West Himalayish languages
group of Sino-Tibetan languages
The West Himalayish languages, also known as Almora and Kanauric, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages centered in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and across the border into Nepal. LaPolla (2003) proposes that the West Himalayish languages may be part of a larger "Rung" group.
Languages
Languages include Chitkuli Kinnauri, Kinnauri, Sunam, Jangshung, Shumcho, Pattani (Manchad), Tinan, Gahri (Bunan), Kanashi, Rongpo, Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi, Rangas, and perhaps Zhangzhung.
Zhangzhung, the sacred language of the Bon religion, was spoken north of the Himalayas across western Tibet before being replaced by Tibetan. James Matisoff (2001) provides lexical and phonological evidence for the classification of Zhangzhung within West Himalayish.
Classification
Widmer (2014:47) classifies the West Himalayish languages as follows. The recently discovered Dhuleli language has been added from Regmi & Prasain (2017).
Widmer (2014:53–56) classifies Zhangzhung within the Eastern branch of West Himalayish, and notes that it appears particularly close to languages of the Central subgroup (Bunan, Sunnami, and Rongpo).
Widmer (2017) notes that many Tibetan varieties in the western Tibetan Plateau have been influenced by West Himalayish languages.
Widmer (2025) considers the West Himalayish languages to be peripheral members of Bodish, based on shared lexical and morphoological isoglosses between Proto-West Himalayish and various Bodish groups such as Tibetan, Tamangic, East Bodish, and Tshangla.
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This entry incorporates text from “West Himalayish languages” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.