Dolakha Newar language

Dolakha Newar (endonym Dwālkhā Nepal Bhasa), or Eastern Newar, is a divergent dialect of the Newar language (Nepal Bhasa) spoken in Dolakha District, east of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, by 5,645 Newar people as of 1988. Some speakers of Dolakha Newar can be found in Kathmandu for education or work.

Geographical region

Dolakha Newar is spoken in Dolakha town of Dolakha district, Tauthali, Listi, Jethal of Sindupalchowk district, Duti of Kavrepalchowk district.

Phonology

Consonants

Notes

• Marginal phonemes are in parentheses.
• Allophonic variants are in Square brackets.
• Tap consonants mainly occur as word-medial alternates of /t/, /d/, /dʱ/ or /ɖ/ (in Dolakha only).
• /s/ can be heard as [ɕ] when occurring before front vowels/glide /i,e,j/.
• Affricates /tɕ,dʑ/ can also shift to retracted sounds [t̠s̠,d̠z̠] when occurring before back vowels.

Vowels

• /o,oː/ and /u/ can also be heard as [ɔ,ɔː], and [ʊ].
• In Dolakha Newar, the back vowel sound can be [ɑ], [ʌ], or [ə].
• The following nasal vowels can also be distinguished in vowel length as /ĩːẽːɔ̃ːãːõːũː/.

Diphthongs

Number

Morphology

Nouns

Number

Dolakha Newar distinguishes two numbers on nominals: unmarked singular and plural =pen. The marker =pen changes to =pis when it is followed by case markers.

Case

To indicate syntactic relationship and positions of NPs in clauses, several case markers are employed. They are:

• Absolutive =Ø
• Ergative =na/=n
• Dative =ta
• Genitive =e
• Instrumental =na/=n
• Locative =ku
• Ablatives =laːn, =na, nasi
• Allative =ke

Pronouns

Interrogatives

Verbs