Tamangic languages
Sino-Tibetan branch of central-eastern Nepal
title: "Tamangic languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["tamangic-languages", "languages-of-nepal"] description: "Sino-Tibetan branch of central-eastern Nepal" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamangic_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Sino-Tibetan branch of central-eastern Nepal ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Tamangic |
| region | Nepal, India (Sikkim) |
| familycolor | Sino-Tibetan |
| fam2 | Tibeto-Burman |
| fam3 | Tibeto-Kanauri ? |
| child1 | Tamangic proper ("TGTM") |
| child2 | Ghale |
| child3 | Kaike |
| map | The Tamangic languages map.png |
| glotto | kaik1248 |
| glottorefname | Kaike–Ghale–Tamangic |
| :: |
| name = Tamangic | region = Nepal, India (Sikkim) | familycolor = Sino-Tibetan | fam2 = Tibeto-Burman | fam3 = Tibeto-Kanauri ? | child1 = Tamangic proper ("TGTM") | child2 = Ghale | child3 = Kaike | map = The Tamangic languages map.png | glotto = kaik1248 | glottorefname = Kaike–Ghale–Tamangic
The Tamangic languages, TGTM languages, or West Bodish languages or Kaike-Ghale-Tamangic languages (Glottolog), are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in the Himalayas of Nepal. They are called "West Bodish" by Bradley (1997), from Bod, the native term for Tibet. TGTM stands for Tamang-Gurung-Thakali-Manang.
Proto-TGTM has been reconstructed in Mazaudon (1994). Tamangic is united with the Bodish and West Himalayish languages in Bradley's (1997) "Bodish" and Van Driem's (2001) Tibeto-Kanauri.
Languages
The Tamangic languages are:
- Tamang (several divergent varieties, with a million speakers)
- Gurung (two varieties with low mutual intelligibility)
- Thakali (including the Seke dialect; ethnically Tamang)
- Manang language cluster: the closely related Manang, Gyasumdo, Nar Phu, and Nyeshangte languages.
- Chantyal
- Ghale languages (Ghale and Kutang): spoken by ethnic Tamang, perhaps related to Tamangic.
- Kaike (moribund): may be the most divergent.
Footnotes
References
- Bradley, David (1997). "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification". In Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
- George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
- Mazaudon, Martine. 1994. Problèmes de comparatisme et de reconstruction dans quelques langues de la famille tibéto-birmane. Thèse d'Etat, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle.
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