page_title: Tibeto-Burman languages
section_title: Tibet and South Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Tibeto-Burman languages / Overview / Tibet and South Asia
caption_attribution_description: English: Language Families spoken in Asia
context_page_description: The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the highlands of Southeast Asia as well as certain parts of East Asia and South Asia.
  Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages, around half of whom speak Burmese, and 13% of whom speak Tibetic languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, namely Burmese and the Tibetic languages.
  These languages also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively.
  Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail.
  Some taxonomies divide Sino-Tibetan into Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman branches, but other scholars deny that Tibeto-Burman comprises a monophyletic group.
context_section_description: Over eight million people in the Tibetan Plateau and neighbouring areas in Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan speak one of several related Tibetic languages. There is an extensive literature in Classical Tibetan dating from the 8th century. The Tibetic languages are usually grouped with the smaller East Bodish languages of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh as the Bodish group.
  Many diverse Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken on the southern slopes of the Himalayas.
  Sizable groups that have been identified are the West Himalayish languages of Himachal Pradesh and western Nepal, the Tamangic languages of western Nepal, including Tamang with one million speakers, and the Kiranti languages of eastern Nepal.
  The remaining groups are small, with several isolates.
  The Newar language (Nepal Bhasa) of central Nepal has a million speakers and literature dating from the 12th century, and nearly a million people speak Magaric languages, but the rest have small speech communities.
  Other isolates and small groups in Nepal are Dura, Raji–Raute, Chepangic and Dhimalish.
  Lepcha is spoken in an area from eastern Nepal to western Bhutan.
  Most of the languages of Bhutan are Bodish, but it also has three small isolates, 'Ole ("Black Mountain Monpa"), Lhokpu and Gongduk and a larger community of speakers of Tshangla.
  The Tani languages include most of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Arunachal Pradesh and adjacent areas of Tibet.
  The remaining languages of Arunachal Pradesh are much more diverse, belonging to the small Siangic, Kho-Bwa (or Kamengic), Hruso, Miju and Digaro languages (or Mishmic) groups.
  These groups have relatively little Tibeto-Burman vocabulary, and Bench and Post dispute their inclusion in Sino-Tibetan.
  The greatest variety of languages and subgroups is found in the highlands stretching from northern Myanmar to northeast India.
  Northern Myanmar is home to the small Nungish group, as well as the Jingpho–Luish languages, including Jingpho with nearly a million speakers.
  The Brahmaputran or Sal languages include at least the Bodo–Garo and Konyak languages, spoken in an area stretching from northern Myanmar through the Indian states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Tripura, and are often considered to include the Jingpho–Luish group.
  The border highlands of Nagaland, Manipur and western Myanmar are home to the small Ao, Angami–Pochuri, Tangkhulic, and Zeme groups of languages, as well as the Karbi language.
  Meithei, the main language of Manipur with 1.4 million speakers, is sometimes linked with the 50 or so Kuki-Chin languages are spoken in Mizoram and the Chin State of Myanmar.
  The Mru language is spoken by a small group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
caption: Language families of South Asia, with Tibeto-Burman in orange
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