Bahing language


Bahing is a language spoken by 11,658 people of the Bahing ethnic group in Nepal. It belongs to the family of Kiranti languages, a subgroup of Sino-Tibetan.
The group Rumdali is also known as Nechali among some of them.

Names

Ethnologue lists the following alternate names for Bahing: Baying, Bayung, Ikke lo, Kiranti-Bayung, Pai Lo, Radu lo.

Geographical distribution

Bahing is spoken in the following locations of Nepal.
According to Ethnologue, Bahing consists of the Rumdali, Nechali, Tolacha, Moblocha, and Hangu dialects, with 85% or above intelligibility among all dialects. Rumdali is best understood by the most people.

Documentation

The Bahing language was described by Brian Houghton Hodgson as having a very complex verbal morphology. By the 1970s, only vestiges were left, making Bahing a case study of grammatical attrition and language death.

Phonology

Bahing and the related Khaling language have synchronic ten-vowel systems. The difference of "monkey" vs. "human being" is difficult to perceive for speakers of even neighboring dialects, which makes for "an unlimited source of fun to the Bahing people".

Morphology

Hodgson reported a middle voice formed by a suffix -s added to the verbal stem, corresponding to reflexives in other Kiranti languages.