Tharu languages

Tharu
थारु, थरुवा, थरुहट
Regions in Nepal and India with significant Tharu population
Native to	Nepal, India
Ethnicity	Tharu (incl. Bhoksa)
Native speakers	1.53 million in Nepal (2011 census) 400,000 or more in India (1997–2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Bihari Tharu
Writing system	Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: thl – Dangaura Tharu tkt – Kathoriya Tharu thr – Rana Tharu the – Chitwania Tharu thq – Kochila Tharu tkb – Buksa Tharu soi – Sonha
Glottolog	thar1284

The Tharu (Tharu: थारु, Hindi: थरुवा) or Tharuhat (Nepali: थरुहट) languages are any of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Tharu people of the Terai region in Nepal, and neighboring regions of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India.

Tharu languages are spoken in the Tharu community. This languages are similar to other neighboring languages. Tharu language is one of the major language spoken in Nepal.

Although their own precise classification within Indo-Aryan remains uncertain, Tharu languages have superficial similarities with neighbouring languages such as Kumaoni, Awadhi, Maithili, Bengali, Rajbanshi and Bhojpuri. The lexicon of certain Tharu households is indicative of an archaic, 'indigenous' substratum, potentially predating both Sino-Tibetan or Indo-Aryan settlement. Tharu languages appear to be transitional within the context of Indo-Aryan.

Chitwania Tharu is spoken by approximately 250,000 speakers east of the Gandaki River, in and around the Chitwan Valley. Chitwania, as a whole, has superficial similarities with Awadhi. Nevertheless, certain Chitwania variants appear to have considerable lexical similarities with Manchad, a Sino-Tibetan language.

Dangaura, Rana, and Buksa refer to a triumvirate of mutually-intelligible Tharu variants spoken west of the Gandaki River, spoken by approximately 1.3 million people. Furthermore, an additional variant of Tharu, known as Sonha, is largely mutually intelligible with Dangauru.

Kochila, a diverse Tharu variant, is also spoken by approximately 250,000 people, in regions of eastern Nepal. Kochila Tharu communities are not found in isolation, but live in districts intermixed with speakers of other languages. “In contrast with western Terai where the Tharus are the only and dominant ethnic minority, the eastern – especially the far eastern – Terai is inhabited by several ethnic groups with very different linguistic affiliation”. Many ethnic Kochila have adopted Maithili.

Phonology

The following consists mostly of the Daungara and Rana dialects:

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ʈ	tʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ	dʒ	ɡ
	breathy	bʱ	dʱ	ɖʱ	dʒʱ	ɡʱ
Nasal	voiced	m	n		(ɲ)	ŋ
	breathy	m̤	n̤			ŋ̈
Fricative			s				h
Tap	voiced		ɾ
	breathy		ɾ̤
Trill	voiced		(r)
	breathy		(r̤)
Lateral	voiced		l
	breathy		l̤
Approximant		w			j

• /n/ can be heard as a palatal [ɲ] when preceding a palatal affricate.
• /ɾ, ɾ̤/ may be in free variation with trill sounds [r, r̤] in the Rana dialect.
• Palato-alveolar affricate sounds /tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, dʒʱ/ are heard as alveolar affricate sounds [ts, tsʰ, dz, dzʱ] in the Rana dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a
Diphthong	əi		əu

• Nasalization also occurs as /ĩ, ũ, ẽ, ə̃, õ, ã/.
• Vowels /i, u, e, a/ are heard as [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɑ] when in lax form.
• /ə/ is heard as [ɐ] when preceding or following velar or glottal consonants.
• /a/ can be heard as [æ] when following /j/ or as [ɒ] when following /w/.