Raji–Raute languages

Raji–Raute is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family that includes the three closely related languages, namely Raji, Raute, and Rawat. They are spoken by small hunter-gatherer communities in the Terai region of Nepal and in neighboring Uttarakhand, India.

Like some other Tibeto-Burman languages, Raji–Raute languages have voiceless sonorants.

Classification

Raute and Rawat are closely related; Raji is more distantly related. Fortier classifies the Raji–Raute languages as follows. Note that language varieties that classify within the Rawat subgroup are known by various names; Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula is taxonomically a Rawat language, and is not to be confused with Raute proper.

Raji–Raute

Raute–Rawat
- Raute (nomadic groups)
- Rawat
  - Rajwar (spoken in Khirdwari)
  - Rawat
    - Rawat (also known as Ban Raji)
    - Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula
Raji
- Naukule
- Bandale, Purbia

Schorer (2016)

Schorer (2016:293) classifies Raji–Raute as part of his newly proposed Greater Magaric group.

Greater Magaric

Dura
- Dura
- Tandrange
Magaric: Kham, Magar
Chepangic-Raji
- Chepangic: Chepang, Bhujel
- Raji-Raute

Fortier (2012)

A database of 700 words for items from households of Raute and Ban Rawat speakers (Fortier 2012) indicates a largely Sino-Tibetan language ancestry. Deep Root items include 58 words of Sino-Tibetan origin and 7 of Austroasiatic origin. Proto-family items include 281 morphemes of Proto-Tibeto-Burman origin. Meso-root, or subfamily items include 34 words of Proto-Kuki-Chin origin, 23 of Proto-Tani origin, 6 of Proto-Tangkulic origin, and 1 of Northern Chin origin. The database omits most loans of Indo-Aryan origin although 43 items were of Sanskrit origin. Work remains on identifying etymologies of the remaining 247 items in the Raute–Rawat database.

Distribution

Raji-Raute varieties are spoken in the following areas of Nepal and India.

Dadeldhura/Darchula Raute: Darchula District and Dadeldhura District, Nepal
Ban Raji/Rawat: Pithoragarh District, Uttarakhand, India
Khirdwari Rajwar: Champawat District, Uttarakhand, India
Raute: nomadic, 10 districts of western Nepal
Bandale Raji: Surkhet District and Kailali District, Nepal
Naukule Raji: Kailali District, Nepal
Purbia Raji: Bardia District, Nepal

Vocabulary

The comparative vocabulary lists of Raji and Raute below are from Rastogi & Fortier (2005). Rastogi & Fortier (2005) also provide Purbia Raji and Janggali Raute forms.

Swadesh list

The following is a 100-word Swadesh list from Rastogi & Fortier (2005).

Body parts

Rastogi & Fortier (2005) list the following body part terms.

Footnotes

References

George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
Fortier, Jana (2012) "Annotated Dictionary of Raute and Rawat Languages" [1]
Rastogi, Kavita and Jana Fortier. 2005. Daa, Nii, Sum/Khung: Comparative Vocabulary of the West-Central Himalayan Languages Rawati (Raji) and Khamci (Raute). Indian Linguistics 66. 105–115.