Alternate Names: Kath-Bhotiya, Lama Bhote, Murmi, Rongba, Sain, Tamang Gyoi, Tamang Lengmo, Tamang Tam
Dialects: Preliminary results: 86% intelligibility of Western Trisuli Tamang ,, 87% by Central-Eastern Tamang ,, 54%–67% by Outer-Eastern Tamang ,. Relationship within Tamang needs evaluation. Southwestern Tamang has 80% lexical similarity with Western Trisuli Tamang ,, 76%–78% with Western Rasuwa dialect ,, 78% with Northwestern Tamang ,, 70%–73% with Eastern Gorkha Tamang ,, 77%–93% with Eastern Tamang ,.
Status Notes: Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Tamang.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 109,000 (1991 census), increasing. Population for all Tamang varieties: 1,350,000 (2011 census).
Language Use: Home; mixed use: Friends, religion, work, education. All ages. Positive attitudes. Also use Tibetan [bod] in religious contexts. Also use Nepali [npi] in official contexts. Also use Bhojpuri [bho], Maithili [mai].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 1%–10%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–75%. Taught in primary schools. Poetry. Magazines. Newspapers. New media. Radio programs. Films. Dictionary.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; noun head both initial and final; no noun classes or gender; content q-word initial; up to 4 suffixes; clause constituents indicated by case-marking; genitives after nouns; relatives before nouns; question word medial; ergativity; tense and aspect; no passives or voice; CV, CVC, CCV, V, CCVC, CVCCC; tonal; 24 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes.
Writing System: Devanagari
Nation of Origin: Nepal
Other Comments: Buddhist, traditional religion.