Region Nepal Glottolog bant1281 | ISO 639-3 bap | |
Native speakers 170,000 (2001 & 2011 censuses) Language family Sino-Tibetan
Mahakiranti ?
Kiranti
Central Kirati
Southern
Bantawa | ||
The Bantawa language (also referred to as An Yüng, Bantaba, Bantawa Dum, Bantawa Rai, Bantawa Yong, Bantawa Yüng, Bontawa, Kirawa Yüng), is an endangered Kiranti language spoken in the eastern Himalayan hills of eastern Nepal by Rai ethnic groups. They use a syllabic alaphabet system known as Kirat Rai. Among the Kirat Rai people of Eastern Nepal, Bantawa is the largest language spoken. According to the 2001 National Census, at least 1.63% of the Nepal's total population speaks Bantawa. About 370,000 speak Bantawa Language mostly in eastern hilly regions of Nepal (2001). Although Bantawa Rai is among the more widely used variety of the Bantawa language, it falls in the below-100,000 category of endangered languages. It is experiencing language shift to Nepali, especially in the northern region.
Bantawa is spoken in subject-object-verb order, and has no noun classes or genders.
Dialects
Most of the Bantawa clan are now settled in Bhojpur, Dharan, Illam, and Dhankuta. Recent figures show most of them are settled in Dharan. Bantawa is spoken in the following districts of Nepal.
Dialects are as follows.
Bantawa is also considered as a superior clan in Kirantian family. Bantawa is also reportedly in use as a lingua franca among Rai minorities in Himalayan India and Bhutan. Meanwhile the language is just being introduced in a few schools at the primary level (Year 1- Year 5) using Devanagari script.