hut ISO 639

Humla

  • Geography

    NP Karnali province: Humla district, Namkha and Simkot municipalities; Sudur Pashchimanchal province.
  • Language Cloud

A language of Nepal

hut
Bhote, Humla Tibetan, Humli Lama, Kham, Phoke, “Humla Bhotia” (pej.)
5,000 (2014 SIL). 36% of the Limi dialect are monolingual. Ethnic population: 5,000 (2014 SIL).
Karnali province: Humla district, Namkha and Simkot municipalities; Sudur Pashchimanchal province.
Western Nepal
6a (Vigorous).
Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Western Tibeto-Burman, Bodish, Central Bodish, Central, gTsang
Limi, Upper Humla (Satthapale, Yultsodunba), Eastern Humla (Barathapale, Nyinba), Lower Humla (Tugchulungba, Yakpa). Speakers perceive all dialects to be mutual intelligible. However, intelligibility may be limited between varieties which are geographically distant form one another (2021 SIL). Lexical similarity: 82% between Limi and Lower Humla varieties, 79% between Limi and Upper Humla varieties, 78%–85% between Upper Humla and Lower Humla varieties, 76%–82% between Lower Humla and Eastern Humla, 74%–77% between Limi and Eastern Humla varieties, 73%–77% between Upper Humla and Eastern Humla (2021 SIL).
SOV; postposition; noun head initial; noun classes or genders; content q-word in situ; 1 prefix, up to 3 suffixes; case-marking and word order; verbal affixation marks person (conjunct vs. disjunct distinction); tense and aspect; no passives or voice; 35 consonants (Limi variety) and 7 vowel phonemes; tonal.
Home, friends, religion, work. Used by all. Positive attitudes. A few also use Central Tibetan [bod]. A few also use Hindi [hin]. Also use Nepali [npi], mostly for trade.
Literacy rate in L2: 10%–15% Tibetan [bod]. Some schools using English [eng] medium, some Tibetan [bod] instruction. Texts.
Unwritten [Qaax].
The Humli Khyampa are a traditionally nomadic group whose members sometimes pass through Humla. They are now becoming more semi-nomadic. They are buying land and building houses in districts south of Humla in western Nepal (2014 D. Greninger). The linguistic relationship between Humli Khyampa and Humla [hut] and Tibetan [bod] is unknown (2021 SIL). Buddhist.
OLAC resources in and about Humla