Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Grammar of Tanahu and Syangja Magar

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation project is to produce a much needed record of two dialects of Magar, an endangered and largely undocumented Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. Due to political unrest and economic pressure, the loss of indigenous languages of Nepal is rapid. Though the Magars are a large and significant ethnic group in Nepal, the language has a mother-tongue retention rate of only 47.5%. Thus, it is imperative that linguistic research be conducted while Magar is still spoken by whole communities. This project, based on original fieldwork, will result in a comprehensive grammar, an extensive vocabulary and a collection of transcribed texts. These documents will be disseminated and accessible to the research community as well as to the Magar people. The significance of the project goes beyond the preservation of a linguistic and cultural record of Magar. The languages of Nepal and the Himalaya lie at the confluence of two great and typologically distinct linguistic areas, the Indosphere and the Sinosphere, to which is added strains of Ur-Himalayan and Austro-Asiatic languages. Thus, this area provides a rich opportunity to study language contact and divergence. The two dialects, Syangja and Tanahu Magar, diverge in important aspects of their grammar and align differently with typical features of the major language families in Nepal. Their comparison can be brought to bear on issues in Tibeto-Burman linguistics concerning the features which define the linguistic area, the effect of language contact and diffusion in this area of intense contact, and the relationships of the languages of the Himalaya and how the proto-languages are to be reconstructed and classified. The data also has relevance beyond linguistics. Anthropologically, Magars are a composite ethnic group whose precise identity is unclear. A record of the language can give insight into their identity, migrations and their interactions with other indigenous peoples. Moreover, the data can be brought to bear on general questions of how ethnic and linguistic identities come to be.