Kham language

Not to be confused with Khams Tibetan language.

Kham
magar kham kura
खाम magar,
Native to	Nepal
Region	Rapti Zone, Rolpa and Rukum Districts Dhaulagiri Zone, Baglung District
Ethnicity	Kham Magar
Native speakers	27,000 (2011 census)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Mahakiranti ? Magaric Kham
Writing system	Devanagari
Official status
Official language in	No official status
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: kif – Eastern Parbate Kham kgj – Gamale Kham kip – Sheshi Kham kjl – Western Parbate Kham
Glottolog	kham1286

Magar kham (Nepali: खाम) (also magar kham bhasha magarkura )—narrowly defined—is a complex of Sino-Tibetan Magaric languages spoken natively in the highlands of the Rolpa and Rukum districts of Rapti and the westernmost part of Baglung district in Dhawalagiri Zone by western clans of the Magar tribe, called collectively Kham Magar or Northern Magars. Randy LaPolla (2003) proposes that Kham magar and Dhut magar may be part of a larger "Rung" group.

More loosely, Nepali speakers west of the Kaligandaki use Kham (etc.) for non-Indic languages indigenous to the Middle Hills and southern parts of the Himalayas. Thus Nepali speakers also subsume with Kham the separate languages Kaike—spoken to the northwest in lower Dolpo—and Chantyal—spoken to

the northeast in Baglung and Myagdi Districts, when in fact these are only distantly related. The Nepali speakers then use the term Bhote (भोटे) for Tibetan varieties spoken in culturally Tibetan borderlands such as upper Dolpo and northern Humla.

Regional varieties

Magar Kham bhasha(magar kura) is the language for eighteen magarat and Magar Dhut bhasha(magar kura) is the language for twelve magarat people.But in the present time most of the people do not speak their language either magar kham language or magar dhut language speaking magar clans,this is burning problem for this magar tribes.There are total seven magar clans and there is no any clan who speak their language more than 60% and their social standard is equal in the society.So this is a heavy problem for all magar language speakers.Their population is in the third rank in total Nepal population and first in the comparison to other aborigenes groups.So they are one of the very powerful caste.

Consonants

Magar kham has 22 consonants:

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	kʰ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s
	voiced		d͡z
	aspirated		t͡sʰ
Fricative	voiceless		s		h
	voiced		z
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant	central		j	w
	lateral		l

• The rhotic /ɾ/ is realized as a trill [r] at the end words. Otherwise, it is a flap.

Vowels

Magar Kham has 25 vowels:

	Front					Central			Back
	unrounded			rounded					unrounded			rounded
	short	long	nasal	short	long	short	long	nasal	short	long	nasal	short	long	nasal
Close	i	iː	ĩː	y	yː				ɯ	ɯː	ɯ̃ː	u	uː	ũː
Mid	e	eː	ẽː	ø	øː	ə	əː	ə̃ː				o	oː	õː
Open						a	aː	ãː

• length
• nasalization
• diphthongs
• vowel harmony

Tone

• voice register