Khaling language

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Kiranti language of India

title: "Khaling language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["kiranti-languages", "languages-of-nepal", "languages-of-koshi-province", "languages-written-in-devanagari"] description: "Kiranti language of India" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaling_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Kiranti language of India ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Khaling
altname	khāliṅ
nativename	खालिङ
states	Nepal
region	Solukhumbu and Khotang districts
speakers	14,467 in Nepal
ethnicity	Khaling Rai
date	2011 census
ref	e18
speakers2	unknown number in India
familycolor	Sino-Tibetan
fam2	Tibeto-Burman
fam3	Mahakiranti (?)
fam4	Kiranti
fam6	Upper Dudhkosi
script	Devanagari
iso3	klr
glotto	khal1275
glottorefname	Khaling
::

Khaling (kʰɛ̂l brâː ख्या:ल् ब्रा:) is a Kiranti language spoken in Solukhumbu district, Nepal and Sikkim, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong in India. It is one of the few Kiranti languages with tonal contrasts, which are of secondary origin.

Khaling has approximately 15,000 speakers and is therefore considered a vulnerable language. Khaling has a complex system of stem alternations: as many as 10 distinct stems have to be posited for a word (Jacques et al. 2012). Khaling is very unusual in having an auditory demonstrative (see Jacques and Lahaussois 2014). Khaling is also known as Rai, Khalinge Rai, Khael Bra, and Khael Baat.

General information

Khaling is still being acquired by children who live in Khaling-speaking areas, as well as non-Khaling children who happen to live in that area.

Geographical distribution

Khaling is spoken in the following VDC's of Nepal (Ethnologue).

Solukhumbu District, Province No. 1: Kanku, Basa, Waku, Buksa, Jubing, Pawai and Phuleli villages
Khotang District, Province No. 1: Buipa Fuleli and Kharmi villages
Udayapur District, Province No. 1: Triyuga Municipality Gaighat, Basaha, Belter, Rampur city.
Sankhuwasabha District, Province No. 1: Tungkhaling village
Sunsari District, Province No. 1: Dharan
Ilam District, Province No. 1: Pang, Sumbek, and Mai Pokhari villages

Phonology

Vowels

::data[format=table title="Vowel phonemes"]

Front	Central	Back	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	High	High-mid	Low-mid	Low




::

Khaling language has rising-falling is denoted by using / ः/ while using Devanagari script.
/ʌ/ and /oɔ/ do not appear as long vowels.
Long vowels are denoted by ⟨ऽ⟩.

Consonants

::data[format=table title="Khaling consonant phonemes"]

Bilabial	Dental	alveolar	Velar	Glottal	Nasal	Affricate	voiceless	unaspirated	aspirated	voiced	unaspirated	aspirated	Fricative	Trill	Lateral	Frictionless continuant









::

Glotta stop is one of the consonants of Koyu/Koyee(Koi) language which is represent by using .
To write Khaling language Devanagari lipi or Kirat Sirijungga lipi is used.

References

(2012). "An Overview of Khaling Verbal Morphology". Language and Linguistics.
(2016). "Tone and Inflection: New Facts and New Perspectives". Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
"Did you know Khaling is vulnerable?".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::