Magar language

Not to be confused with the Magyar language, known in English as Hungarian.

Magar
मगर ढुट‎ (magar ḍhuṭ)
Native to	Nepal, India
Region	Nepal; significant communities in Bhutan; Sikkim; Assam and Darjeeling district of India
Ethnicity	2.0 million Magar (2021 census of Nepal)
Native speakers	810,000 (2001–2006)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Himalayish Mahakiranti Magaric Magar
Writing system	Akkha script (official), Devanagari, Latin script
Official status
Official language in	India Sikkim (additional)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mgp – Eastern Magar mrd – Western Magar
Glottolog	maga1261

Magar Dhut (Nepali: मगर ढुट, Nepali: [ɖʱuʈ]) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken mainly in Nepal, southern Bhutan, and in Darjeeling, Assam and Sikkim, India, by the Magar people. It is divided into two groups (Eastern and Western) and further dialect divisions give distinct tribal identity. In Nepal 810,000 people speak the language.

While the government of Nepal developed Magar language curricula, as provisioned by the constitution, the teaching materials have never successfully reached Magar schools, where most school instruction is in the Nepali language. It is not unusual for groups with their own language to feel that the "mother-tongue" is an essential part of identity.

The Dhut Magar language is sometimes lumped with the Magar Kham language spoken further west in Bheri, Dhaulagiri, and Rapti zones. Although the two languages share many common words, they have major structural differences and are not mutually intelligible.

Geographical distribution

Western Magar

Western Magar (dialects: Palpa and Syangja) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

• Lumbini Province: Palpa District
• Gandaki Province: Syangja District, and a small part of the Tanahun District (west of the Bagmati River)
• Small border area in Gandaki Province: Parbat District
• Scattered throughout Karnali Province: especially in Surkhet District, Jajarkot District, and Dailekh District

Eastern Magar

Eastern Magar (dialects: Gorkha, Nawalparasi, and Tanahu) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

• Zone 1: central mountains of Nepal east of the Bagmati River
  • Gandaki Province: Tanahun District and southern Gorkha District
  • Lumbini Province: Palpa District Kapilvastu District and Nawalparasi District
  • Small border area in Bagmati Province: Dhading District
• Zone 2: eastern Nepal
  • Sindhuli District, Bagmati Province
  • Okhaldhunga District, Koshi Province
  • Udayapur District, Koshi Province
  • Scattered communities in central Koshi Province, Dhankuta District, Bhojpur and southern Koshi Province, Ilam District, Jhapa District
  • Southern Bhutan

India

• Sikkim (Magar language is one of the additional official language)
• Darjeeling district and Kalimpong district of West Bengal
• Golaghat district, Sonitpur district and Tinsukia district districts of Assam
• Some parts of Manipur

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
				plain	sibilant
Stop	voiceless	p	t̪*	t	t͡s		k	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ*	tʰ	t͡sʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d̪*	d	d͡z		ɡ
	murmured	bʱ	d̪ʱ*	dʱ	d͡zʱ		ɡʱ
Fricative	voiceless				s			h
	voiced							ɦ
Nasal	voiced	m		n			ŋ
	murmured	mʱ		nʱ			ŋʱ
Lateral	voiced			l
	murmured			lʱ
Approximant	voiced	w		ɹ		j
	murmured	wʱ		ɹʱ		jʱ

*-only occur in the Tanahu dialect.

/ʔ/ is only a marginal phoneme.

Phoneme	Allophones
/p/	[p̚]
/pʰ/	[ɸ]
/t/	[tʲ], [t̚], [ʈ]
/tʰ/	[θ]
/d/	[dʲ], [ɖ], [ɽ]
/k/	[kʲ], [k̚]
/kʰ/	[x]
/ɡ/	[ɡʲ]
/t͡s/	[t͡ʃ]
/t͡sʰ/	[t͡ʃʰ]
/dz/	[dʒ]
/d͡zʱ/	[d͡ʒʱ]
/s/	[ʃ]
/h/	[ɦ]
/n/	[nʲ]
/ŋ/	[ŋʲ]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
			ʌ
Open		a

Diphthongs
/ia/
/iu/
/ei/
/eu/
/aɪ/
/au/
/oi/

Phoneme	Allophones
/i/	[i] [ɪ] [i̤] [i̤ː] [ĩ]
/e/	[e] [ɛ] [ẽ] [e̤] [e̤ː]
/a/	[ä] [æ] [ä̃] [äˑ] [ä̤] [ä̤ː]
/u/	[u] [ʊ] [u̟] [ṳ] [ṳː] [ũ]
/ʌ/	[ʌ] [ə] [ə̃] [ʌ̤] [ʌ̃]
/o/	[o] [o̟] [õ] [oˑ] [o̤] [o̤ː]

Further reading

• Nishi 西, Yoshio 義郎 (1992e). "マガル語" [Magar, (LSI) Māgarī, Magar, Mangar]. In 亀井 Kamei, 孝 Takashi; 河野 Kōno, 六郎 Rokurō; 千野 Chino, 栄一 Eichi (eds.). 三省堂言語学大辞典 The Sanseido Encyclopaedia of Linguistics (in Japanese). Vol. 4. Tokyo: 三省堂 Sanseido Press. pp. 28a – 40b. ISBN 4385152128.
• Shepherd, Gary, and Barbara Shepherd. A Vocabulary of the Magar Language. Comparative vocabularies of languages of Nepal. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics [and] Institute of Nepal Studies, Tribhuvan University, 1972.
• Shepherd, Gary, and Barbara Shepherd. Magar Phonemic Summary. Tibeto-Burman phonemic summaries, 8. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, 1971.

External links

• detailed language map, western Nepal. Eastern Magar is language #33; Western Magar is #113.
• ELAR archive of Magar language documentation materials
• The Magar language - Linguistics research - Folktales in Magar (Western) - Nepal