Alternate Names: Arthare, Athapre, Athpare, Athpre, Sanango Ring
Dialects: None known. Athpare and Belhariya , are very similar, but not mutually intelligible (Bickel 1996).
Status Notes: Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Rai.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 5,530 (2011 census), decreasing.
Language Use: Shifting to Nepali [npi]. Home, religion; mixed use: Friends. All ages. Positive attitudes. Also use Nepali [npi].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 2%. Taught in 5 mother-tongue multilingual education schools since 2008. Taught in primary schools. Poetry. Magazines. Newspapers. Radio programs. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; genitives, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; polar questions marked with a suffix attached to the verb sentence final; noun head final; no noun classes or genders; content q-word in situ; content questions can have the same word order as assertive sentences, or the question word occurs directly before the verb; up to 2 prefixes, up to 9 suffixes; clause constituents indicated by case-marking; affixes indicate case of noun phrase; verbal affixation marks person, number, object—obligatory; split ergative; comparatives with Nepali, Bhanda; both tense and aspect; no passives or voice; CV, CVC, CVCC; 24 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes; nontonal.
Writing System: Devanagari
Nation of Origin: Nepal
Other Comments: Communities prefer to be called Kirati rather than Kirant. Traditional religion, Buddhist, Hindu.