Sunwar language

Sunuwar, or Koinch (कोइँच; kõich; other spellings are Koinch and Koincha), is a Kiranti language of the Sino-Tibetan language family spoken in Nepal and India by the Sunuwar people. It was first comprehensively attested by the Himalayan Languages Project. It is also known as Kõits Lo (कोइँच लो ; kõica lo), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोइँच ; kirā̃tī-kõich), and Mukhiya (मुखिया ; mukhiyā).^[3]

The Sunuwar language is one of the smaller members of the Tibeto-Burman language family. About 40,000 speakers are residing in eastern Nepal.

Names

The language is commonly known as Koic, for many ethnic Sunuwar speakers also refer to the language as “Sunuwar, Koinch, Koinch or Koincha (कोइँच); Kõits Lo (कोइँच लो), Kiranti-Kõits (किराँती-कोइँच) or Mukhiya (मुखिया).”

Moreover, most Sunwar speakers have the surname (सुनुवार), Sunuvār in Latin script.^[4]

Geographic distribution

The Sunuwar language is commonly spoken in a cluster of Sunuwar villages, located around the region of the core spoken language. These villages are scattered alongside the river banks of Likhu Khola, in two bordering central-eastern districts of Nepal, distant from the main Nepalese road system:^[4] in the Okhaldhū۠ngā District (part of Koshi Province), around the village of Vacul; and in the Rāmechāp District (part of Bagmati Province), around the villages of Pahare and of Kũbhu Kãsthālī for a smaller group of Sunwar speakers. The majority of the Sunwar speakers live on the southern border area of this region, between the villages of Pahare and Vacul.

Located 1,800 meters above sea level, their fields aren’t all fallow from year round cultivation^[4] (Borchers, 2008). Therefore, many Sunwar households are farmers, own a small lot of land and livestock. Moreover, each village often visits their neighboring village markets to purchase inaccessible goods such as spices, sugar, tea, and salt. In the winter, they experience no snow but freezing temperatures. In warmer weather, they experience a lot of rainfall, in the summer, monsoon rainfall. Especially between June and August, it is when they experience the most rain, more so monsoon rainfall.

According to Borchers, there are other villages located outside of the core region. The Surel are claimed to be Sunwar speakers, however, there are no certainties that it is true.

Phonology

Sunwar phonology is significantly influenced by the language of Nepali.

Consonants

The Sunwar language has a mid-sized arrangement of thirty-two consonantal phonemes:

• Sound in parentheses only are heard in words borrowed from Nepali. Sounds in brackets are only heard as allophones.^[4]
• The implosive sound [ɓ] was heard phonemically until recently among dialects. It is now heard as a plosive [b] in the village of Saipu, and as an approximant [w] in the village of Kũbhu. It is only heard rarely in word-initial position among the speakers of Saipu.^[4]

Vowels

According to Borchers,^[4] there are eleven vowel phonemes in Sunwar:

[a~ɑ], /ā / [aː], /e/ [e~ɛ], /i/ [i], /o/ [o], /u/ [u], / ū/ [uː~y], /ã/ [ã~ɑ̃], /ã̄/ [ãː], /ẽ/ [ẽ~ɛ̃], /ĩ/ [ĩ]

• Vowels with bar - Represents long vowels
• Vowels with tilde -  Represents short nasalized vowels
• Vowels with bar and tilde - Represents long and nasalized vowels

Diphthongs

There are a total of eight diphthongs in Sunuwar: /ai/ [aɪ], /aĩ/ [aɪ̃], /au/ [au], /eu/ [eu], /oi/ [oi], /oĩ/ [oĩ], /ui/ [ui], /uĩ/ [uĩ]

According to Borchers,^[4] a principled way to distinguish diphthongs from a sequence of two monophthongs does not exist in the Sunwar language.

As exemplified by Borchers,^[4] this table consists of examples of contrasts between diphthongs:

Syllable structure

Syllable Structure of Sunuwar: C(C)V(V)(C)(C)

Written language

Sunuwar alphabet (Koĩts)

The Sunuwar alphabet (Sunuwar: कोइँच , 𑯆𑯑𑯃̐𑯌 𑯎̭𑯂𑯒𑯂), also known as Jenticha script, or Koĩts script, was promoted in 1932 by Karna Bahadur Sunuwar (1926-1991), and got official recognition in Sikkim and Eastern Nepal where it is taught in schools. Sunuwar speakers from Nepal and Sikkim, northeastern India, use the Sunuwar alphabet for printed materials such as newspapers and literature.

The Sunuwar script is unrelated to any other scripts (even if some letter shapes have some resemblance to Latin and Limbu letter forms with similar phonetic value), and behaves like an alphabet with 35 base letters, written left-to-right, with syllabic features, extended with combining diacritics. The script also features its own set of decimal digits.

Unlike other Indic scripts derived from Brahmic, the Sunuwar alphabet includes no combining vowel signs: the script was initially a pure alphabet and the base consonants initially did not have any inherent vowel. But a second version of the script modified the orthographic rules to imply its presence, where the inherent vowel would be altered when appending any independent vowel letters, or suppressed by using a virama (or halant) sign in some consonant clusters or for consonants in final position of syllables. The independent letter form for the inherent vowel is now removed in most cases from the normal orthography in the middle of words, only used in isolation (i.e. no longer written when following a leading consonant, unless it is at end of words). A number of glyphic forms (conjuncts using consonants in half forms) were added to the script after this orthographic change for more easily writing consonant clusters, instead of writing multiple consonants with virama signs.^[5]

Tikamuli

The Tikamuli script (Sunuwar: तिकामुली ब्रेसे) is a writing system developed by Tikaram Mulicha for writing the Sunuwar language. It is an abugida writing system based on the Brahmi, created within the Sunuwar community in Nepal as an alternative to the Jenticha script (Sunuwar script). The script has one vowel carrier with 5 diacritics, 32 basic consonants and 3 diacritic marks.

At present, the use of this script is limited to Nepal, with the wider community preferring the Koits script. ^[6]

Devanagari

Although Sunwar had no traditional written language in Nepal, most literate speakers use the Devanagari abugida,^[4] also used for writing Nepali.

Independent vowels and diphthongs

Consonants with inherent vowel

Combining diacritics

The sign ्, known in Sunuwar as sangmilu, represents a virama or halant; it is used to silent the inherent vowel after the consonant.^[7]

The sign ँ, known in Sunuwar as taslathenk, corresponds to the candrabindu in Devanagari; it is used to nasalize the vowel.^[7]

Morphology

Markers

Case-marking suffixes

According to Borchers,^[4] “all case markers in the Sunuwar language are suffixes.”

As exemplified by Borchers,^[4] this table consists of the noun case markers.

Dual marker

A dual marker can be associated with dual/pair or the cardinal number ‘two’.^[4]

Example of dual marker by Borchers:^[4]

Plural marker

In the Sunuwar language, both nouns and pronouns can be marked as dual or plural.

In addition items in a group can be marked plural.^[4]

Examples of the plural marker used to point at items in a group by Borchers:^[4]

Absent marker

According to Borchers,^[4] the Sunuwar language does not have a zero morpheme, but it can still indicate the number amount of something through verbal agreement markers or numerals.

Example of the absent marker by Borchers:^[4]

Suffixes

Possessive suffix: (Animate Agent)

According to Borchers,^[4] the possessive suffix is attached to a human or animate agent to indicate a possessive relationship.

Examples of the possessive by Borchers:^[4]

Possessive suffix: (inanimate subject)

According to Borchers,^[4] inanimate subjects are marked with the possessive suffix to indicate what it is "made of". Example of possessive indicating what it is "made of" by Borchers:^[4]

Quantifiers

Quantifiers in the Sunwar language are loaned from Nepali. Quantifiers are used for amounts or masses.^[4] As exemplified by Borchers,^[4] this table consists of quantifiers; including some that are loaned from Nepali.

Examples of quantifiers that indicate amounts or masses by Borchers:^[4]

Syntax

Adjectives:

According to Borchers,^[4] adjectives can belong to the verbal noun form, with an attached . In the Sunwar language, some adjectives are borrowed from Nepali.

Adjectives: Color forms

Borchers also notes that adjectives can belong to the form/term color.^[4] As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of the color form/terms.^[4]

Adjectives: Non-verbal nouns without attached

The Sunwar language has a category for adjectives under the form ‘others’, that are not verbal nouns. In addition, some adjectives may be interchangeable as an adverb.^[4] As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of the adjectives that are not verbal nouns ending in form/terms.^[4]

Examples of adjectives that are not verbal nouns ending in by Borchers:^[4]

Particles

As exemplified by Borchers, this table consists of particles in correlation to various relationships.^[4]

Postpositional particles

According to Borchers, the Sunwar language borrows particles from Nepali that indicate the relationship between clauses.^[4] Examples of postpositional particles by Borchers:^[4]

My stomach v.s. your stomach

Example by Borchers:^[4]

Syntax

In linguistic typology, a subject-object-verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges". (A Grammar of Sunwar) ^[8]

Sunwar people called "Khangsa" sign language with voice and direct action, for foreign people who do not understand Sunuwar.^{[citation needed][3][9]}

Examples of order: Subject/Object/Verb by Borchers.^[4]

Vocabulary

Seu+wa+la (Sewala)

Numerals (Devanagari)

References

1. ^ 2011 Nepal Census, Social Characteristics Tables
2. ^ "The Sikkim Official Languages Act". sikkim.gov.in. Government of Sikkim. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
3. ^ Borchers, Dörte (2008). A grammar of Sunwar: descriptive grammar, paradigms, texts and glossary. [Online-Ausg.]. ed. Leiden: Brill. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-90-04-16709-4.
4. ^ Borchers, Dörte (2008). A Grammar of Sunwar: Descriptive Grammar, Paradigms, Texts and Glossary. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-16709-4.
5. ^ "Jenticha". ScriptSource.org. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
6. ^ Pandey, Anshuman (2011-01-25). "Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Tikamuli Script in ISO/IEC 10646". Unicode Technical Committee. L2/10-465R (N3963). Retrieved May 27, 2026.
7. ^ Pandey, Anshuman (31 May 2011). "Proposal to Encode the Jenticha Script in ISO/IEC 10646". Unicode. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
8. ^ A Grammar of Sunwar. Dörte Borchers. 2008. ISBN 978-9004167094. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
9. ^ Pandey, Anshuman (31 May 2011). "Proposal to Encode the Jenticha Script in ISO/IEC 10646". Retrieved 18 December 2019.

External links

• Sunwar language website

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