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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Tibetic language of eastern Nepal and Sikkim, India; native language of the Sherpa people}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}<br />
{{Expand Nepali|शेर्पा भाषा|date=August 2018}}<br />
{{Other uses|Sherpa (disambiguation)}}<br />
{{Infobox language<br />
| name = Sherpa <br />
| nativename = {{lang|xsr|'''शेर्वी तम्ङे'''}}, ''śērwī tamṅē'',<br />{{lang|bo|'''ཤར་པའི་སྐད་ཡིག'''}}, ''shar pa'i skad yig''<br />
| image = [[File:Sherpa language.png|250px]]<br />
| imagecaption = 'Sherpa' in Devanagari and Tibetan scripts<br />
| states = [[Nepal]] and [[India]]<br />
| ethnicity = [[Sherpa people|Sherpa]]<br />
| speakers = {{sigfig|168,800|2}}<br />
| date = 2001 & 2011 census<br />
| ref = e18<br />
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan<br />
| fam2 = [[Tibeto-Burman]]<br />
| fam3 = [[Tibeto-Kanauri languages|Tibeto-Kanauri]] (?)<br />
| fam4 = [[Bodish languages|Bodish]]<br />
| fam5 = [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic]]<br />
| fam6 = Southern Tibetic<br />
| script = [[Tibetan script|Tibetan]], [[Devanagari]]<br />
| nation = {{NPL|Nepal}}<br/>{{flag|India}}<br />
* [[Sikkim]] (additional)<ref name="langoff">{{cite web|url=http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |page=109 |title=50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India |date=16 July 2014 |access-date=6 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102211909/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf|archive-date=2 January 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
| iso3 = xsr<br />
| glotto = sher1255<br />
| glottorefname = Solu-Khumbu Sherpa<br />
| region = [[Nepal]], [[Sikkim]], [[Tibet]]<br />
| map2 = Lang Status 80-VU.svg<br />
| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Sherpa is classified as Vulnerable by the [[UNESCO]] [[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]}}}}<br />
}}<br />
'''Sherpa''' (also '''Sharpa''', '''Xiaerba''', or '''Sherwa''') is a [[Tibetic language]] spoken in [[Nepal]] and the [[India|Indian]] state of [[Sikkim]], mainly by the [[Sherpa people|Sherpa]]. The majority speakers of the Sherpa language live in the [[Khumbu|Khumbu region]] of Nepal, spanning from the Chinese (Tibetan) border in the east to the [[Bhotekoshi River|Bhotekosi River]] in the west.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|title=Sherpa {{!}} History & Culture|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherpa-people|access-date=28 February 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> About 200,000 speakers live in [[Nepal]] (2001 census), some 20,000 in [[Sikkim]] (1997) and some 800 in [[Tibet Autonomous Region|Tibetan Autonomous Region]] (1994). Sherpa is a [[SOV language|subject-object-verb (SOV) language]]. Sherpa is predominantly a spoken language, although it is occasionally written using either the [[Devanagari]] or [[Tibetan script|Tibetan]] script.<ref name=":12" /><br />
<br />
== Phonology ==<br />
Sherpa is a [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal language]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xsr | title=Sherpa | publisher=Ethnologue | access-date=30 August 2019 }}</ref> Sherpa has the following consonants:<ref>{{cite journal |title=Nepalese Linguistics |journal=Journal of the Linguistic Society of Nepal |date=November 2008 |volume=23 |pages=371–380 |url=http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepling/pdf/Nep_Ling_23.pdf |access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Consonants ===<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"<br />
! colspan="2" |<br />
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]<br />
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]<br />
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]<br />
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]<br />
![[Palato-alveolar consonant|Palato-<br>alveolar]]<br />
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]<br />
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]<br />
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]<br />
|{{IPAlink|m}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|མ}} m}}<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|n}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ན}} n}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɲ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཉ}} ny}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ŋ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ང}} ng}}<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="3" |[[Plosive]]/<br>[[Affricate]]<br />
!<small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small><br />
|{{IPAlink|p}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|པ}} p}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|t̪}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཏ}} t}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|t͡s}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཙ}} ts}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ʈ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཊ}} ṭ}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཅ}} c}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|c}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཀྱ}} ky}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|k}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཀ}} k}}<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
!<small>[[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]</small><br />
|{{IPA|pʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཕ}} ph}}<br />
|{{IPA|t̪ʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཐ}} th}}<br />
|{{IPA|t͡sʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཚ}} tsh}}<br />
|{{IPA|ʈʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཋ}} ṭh}}<br />
|{{IPA|t͡ʃʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཆ}} ch}}<br />
|{{IPA|cʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཁྱ}} khy}}<br />
|{{IPA|kʰ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཁ}} kh}}<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small><br />
|{{IPAlink|b}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|བ}} b}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|d̪}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ད}} d}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|d͡z}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཛ}} dz}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɖ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཌ}} ḍ}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཇ}} j}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɟ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|གྱ}} gy}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɡ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ག}} g}}<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative]]<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|s}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ས}} s}}<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|ʃ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཤ}} sh}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|h}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཧ}} h}}<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="2" |[[Liquid consonant|Liquid]]<br />
!<small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small><br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|l̪̥}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ལྷ}} lh}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɾ̥}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཧྲ}} hr}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
!<small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small><br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|l̪}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ལ}} l}}<br />
|{{IPAlink|ɾ}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ར}} r}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" |[[Semivowel]]<br />
|{{IPAlink|w}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཝ}} w}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|{{IPAlink|j}} {{angbr|{{bo-textonly|ཡ}} y}}<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|}<br />
<br />
* Stop sounds {{IPA|/p, t̪, ʈ, k/}} can be unreleased {{IPAblink|p̚, t̪̚, ʈ̚, k̚}} in word-final position.<br />
* Palatal sounds {{IPA|/c cʰ ɟ/}} can neutralize to velar sounds {{IPA|[k kʰ ɡ]}} when preceding {{IPA|/i, e, ɛ/}}.<br />
* {{IPA|/n/}} can become a retroflex nasal {{IPAblink|ɳ}} when preceding a retroflex stop.<br />
* {{IPA|/p/}} can have an allophone of {{IPAblink|ɸ}} when occurring in fast speech.<br />
<br />
=== Vowels ===<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"<br />
! rowspan="2" |<br />
! colspan="2" |[[Front vowel|Front]]<br />
! colspan="2" |[[Back vowel|Back]]<br />
|-<br />
!<small>[[Oral vowel|oral]]</small><br />
!<small>[[Nasal vowel|nasal]]</small><br />
!<small>[[Oral vowel|oral]]</small><br />
!<small>[[Nasal vowel|nasal]]</small><br />
|-<br />
![[High vowel|High]]<br />
|{{IPA link|i}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ĩ}}<br />
|{{IPA link|u}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ũ}}<br />
|-<br />
![[Mid high|Mid-high]]<br />
|{{IPA link|e}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ẽ}}<br />
|{{IPA link|o}}<br />
|{{IPA link|õ}}<br />
|-<br />
![[Mid low|Mid-low]]<br />
|{{IPA link|ɛ}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ɛ̃}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ɔ}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ɔ̃}}<br />
|-<br />
![[Low vowel|Low]]<br />
|{{IPA link|a}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ã}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ʌ}}<br />
|{{IPA link|ʌ̃}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
* Vowel sounds {{IPA|/i, u/}} have the allophones {{IPA|[ɪ, ʊ]}} when between consonants and in closed syllables.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Graves|first=Thomas E.|title=The Phonetics and Phonology of the Sherpa Language|year=2007}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Tones ===<br />
There are four distinct tones; high {{IPA|/v́/}}, falling {{IPA|/v̂/}}, low {{IPA|/v̀/}}, rising {{IPA|/v̌/}}.<br />
<br />
== Grammar ==<br />
{{Multiple issues|section=yes|<br />
{{Technical|section|date=August 2020}}<br />
{{abbreviations|section|date=August 2020}}<br />
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2020}}<br />
}}<br />
Some grammatical aspects of Sherpa are as follows:<br />
* Nouns are defined by [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] when a bare noun occurs in the genitive and this extends to the noun phrase.{{Incomprehensible inline|date=August 2020}} They are defined [[Syntax|syntactically]] by co-occurrence with the locative [[clitic]] and by their position in the noun phrase (NP) after [[Demonstrative|demonstratives]].<br />
* Demonstratives are defined syntactically by their position first in the NP directly before the noun.<br />
* Quantifiers: Number words occur last in the noun phrase with the exception of the definite article.<br />
* Adjectives occur after the noun in the NP and morphologically only take genitive marking when in construct with a noun.<br />
* Verbs may morphologically be distinguished by differing or suppletive roots for the perfective, imperfective, and imperative. They occur last in a clause before the verbal auxiliaries.<br />
* Verbal auxiliaries occur last in a clause.<br />
* Postpositions occur last in a postpositional NP.<br />
<br />
Other [[Linguistic typology|typological]] features of Sherpa include [[split ergativity]] based on [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]], SO & OV (SOV), N-A, N-Num, V-Aux, and N-Pos.<br />
<br />
== Vocabulary ==<br />
The following table lists the days of the week, which are derived from the Tibetan language ("Pur-gae").<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ '''Days of the week in Sherpa'''<br />
!English<br />
!Sherpa<br />
|-<br />
|Sunday||ŋi`ma ( [[Velar nasal|/ ŋ /]] is the sound Ng')<br />
|-<br />
|Monday||Dawa<br />
|-<br />
|Tuesday||Miŋma<br />
|-<br />
|Wednesday||Lakpa<br />
|-<br />
|Thursday||Phurba<br />
|-<br />
|Friday||Pasaŋ<br />
|-<br />
|Saturday||Pemba<br />
|}<br />
<br />
== Sample Text ==<br />
The following is a sample text in Sherpa of Article 1 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]:<br />
<br />
'''Sherpa in Devanagari script'''<br />
<br />
:मि रिग ते रि रङ्वाङ् दङ् चिथोङ गि थोप्थङ डडइ थोग् क्येउ यिन्। गङ् ग नम्ज्योद दङ् शेस्रब् ल्हन्क्ये सु ओद्दुब् यिन् चङ् । फर्छुर च्यिग्गि-च्यिग्ल पुन्ग्यि दुशेस् ज्योग्गोग्यि। <br />
<br />
'''Sherpa in Tibetan script'''<br />
<br />
:མི་རིགས་ཏེ་རི་རང་དབང་དང་རྩི་མཐོང་གི་ཐོབ་ཐང་འདྲ་འདྲའི་ཐོག་སྐྱེའུ་ཡིན། གང་ག་རྣམ་དཔྱོད་དང་ཤེས་རབ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་སུ་འོད་དུབ་ཡིན་ཙང་། ཕར་ཚུར་གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་སྤུན་གྱི་འདུ་ཤེས་འཇོག་དགོས་ཀྱི།<br />
<br />
'''Sherpa in IAST transliteration'''<br />
<br />
:''Mi rig te ri raṅvāṅ daṅ cithoṅ gi thopthaṅ ḍaḍaï thog kyeu yin. Gaṅ ga namjyod daṅ śesrab lhankye su oddub yin caṅ, pharchur cyiggi-cyigla pungyi duśes jyoggogyi.''<br />
<br />
'''Sherpa in the [[Wylie transliteration]]'''<br />
<br />
:''Mi rigs te ri rang dbang dang rtsi thong gi thob thang 'dra 'dra'i thog skyeu yin. Gang ga rnam dpyod dang shes rab lhan skyes su 'od dub yin tsang, phar tshur gcig gis gcig la spun gyi 'du shes 'jog dgos kyi.''<br />
<br />
'''Translation'''<br />
<br />
:'''Article 1:''' All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
* [http://www.himalisherpa.com Himali Sherpa:Sherpa Culture dictionary]<br />
* [https://languages.nepalresearch.org/sh-eng.pdf Sherpa-English and English-Sherpa Dictionary]<br />
* [http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/vient-de-paraitre/tournadre_dicosherpa.htm Sherpa dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302065148/http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/vient-de-paraitre/tournadre_dicosherpa.htm |date=2 March 2013 }} Print edition<br />
* [https://omniglot.com/writing/sherpa.htm Sherpa language] Omniglot<br />
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{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}<br />
{{Bodic languages}}<br />
{{Languages of Nepal}}<br />
{{Languages of Northeast India}}<br />
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[[Category:Languages of Nepal]]<br />
[[Category:South Bodish languages]]<br />
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]<br />
[[Category:Languages of Sikkim]]<br />
[[Category:Languages of Tibet]]<br />
[[Category:Languages written in Devanagari]]<br />
[[Category:Languages of Koshi Province]]<br />
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Ajay Kumar