Lepcha language

**Lepcha language**, or **Róng language** (Lepcha: ᰛᰩᰵᰛᰧᰵᰶ; Róng ríng), is a Himalayish language spoken by the Lepcha people in Sikkim, India and parts of West Bengal, Nepal, and Bhutan.

People have tried hard to keep the Lepcha language alive, but it is mostly replaced by Nepali now. UNESCO considers Lepcha to be an endangered language.

Lepcha is spoken in Sikkim and Darjeeling in West Bengal, India. In 1991, there were 39,342 Lepcha speakers. It is one of the native languages of the region. Unlike many Himalayan languages, Lepcha has its own writing system. Over 180 old Lepcha books, the largest collection in the world, are preserved in Leiden.

Some schools in Sikkim use Lepcha as the teaching language. Compared to other Tibeto-Burman languages, Lepcha has been studied more widely. However, there are still many aspects of Lepcha language and culture that have not been documented.

Only a small number of households have younger people who actively speak Lepcha. Everyone in the Lepcha region speaks two languages. Efforts to revive the language are limited and have not succeeded in preserving it where it was originally used. Because the population is shrinking and the culture is fading, Lepcha is mainly used for traditions and ceremonies, making its use less significant in everyday life.

## Population

Lepcha is spoken by minority groups in Sikkim and West Bengal in India, as well as in Nepal and Bhutan. It is considered one of the original languages of the region, existing before Tibetan languages (like Sikkimese and Dzongkha) and Nepali. There are four main communities of Lepcha speakers: Renjóngmú in Sikkim, Támsángmú in parts of West Bengal (Kalimpong, Kurseong, and Mirik), ʔilámmú in Nepal's Ilam District, and Promú in southwestern Bhutan. Lepcha-speaking groups in India are larger than those in Nepal and Bhutan.

The Indian census reported 50,000 Lepcha speakers, however the number of native Lepcha speakers in India may be closer to 30,000.

## Classification

Lepcha is hard to categorize as a language, but George van Driem (2001) suggests it might be most closely related to the Mahakiranti languages, which are part of the Himalayish language group.

Lepcha varies within its communities, with words influenced by dominant languages like Nepali and Sikkimese Tibetan. However, Plaisier (2007) notes that these influences don't create distinct dialects within Lepcha.

Roger Blench (2013) suggests that Lepcha has an Austroasiatic substratum, which originated from a now-extinct branch of Austroasiatic that he calls "Rongic".

## Features

Lepcha belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and doesn't use tones. However, it has stress or pitch sounds that can be shown in its writing system. Many of its words are made up of single syllables.

Notably, words that are commonly considered obscene or taboo in other languages are not treated as such by native speakers.

## Script

The Lepcha script, also called "róng," is syllabic and includes unique marks and combined characters. Its origins are uncertain. Early Lepcha manuscripts were written vertically, influenced by Chinese traditions. Before this script was created, Lepcha texts were written using the Tibetan script.

## Grammar

Lepcha grammar includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, with a typical word order of subject–object–verb (SOV). Its structure is partly agglutinative, though most words are one or two syllables long. Nouns can either come first or last in noun phrases. Relative and genitive clauses come before nouns, while markers like demonstratives and cases follow them. Lepcha is an ergative language, where the ergative case shows whether an action is complete and transitive. There is no verb conjugation or agreement between parts of speech. Adjectives come after the nouns they describe or can act alone as predicates. Adverbs usually appear just before verbs, and repeating words is common for expressing time (e.g., "nám" means "year," and "nám-nám" means "yearly").

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Lepcha
- **altname**: Róng ríng
- **nativename**: ᰛᰩᰵᰛᰧᰵᰶ
- **region**: Sikkim, India; parts of Nepal and Bhutan
- **speakers**: 66,500
- **date**: 2011-2013
- **familycolor**: Sino-Tibetan
- **fam2**: Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman
- **fam3**: Himalayish
- **script**: Lepcha script
- **nation**: * Sikkim
- **iso3**: lep
- **notice**: IPA
- **glotto**: lepc1244
- **glottorefname**: Lepcha
- **image**: File:Róng ríng in Lepcha language script.svg
- **imagecaption**: The word 'Róng ríng' written in Lepcha (Róng) Script