rjs ISO 639
राजबंशी (Rājbanshi), কোচ ৰাজবংশী (Koch Rajbangshi) Autonyms
Rajbanshi
Visualizations
A language of Nepal
- ISO 639
- rjs
- Alternate Names
- Deshi Bhasa, Gangai, Koch, Koche, Rajbangsi, Rajbansi, Tajpuria
- Autonym
- राजबंशी (Rājbanshi), কোচ ৰাজবংশী (Koch Rajbangshi)
- Population
- 168,300, all users. L1 users: 147,000 (2011 census), increasing. 2,080 Koche, 122,000 Rajbanshi, 18,800 Tajpuriya, 3,610 Gangai. L2 users: 21,300 (2011 census).
- Location
- Kosi province: south Jhapa, and south Morang districts.
- Language Maps
- Eastern Nepal
- Language Status
- 5 (Developing). Language of recognized indigenous nationality: Rajbanshi (Koch).
- Classification
- Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Outer Languages, Eastern, Bengali-Assamese
- Dialects
- Western Rajbanshi, Eastern Rajbanshi, Central Rajbanshi. Intelligibility is fairly high throughout the area (2001 J. Eppele and J. Grimes). Lexical similarity: 77%–95% with all varieties in Nepal (2001 J. Eppele and J. Grimes).
- Typology
- SOV; postpositions; noun head final; 2 noun classes or genders; content q-word in situ; 1 prefix, up to 4 suffixes; clause constituents indicated by both case-marking and word order; verbal affixation marks person and number; non-ergative; tense and aspect; passives and voice (no morphological passive, but 2 analytical passives); nontonal; 32 consonant and 6–7 vowel phonemes.
- Language Use
- Vigorous. Home, friends, religion, work; mixed use: Education. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use Bengali [ben]. Also use Hindi [hin]. Also use Maithili [mai]. Also use Nepali [npi]. Used as L2 by Dhimal [dhi].
- Language Development
- Literacy rate in L2: 38% (1991 census). Mother-tongue multilingual education and adult literacy programs have been carried out in villages throughout the Rajbanshi area. Taught as subject in primary schools. Literature. Newspapers. Radio. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. NT: 2009.
- Writing
- Devanagari script [Deva].
- Other Comments
- Hindu, Christian, Muslim, traditional religion.
- Language Resources
- OLAC resources in and about Rajbanshi
