Dolakha Newar (endonym Dwālkhā Nepal Bhasa), or Eastern Newar, is a divergent dialect of the Newar language (Nepal Bhasa) spoken in Dolakha District, east of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, by 5,645 Newar people as of 1988. Some speakers of Dolakha Newar can be found in Kathmandu for education or work.
Geographical region Dolakha Newar is spoken in Dolakha town of Dolakha district, Tauthali, Listi, Jethal of Sindupalchowk district, Duti of Kavrepalchowk district.
Phonology
Consonants LabialDental/AlveolarRetroflex(Alveolo-)palatalVelarGlottalStop/Affricatevoiceless aspirated voiced murmured FricativeNasalvoicedmurmured Tapvoiced () murmured Lateralvoicedmurmured Approximantvoicedmurmured Notes Marginal phonemes are in parentheses. Allophonic variants are in Square brackets. Tap consonants mainly occur as word-medial alternates of //, //, // or // (in Dolakha only). // can be heard as [] when occurring before front vowels/glide //. Affricates // can also shift to retracted sounds [] when occurring before back vowels.
Vowels FrontCentralBackshortlongnasalshortlongnasalshortlongnasalCloseClose-midMid()()() ~ ~ ~Open-mid Open // and // can also be heard as [], and []. In Dolakha Newar, the back vowel sound can be [], [], or []. The following nasal vowels can also be distinguished in vowel length as //.
Diphthongs FrontCentralBackoralnasaloralnasaloralnasalDiphthongCloseMidOpen
Number No. Dolakha Newar 1 thi 2 ní 3 sõ 4 pe 5 ŋā 6 khu 7 nas 8 cyā 9 gu 10 ji(m)
Morphology Nouns Number Dolakha Newar distinguishes two numbers on nominals: unmarked singular and plural =pen. The marker =pen changes to =pis when it is followed by case markers.
Case To indicate syntactic relationship and positions of NPs in clauses, several case markers are employed. They are:
Absolutive =Ø Ergative =na/=n Dative =ta Genitive =e Instrumental =na/=n Locative =ku Ablatives =laːn, =na, nasi Allative =ke
Pronouns Singular Plural 1st person exclusive dʒi isi inclusive tʃidʒi/tʰidʒi 2nd person honorific tʰamu tʰapen non-honorific tʃi tʃipen 3rd person proximal u upen distal (u)aːm aːpen
Interrogatives Interrogativesgu(ri)'which?'gun'who, which?' (human)gunaːn'who?' (ERG)gunta'whom?' (DAT)gune'whose?' (GEN)guli'how much, how many?'gulpa'when?'gibi'where?'gibilaːn'from where?' (ABL)gitʰi'how, in what manner?'ginaːru'how, what type?'haːti'what?'haːtta'where?'
Verbs + Person indexation in Dolakhae Newar . Future -Ø -Ø -na -nan -ta -u, -ŋ -tan Present/Past -gi -gu -mun/-n -min -gu -dʒu, -a/-i -hin Anterior -ĩ -pe -n -min -pe -dʒu -tan
References