Gurung language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Selected ethnic groups of Nepal;
Bhotia, Sherpa, Thakali
Gurung
Kiranti, Rai, Limbu
Nepal Bhasa
Pahari
Tamang

Gurung (also, Tamu Kyi, Devanagari:तमु क्यी) is a term used to collectively refer to Eastern Gurung (ISO 639-3: ggn) and Western Gurung (ISO 639-3: gvr), nevertheless, mutual intelligibility between the two languages is limited. Total number of all Gurung speakers in Nepal is 227,918 (1991 census). Perhaps, a distinction should be made between Gurung as an ethnic group and the number of people who, actually, speakers of Gurung.

Nepali, Nepal's official language, is an Indo-European language, whereas Gurung is a Sino-Tibetan (or according to recent revisions-Tibeto-Burman) language. Gurung are recognized as an official nationality by the Government of Nepal.

[edit] Classification

According to ethnologue, Gurung is two languages, Eastern [ggn] and Western [gvr].

[edit] Grammar

Some miscellaneous grammatical features of the Gurung languages are;

• SOV;
• postpositions;
• genitives;
• adjectives relatives before noun heads;
• numerals after noun heads;
• rising intonation in bipolar questions;
• 1 prefix on negative verbs;
• maximum number of suffixes 3;
• case of noun phrase shown by preposition;
• no subject or object referencing in verbs;
• split ergative system according to tense;
• causatives;
• benefactives;
• CV, CCV, CCCV;

Phonetically, Gurung languages are tonal.

[edit] Writing system

Gurung languages use Devanāgarī script.

[edit] References

• Ethnologue report
• Entry for Western Gurung at Rosetta Project
• Entry for Eastern Gurung at Rosetta Project