area of this region, between the villages of Pahare and Vacul. Located 1,800 meters above sea level, their fields aren’t all fallow from year round cultivation (Borchers, 2008). Therefore, many Sunwar households are farmers, own a small lot of land and livestock. Moreover, each village often visits their neighboring village markets to purchase inaccessible goods such as spices, sugar, tea, and salt.

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Related concepts (7)

Kiranti languages

The Kiranti languages are a major family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Nepal and India (notably Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Bhutan) by the Kirati people. George van Driem had formerly proposed that the Kiranti languages were part of a Mahakiranti family, although specialists are not completely certain of either the existence of a Kiranti subgroup or its precise membership. LaPolla (2003), though, proposes that Kiranti may be part of a larger "Rung" group. There are about two dozen Kiranti languages.

Koshi Province

Koshi Province (कोशी प्रदेश) is the autonomous easternmost province adopted on 20 September 2015 by Constitution of Nepal. The province is rich in natural resources, tourist attractions, recreational activities, and natural beauty. The province covers an area of 25,905 km2, about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its capital, the province covers other major eastern towns including Birtamod, Birat Chowk, Damak, Dharan, Itahari, Triyuga and Mechinagar and includes several mountains including the Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Ama Dablam.

Tibeto-Burman languages

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, Burmese and the Tibetic languages, which also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively.