Raji is a small Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal and Uttarakhand, India. Speakers were until recently nomadic.
Distribution
Raji is spoken in the following areas of southwestern Nepal:1
- Lumbini Province: Banke and Bardiya districts
- Karnali Province: Surkhet
- Sudurpashchim Province: Kailali and Kanchanpur districts
It is also spoken by Raji people of Uttarakhand, India, primarily living in Pithoragarh district.
In Pithoragarh district, Rastogi (2015)2 reports that Raji is spoken in the hamlets of Kimkhola, Bhogtirua, Ganagaon, Chipaltara, Madanbori, Kutachaurani, Altodi, Jamtadi, Khirdwari and Chakarpur.
Dialects
Khatri (2008)3 divides Raji into 3 main regional dialects, for which he also provides word lists.
- Barabandale: spoken in Jyotinagar, Katasi, Lalbojhi, Kuti, Bhuruwa, Solta, Khairehi, and Keodi of Kailali District; Sundarpur, Bandevi Sibir, Daiji, krishanpur and Chela Sibir of Kanchanpur District; and Rajigaun, Galfa, and Babiyachaur of Surkhet District.
- Purbiya: Shankarpur, Machhagadh, Baniyabhar, Rambhapur, Dhakela, Dhadhawar, Sanoshree, Gulariya Municipality and Phanphena of Bardiya District.Also Speak in Chhinchu of Surkhet District.
- Naukule : Spoken in Jhil and Kuchaini of Chaumala, Shankarpur of Masuriya, Jarahi of Sadepani, Dhangaghi Municipality and Manera. All are located within Kailali District.
Phonology
Consonants4| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | plain | p b | t d | ʈ ɖ | tʃ dʒ | k g | |
| aspirated | pʰ bʱ | tʰ dʱ | ʈʰ ɖʱ | tʃʰ dʒʱ | kʰ gʱ | ||
| Fricative | s | x | h | ||||
| Nasal | plain | m | n | ɳ | ŋ | ||
| preaspirated | ʱm | ʱn | |||||
| Approximant | plain | w | l | r | j | ||
| preaspirated | ʱl | ʱr | ʱj | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ĩ | u ũ | |
| Mid | e ẽ | ə ə̃ | o õ |
| Low | ɛ ɛ̃ | a ã |
External links
- Raji Language Resource collection of Raji language documentation in the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) archive
References
Raji at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) https://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/rji/ ↩
Rastogi, Kavita. 2015. Raji Orthography Development. Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 14(2): 39–48. doi:10.5070/H914224947 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/74h7j2p6 ↩
Khatri, Ramesh. 2008. The structure of verbs and sentences of Raji. MA thesis, Kirtipur: Tribhuvan University. ↩
Krishan, Shree (2001). Nagano, Yasuhiko; Lapolla, Randy J. (eds.). "A Sketch of Raji Grammar". New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages. 3. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology: 449–497. doi:10.15021/00002153. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩
Krishan, Shree (2001). Nagano, Yasuhiko; Lapolla, Randy J. (eds.). "A Sketch of Raji Grammar". New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages. 3. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology: 449–497. doi:10.15021/00002153. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩