Ethnicity Athpare of Belhara ISO 639-3 byw | Native speakers 600 (2011 census) Glottolog belh1239 | |
Language family Sino-TibetanMahakiranti ?KirantiEasternGreater YakkhaBelhare | ||
Belhare (Nepali: Belhāreor), also known as Athpariya II (not to be confused with Athpariya I), is a Kiranti language spoken by some 2,000 people living on Belhara Hill, at the southern foothills of the Himalayas situated in the Dhankuta District, Kosi Zone in eastern Nepal. All speakers of Belhare are bilingual in Nepali, which results in frequent code mixing and a large amount of Nepali loan-words. Nevertheless, the grammar of Belhare has maintained its distinct Kiranti characteristics.
Like other Kiranti languages, Belhare is characterized by an elaborate morphology in both the nominal and verbal domain. Syntactically, Belhare has partly an accusative, partly an ergative pivot, but accusative syntax is more prominent in terms of frequency.
Vowels
The phonemes in parentheses only occur in loanwords from Nepali.