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Kagate language
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Kagate language
Kagate or Syuba is a language from the subgroup of Tibetic languages spoken by the Kagate people primarily in the Ramechhap district of Nepal.
Kagate is an exonym. It is the Nepali word for the occupation of 'papermaker', reflecting an earlier occupation of the community. This is the name under which the language was documented in Grierson's 1909 linguistic survey of India, and by which it is classified in the ISO 639-3 code. Speakers now prefer the endonym Syuba, which also refers to the occupation of papermaker. This name is mentioned in documentation literature from the 1970s, and speakers are now using this form more actively, see as an example the Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary.
Kagate speakers migrated from the Yolmo area of Helambu around 100–200 years ago. This was likely the result of population pressure in the Yolmo area. Kagate speakers settled in Ramecchap. There are now at least 8 Kagate villages in Ramechhap, and Kagate speakers also live in Kathmandu and other urban areas. Kagate was first documented in Grierson's 1909 linguistic survey of India, because Kagate speakers were working in Darjeeling. The Syuba language is currently still spoken across all generations, including children.
An orthography for the language was developed for the publication of the Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary. This orthography is Devanagari-based with modifications to represent the sounds of the Syuba language. The modifications to Devanagari are minor, and are intended to ensure that all sounds in the language can be represented. The 'inherent schwa vowel' of Devanagari is not used, meaning that a consonant without an overt vowel is not treated as having an implied vowel. Consonants remain the same as in the existing Devanagari tradition, with the use of joined digraphs to represent additional sounds in the language, such as the combination of क (k) and य (y) for the palatal stop क्य ([c] 'kh'), स (s) and य (y) for the palatal fricative स्य ([ʃ] 'sh'), र and ह for the voiceless liquid र्ह ([r̥] 'rh'), and ल and ह for the voiceless lateral ल्ह ([l̥] 'lh'). Vowel length is not distinguished. Tone is distinguished using an additional diacritic after the vowel, so tó 'rice' (high tone) is तो while tò 'stone' (low tone) is तोः.
The Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary also uses a Roman orthography. This orthography is represented in the Phonology section below. In the Roman orthography tone is marked using a superscript L at the start of the syllable to mark low tone (e.g. Lto 'stone') with high tone unmarked.
There is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between Syuba and other Kyirong-Yolmo varieties. It is most closely related to the Yolmo language, and more distantly related to other languages in the family. The lexical similarity between Syuba and Melamchi Valley Yolmo is at least 79%, with the similarity between Syuba and Lamjung Yolmo even higher (88%).
While the languages are similar, Syuba speakers see their language as distinct from Yolmo. Syuba also has a separate ISO 639-3 code (swy instead of scp).
There are 36 consonants in Syuba, which are summarized in the table below. The form is given in IPA and then to the right in brackets is given the form more frequently used in Roman orthography if different.
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Kagate language
Kagate or Syuba is a language from the subgroup of Tibetic languages spoken by the Kagate people primarily in the Ramechhap district of Nepal.
Kagate is an exonym. It is the Nepali word for the occupation of 'papermaker', reflecting an earlier occupation of the community. This is the name under which the language was documented in Grierson's 1909 linguistic survey of India, and by which it is classified in the ISO 639-3 code. Speakers now prefer the endonym Syuba, which also refers to the occupation of papermaker. This name is mentioned in documentation literature from the 1970s, and speakers are now using this form more actively, see as an example the Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary.
Kagate speakers migrated from the Yolmo area of Helambu around 100–200 years ago. This was likely the result of population pressure in the Yolmo area. Kagate speakers settled in Ramecchap. There are now at least 8 Kagate villages in Ramechhap, and Kagate speakers also live in Kathmandu and other urban areas. Kagate was first documented in Grierson's 1909 linguistic survey of India, because Kagate speakers were working in Darjeeling. The Syuba language is currently still spoken across all generations, including children.
An orthography for the language was developed for the publication of the Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary. This orthography is Devanagari-based with modifications to represent the sounds of the Syuba language. The modifications to Devanagari are minor, and are intended to ensure that all sounds in the language can be represented. The 'inherent schwa vowel' of Devanagari is not used, meaning that a consonant without an overt vowel is not treated as having an implied vowel. Consonants remain the same as in the existing Devanagari tradition, with the use of joined digraphs to represent additional sounds in the language, such as the combination of क (k) and य (y) for the palatal stop क्य ([c] 'kh'), स (s) and य (y) for the palatal fricative स्य ([ʃ] 'sh'), र and ह for the voiceless liquid र्ह ([r̥] 'rh'), and ल and ह for the voiceless lateral ल्ह ([l̥] 'lh'). Vowel length is not distinguished. Tone is distinguished using an additional diacritic after the vowel, so tó 'rice' (high tone) is तो while tò 'stone' (low tone) is तोः.
The Syuba-Nepali-English dictionary also uses a Roman orthography. This orthography is represented in the Phonology section below. In the Roman orthography tone is marked using a superscript L at the start of the syllable to mark low tone (e.g. Lto 'stone') with high tone unmarked.
There is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between Syuba and other Kyirong-Yolmo varieties. It is most closely related to the Yolmo language, and more distantly related to other languages in the family. The lexical similarity between Syuba and Melamchi Valley Yolmo is at least 79%, with the similarity between Syuba and Lamjung Yolmo even higher (88%).
While the languages are similar, Syuba speakers see their language as distinct from Yolmo. Syuba also has a separate ISO 639-3 code (swy instead of scp).
There are 36 consonants in Syuba, which are summarized in the table below. The form is given in IPA and then to the right in brackets is given the form more frequently used in Roman orthography if different.
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