Alternate Names: Gurung, Tamu Kyi
Dialects: Northwestern Gurung (Kaski Gurung), Southern Gurung (Syangja Gurung). Dialect speakers may have enough mutual intelligibility to understand complex and abstract discourse, but not enough with Eastern Gurung ,. Related to Thakali ,.
Status Notes: Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Gurung.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 125,000 in Nepal (2007), increasing. 326,000 all Gurung languages in Nepal (2011 census). Population total all countries: 158,000. 12,000 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 544,000. L2 users: 18,918 L2 speakers of all Gurung languages. Mainly occupational castes who live in and serve the Gurung communities (1991 census).
Language Use: Children and young people use Gurung less frequently than those who are older. Passed down only a little from generation to generation (2002 UNESCO). Home; mixed use: Friends, religion, work. Some use among all ages. Positive attitudes. School graduates speak some English [eng]. Also use Lhomi [lhm], Nepali [npi].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 30%. Literacy rate in L2: 30%. Poetry. Magazines. Newspapers. New media. Radio programs. Films. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1982.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; genitives, adjectives, relative clauses precede noun heads; numerals after noun heads; noun head final; no noun classes or genders; content q-word in situ; rising intonation marks bipolar questions; one negative prefix on verbs; up to 2 suffixes; clause constituents indicated by case-marking; case of noun phrases is indicated by postpositions; no subject or object referencing in verbs; split ergative system according to tense; causatives; benefactives; aspect; no passives or voice; 24 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes; CV, CCV, CCCV; tonal: voice quality or register is part of the tone system.
Writing System: Devanagari
Nation of Origin: Nepal
Other Comments: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu.