Lepcha language

Classification

Lepcha is difficult to classify, but George van Driem (2001) suggests that it may be closest to the Mahakiranti languages, a subfamily of the Himalayish languages.

Lepcha is internally diverse, showing lexical influences from different majority language groups across the four main Lepcha communities. According to Plaisier (2007), these Nepali and Sikkimese Tibetan influences do not amount to a dialectal difference.

Roger Blench (2013) suggests that Lepcha has an Austroasiatic substratum, which originated from a now-extinct branch of Austroasiatic that he calls "Rongic".

Features

Lepcha is a non-tonal Sino-Tibetan language, although it does have phonemic stress or pitch that may be marked in the Lepcha script. Much of its lexicon is composed of monosyllabic elements.

Notably, words that are commonly considered obscene or taboo in other languages are not treated as such by native speakers.

Script and romanization

The Lepcha script is a syllabic script featuring a variety of special marks and ligatures. Its genealogy is unclear. Early Lepcha manuscripts were written vertically, a sign of Chinese influence. Prior to the development of the Lepcha script, Lepcha literary works were composed in the Tibetan script.

Lepcha language is romanized according to varying schemes, the prevailing system being that of Mainwaring (1876). Most linguists, including Plaisier (2007), whose system is used in this article, have followed modified versions of Mainwaring's system. Other linguists and historians have used systems based on European languages such as English, French, and German.

Phonology

Consonants

Lepcha consonants appear in the chart below, following Plaisier (2007):

Retroflex phonemes /ʈ/, /ʈʰ/, and /ɖ/ are written in Lepcha script as ᰀᰥ kr, ᰝᰥ hr, and ᰃᰥ gr, respectively. Most, though not all, instances of retroflex consonants indicate a word is of Tibetan origin. To distinguish this retroflex sound in Lepcha script, a dot may be written underneath: ᰀᰥ᰷, ᰝᰥ᰷, and ᰃᰥ᰷. Native instances of non-retroflex ᰀᰥ kr, ᰝᰥ hr, and ᰃᰥ gr may either be pronounced as written or as ⟨tr⟩, ⟨thr⟩, and ⟨dr⟩. For example, tagrikup, 'boy', may be said either or .

Lepcha has three glide consonants that may occur after certain initial consonants: , , and . When the phoneme operates as a glide, it can combine with as a double-glide: ᰕᰥᰤᰩᰮ mryóm, 'to spread over the ground, creep'. Notably, syllables with the glide are given their own independent forms in the Lepcha script.

Velar consonants and preceding front vowels or are palatalized as and , respectively. Fricatives and are merged before .

Lepcha speakers tend not to distinguish between and , pronouncing both as ~~. Additionally, initial is occasionally realized as . Under the influence of Nepali, some Lepcha speakers have lost the distinction between and , and between and .

Of the above phonemes, only , and may be syllable-final. Native speakers tend to neutralize the difference between final and . In syllable-final position, stops are realized as an unreleased stop, usually pronounced with a simultaneous : for example, becomes .

Vowels

According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has eight vowels:

The phoneme denoted by ⟨í⟩ is shortened and appears in closed syllables; ⟨i⟩ is longer and appears in open syllables. The phoneme /e/ is realized as in open syllables and in closed syllables before or . Closed syllables ending in , , , , , and show free variation between , , and even . Distinctions between and are often lost among non-literate speakers, particularly those highly fluent in Nepali language, which does not contrast the sounds.

Grammar

Lepcha grammar features nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Word order is typically subject–object–verb (SOV). Lepcha morphology is somewhat agglutinative, though most bare Lepcha lexicon is made up of one- or two-syllable words. Nouns are arranged into either head-first or head-last noun phrases. Relative clauses and genitive phrases precede nouns, whereas markers for demonstratives, definiteness, number, case, and other particles follow the noun. Lepcha is an ergative language, where the ergative case indicates transitivity and completedness of the event. There is no grammatical agreement between different parts of speech (i.e. verb conjugation). Adjectives follow nouns they modify, function as predicates, or stand independently as nominal heads. Adverbs generally directly precede verbs, and reduplication is generally productive for adverbs of time (e.g. nám 'year' → nám-nám 'yearly').

Syntax

Some basics of Lepcha syntax are outlined in Mainwaring (1876).

The basic word order in Lepcha is subject–object–verb. Adjectives follow the noun they modify.

Possessors precede the nouns they possess.

Nouns

According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has only two true "cases" that modify the noun morphologically: the definite article -re and the dative case marker -m. All other noun markers, including for example the genitive marker, are actually invariable postpositions. A series noun markers may follow a single noun. Together, these cases and postpositions are:

Plurals are marked differently according to whether they are human (-sang) or non-human (-pong) nouns. Notably, the plural is not used when the noun is followed by a number.

According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha personal pronouns are as follows:

Oblique forms appear in parentheses above. Lepcha personal pronouns can refer only to humans; otherwise demonstratives are used. Personal pronouns may take the definite article -re.

Thematic classes

Many Lepcha nouns can be grouped into one of several classes based on associated characteristics. For example, many animal names begin with the Lepcha script syllabic ⟨sâ⟩, e.g., ᰠᰲᰶ sâr 'goat', ᰠᰶᰛᰤᰨᰮ sâryom 'otter', ᰠᰶᰜᰩᰭ sâlók 'rhinoceros', and ᰠᰝᰪ sâhu 'monkey'. Other noun classes include ⟨sâ⟩ and ⟨ka⟩ for plants, and ⟨pe⟩ or ⟨pâ⟩ for snakes and bamboo products.

Verbs

Lepcha verbs generally function as predicates or, in relative clauses, as modifiers before a head-noun. Verbs may also be nominalized by a combination of suffixes. For example, zo 'eat' may be suffixed to produce zo-shang-re 'eating'.

Many intransitive verbs incorporate a causative -y- infix, sometimes followed by a -t suffix, to take a transitive sense:

• ᰕᰦᰭ mák 'die' → ᰕᰤᰦᰭ myák 'kill';
• ᰏᰶ plâ 'come forth' → ᰏᰤᰶ plyâ 'bring forth';
• ᰄᰫ glú 'fall down' → ᰄᰤᰳ/ᰄᰤᰬᰳ glyat/glyet 'drop'.

Verbs are followed by grammatical suffixes and particles. Verbal particles indicating sureness, polite requests, authoritativeness, dubiousness, and other nonlexical information follow clauses. Below is a chart of such verb- and clause-final suffixes and particles largely following Plaisier (2007):

Verbs are negated by a circumfix, ma-⟩...⟨-n(e), e.g., khut 'to be able' becomes ma-khut-ne 'to be unable'.

Vocabulary

These are some sample words published in Renato Figuerido's Lepcha dictionary.

Sample text

The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Lepcha:

Lepcha in Róng Script

ᰠᰕᰆᰪ ᰍᰬᰊ: ᰠᰕᰆᰪ-ᰍᰬᰊ ᰀᰪᰃᰧᰊ ᰎᰦᰆᰎᰛᰌᰨᰅ, ᰣᰦᰓᰪᰣᰦᰕᰨᰊ, ᰣᰦᰈᰤᰀ, ᰠᰅᰃᰤᰨ ᰃᰬᰍᰎᰍ ᰣᰰ ᰠᰕᰠᰕᰆᰨ ᰜᰤᰦᰅᰌᰬ ᰣᰰ ᰕᰎᰬᰜᰟᰪ ᰏᰤᰨᰍᰰ ᰍᰪᰛ, ᰣᰧᰊ ᰣᰍ ᰠᰈᰨᰅᰌᰨᱏᰨᰈᰨᰅ ᰠᰤᰪᰋᰨ ᰠᰪᰈᰨᰅᰌᰨ ᰋᰨ ᰕᰪᰌᰪᰀᰕᰪᰌᰪᰀ ᰣᰦᰓᰥᰬᰊ ᰕᰃᰦᰊ ᰀᰦᰊ ᰍᰰ ᰀᰦᰊ ᰠᰕᰤᰪᰛᰬᰕ ᰣᰦᰛᰬ ᰇᰤᰨᰛᰧᰶᰀᰦ ᰎᰧᰋᰨ ᰋᰨᰅᰎᰨᰅᰠᰦ ᰋᰨᰅ ᰍᰧᰠᰧᰶᰕᰣᰨ ᰻ ᰣᰦᰛᰬᰓᰬᰀ ᰃᰬᰍᰎᰍ, ᰜᰤᰦᰅ ᰋᰨᰀᰦ ᰣᰦᰎᰧᰶᰍ ᰣᰦᰟᰨᰍ ᰜᰤᰦᰅ ᰌᰬᰎ ᰝᰦᰌᰨ ᰠᰮᰕᰪ ᰠᰛᰬᰌᰨ ᰋᰨ, ᰆᰰᱏᰧᰀ ᰈᰤᰫᰅᰕᰃᰦᰊ ᰣᰰ ᰜᰤᰦᰅ ᰈᰤᰫᰅᰠᰦ ᰈᰤᰫᰅ ᰜᰤᰦᰅ ᰜᰧᰈᰨᰅ ᰠᰳᰌᰨᰜᰦ ᰋᰨᰀᰦ ᰣᰦᰓᰥᰬᰊ ᰕᰈᰪᰀᰕᰣᰨ ᰻

Lepcha in Devanagari Script

समचु-नेत: कुगित पाचपरदोङ, आबुआमोत, आज्यक, सङग्यो गेनपन अन् समसमचो ल्याङदे अन् मपेलवु प्ल्योनन् नुर, इत अन सजोङदोडोजोङ स्युथो सुजोङदो थो मुदुकमुदुक आब्रेत मगात कात नन् कात सम्युरेम आरे छ्योरीका पिथो थोङपोङसा थोङ निसीमओ । आरेबेक गेनपन, ल्याङ थोका आपीन आवोन ल्याङ देप हादो सम्मु सरेदो थो, चण्डिक ज्यूङमगात अन् ल्याङ ज्यूङसा ज्यूङ ल्याङ लिजोङ सत्दोला थोका आब्रेत मजुकमओ ।

Romanisation

samcu net: samcu-net kugit pācaparadong, ābuāmota, ājyaka, sanggyo genpan an samsamco lyāngde an mapelwu plyonn nur, it an sajongdoḍḍojong syutho sujongdo tho mudukmuduk ābret magāt kāt nan kāt samyurem āre chyoriíkā pitho thongpongsā thong nisímao

IPA Transcription

Translation

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.