Alternate Names: Sampang Gun, Sampang Gung, Sampang Kha, Sampange Rai, Sangpang, Sangpang Gîn, Sangpang Gun, Sangpang Kha
Dialects: Khotang, Phali. Mutual intelligibility between the Khartamcha variety and the Patheka variety of the Khotang dialect is high. Mutual intelligibility between the Khotang and Phali Sampang dialect is difficult to estimate but appears to be low.
Status Notes: Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Rai.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 18,300 (2011 census), decreasing. Phali dialect spoken by a few elderly speakers. 0 monolinguals.
Language Use: Shifting to Nepali [npi]. Mixed use: Home, friends, religion, work. Young adults and older. Some use among children and adolescents. Positive attitudes. Most speak some Nepali [npi] but men, educated and younger people have higher proficiency. Nepali is valued as language of education.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 80%. Dictionary. NT: 2008.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; noun head final; noun classes or gender; content q-word in situ; 1 prefix, up to 6 suffixes; word-order clause constituents; verbal affixation marks person and number; split ergativity; tense and aspect; passives and voice; nontonal; 28 consonant and 20 vowel phonemes; distinctive pitch-accent, nasal vowel phonemes and syllabic nasals; a prominent role is played in the grammar by an imperfective nominalizing suffix; in nominal morphology, the ergative structure is breaking down through the introduction of the Nepali , oblique case marker.
Writing System: Devanagari
Nation of Origin: Nepal
Other Comments: Traditional religion, Christian, Hindu.