Magar language

Category:Use dmy dates from August 2019

Magar
मगर ढुट‎ (magar ḍhuṭ)
Native toNepal, India
RegionNepal; significant communities in Bhutan; Sikkim; Assam and Darjeeling district of India
Ethnicity2.0 million Magar (2021 census of Nepal)[1]
Native speakers
(810,000 cited 2001–2006)Category:Language articles with old speaker data[1]
Akkha script (official), Devanagari, Latin script
Official status
Official language in
 India
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
mgp – Eastern Magar
mrd – Western Magar
Glottologmaga1261
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Category:ISO language articles citing sources other than Ethnologue

Magar Dhut (Nepali: मगर ढुटCategory:Articles containing Nepali (macrolanguage)-language text, Nepali: [ɖʱuʈ]Category:Pages with Nepali (macrolanguage) IPA) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken mainly in Nepal, southern Bhutan, and in Darjeeling, Assam and Sikkim, India, by the Magar people. It is divided into two groups (Eastern and Western) and further dialect divisions give distinct tribal identity.[3] In Nepal 810,000 people speak the language.

While the government of Nepal developed Magar language curricula, as provisioned by the constitution, the teaching materials have never successfully reached Magar schools, where most school instruction is in the Nepali language.[4] It is not unusual for groups with their own language to feel that the "mother-tongue" is an essential part of their identity.

The Dhut Magar language is sometimes lumped with the Magar Kham language spoken further west in Bheri, Dhaulagiri, and Rapti zones. Although the two languages share many common words, they have major structural differences and are not mutually intelligible.[5]

Geographical distribution

Category:Articles needing additional references from January 2026Category:All articles needing additional references

Western Magar

Western Magar (dialects: Palpa and Syangja) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

Eastern Magar

Eastern Magar (dialects: Gorkha, Nawalparasi, and Tanahu) is spoken in the following districts of Nepal (Ethnologue).

India

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain sibilant
Stop voiceless p t̪* t t͡s k (ʔ)
aspirated pʰ t̪ʰ* tʰ t͡sʰ kʰ
voiced b d̪* d d͡z ɡ
murmured bʱ d̪ʱ* dʱ d͡zʱ ɡʱ
Fricative voiceless s h
voiced ɦ
Nasal voiced m n ŋ
murmured mʱ nʱ ŋʱ
Lateral voiced l
murmured lʱ
Approximant voiced w ɹ j
murmured wʱ ɹʱ jʱ

*-only occur in the Tanahu dialect.

/ʔ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is only a marginal phoneme.[6]

Phoneme Allophones
/p/Category:Pages with plain IPA [p̚]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/pʰ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ɸ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/t/Category:Pages with plain IPA [tʲ], [t̚], [ʈ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/tʰ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [θ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/d/Category:Pages with plain IPA [dʲ], [ɖ], [ɽ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/k/Category:Pages with plain IPA [kʲ], [k̚]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/kʰ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [x]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/ɡ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ɡʲ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/t͡s/Category:Pages with plain IPA [t͡ʃ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/t͡sʰ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [t͡ʃʰ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/dz/Category:Pages with plain IPA [dʒ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/d͡zʱ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [d͡ʒʱ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/s/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ʃ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/h/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ɦ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/n/Category:Pages with plain IPA [nʲ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/ŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ŋʲ]Category:Pages with plain IPA

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
ʌ
Open a
Diphthongs
/ia/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/iu/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/ei/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/eu/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/aɪ/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/au/Category:Pages with plain IPA
/oi/Category:Pages with plain IPA

[6]

Phoneme Allophones
/i/Category:Pages with plain IPA [i] [ɪ] [i̤] [i̤ː] [ĩ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/e/Category:Pages with plain IPA [e] [ɛ] [ẽ] [e̤] [e̤ː]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/a/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ä] [æ] [ä̃] [äˑ] [ä̤] [ä̤ː]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/u/Category:Pages with plain IPA [u] [ʊ] [u̟] [ṳ] [ṳː] [ũ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/ʌ/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ʌ] [ə] [ə̃] [ʌ̤] [ʌ̃]Category:Pages with plain IPA
/o/Category:Pages with plain IPA [o] [o̟] [õ] [oˑ] [o̤] [o̤ː]Category:Pages with plain IPA

References

  1. 1 2 Eastern Magar at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access iconCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 27
    Western Magar at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access iconCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 27
  2. ↑ "The Sikkim Official Languages Act" (PDF). sikkim.gov.in. Government of Sikkim. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
  3. ↑ "The Eastern Magar of Nepal". Archived from the original on 18 March 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.Category:CS1: unfit URL
  4. ↑ B. K. Rana. "Mother Tongue Education for Social Inclusion and Conflict Resolution". Appeals, News and Views from Endangered Communities. Foundation for Endangered Languages. Archived from the original on 16 February 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
  5. ↑ Kansakar, Tej R. (July 1993). "The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal - A General Survey" (PDF). Contributions to Nepalese Studies. 20 (2): 165–173. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  6. 1 2 Grunow-Hårsta, Karen A. (2008). A descriptive grammar of two Magar dialects of Nepal: Tanahu and Syangja Magar. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. pp. 32–67.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Category:CS1 maint: location missing publisher

Further reading

  • Nishi 西, Yoshio 義郎 (1992e). "マガル語" [Magar, (LSI) Māgarī, Magar, Mangar]. In 亀井 Kamei, 孝 Takashi; 河野 Kōno, 六郎 Rokurō; 千野 Chino, 栄一 Eichi (eds.). 三省堂言語学大辞典 The Sanseido Encyclopaedia of Linguistics (in Japanese). Vol. 4. Tokyo: 三省堂 Sanseido Press. pp. 28a–40b. ISBN 4385152128.Category:CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
  • Shepherd, Gary, and Barbara Shepherd. A Vocabulary of the Magar Language. Comparative vocabularies of languages of Nepal. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics [and] Institute of Nepal Studies, Tribhuvan University, 1972.
  • Shepherd, Gary, and Barbara Shepherd. Magar Phonemic Summary. Tibeto-Burman phonemic summaries, 8. Kirtipur: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, 1971.
Category:Languages of India Category:Languages of Nepal Category:Languages of Sikkim Category:Magaric languages Category:Languages of Koshi Province Category:Languages of Gandaki Province Category:Languages of Lumbini Province Category:Languages of Sudurpashchim Province Category:Languages written in Devanagari
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