Sunwar language

Sunwar, Sunuwar, or Koinch (कोइँच; kõich; other spellings are Koinch and Koincha), is a Kiranti language of the Sino-Tibetan language family 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 (कोइँच लो ; kõica lo), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोइँच ; kirā̃tī-kõich), Mukhiya (मुखिया ; mukhiyā).

Sunuwar
सुनुवार, कोइँच, किराँती-कोइँच, मुखिया
'Kõica' in Jenticha script; 'Sunuwar' in Tikamuli and Devanagari script
Region	Nepal; India (Sikkim and West Bengal)
Ethnicity	Sunuwar
Native speakers	37,898 (2011)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Mahakiranti (?) Kiranti Western Northwestern Sunuwar
Dialects	Surel
Writing system	Devanagari Sunuwar (Sikkim, India) Tikamuli (2005)
Official status
Official language in	India Sikkim (additional)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	suz
Glottolog	sunw1242
ELP	Sunwar

Sunwar greeting

The Sunwar language is one of the smaller members of the Tibeto-Burman language family. About 40,000 speakers are residing in eastern Nepal.

Names

The language is commonly known as Koic, for many ethnic Sunwar and Sunwar speakers also refer to the language as “Sunuwar, Koinch , Koinch or Koincha (कोइँच); Kõits Lo (कोइँच लो), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोइँच) or Mukhiya (मुखिया).”

Moreover, most Sunwar speakers have the surname (सुनुवार), Sunuvār in Latin script.

Geographic distribution

Small groups of Sunwar speakers located in Nepal

Likhu Khola river

The Sunuwar language is commonly spoken in a cluster of Sunuwar 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. In the winter, they experience no snow but freezing temperatures. In warmer weather, they experience a lot of rainfall, in the summer, monsoon rainfall. Especially between June and August, it is when they experience the most rain, more so monsoon rainfall.

According to Borchers, there are other villages located outside of the core region. The Surel are claimed to be Sunwar speakers however there are no certainties that it is true.

Written language

Further information: Sunuwar alphabet

Sunuwar (or Koĩts) native alphabet in Nepal & Sikkim, India

Sunuwar speakers from Nepal and Sikkim, northeastern India, use the Sunuwar alphabet (ISO 15924 script code: Sunu) for printed materials such as newspapers and literature. The alphabet, also known as Sunuwar alphabet, Sunuwar Lipi, Koĩts Lipi, was promoted in 1932 by Karna Bahadur Sunuwar (1926-1991), and got official recognition in Sikkim and Eastern Nepal where it is taught in schools. The Sunuwar script, is unrelated to any other scripts (even if some letter shapes have some resemblance to Latin and Limbu letter forms with similar phonetic value), and behaves like an alphabet with 35 base letters, written left-to-right, with syllabic features, extended with combining diacritics. The script also features its own set of decimal digits.

Unlike other Indic scripts derived from Brahmic, the Sunuwar alphabet includes no combining vowel signs: the script was initially a pure alphabet and the base consonants initially did not have any inherent vowel. But a second version of the script modified the orthographic rules to imply its presence, where the inherent vowel would be altered when appending any independent vowel letters, or suppressed by using a virama (or halant) sign in some consonant clusters or for consonants in final position of syllables. The independent letter form for the inherent vowel is now removed in most cases from the normal orthography in the middle of words, only used in isolation (i.e. no longer written when following a leading consonant, unless it is at end of words). A number of glyphic forms (conjuncts using consonants in half forms) were added to the script after this orthographic change for more easily writing consonant clusters, instead of writing multiple consonants with virama signs.

Devanagari-based abugida for the Sunwar language in Nepal

Although Sunwar has no traditional written language in Nepal, most literate speakers use the Devanagari abugida, also used for writing Nepali.

Independent vowels and diphthongs

अ आ इ उ ए ओ a ā i u e o [ə] [aː] [i] [u] [e] [o]

ऐ औ एउ उइ ओइ ai au eu ui oi [ai] [au] [eu] [ui] [oi]

Consonants with inherent vowel

क	ख	ग	ङ	अ्	च	ज	ट	ठ
ka	kha	ga	nga	’	ca	ja	ṭa	ṭha
[kə]	[kʰə]	[ɡə]	[ŋə]	[ʔ]	[t͡ʃə]	[d͡ʒə]	[ʈə]	[ʈʰə]

त	थ	द/ड	न/ण	प	फ	ब	म	य
ta	tha	da	na	pa	pha	ba	ma	ya
[tə]	[tʰə]	[də]	[nə]	[pə]	[pʰə]	[bə]	[mə]	[jə]

र	ल	व	श/ष	स	ह	व्ही/ह्व
ra	la	va	sha	sa	ha	hha
[rə]	[lə]	[və]	[ʃə]	[sə]	[hə]	[ɦə]

Combining diacritics

The sign ्, known in Sunwar as sangmilu, represents a virama or halant; it is used to silent the inherent vowel after the consonant.

The sign ँ, known in Sunwar as taslathenk, corresponds to the candrabindu in Devanagari; it is used to nasalize the vowel.

्	ँ
sangmilu (virama or halant)	taslathenk (cadrabindu)
mutes the inherent vowel	indicates nasalization of the vowel

Tikamuli native abugida (since 2005)

In 2005, another syllabic alphabet or abugida was developed for Sunuwar; it is known as Tikamuli.

Phonology

Sunwar phonology is significantly influenced by the language of Nepali.

Consonants

The Sunwar language has a mid-sized arrangement of thirty-two consonantal phonemes:

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩				ŋ ⟨ṅ⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t̪ ⟨t⟩		ʈ ⟨ṭ⟩	c ⟨c⟩	k ⟨k⟩	ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩
	aspirated	pʰ~ɸ ⟨ph⟩	t̪ʰ ⟨th⟩		ʈʰ ⟨ṭh⟩	(cʰ ⟨ch⟩)	kʰ ⟨kh⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d̪ ⟨d⟩		(ɖ ⟨ḍ⟩)	ɟ ⟨j⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
	breathy	(bʱ ⟨bh⟩)	(d̪ʱ ⟨dh⟩)		(ɖʱ ⟨ḍh⟩)	(ɟʱ ⟨jh⟩)	(ɡʱ ⟨gh⟩)
	implosive	w~b ⟨ɓ⟩
Fricative	sibilant			s ⟨s⟩		ʃ ⟨ʃ⟩
	plain					[ç]	[x]	h ⟨h⟩
Approximant		w~wʱ ⟨w⟩	l̪ ⟨l⟩		[ɭ]	j ⟨y⟩
Tap				ɾ ⟨r⟩

• Sound in parentheses only are heard in words borrowed from Nepali. Sounds in brackets are only heard as allophones.
• The implosive sound [ɓ] was heard phonemically until recently among dialects. It is now heard as a plosive [b] in the village of Saipu, and as an approximant [w] in the village of Kũbhu. It is only heard rarely in word-initial position among the speakers of Saipu.

Vowels

According to Borchers, there are eleven vowel phonemes in Sunwar:

⟨a⟩ [a~ɑ], /ā / [aː], /e/ [e~ɛ], /i/ [i], /o/ [o], /u/ [u], / ū/ [uː~y], /ã/ [ã~ɑ̃], /ã̄/ [ãː], /ẽ/ [ẽ~ɛ̃], /ĩ/ [ĩ]

	Front	Central	Back
High	/i/ [i], /ū/ [y] /ĩ/ [ĩ]		/ū/ [uː~y], /u/ [u] (ũ)
Mid	/e/ [e~ɛ] /ẽ/ [ẽ~ɛ̃]		/o/ [o] (õ)
Low		/a/ [a~ɑ], /ā / [aː] /ã/ [ã~ɑ̃], /ã̄/ [ãː]

• Vowels with bar - Represents long vowels
• Vowels with tilde -  Represents short nasalized vowels
• Vowels with bar and tilde - Represents long and nasalized vowels

Diphthongs

There are a total of eight diphthongs in Sunwar: /ai/ [aɪ], /aĩ/ [aɪ̃], /au/ [au], /eu/ [eu], /oi/ [oi], /oĩ/ [oĩ], /ui/ [ui], /uĩ/ [uĩ]

According to Borchers, a principled way to distinguish diphthongs from a sequence of two monophthongs does not exist in the Sunwar language.

As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of examples of contrasts between diphthongs:

/joi/	[ɟoi]	‘tiger’
/joĩ/	[ɟoĩ]	‘younger sister’s husband’
/muicā/	[muicaː]	‘wear shoes’
/puĩcā/	[puĩcaː]	‘ask for, beg’
/goi/	[ɡoi]	‘you’
/gui/	[ɡui]	‘hand’
/reu/	[ɾeu]	‘rain’
/roi/	[ɾoi]	‘ill’

Syllable structure

Syllable Structure of Sunwar: C(C)V(V)(C)(C)

Morphology

Markers

Case-marking suffixes

According to Borchers, “all case markers in the Sunwar language are suffixes.”

As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of the noun case markers.

Morpheme:	Gloss:	Marks:	Occurs suffixed to denotions of:
-mī ~   -amī ~-ī m ~ -m	INS/L   OC	agents, instruments, locations	persons, things, locations
-kali ~   -kal	OBJ	patients	persons, animals
-ke	POSS	possessions of animate beings	persons, animals
-ṅā	GEN	belongings of inanimate items	things, locations
-lā/-le	FROM	place of departure of persons or items that changed places (ABL); time of begin of action	locations, time
-re	FROM	place of departure of persons or items that changed places (ABL); time of begin of action	locations, time
-au	VOC	name of person called	persons

Dual marker

A dual marker can be associated with dual/pair or the cardinal number ‘two’.

Morpheme:	⟨-niʃi⟩
Gloss:	Dual (DU)

Example of dual marker by Borchers:

iciṅā

Now

āl.niʃi

child.DU

chan

exist-NPT.3P

iciṅā āl.niʃi chan

Now child.DU exist-NPT.3P

Now I have two children.

Plural marker

In the Sunwar language, both nouns and pronouns can be marked as dual or plural.

In addition items in a group can be marked plural.

Morpheme:	⟨-paki ~ -puki ~ -piki⟩
Gloss:	Plural (PL)

Examples of the plural marker used to point at items in a group by Borchers:

pujā

worship

dum

happen

pachi

after

rãga

buffalo

po.paki

pig.PL

sai.ni.mī

kill.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

pujā dum pachi rãga po.paki sai.ni.mī

worship happen after buffalo pig.PL kill.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

After worship, they kill the buffalo, pig and so on.

sāg.paki

sāg.PL

acā.paki

pickle.PL

ho.ʃa.ṅāmin

keep.PF.then

ʃam

beer

cai

SNG

thupro

much

dum.ba

happen.NPT+3S

thupro

much

tu.ni.miิ

drink.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

sāg.paki acā.paki ho.ʃa.ṅāmin ʃam cai thupro dum.ba thupro tu.ni.miิ

sāg.PL pickle.PL keep.PF.then beer SNG much happen.NPT+3S much drink.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

Having stored away sāg (green leafy vegetable) and so on and pickle and so on and, there has to be much beer, they drink a lot.

Absent marker

According to Borchers, the Sunwar language does not have a zero morpheme, but it can still indicate the number amount of something through verbal agreement markers or numerals.

Example of the absent marker by Borchers:

go

I

khame

rice

jāʔi.na.sku

eat.NPT-1D.1D

go khame jāʔi.na.sku

I rice eat.NPT-1D.1D

Wed eat rice.

Suffixes

Possessive suffix: ⟨-ke⟩ (Animate Agent)

According to Borchers, the possessive suffix ⟨-ke⟩ is attached to a human or animate agent to indicate a possessive relationship.

Morpheme:	⟨-ke⟩
Gloss:	Possessive (POSS)

Examples of the possessive ⟨-ke⟩ by Borchers:

nāso.ke

priest.POSS

dui.ta

two.piece

dhol

drum

bā.ba

stay.NPT+3S

dhanu.kan

bow.arrow

nāso.ke

priest.POSS

bā.ba

stay.NPT+3S

nāso.ke dui.ta dhol bā.ba dhanu.kan nāso.ke bā.ba

priest.POSS two.piece drum stay.NPT+3S bow.arrow priest.POSS stay.NPT+3S

The priest has two drums. The priest has bow and arrow.

ne

nose

ʃo.ke

face.POSS

bhāg

part

ho

be-NPT.3S

ne ʃo.ke bhāg ho

nose face.POSS part be-NPT.3S

The nose is part of the face.

Possessive suffix: ⟨-ke⟩ (inanimate subject)

According to Borchers, inanimate subjects are marked with the possessive suffix ⟨-ke⟩ to indicate what it is "made of". Example of possessive ⟨-ke⟩ indicating what it is "made of" by Borchers:

jasi.ke

Jasi.POSS

bā.b

stay.NPT+3S

meko

that

jasi

Jasi

ā.kilā

its.peg

jasi.ke bā.b meko jasi ā.kilā

Jasi.POSS stay.NPT+3S that Jasi its.peg

It is made of Jasi wood. This is a peg made of Jasi wood. (Jasi is the tree Bauhinia variegata)

Quantifiers

Quantifiers in the Sunwar language are loaned from Nepali. Quantifiers are used for amounts or masses. As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of quantifiers; including some that are loaned from Nepali.

From:	Translation:
aic	small
sappa	very much	[<Nep. besarī ‘very   much’]
ʃuʃi	many, very, much	[<Nep. dherai]
sappa pan	very	[<Nep. ekdam]
ici oci	a little
imci	some, a bit
la:	only	[<Nep. mātra]
ʃūʃ ʃūs	much, very, expensive
oci	some, little	[<Nep. thorai]
i:ʃika	much, a lot	[<Nep. thupro]
umcili	small

Examples of quantifiers that indicate amounts or masses by Borchers:

go

I

ʃūʃ

much

ma.jai.nu.ṅ

NEG.eat.NPT+1S.1S

go ʃūʃ ma.jai.nu.ṅ

I much NEG.eat.NPT+1S.1S

I don’t eat much.

disā

tomorrow

matrei

only

tui.nu.ṅ

know.NPT+1S.1S

disā matrei tui.nu.ṅ

tomorrow only know.NPT+1S.1S

I won’t know until tomorrow.

Syntax

Adjectives: ⟨-ʃo⟩

According to Borchers, adjectives can belong to the verbal noun form, with an attached ⟨ʃo⟩. In the Sunwar language, some adjectives are borrowed from Nepali.

Adjectives: Color forms

Borchers also notes that adjectives can belong to the form/term color. As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of the color form/terms.

Form:	Translation:
jirjir	colorful
giิk	light green, light blue
nilo	dark blue [<Nep. nilo]
buʃ	white
kher	black
lal	red
ojela	brilliant

Adjectives: Non-verbal nouns without ⟨-ʃo⟩ attached

The Sunwar language has a category for adjectives under the form ‘others’, that are not verbal nouns. In addition, some adjectives may be interchangeable as an adverb. As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of the adjectives that are not verbal nouns ending in ⟨-ʃo⟩ form/terms.

Form:	Translation:
umcili/ici	small, little
ʃūʃ	much, many, very, expensive
theb	big, great (idea, thing)
wan	far
netha	near

Examples of adjectives that are not verbal nouns ending in ⟨-ʃo⟩ by Borchers:

ɓak

water

besā.n

very-much.REIN

wan

far

cha

exist-NPT.3S

ɓak besā.n wan cha

water very-much.REIN far exist-NPT.3S

Water is far away.

go

I

umcili

small

thiẽ

exist-PT.1S

bara

twelve

bars.ṅā

year.GEN

go umcili thiẽ bara bars.ṅā

I small exist-PT.1S twelve year.GEN

I was small, twelve years old.

nepāli.puki

Nepali.PL

ʃūʃ

very

choto

small

bā.ni.m

stay.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

nepāli.puki ʃūʃ choto bā.ni.m

Nepali.PL very small stay.NPT-23D/-P.3P/SVI

Nepalese people are very small.

Particles

As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of particles in correlation to various relationships.

Conjunction:	Translation:
de	or
hana	if
ṅana	if
dopā	that
meklāpāṅāmin	and then
pāṅāmin	and then
minu ⟨-nu⟩	and then
mapatke	because of

Postpositional particles

According to Borchers, the Sunwar language borrows particles from Nepali that indicate the relationship between clauses. Examples of postpositional particles by Borchers:

Postpotion:	Gloss:
<lā>	‘only’
⟨-bhandā⟩: A comparison.	‘than’
<cai>: Singling out or can be seen as “exactly this one”.	SNG
<yo>: Inclusive focus.	‘also’
<kõ>: A tag on questions asking for affirmation or negation of a statement.	OR
<da ~ ta>: Sunwar focus marker	IFOC

My stomach v.s. your stomach

Example by Borchers:

iิ

your

koʔj

stomach

iิ koʔj

your stomach

your stomach

ā

my

koʔj

stomach

ā koʔj

my stomach

my stomach

Order: Subject-object-verb

Examples of order: Subject/Object/Verb by Borchers.

kuṣulanoʔbam.mī

shoemaker.INS/LOC

subject

pani

shoes

object

pher.ni.m

sew.NPT-23D/-P.3P

verb

kuṣulanoʔbam.mī pani pher.ni.m

shoemaker.INS/LOC shoes sew.NPT-23D/-P.3P

subject object verb

Shoemakers make shoes.

Kocombo.mī

mongoose.INS/LOC

subject

buʔs

snake

object

sāʔī.b

kill.NPT+3S

verb

Kocombo.mī buʔs sāʔī.b

mongoose.INS/LOC snake kill.NPT+3S

subject object verb

The mongoose kills a snake.

Vocabulary

Seu+wa+la (Sewala)

Sunwar	English
Namsewal	Hello / Good Bye
Sew	(Respect) / (Greeting) / I bow to you
Maahr	What
Dohpachaa	How to
Dohshow	How much
Dohmoh	How big
Go	I
Gopuki	We are
Ge	You (informal)
Gepukhi	You are (informal)
Goi	we (formal)
GoiPuki	we are (formal)
Daarshow	Beautiful
Rimso	Good
MaDarshow	Ugly

Language structure

In linguistic typology, a subject+object+verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges". (A Grammar of Sunwar)

Go

I

subject

khamay

rice

object

jainu

eat

verb

Go khamay jainu

I rice eat

subject object verb

"I eat rice."

Sunwar people called "Khangsa" sign language with voice and direct action, for foreign people who don't understand a sunuwar language.

Numerals (Devanagari)

1	ichi/kaa
2	ni/nishi
3	sa/saam
4	le
5	nga
6	ruku/roku
7	chani
8	sasi
9	van
10	gau

External links

• Sunwar language website

REIN: reinforcement marker NPT: non-preterite SNG: postposition of singularity PF: perfective gerund marker P: patient (of transitive verb) SVI: singular intransitive verb 23D: second and third person, dual